There’s a smidge of self-interest about Channel 4’s partnership with the University of Northampton.
For the most part, the broadcaster is just trying to be a good corporate citizen by providing instruction and career advice to students from the university’s advertising and digital marketing BA. But it doesn’t let the opportunity to influence some of the next generation of marketers and planners about the value of Channel 4, and television more generally, go to waste.
‘You’ve got a bunch of digital natives in a room, hopefully going into the industry, and we hope that they represent television in all its forms as a result of the work that they do with us,’ says Amy Jenkins, sales leader at Channel 4.
Channel 4 has been hosting Northampton University students at its London offices for a half-day seminar for the past four years: giving them lunch and a crash course in TV advertising, and then sending them on their way with a brief to work on (and later providing feedback on the students’ completed media plans). Last year, Channel 4 hired its first alumni of the course.
The partnership came about after Channel 4’s Black To Front initiative in 2021, when it broadcast a day of programming with all black talent.
Dr Kardi Somerfield, the Northampton course’s program leader, saw the stunt and subsequently got in touch to ask if Channel 4 would help with an elective module on her advertising syllabus.
The two organisations share a lot of the same values, says Jenkins. According to her, Northampton prides itself on teaching people who wouldn’t usually consider university as an option. And Somerfield says that ‘Channel 4’s commitment to amplifying underrepresented voices and its leadership in diversity and inclusion’ make it an ‘inspiring partner’ for the students.
Until now, all the briefs that Channel 4 had set the students had diversity and inclusion at their heart, too. One year, it was: How can Channel 4 create a cultural moment to represent disability in the UK?
But Havas and Starbucks have joined Channel 4 for this year’s module — and the brief is more nakedly commercial.
The brief is for a campaign across Channel 4 properties that will convince UK coffee drinkers Starbucks is a brand worth paying for, by ‘launching a unified brand strategy that drives consideration amongst new and potential customers’.
‘It’s genuinely the brief for Starbucks, in the short and long term,’ says Andrew Darby, group managing director at Havas Media Network, adding that the coffee chain wants to reassert itself as a third space after years of focusing on grab-and-go convenience.
In February, the 15 or so students who chose the elective module were bussed to Channel 4’s London offices, to learn about the brief, the brand and Channel 4’s various platforms. In May, they’ll have to present their ideas, Dragons’ Den-style, to a panel of judges from Starbucks, Channel 4 and Havas.
Darby says it was the same sense of shared values that attracted Channel 4 to the partnership that brought on board Havas and Starbucks, as well as an existing close working relationship between himself and Jenkins. But he admits there’s a soupçon of self interest, too.
‘It became really exciting when suddenly, not only did we have shared values, but we had our target audience answering a brief which could ultimately influence them coming into stores,’ he says. ‘So there were quite a few ticks. I’m passionate about talent coming into the agency, and it was a win for Starbucks.’
As you’d expect, the students tend to approach the task, at least at first, with a bias towards digital channels, says Jenkins, and their understanding of advertising is shaped more by influencers than 30-second spots.
‘But it’s testament to the University of Northampton’s teaching that, as they go through the process, they then layer on that effectiveness piece,’ she adds, ‘the trust, the environment and all of those things that we as Channel 4 find really valuable.’
Every idea that Jenkins has been presented with over the past three years has had out-of-home and TV in it. Advertiser-funded programming is also common on the students’ media plans. Disproportionately so, in fact, says Jenkins. Darby suggests it’s because the volume of content that everyone now consumes has increased so much over the past decade or so.
‘I think it comes through even in some of the teams here and the ideas we see,’ he says. ‘It’s very different from traditional push advertising. It’s really interesting, and it’s also quite entrepreneurial.’
But what sort of industry will the students graduate into, if they choose to go down the route of media planning?
‘If I think about the rise of short-term data, measurement, the drive for efficiencies — there’s definitely a twist in how we operate and what’s required in the role,’ says Darby, ‘but the people I work with now are confident, brilliant and they’re more knowledgeable than I was when I walked into the industry. So I think the art of planning is in really good health.’
‘I cannot see a world where you don’t need the judgment of people to make sure that advertising remains creative and distinct,’ says Jenkins. ‘Yes, creativity is key, but the environment is so important as well.’
