Sky+ broadcasts with Digit website

Digit has landed a six-figure brief to create the website for BSkyB’s Sky+ offer, as the broadcasting giant prepares to unleash a concerted marketing push for the service that has so far failed to penetrate consumer awareness.

Since Sky+’s launch in August 2001 just 75 000 of Sky’s 6.7 million subscribers have signed up to the service, which enables viewers to tailor viewing schedules by setting up recording preferences and saving programmes directly to the Sky+ digibox.

According to a Sky spokesman, a major September advertising blitz is planned.

‘This [website] will be a crucial [element of the campaign] as a direct sales channel, complete with product information and transactional elements,’ he says.

Digit is poised to begin work this week on the project, which replaces an existing ‘more functional’ Sky-created website. The group has been briefed with combining experiential aspects with user-friendly demonstrations of how the service works.

‘We want to show that this is bigger and better than the technology that drives it,’ says Digit business and strategy director Phil Jerrard, who is heading the project creatively.

‘We need to demystify the service and show it’s not just another piece of kit,’ he adds.

Sky+ is a key component in BSkyB’s overarching strategy of increasing average revenues per user to meet financial objectives for the Sky Digital platform. The broadcaster also hopes to recruit non-Sky users to the platform via the Sky+ route.

Digit was hired last week on the back of a four-way creative and credentials pitch.