Client Name Film4 The Organisation The launch of FilmFour was C4’s first foray into the world of digital satellite and cable channels.  A purely advertising funded channel would not have been viable at launch so FilmFour was initially launched as a subscription funded at a cost of £7 per month. The ChallengeC4 had no experience of subscription marketing, or direct marketing The Insight Our Solution First steps:

• Build a business plan for C4, showing subscriber numbers, subscriber recruitment, churn, reactivation, all costs and all revenues by month over 5 years
• Build response handling infrastructure for launch
• Plan and buy launch campaign

Second steps:

• Profile multichannel universe to identify core potential Film4 subscribers
• Plan and implement ongoing subscriber acquisition campaign using TV, inserts, press, email and outbound telephone
• Plan and implement subscriber retention campaign as churn became an issue. Magazine and email

Third steps:

• Build a prospect database for subscriber recruitment
• Build and implement subscriber reactivation campaign
• Create business plan to transition channel from subscription to free to air

The Results

• Film4 became the UK’s largest stand alone a la carte channel
• E4 and More4 launched on back of this experience
• Once critical mass of audience had been built, C4 were able to successfully transition Film4 to free to air channel
• On the back of this success, C4 appointed MC&C to manage a range of other transactional projects, eg Big brother and C4 music
• We won a Gold at the DMA Awards for our media planning for Film4