Carolyn McCall, CEO, ITV, UK
Transcript:
“Over the years, research has consistently shown that TV advertising is more trusted than any other medium. For example, almost 40% of viewers – young and old – say it’s their most trusted medium.
But in recent times, we’ve seen the depth of that trust for ourselves, when the nation turned to television as the pandemic unfolded. Here in the UK, almost 20 million viewers would regularly tune in to hear the Prime Minister address the nation.
But TV did more than just inform its viewers. We united the nation around powerful, positive and uplifting moments in the nation’s cultural calendar. And as we emerge from the pandemic, TV’s ability to bring the nation together is still just as evident: as we have seen with an exceptional summer of sport.
The world was gripped as the UEFA Euros tournament played out: in the UK alone, over 18 million people watched the England v Denmark semi-final on ITV. Then there was the Tokyo Olympics, and then the Paralympics, and millions more watched the swift path to victory by Emma Raducano in the US Open.
But TV doesn’t just unite us. It influences how we think, feel and act.
ITV, as you all know, is a commercial public service broadcaster, and we take our role in shaping the cultural conversation very seriously, as we use our reach and our scale to drive positive change.
In a year of unprecedented challenges that took a toll on the nation’s mental and physical health, our research shows over 7 million people took action as a result of seeing ITV campaigns.
“Britain Get Talking”, something we are very proud of, is our high-profile campaign fronted by Ant and Dec (two of our most loved presenters) and it aims to encourage people to communicate more, and better, as a way to improve mental health. It’s already started over 6 million conversations and has driven 3 million people to seek advice from Mind, the UK’s biggest mental health charity.
We encouraged 1.5 million school children to walk or run a mile a day, helping to get the nation’s children taking more exercise in support of “The Daily Mile”.
Our “Eat them to defeat them” campaign in partnership with an alliance of supermarkets, got 890,000 children to want to eat more vegetables.
It’s not surprising that this positive and powerful platform works for brands too.
A topical ad, following the cardiac arrest of Danish footballer Christian Erikson, led to 60,000 enquiries about CPR training for the British Heart Foundation, and helped grow one-off donations by over 17%.
Retailer Waitrose launched “Pick For Britain” and recruited a new land army of British citizens to make sure our favourite fruit and veg were still picked during the pandemic, to reach our supermarket shelves.
TV gives advertisers a trusted, safe, premium quality, positive and uplifting home for their brands.
And nothing else comes close.”