News UK’s The Times partners with Channel 4 for ad break takeover

Channel 4 logo

Channel 4 Sales has announced a brand new partnership with News UK’s The Times that will see a bespoke version of one of the newspaper’s Unquiet Film (opens in a new window) Series aired across an entire ad break in Homeland.

On Sunday 23rd November 2014, the second ad break of the award winning US political thriller will be consumed by a three minute version of the film Bearing Witness which documents the kidnapping and escape of two Times journalists in Syria earlier this year.

The Unquiet Film series is a collection of independently made short films telling some of the amazing true-life stories behind the stories from The Times and The Sunday Times.

“Homeland’s upmarket and highly engaged audience is the perfect fit for The Times’ powerful and topical film Bearing Witness. This brand new partnership demonstrates the creative solutions Channel 4 can offer clients by leveraging its programme brands.” – Danny Peace, Agency Principal, Channel 4

The partnership represents the first time any of the collection of films has been seen on TV and the campaign aims to drive both awareness of the Unquiet Film series as well as The Times Membership.

In addition to the contextual TV campaign, The Times has chosen Channel 4’s interactive video ad format (iVOD) Ad Bloom that will allow 4oD users to interact with the ad through a microsite and explore the benefits of a The Times Membership as well as view the Unquiet films.

“Bearing Witness tells a powerful story, full of insight into the dangers journalists face in their endeavours to report the truth from hostile environments around the world. It reveals a sense of purpose that The Times has pursued since the Crimean War. Broadcasting this short film on Channel 4 in the Homeland slot is the perfect alignment of contextual relevance, brand fit and reach of our target audience.” – Nick Stringer, Chief Creative Officer of News UK

The partnership was brokered by Luke Moore, Partnerships Account Manager, Channel 4 and Dwight Thomas, Business Director, m/SIX.