KANGAROO

BBC Worldwide, ITV, Channel 4 joint venture, 2007

Communications support for the launch of Kangaroo, the joint on-demand service announced by BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4 in November 2007, bringing together over ten thousand hours of current and archive programming from three of the UK's largest broadcasters under one destination.

This sat within the same broader BBC Worldwide communications remit as the platform launches that year: YouTube, iTunes, MySpace, BBC.com, TopGear.com, BBCGoodFood.com, LoveEarth.com and BBC Motion Gallery. Kangaroo added a different kind of complexity again: a joint venture between three competing broadcasters, announced publicly before the service itself existed, positioned from day one as a major competitor in the UK on-demand market.

Working across a single-brand platform launch and a three-way industry joint venture in the same year showed how differently the same communications discipline has to flex. One story is a brand finding its voice on a new platform. The other is three rivals explaining why cooperation serves them all.

Some launches introduce a product. Others have to explain why three competitors just agreed to share one.