MAKING THE AUDIENCE THE STAR OF THE BAFTAS
The Must-See Moment is the only Virgin Media BAFTAs award voted for by the public. So, in a year when telly was at the centre of lockdown life, we wanted to create a film that captured just what TV meant to us in 2020 – and for that film itself to feel like must-see TV…A year like no other
Voted for by ordinary viewers, Virgin Media’s ‘Must-See Moment’ is a perennial fan-favourite award at the Virgin Media BAFTAs, the UK’s premiere award show for television. But we felt that the brand had not yet tapped into its true potential or explored its main message – ‘the moments that kept the nation talking’. And there was no better time to do that than in 2021, when great telly moments had done more than kept a nation in lockdown talking – they had kept it going!An ambitious approach
Our approach was simple: make a piece of programming about TV that was good enough to go on TV. This meant using social cuts to drive voting, plus a long-form hero film produced by Redwood Studios – and all on a lean budget and tight timeline. The heart of the film would be real people talking about the six shortlisted TV moments, but we also wanted to capture the sense of escapism and togetherness that telly offered the nation during the pandemic. To do this, we recruited award-winning travel presenter Cassam Looch to create a TV-themed travel show spanning six cities.An A-list response
The response to the short voting cuts on social was overwhelming – with many of the featured TV talent reposting our films. When Mark Hamill shared our Instagram film celebrating Luke Skywalker’s cameo in ‘The Mandalorian’ it got 120K organic likes within 48 hours. The social shorts were then re-edited into a 21-minute hero film that was made available to all Virgin Media customers via their smart TV box, while a special 90-second cut was produced for the live BAFTAs show, giving it an audience of millions. Cassam was also integrated into the live show as the official backstage reporter, interviewing the celebrities as soon as they stepped off the stage.
