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The Brief

The online version of Electric! was launched to extend beyond the reach of Redwood's multi award-winning print magazine for Virgin Media, also called Electric! Its mission has been to continue to win over the customer base the client inherited (from ntl:Telewest), and generate warmth for the new brand, conveying its fun, young at heart reputation and core values of transparency, innovation, quality and value for money.

Entirely conceived and built by the Redwood team from pitch, it has proven adept at driving customer loyalty, educating them about the products available and promoting the upsell and cross-sell of Virgin Media services. In so doing, it has proven a very cost-effective medium, with each issue containing an average of 85 calls to action.

Central to Virgin Media's brand values is the determination not to speak down to its audience. Electric! performs a neat balancing act; being youthful without being ‘wacky', irreverent without being offensive and innovative while still being inclusive. In refusing to ‘dumb down', the wit and style of the content is delivered in a way that is appreciated by a mainstream, 25-55 year-old, male and female audience.

The Challenge

Electric! is measured by its ability to fulfil the following objectives:

1. Protect and grow revenue - with a focus on Virgin Media's products

2. Generate high levels of product awareness

3. Increase product usage - especially TV On Demand and online services

4. Create brand advocates from our readers by entertaining them and editorialising Virgin Media's benefits

The challenge of the online version was to make the editorial ‘come alive' on the screen, allowing customers to view sample clips and trailers, interact with the site in an entertaining manner whilst being educated about the services available to them and encouraged to click through for further information or to the client's sales pages.

As a customer magazine, Electric! has only been distributed within the Virgin Media customer base - each issue emailed out on the first Friday of each month - and there has been no external marketing activity.

Editorial Response

The Electric! e-zine is different from any other online property in the marketplace due to its original, quirky ideas, unique tone of voice and bold design approach.

Taking full advantage of the Ceros platform's Flash-based digital page-turner format, Electric! always strives to combine the best elements of magazines and the web to entertain its readers and educate them about Virgin Media's latest products and services.

As well as providing the more usual click-to-reveal features and video playback, Electric! has aspired to create an element or feature new to the platform in every issue, be this the Playable piano keyboard in October, the Click and Drag dress-up game in December or Will Smith spray headline his own headline in February. It has also provided a regular series of downloadable PDFs, be they guides to the Virgin Media channels, customer Help guides or Christmas TV bingo playsheets.

Results

Electric! has proved itself extremely effective at generating additional product enquiries as well as strengthening the position of the brand amongst its customer base and the client has been very pleased with click-through rates (CTRs). Those leading to Virgin Media sales pages in particular have provided more productive than any other activity. One issue alone generated 10,000 clicks to Virgin Media's sales pages.

There is also a marked improvement in advocacy rates amongst readers of Electric! online (with an increase in brand preference of +7%), while 66% of readers gave it a rating of 9+ out of 10 and there was rise in both sense of value and trust in the brand.

Electric! also successfully generates revenue through third-party advertising.

"The digital magazine format allows us to bring to life our superfast broadband and TV content in a way that we never could in print. The fit with our products and services could not be better. The unique way we have translated the Electric! tone of voice into a digital magazine makes the overall solution even more compelling from a Virgin Media perspective, and a truly entertaining communication for our customers."

Christopher Bibby, Customer Marketing Director, Virgin Media