Niamh McKenna discusses how festive broadcasting presents a wealth of opportunities for brands…

The Radio Times Christmas scheduling issue came out last weekend, presenting a wealth of opportunities for brands to connect with consumers over the festive period.

Christmas TV is ingrained in festive traditions, with the average Brit set to watch an average of 15 hours of telly over the holidays. The highly anticipated broadcasting schedule gives a strong indication of what will populate the newsfeeds as Brits digest their turkey.

72 per cent of programming across BBC1, BBC2, ITV and C4 will be re-runs (excluding news and weather), which suggests less room for original content. We are creatures of habit and we love familiarity when it comes to traditional rituals – according to Deloitte, a third of TV viewers watch the same programmes every day (2015 Media Consumer Survey 2015).

This presents a huge opportunity for brands to interact with consumers via social media, because by already knowing what happens in the classics, they can pre-empt the reaction on social media and tie it in to their Christmas campaign strategies. Brands can get creative with content such as gifs, memes, and parody videos, ready to post during the broadcasts and appeal to a mass market.

The broadcast industry has seen a seismic shift from traditional methods to digital platforms and on demand services; Netflix announced huge expansion plans to double its original content in 2017 while Google urged brands to spend at least 24 per cent of advertising budgets on YouTube instead of television. Viewers have control over what they want to watch and when they want to watch it, and the pace at which they consume media is steadily increasing; so, too, are the consequent opportunities for brands.

By utilising the right social media listening tools, brands can tap in to the consumer discussion on social media and gain invaluable feedback about what its audience is interested in. Social Bakers launched Social PRO in November, the world’s first real-time social intelligence tool, helping users to identify influencers, find sales prospects, manage crises in real-time, become proactive about customer service, and learn about a brand’s market with powerful reporting tools.

Brits love a bit of nostalgia, so it’s no surprise that the majority of TV listings over Christmas are re-runs. Taking advantage of this insight, the BBC has already announced it’s releasing a Christmas re-run collection.

All this talk of festive telly got the Jammers talking, so here’s our round up of Christmas favourites:
Jaime: Sex And The City – the Auld Lang Syne episode
Dave: Die Hard
Francesca: A Christmas Carol
Becky: Love Actually
Anna: Gavin and Stacey Christmas Special
Niamh: Home Alone
Lauren: Mean Girls – the classic Jinge Bell Rock scene
Rachel: Downton Abbey Christmas Special
Alex: The Grinch
Eve: Elf
Rebecca: Jingle All The Way