Extreme Everest was Ant Middleton's most extreme challenge to date! We followed him on this epic adventure, sponsored by Berocca.
Reaching new heights with Berocca and Ant Middleton
The Big Idea
Berocca sales were struggling. They weren’t attracting new buyers, and their advertising was failing to deliver a clear message. This wasn’t helped by consumer confusion over product benefits – associating them not with energy, but as a hangover cure!
Berocca also faced stiff competition in two already cluttered sectors (vitamins and energy), up against brands investing in heavy always-on presence. With the increased pressures of modern life – from zero hours contracts to lack of sleep – being stressed and tired is something UK consumers were frequently troubled by. Constantly seeking out energy boosts, people were turning to unhealthy quick fixes like coffee and chocolate. Berocca presented the solution: a slower, but more sustained, energy release. But how to position Berocca in this way and change perceptions? Enter Channel 4.
“I’ve been wanting to do Everest since the age of 16, and thanks to Mediacom, Channel 4 and Berocca, they’ve made my dream come true. The whole dynamics of having different teams on board, different ideas – it just widened everything. It made it bigger, it made it better, more exciting. And that’s why the end game was producing a world-class documentary like Extreme Everest.” – Ant Middleton
Making it Happen
With multiple award-winning ad-funded programmes under our belt, we knew all about the power of partnerships and transforming brand messages into compelling and exciting editorial. Since Berocca is all about energy, we called upon adventurer and ex-soldier Ant Middleton (of SAS: Who Dares Wins fame) to tackle his biggest challenge to date – climbing Mount Everest!
It was a perfect brand fit: his credibility and challenging journey would show consumers Berocca could help them face tough moments in their day, not only driving product understanding but also teaching consumers the physical and mental benefits of Berocca. Not only this, but his presence would build relevance between the product and the consumer, and drive brand frame.
Using our ad-funded programme model, Berocca sponsored Extreme Everest with Ant Middleton airing in a primetime slot on Channel 4 and also available to view any time on All 4. Alongside this, we produced a slate of innovative assets: custom videos and a 360 degree video on Everest supported by Ant’s organic social posts, PR and coverage on Gogglebox. Mediacom, our agency partners for the campaign, amplified assets on Paid Social as well and also ran an OOH campaign to reach a broader audience.
Raised awareness of Berocca by 84%
amongst viewers of the show
Consideration to purchase Berocca was +30% higher
for viewers than non-viewers
The Results
Berocca saw an amazing transformative effect as a result of Extreme Everest with Ant Middleton.
• The programme raised awareness of Berocca, +84% among viewers of the show
• Consideration to purchase Berocca was +30% higher for viewers than non-viewers
• A quarter agreed that it improved their opinion of Berocca, a massive +80% uplift vs. non-viewers
• The programme performed extremely well, receiving 1.2 million individual viewers, with performance up on the slot average by +29% for individuals, +22% for AD1634s and +53% for ABC1Ads.
• We have submitted the show for a BAFTA award!
We are currently carrying out an RWI study to understand the effect on brand and econometrics next year to see how the media affected sales.
“To climb Everest is the ultimate physical and mental test of strength, energy and endurance.This was the perfect partnership and we are delighted with all the content that viewers can access so that they too experience a little bit of Everest.” - Vicky Keenan, Head of Marketing, Berocca
