Skins gets closer to viewers with Windows Live Messenger

Skins, E4’s flagship show, was looking to build loyalty amongst its teen audience as it introduced a new cast for its third series. Armed with the insight that its viewers were ‘media meshers’, likely to chat online whilst watching the show, Skins used an artificially intelligent Windows Live Messenger Bot (known as a Windows Live Messenger Agent) to drive engagement, ratings and click-throughs to the Skins E4 website.

Campaign objectives

• Target young people online, Skins’ core audience
• Launch Skins’ third series
• Introduce an entirely new cast
• Ensure audience loyalty and engagement
• Drive ratings.

Creative solution

For the launch of the new Skins, E4 opted for an online-led, integrated campaign to drive awareness of the new season and ensure loyalty amongst core viewers. Offline media helped to build awareness but regular online content updates (including the unveiling of the new cast) formed the core of the engagement strategy. The Windows Live Messenger Agent took the online campaign to new levels, using insights into the audience’s Media Meshing habits to deepen engagement during the actual broadcasts. The Agent provided background info on soundtracks, behind the scenes gossip and discussion of the styling of the new characters, with users even invited to feed back on the episodes as they watched them. The Bot’s presence on users’ contacts lists delivered ongoing presence for Skins on Windows Live Messenger, and reminded viewers of show times.

Key results

• 25,000 viewers chatted with the Skins Bot on a weekly basis during shows (2.5 times the target weekly engagement for the campaign)
• The Bot drove 200,000 click-throughs to the Skins E4 website (double the campaign target)
• 5 million messages were sent
• 4,000 user comments were received
• The campaign’s innovation and effectiveness were recognised with a Gold at the Microsoft Mouse awards.

Find out more about advertising on Windows Live Messenger

Get more insights around targeting young people online in our Understanding the Digital Audience section.