Five announces 4m push for launch of new digital channels

Five has announced a £4m marketing drive to support the launch of its two new digital channels Five Life and Five US. It is the channel’s biggest advertising push to date.

It is the first time a UK terrestrial broadcaster has launched two channels simultaneously. Marketing director Jane Scott says a major marketing campaign is necessary as rival terrestrial channels already have a portfolio of digital channels, and Five’s are the last to market.

She adds that the marketing spend is higher than Channel 4’s spend for More4 and Film4.

Five Life, which will be aimed at female viewers, will be launched on October 15 and Five US will follow a day later.

Vallance Carruthers Coleman Priest has developed the campaigns and media planning and buying has been handled by Vizeum. The on-air advertising for Five Life has been created by broadcast brand agency Smithereen and design agency Precursor has developed the two logos.

The campaigns kick off next week and will include on-air cross promotion, TV advertising, press work and online, with outdoor work to follow in October. Five US is sponsoring the British Film Institute London Film Festival, and Scott says "stunts" to promote the channels will also be used.

The campaign for Five US, which is positioned as "slick" Americana rather than "cheesy and junk foody", features a non-branded outdoor teaser campaign, with the strapline "Nothing good ever came out of America".

A second execution will then follow with the line: "Who says nothing good ever came out of America? The new channel from Five showcasing the best of the US". It will star personalities including Spike Lee, William H Macy, Susan Sarandon and Brad Pitt.