Banijay Rights was a huge success at The London TV Screenings. Since acquiring Endemol Shine, it was the first time the company held a virtual live streaming event. The first episodes of two of the new Banijay series were presented: Viewpoint (UK), and RFDS: Royal Flying Doctor Service (Australia). Additionally, the cast was interviewed. Through Banijay’s own web portal, users were also able to view a selection of trailers and episodes of scripted and non-scripted content.
Just on the first day, customers viewed more than 2,000 videos and a total of 1,019 browsing hours on the websites of the shows showcased. From the series’ launch to the end of the month, the number of videos viewed doubled and site traffic tripled.
Among those numbers, Latin American buyers stood out. “It was a great challenge to summon them since most of them were not familiar with the event. We did a strong marketing campaign to attract Latino clients, with communications in Spanish and especially targeted to them, which included personalized emails,” explained Michelle Wasserman, SVP for Latin America, Brazil, and for the US Hispanic of Banijay Rights.
The London TV Screenings was oriented towards fiction, but it also allowed clients to know the factual content produced by its more than 120 production houses around the world. “It was very useful to publicize our novelties, the site was a great tool and our catalog of canned shows, which offer we want to expand,” said Wasserman, who for a few months, in addition to the sale of formats and co-productions, is responsible for digital and finished tape.
“Now many more clients know our website, which is a very friendly and useful tool for the buyer. You can access the entire catalog, trailers, and episodes, synopses, number of seasons, and you can even schedule meetings and create playlists with the content that you find interesting to show your team.”
The London TV Screenings – which this year was virtual – has been organized since 2018 by a group of international distributors based in London (All3Media International, Banijay Rights, Entertainment One, Fremantle, and ITV Studios) to show their content. It was created to take advantage of the large number of international buyers traveling to the UK for the BBC Studios Showcase, which takes place at the end of February. It is hoped that in 2022 it will be face-to-face again.
Banijay Rights, given the success of the event, does not rule out holding another similar event throughout this year.