4Sales launches £3m airtime fund for new-to-TV advertisers

8 June 2020

Channel 4 today announces the launch of 4Sales’ Greenhouse Fund. The new initiative will offer small and medium sized businesses that have never advertised on TV before match-funded commercial airtime across Channel 4’s portfolio.

The unique £3m airtime relief fund is a temporary solution aimed at SMEs seeking growth as the nation begins to emerge from lockdown. 4Sales match brands’ investments with the same value of free airtime, helping them to benefit from the current heightened value of TV advertising. In order to qualify, brands will commit to their campaigns being exclusive to Channel 4 for six months.

Natural energy drink brand TENZING are the first company to take advantage of the new match-fund offer, having never advertised on TV before.

Matt Salmon, Director of Sales, Channel 4 said: “TV is the most effective way to build a brand and in the current climate also offers incredible value for advertisers. As we start to see the economy opening up again and lockdown easing our new Greenhouse Fund will help small British businesses to embrace the power of TV at a time when audience numbers are spiking and talking to consumers has never been more important.”

Huib Van Bockel, founder of TENZING said: “TENZING is the new challenger brand, challenging the global energy drinks with a plant-based alternative. In these challenging times we decided not to hold on to our budget and wait for this to be over, but to keep pushing ahead. We strongly believe all businesses should take responsibility and do everything they can to keep our economy going. For this we were looking for a like-minded media partner and we found that in Channel 4.

“We are extremely proud to be the first partner in the venture program that supports UK businesses. We have also been blown away by the commitment of the Sales Development team and to everyone we have spoken to at Channel 4 to make this happen. We could not be more excited to see our own brand on TV and Channel 4 for the first time in its short history.”

Viewers are tuning into TV in huge numbers, including Channel 4’s key demographic of 16-34 year olds. As the youngest skewing public service broadcaster Channel 4 is the only commercial PSB to grow its share of young viewers across the year to date.

The Greenhouse Fund builds on 4Sales’ recently announced initiatives designed to help advertisers in these challenging times including a free ad production service from award winning 4Creative and a suite of market leading digital innovations.

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