The BBC's content marketing gambit - bold or suicidal?
- Summary:
- The BBC's decision to push into content marketing creation for commercial clients will be seen by critics as one more nail in its state-funded coffin.
This is either bold or foolish. The commercial arm of the state-funded BBC is getting into the content marketing game with the setting up of a new unit called BBC Storyworks.
BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, today announced the launch of a new content marketing team called BBC StoryWorks, sitting within BBC Advertising.
Operated by BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, the new business will sit inside BBC Advertising.
UK readers may not be aware of the existence of BBC Advertising as the BBC is funded by a state-mandated license fee and the broadcaster makes great play of not running advertisements.
(If you’re in the US and your exposure to the BBC comes in the form of BBC America, you’ll be used to the likes of Top Gear and Doctor Who just aribitrarily stopping in mid-flow to go to a commercial break. The reason these breaks can literally come in mid-scene and not at a narratively-sensible breaking point is that the programs aren’t made with commercial breaks in mind.)
BBC Advertising sells its operating model as follows:
BBC Advertising sells advertising and sponsorship solutions on behalf of BBC Worldwide's commercial portfolio across broadcast online and mobile platforms globally.
Suicide note?
The reason this is a bold move by the Corporation is that post May’s General Election, there is a lot of discussion about the fate of the BBC license fee in a multi-channel, multi-platform broadcasting world.
Rival media outlets protest that it’s unfair that the BBC should receive state funding, while critics on all side point to the license in its current form as an anachronism that doesn’t, for example, cover on demand services on tablet computers.
Last week the right wing Daily Mail - a committed enemy of the BBC - purported to ‘demonstrate’ that the corporation spends less than half of the license fee on actual program making. While its analysis merely served to demonstrate a singular lack of understanding that BBC Worldwide is actually a money-maker for the BBC and not a money pit, it’s a typical example of the sort of attack that the BBC will come increasingly under as its charter comes near renewal.
So choosing now to spin out another non-program making business and one that’s sitting at the very heart of the advertising industry is indeed bold, some might say to the point of suicidal.
The new division will be led by Richard Pattinson, a former BBC journalist with over ten years’ experience, who has been appointed SVP of Content. The BBC StoryWorks team, based in Singapore, Sydney, New York and London, will apparently:
span the globe offering clients content solutions built on compelling narratives that will engage audiences…all content created is bold, innovative and compelling and carries the BBC’s mark of quality and impartiality.
I’m intrigued as to how the BBC can create content directly for clients who presumably will have to sign off on it and remain impartial, but according to Pattinson:
The BBC has many decades’ experience of delivering creative content that intuitively connects – we know how to find the stories that our audience cares about. Now it’s time to put that strength to work and set the bar high for content marketing.
What this means in practice is:
- Branded content – commercial content owned by the brand.
- Partnered content – content produced in collaboration with advertisers.
- Sponsored content – content produced by the BBC, with advertiser sponsorship.
The BBC announcement contains a final caveat:
As with all advertising and sponsorship on BBC Worldwide and BBC Global News Ltd platforms, content created in collaboration with the BBC StoryWorks team will be clearly presented as commercial content, distinct from editorial content. The BBC on all occasions retains editorial control and responsibility for all editorial content.
My take
From a financial perspective, I can see why they’re doing it.
From a ‘future of the BBC’ perspective, I think it’s just asking for trouble.
I’m personally a big supporter of the BBC and think the license fee represents excellent value for money. That said, like all bureaucracies, the BBC has become bloated and reached into areas that are well beyond its original remit.
I have some sympathy, for example, with those who question why there needs to be a BBC3 and BBC4 and don’t understand why the contents of those can’t be accommodated on BBC1 and BBC2, eliminating the repeats and the copycat formats that have to pad out the schedules there.
I have however no issue with BBC Worldwide as a money-making mechanism to exploit BBC brands and pump money back into program making. The push into content marketing on the other hand seems to me a bit of project creep too far.