Magnet #21

This week we’re talking about some campaigns for Black History Month, reactivity with Carwow and a very early Christmas campaign.

Enjoy.

 Black history month

 October is Black History Month in the UK, so this week we wanted to highlight a few campaigns celebrating it:

Black History Month magazine

Black History Month UK magazine launched a new campaign to mark Black History Month .Inspired by the 2020 Black Lives Matter events, the new campaign is called ‘Proud To Be’. It l invites Black and Brown people of all ages throughout the UK to share what they are proud to be. For example, Proud To Be Black, Proud To Be Brown, Proud To Be Black & LGBTQ+, Proud To Be Me. People will be able to get involved via Black History Month UK’s magazine, website and social media. People will be able to share what they are Proud To Be via letter, email or social media, including video and audio clips.

The magazine has also sent 500 resource packs to UK schools which include information about key moments in Black British History and a wide variety of lesson plans. The magazine has encouraged people to join its social media campaign.

Catherine Ross, the editor of Black History Month UK, said: “It’s been a challenging time for many Black and Brown people, with so much in the media about racism, inequality and injustice. We wanted the theme of Black History Month 2021 to focus on celebrating being Black or Brown, and to inspire and share the pride people have in their heritage and culture – in their own way, in their own words.”

ITV

ITV  launched a brand campaign to celebrate Black History Month, highlighting new content including high profile documentaries, the return of TV’s first comedy panel show about Black History and awareness-raising strands across ITV’s daytime programming.

There are curated collections on ITV Hub and BritBox, as well as specially-commissioned content for digital platforms.

Panel show Sorry, I Didn’t Know will be back for a five-part series, while musician Will.i.am will feature in The Blackprint, a one-hour documentary on what it means to be black in the UK.

Campaigns: The earliest Christmas…

 The online retailer Very!  Have already jumped into the festive season, launching their Christmas campaign on October 1st on ITV.

 Search engines began picking up on Christmas activity in early August this year, so companies are looking to get the drop on the market and begin advertising early.

Reactivity: Carwow

On the back of the recent fuel shortages, the brand Carwow, which saw a 59% surge in searches for EVs last week, designed the ‘Fuelled Off’ campaign in-house in an attempt to capitalize on increased demand.

Last week, The Drum reported that SEO searches for EVs had skyrocketed after a weekend of petrol station panic, and questioned whether companies would use the surge to its advantage.

The site, which hosts car dealerships, has already seen searches translate to sales. In September, EVs accounted for 21% of cars sold, and in the first week of October this had grown to 29%.

Carwow tapped the face of its YouTube channel, Mat Watson, to front the campaign ads, which say, ‘Don’t be fuelish, Go EV.’ The ads have been placed on digital billboards across the country, with major roads in and out of Manchester & London being the  primary placements.

EVs are now on track to make up one in three new car sales on Carwow in October, and the company expects combined EV and hybrid sales could make up half of all new car purchases by the end of 2021.