Why Gogglebox’s Unique Success Is the Perfect Sponsorship Fit for Three UK

Gogglebox is quite an unusual phenomenon. The British reality show, which has been adapted for 24 different markets around the world since it started in 2013, essentially offers you a chance to turn on your TV to watch other people watching TV. Amazingly, it’s great TV. Through genius casting and careful stewarding of the format (and no doubt a judicious bit of editing), it won over the nation’s hearts. 

There’s an authenticity to Gogglebox and the households featured on it that’s brought about a decade of success, which makes its 9pm Friday-night slot one of the most coveted bits of commercial media in the UK. All of this has proven true for mobile network Three UK, as it launches a continuation of its three-year-strong sponsorship campaign focused on the various ways we use our phones while we goggle at the box. 

The campaign is a follow-on from the work Three UK launched in 2022, based on the insight that 90% of Brits are ‘second screeners’, scrolling through phones whilst watching TV. As Gogglebox returns for its 23rd series, a new collection of funny idents by Wonderhood Studios presents viewers with relatable living-room moments, played out by four British families watching the show on a Friday night. The spots were directed by Rosie May Bird Smith of Biscuit Filmworks and feature the voiceover of Craig Crash, who also narrates the show, for the first time.

            

It marks three years since the mobile network first sponsored the show, soon after James Sutton, head of sponsorship and brand activation at Three UK, took on his role. In fact one of his first jobs when he came on board was to be part of the pitch process where the brand eventually appointed Wonderhood. “Since I've been at Three, we've only had one brand positioning [and] one agency, and it's allowed us to deliver against that consistently over the last four years,” he says.

That brand platform is built around the line, 'Life Needs a Big Network', which James explains is “showcasing all of those small moments of connectivity that happen every single day that can happen on a big network such as ours, that really powers people's lives.

“It's really putting a microscope on those very small but very important moments of connectivity that then can magnify into a big feeling of satisfaction, enjoyment or emotion in our customers' day-to-day lives,” James goes on. “Because nowadays that mobile phone in your pocket and the network that it runs on is such a big part of our daily lives. I think it's our role as a network to showcase that and be relevant to the audience, through amplifying those moments of connectivity that our audience experiences every single day.”

The brand has stuck to that over the last four years. And one of the criteria when it first took the Gogglebox partnership, in February 2021, was to bring that brand platform to life. The reason Gogglebox works is because the cast are so real – everyone can relate to at least some of the people featured in the show. And that’s why real-life insights work so well in a campaign in the same format. 

“We know that 90% of the UK admit to second screening while watching TV, which is a humongous stat,” says James. “And actually when you look at the chatter on social around Gogglebox, it's one of those shows where people tune in, comment on the show, and really follow along with the cast members that they've come to know and love. And that creates this groundswell of conversation, which is typically happening on a mobile phone, which makes it kind of perfect for Three as a mobile operator.” 

This is the third set of idents Three has put out around the Channel 4 hit show and James reflects on how insights on behaviour have always guided the bumpers. “While the idents have looked very different, they've evolved, they've changed, the story [around second screening] has been very much the same,” he says. “That's been really rich creative territory for us. It's led by a lot of mobile insights that have alluded to the kind of behaviours that people show while they're using their phone while watching TV.” 

It’s a simple data-led creativity framework: Three conducts research into the audience to identify which mobile insights resonate with as many people as possible, then work with Wonderhood to bring those to life in the idents.

It’s not just on TV that the sponsorship plays out though. “We've done some really good work with Channel 4 and Studio Lambert, the production company behind Gogglebox, to really utilise the cast and create social content alongside the show,” says James. “We’ve got the Gogglebox cast, such as Pete and Sophie or Jenny and Lee, talking about their mobile phone behaviour while they're watching TV.” 

The cast are an incredible asset for a brand to have access to like this, he says. “A lot of them have been on Gogglebox for years. When they start talking about their mobile behaviour in a way that our audience can see themselves, it has that massive halo effect in terms of brand impact and positivity towards Three.” 

The show’s brand itself is also just something worth being associated with. “Gogglebox has got a very, very passionate, loyal, engaged fan base. And I think by aligning the Three brand with the Gogglebox property[...] means that people that think positively about the show are starting to think more positively about Three as a brand.”

That’s played out in the figures over the term of the sponsorship so far. Recognition of the idents has grown to 72%, considerably higher than the category norm, and consideration amongst Gogglebox viewers has increased by 8%.

And all of that at the kind of scale that somehow doesn’t feel plausible in the fragmented media landscape of 2024. Gogglebox is one of the biggest properties on TV in terms of audience size. The campaign has reached more than 43 million people (nearly 75% of all UK adults). “The reach is huge in terms of getting the brand in front of broad audiences; there are very few available properties that give you that scope,” says James. Alongside that, the show has an all-year-round presence. A lot of the other great TV shows that have significant reach are short-run series that run for four weeks or eight weeks – Gogglebox is on Friday night at 9pm for 38 weeks of the year.

Gogglebox couldn’t be more well suited to a campaign about second screening, considering that it’s one of the few shows on British television that’s still often watched live and talked about as it’s on air. “It's one of the few remaining TV properties in the UK that is still appointment-to-view,” says James. “It still has a very high percentage of the audience actually tuning in on a Friday night at 9pm. And you can see that in the amount of conversation there is around the show on social media.” 

If the current sponsorship campaign does its job, maybe that conversation will be around the idents too. With so many aspects slotting into place, it’s clear why this partnership makes a lot of sense. And with real humanity at the centre of its creative approach, it looks like one that’s finding a place in the nation’s hearts.