Execs at ITV Local are hailing the campaign as "groundbreaking" due to the fact that it utilises breaking news stories to attract people to the website.

Every weekday for the next two weeks ads will be broadcast on ITV Granada between 7 and 11pm featuring regional news presenters Tony Morris and Lucy Meacock and acting as a teaser for one of the day's biggest stories.

Animated templates will zoom in on the region, before viewers then see the news teams discussing the story and encouraging them to find out more online.

The aim is to drive footfall to the various Local websites and increase awareness of the offering.

Joanna Ashton, channel manager for ITV Local in the Granada region, took time out to explain to How-Do the thinking behind the new initiative.

“It’s been instigated by ITV Local centrally,” she explained, “but we’re the first region to actually get the campaigns. It’ll be rolling out over the summer, with Central next in line.

Local heroes?

“The ads work to draw people’s attention to the website and show that we can provide added value on a local level.”

She continued, explaining: “By that I mean that we can give items extended coverage online – longer interviews for example - as we don’t have the same time and space constraints that the news teams may have with limited airtime.

“It works to promote our service to the audience through faces that they trust, while potentially feeding new viewers back to them by publicising the news team’s work. In that way it’s a real partnership.”

Ashton said that the whole process was “challenging” due to the as-live daily format, but noted that that challenge was well worth it due to the topical nature of the campaigns – something she believed was a first.

She also added that her team was “very pleased” to get the primetime exposure and that the ads would be repeated two times a night in the designated timeslots.

The ITV Local service has been rolled out over the space of the last year, with Granada being one of the first regions to benefit.

Every ITV region now has its own dedicated website and will get its own chance to air individually tailored ad campaigns over the course of July, August and September.

http://www.itvlocal.com/granada/

Did you enjoy this article? Please share it!

Comments (3)