2025 Gold Public Sector
15 Dec 2025
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Agency: RAPP and Red Bee
Client: TV Licensing
Entry Name: Great TV Brings Us Together
Executive Summary
The TV Licence has long funded the BBC, but as streaming rose and viewing habits changed, it risked becoming just another bill - necessary, but overlooked. The challenge was to restore its relevance and public value in a shifting landscape.
Strategy
Step one: ask the audience. Research revealed a simple truth - there’s a unique magic to licensable TV that on-demand simply can’t replicate. Streamed content is solo, but licensable TV is social. Whether it’s 16 million cheering The Lionesses to European glory, families squeezing onto the sofa for I’m a Celebrity - Get Me Out Of Here!, or the latest episode of The Traitors sparking memes and debates across social feeds, we love talking about telly.
The strategy? Spotlight what makes broadcast TV unmissable: its power to unite. We chose to dramatise this with drama: four mini-epics, each based on a classic genre, where even sworn enemies can’t help but bond over their favourite show.
The media plan was mapped to modern viewing habits, ensuring the right message hit the right screen at the right time.
Creativity
‘Great TV Brings Us Together’: four punchy, cinematic films, each a love letter to a different TV genre. From sci-fi and period drama to crime thriller and supernatural comedy, the films celebrated the quirks and tropes that make UK TV truly iconic.
The team gave it the kind of production values you’d expect from the BBC, roped in nine beloved homegrown actors, and sprinkled in enough cultural references and meme-worthy moments to power 1,000 WhatsApp threads.
The campaign served up everything from 30-second hero spots on BBC One to TikTok-native cutdowns and stories, riffing on evergreen TV-watching behaviours. Every asset was tailored for its channel, ensuring every viewer - from the sofa loyalist to the on-the-go TikTok scroller - felt the magic of collective viewing.
Results
The campaign contributed to the £183m improvement in licence fee income in 2024/25. ROI on social channels returned £9 for every £1 spent. Among 16- to 24-year-olds, intent to purchase a TV Licence jumped 5% in just three months.
The BBC iPlayer films had a 40% completion rate, nearly double the industry benchmark, and online completions soared to 83%. Perception shifted, too: ‘good value’ sentiment rose by nearly 1%, meaning half a million more customers now see the licence as worth having.
Contributors
BBC, Sarah Crowe Casting, HAVAS MEDIA, Hungry Man