• T-Mobile wants to amplify the impact of its Street Gigs, unique money can’t buy concerts by some of the hottest names in UK music
• It works with C4 to create an ad-funded series called Transmission with T-Mobile
• The activity increases the reach of the programme by 5,000% and the series is re-commissioned for a second and third series in 2007

The challenge

T-Mobile wants to bring people closer to the things they love. For many youth audiences music ranks very high on the list of the things they love.
T-Mobile established “Street Gigs” a series of spontaneous gigs in surprising and unique locations. The programme started in 2005 and expanded in 2006 with bands playing in locations as varied as the Natural History Museum, a car park and even a kebab shop. Headline acts have included Kasabian, the Strokes and Athlete.
The brand let its customers experience these events by texting those in the area two hours before the gig with details of the band and location. The first few hundred to turn up with the invitation get in.
The challenge was to enable these exciting events to be experienced by a broader audience. T-Mobile needed to find a bigger audience without destroying the unique nature of the concerts.

The TV solution

The solution was a co-funded show called Transmission with T-Mobile.  A 12-part series of 60-minute shows featuring five live bands per show. Also included would be two big name studio guests and two presenters as the programme was filmed in 10 different cities across the UK.
Broadcast on T4 and repeated on C4 and E4, T-Mobile was name-checked not only in the programme title but also in through co-branded trails across the network, a first for Channel 4. There was also editorial support for the show as well as traditional sponsorship break bumpers.
The series started in June 2006 and ran until September. T-Mobile used the co-funded show as the heart of a wider campaign that also included online content, PR and a staff campaign with a ticket giveaway for T-Mobile employees.

Results

Transmission averaged 2.3 TVRs among 16-34s, significantly more than the same T4 slot normally achieves and three times more than BBC 2’s coverage of T in the Park. Adding TV to the Street Gigs programme amplified its reach by 5,000%.
Off-air the show generated 40 articles a week, all of which were positive and the number of requests to participate in the Street Gigs increased by 500% on the T-Mobile website. 
T-Mobile saw an increase in overall sign-ups around the broadcast and enjoyed above average click through rate of 12% – compared with an industry standard of 8%.
New registrations are up year on year with registrations in the first quarter of 2007 matching the total achieved in the whole of 2006.
Nearly 4,000 daily visits were made to the Transmission support sites and 500 mobile users also requested additional WAP content.
The success of the first series was such that the show returned for a second run out in April 2007. Twelve 60 min shows were broadcast on C4 at 23.00 Friday nights with repeats on E4 on Saturdays and C4 mid-week.  
This achieved a loyal audience of around 600,000 peaking at around 1m viewers per week.
A third series has been confirmed for broadcast in September 2007 with hosts Lauren Laverne and Steve Jones returning to the helm and taking viewers on a tour of another ten UK locations. There will also be two one-hour best off shows to be broadcast around Christmas 2007.