Bed retailer Dreams unveiled its new sponsorship deal with UKTV and Channel 4 earlier this year. Marketing and media director at Dreams, Simon Moore explains that for this particular sponsorship it was all about fit.

Running until 2027, and was brokered b  Havas Media UK, the sponsorship covers Channel 4’s streaming service and eight linear television channels. As part of the deal, Dreams content will feature alongside popular shows such as Dexter, Dance Moms, Fraiser and Everybody Loves Raymond on Channel 4 streaming.

Dreams had previously seen a lot of success with sponsorships, and had proven that they work well alongside the brand’s other campaigns. Moore explains: “It’s part of our armoury. It is good to have something that runs longer than all our winter campaigns.”

For Dreams, it felt right to partner with Channel 4 and UKTV specifically because of the scale, it offered the right reach numbers and the right frequency. Moore adds that they had partnered with UKTV previously.

“This is a very different package to where we’ve done activity in the past,” he notes. “It’s a hard job getting the right sponsorship that works cost-wise, and equally works on the reach and frequency numbers. We looked at dozens of different opportunities, and Havas have been out on the road for months at time in order to get activity to work.”

He adds: “We’ll rank channels or propositions against that, and see where it’s where it indexes and where it under indexes. And overall, this one had a really good fit, notwithstanding. It’s a 12-month duration, which gives us the longevity.”

The sponsorship proposition matched its key target audiences, which covers younger families, who are often more fashion forward, as well as older families who they title “aspirational early engagers” and wealthy retirees.

Moore believes that this sponsorship stands out because of the “broad range of programming” on offer from its partners.

“Dreams is all about delivering those comfort moments and quality programming. It’s about getting the right fitting program that works within that entertainment space. Overall with the Channel Four 4OD streaming part, what made this proposition stand out was the indexing we did against the customer profiles. The reach was very high. The frequency was off the scale, it’s very, very strong.”

The hardest part is running the numbers, he shares. “There is always a lot of back and forth, and there’s always a lot of negotiation in these sort of processes.”

Dreams works to ensure they “get the the right partnership that works for both sides”.

He explains: “Where we might say, okay, we don’t want that part plan, we want this part added in and we want to strengthen that. And I think, they’re the initial challenges you have when trying to get a deal struck.”

The other challenge is more ongoing, it is the volume of delivery because the frequency is high. In the first month alone, its in the double digits, which means Dreams needs huge amounts of content.

He shares: “We started the plan with a large amount, double what was initially recommended. We’ve put in creative refreshes which will come into it for Christmas, and then post Christmas, we’ve got another refresh of creative.

“We’ve done a lot of creative to fit the volume, and because you’ve got daytime and you’ve got always on streaming on the the vlog side of things, it does mean that we have to keep a close eye on where we are at. But our tracking is in place.

“The moment that we think we’ve got any wear out of any one item, we’ll be able to refresh it and replace it to keep things alive and keep it relevant.”

The long term plan for the retailer is to align with premium content across TV and digital streaming services.

He says: “TV has been changing. You’ve now got Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, digital channels, and stuff like that. What this does is it rises. It gives us access into that digital space through 4OD.

“We are looking at optimising gaps within an existing van. This gives us better efficiency rather than buying traditional airtime, and that’s one of the key pieces for us. It allows us to get those huge audiences, which range over 70% at a very efficient cost.

He adds: “It is about delivering the biggest impact we possibly can at the most cost-efficient price, which is what this activity does.”

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