Glitter Ball

The etv media group was brought in by media agency, Drum PHD, to create an advertiser funded TV series for the business standards agency, Investors in People (IIP).

The project was originally commissioned by COI Communications as part of a public information campaign to promote the IIP's accreditation services for small and medium sized businesses.

The etv media group developed and produced the programming for this documentary style series called "In Good Company". Following commissioning of the project, we secured a peak time slot on ITV1 and at 7.30pm on 30th September, the first in the four part series went to air.

The series lifted the lid on the stark reality behind every budding entrepreneur's dream of running their own business. We teamed up four well-known business leaders to turn around the fortunes of four small businesses:

Dylan Jones, editor of GQ Magazine, was charged with overhauling Stag & Groom Magazine. This new title was losing money each month, and the team was struggling to make headway in an overcrowded publishing market; Simon Woodroffe, founder of Yo! Sushi got to grips with Firebird Events. Set up by three DJ friends, this business expanded quickly and its owners were struggling to keep pace with the demand for their services without putting their health and personal lives at risk;

Adam Balon, one of the founders of Innocent drinks, was brought in to tackle riverhomes.co.uk, a family-run estate agency business which was finding it difficult to market itself and to stand out in an oversupplied property market;

Rupert Clevely, founder of the successful pub and restaurant chain, Geronimo Inns, took on La Luna bar and restaurant. The dream of bringing a taste of the Mediterranean to the East End of London had become a nightmare for the couple who own the business, with losses of £500 a week.

Each programme included an insight into one of the four businesses before and after the business mentors had been drafted in. The cameras also returned for a final catch up with each business after six weeks of testing out the new procedures recommended by the mentors.

The series was extremely well received by IIP and COI Communications and successfully met the clients' brief to demonstrate the benefits of business advice.

Overall the series was seen as an excellent example of a cross platform content campaign. As well as programme support via the IIP and ITV websites, the series was promoted via direct mailouts to IIP's client base and a six page supplement in the Evening Standard which was published on the first day of broadcast.

In addition to this, extra publicity was gained via two pages of editorial in The Mirror, a feature in The Guardian and The Sunday Times as well as a number of positive TV reviews.

Each programme in the series came second in the ratings behind "Eastenders" and consistently built on its audience share each week.