Last night saw the return of the hotly anticipated eighth series of The Great British Bake Off on its new Channel 4 home. Despite some significant line-up changes in the form of presenters Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig, who replace Mel and Sue, and Prue Leith taking the judging reins from Mary Berry, alongside Paul Hollywood, the programme largely remained unchanged – apart from all the ad breaks!
The introduction of ad breaks is great news for brands with big budgets however, allowing them to reach a certain demographic, but the show’s return also offers possibilities for those brands that can’t flash as much cash.
This series’ official sponsors are Lyle’s Golden Syrup and Dr. Oetker. Dr. Oetker seems to have embraced the quirkiness of new presenter Noel Fielding and the wonderfully weird Channel 4 taster advert with singing baked products, by creating a singing three-tiered cake known as the Baker Boys alongside other characters encouraging consumers to ‘Dare to Bake’.
And it’s not just the big, headline sponsors that are getting into the mix. We Buy Any Car had a competition to win one of four car-shaped cake moulds, Aldi launched a stand mixer for budding bakers and Lurpak has been putting out video content to encourage viewers to bake along. As usual, social media is key for brands to reach their target audiences, whatever the budget, with many of them putting out sponsored content and live tweeting during the opening episode. One of our favourites has to be @YorkshireTea, which tweeted:
Standing out on social media will make consumers remember and connect with your brand. Yorkshire Tea proves that many consumers like brands with a personality and don’t take themselves too seriously. Will you be tweeting along with the next GBBO episode? In the meantime, we’ll leave you with another great one from Innocent Drinks, @innocent: