Eurotunnel: A Road Trip with Charley Boorman

 

We recently completed a project for Eurotunnel as the key client, featuring Charley Boorman and his two biking friends, as they explored northern France. This, according to Eurotunnel's Marketing Director, Jae Hopkins, was a "lovely film", full of humour which subtly but effectively communicated key brand messages.

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A great example of a coordinated approach to a campaign as we brought Tourism Normandy, Triumph Motorcycles and Jaguar Cars into the production, vastly expanding the social and online reach and helping to offset costs for all involved.

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Total organic achievable reach through the production's partners (including Charley Boorman's) is over 3.8 million - but with the paid activation campaign, that reach is far exceeded.

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The campaign is live in August 2018

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The Process

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Understanding Brand Requirements and Messages: Our team meet with Eurotunnel's marketing team to nail down what it was they want to achieve from the film and the messages they need it to contain

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Match the Celebrity: Once we understand the target market, we compile a shortlist of potential celebrities, that will best resonate with that market.

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Plot the Story: A key part of the creative process, but also of carefully integrating Eurotunnel's messages and brand values into the film.

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Trip Recce: Russ and Paul undertake a recce trip to ensure the eventual shoot runs smoothly, that partner requirements are met and the film's creative requirements are attained.

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Create Shot List: Once the recce is complete, we are able to complete the shot list, which runs to well over 100 key shots for the four-minute film.

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The Shoot: Decisions about the team required to make the film and the equipment we will use  such as cameras, sound, support vehicles, editing team and facilities etc. Then ensuring all key activities and logistics are lined up for the tight time-frame of the shoot, just two days. Putting together schedules, contacts and contingencies - and then making it all happen.

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Edit and Finesse: The most important part of film-making - cutting down from two-days' of footage into less than four minutes of the final film. Selecting the music, the look and feel of the film through the grading process and then creating the variants for social channels, all of which require different formats.

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Activate: A key Big Earth Digital skill-set, we work with Eurotunnel's marketing team and external agencies to ensure they have all the assets they need to roll out a successful campaign. For this project these include:

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• 1 x four-minute film

• 2 x two-minute films (one with subtitles and one without)

• 4 x 15-second social-first variants

• More than 130 still photographs

• A narrative of the story for use with stills and in blogs etc.

• 2 x versions of a map graphic, outlining the journey

 

We also arrange for Charley Boorman to Tweet and Instagram his trip, both at the time of the shoot and during the activation period - supply him with key assets and appropriate hashtags. ​

Radio day: Arrange and coordinate Charley to do a radio-day on behalf of Eurotunnel.

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Lastly, we work with all the film's partners to ensure their campaigns are as coordinated as possible, that they have all hashtags and physical assets to amplify the film's success across multiple channels.

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Eurotunnel's digital agency noted: The content was a departure from other ‘influencer’ content as it felt more professional, but equally less ‘staged’.

 

The Results

 

On a low-budget activation, in the first week the film achieved a measured reach of over 500,000 through Eurotunnel's channels alone, and gathered well over 300,000 views, largely organic - and is the best performing video on Eurotunnel's Instagram channel to-date.

 

But it was in engagement that it really excelled with 2,400 interactions, outperforming a Eurotunnel competition advert , showing online at around the same time. Our film gained twice the number of Likes, more comments and three times the number of shares than the advert - clearly demonstrating the effectiveness of authentic stories told well. The total engagement rate exceeded the industry standard by 2.5 times and the main film on Facebook gained engagement of just under 6 times the industry standard. Including the ultra-short teaser video views as a form of engagement, then total engagement jumps to a massive 27%. Total engagement across all channels against views was just over 4%

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Charley's radio and media day included 35 editorial broadcasts and reached a cumulative total audience of 12.4 million.

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