TOMBOLA
I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! is a primetime reality TV game show in which a group of celebrities give up their pampered lifestyles to camp out in the wilds of the Australian jungle and take on survival challenges known as Bushtucker Trials. Fronted by national treasures, Ant & Dec, the show regularly attracts viewing figures in excess of 10 million.
Having successfully built up Britain’s biggest bingo site, tombola launched an online sister gaming brand featuring classic instant-win arcade games with unique twists and fun themes such as pirates, emojis and jungle animals. Importantly for the brand, tombola arcade also sticks to the ethos of primarily being an entertainment provider over a place to win money, with a strong focus on creating a fun and social environment.
THE CHALLENGE
On securing a contract to sponsor I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, tombola arcade turned to their incumbent agency, Über, to create and produce a series of TV idents and supporting promotional assets for this multi-million pound deal. With this level of high-profile exposure, it was crucial that the creative not only captured the essence of the tombola arcade brand values but also seamlessly felt like an extension of the TV show’s style and spirit. Additionally, and particularly due to the sensitivity of the brand sector, all this had to be achieved whilst being fully compliant with Ofcom and BCAP standards.
THE SOLUTION
Playing on tombola’s fun brand image, the idents feature seven personable CGI jungle bug characters. Having found a bag of contraband which contains the celebrities’ phones the critters proceed to ‘borrow’ the phones, and take to playing tombola arcade games for the duration of the show. The concept taps in to three key areas of the I’m A Celebrity experience: The bugs assume the role of viewers with a front row seat (akin to Gogglebox), often commenting on the show’s content, ‘extras’ when they participate in the Bushtucker Trials, and they also form a micro camp of seven very different characters and personalities all trying to get on in the jungle.
Über was keen to minimise repetition in the creative, resulting in over 50 different idents being produced, with a mixture of 15, 10 and 5-second ads created with the bug characters. Moreover, as we get to know the characters, storylines develop to keep viewers engaged and entertained for the duration of the show. Gogglebox star, Scarlett Moffatt, last year’s Queen of the Jungle features as the sign-off voiceover. As part of the I’m A Celebrity promotion, a total of six TV commercials have also been produced, as well as a microsite and suite of social content.
THE RESULTS
52 idents.
9.5 million viewers per episode.
Total reach 35M, 59% of UK.
Over 800 spots across the series.
