This Just In…

Client: Channel 4
Launch: September 2010
URL: http://thisjustin.channel4.com/
This Just In… was a comedy website co-developed with Zeppotron, Endemol UK’s comedy production company for Channel 4. The site was commissioned following a successful pitch.The brief was to create an online comedy property that could be fast moving and reactive to events in the real world and would be a showcase to for new comedy talent. Channel 4 are always looking for the next big talent to reach their television audiences, so this onlne project was a perfect way of getting access to hot new talent. The commission was unusual for a website in that it was to be run only for a fixed amount of time, in our case 12 weeks,Our concept was to create a service with a team of comedians writing topical jokes, articles and pictures throughout the day and publishing these through the This Just In… website. This content would be supported by original video content (also on topical themes). Users of the site would then be encouraged to consume information in formats which they were interested in or found convenient. The site was designed so that content was easily shareable and embeddable, and users could follow the jokes and site activity on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, RSS and from the site itself.The site ran from September through to November 2010 and generated a good amount of interest and followers, we were able to learn a lot about making content suited to different social network, however the short run nature of the site meant that it did not recieve the amount of marketing we would have liked, and this in turn meant that the overall numbers did not reach our expectations. That said C4 were very happy with the content and several of the new acts showcased on the site have since appeared on TV, so the project was considered a success.