News

1 June 2010

BRITISH GAS TEAMS UP WITH ITV TO HELP KIDS GO GREEN

Three teams, six kids, ten challenges - Green up your Life is a journey of discovery.

The young eco-rangers are faced with a series of stunning challenges that are designed to confront our teams and audience members with a wide range of relevant opportunities. The aim is to test just how green our lives can become and to illustrate how the little actions we make each day can create a greener planet.  

CITV has teamed up with British Gas to develop a brand new programme called Green Up Your Life.

Starting this autumn, the 10 episode series of 5 minute shows, produced by Initial, will feature sponsorship idents for the British Gas Generation Green campaign. The shows will feature teams of kids accepting a series of eco-challenges such as recycling, saving water, designing an eco-room etc, to see who will be crowned champion ‘eco-ranger’.

The integrated deal includes broadcast sponsorship on CITV, online content on citv.co.uk to engage kids in green issues as well as a licensing agreement. A bespoke Generation Green game called Professor Green and the Eco-Rangers will also be hosted across citv.com, popcorn and Friends Reunited.

CITV and ITV3 controller Emma Tennant added “I am thrilled CITV and British Gas has collaborated so successfully to produce such a relevant show for today’s environmentally aware children. Green up your Life is a significant programme for the CITV channel that not only highlights green issues but provides important information to young viewers on how to be more ecologically conscious of their actions.”

Emma Goddard, Series Producer added, “It’s been amazing to see just how engaged our Green up your Life teams have been and how much their knowledge grew over the two weeks of filming. We hope this will have a green effect on the kids who watch the series”.

In each programme, the solar powered ‘Green Machine’ sets our three teams a short timed challenge that alerts us to things we all take for granted each day such as water, waste, and electricity. There are amazing green facts and tips along the way as we see our teams move from challenges around the home to the outside world. The challenge is judged by the off screen environmental expert Mark Shayler and green medals are warded to the greenest team per show.

The final programme will feature a quick fire quiz round on everything the teams have learnt on their eco-journey so far and the winners of the show will win the top prize of a bike each. Runners up will receive eco-prizes e.g wind-up radio, fruit powered clock.

The sponsorship creative will be handled by CHI and will feature the Generation Green campaign logo.

Green up your Life is Executive Produced by Christopher Pilkington at Initial.

The deal between CITV, British Gas and Initial was brokered by New State, the newly launched division within Endemol UK, which is dedicated to securing partnerships with leading brands.

The CiTV channel is currently the top rated commercial kid’s digital channel in the UK. In May alone 59 programmes took over 100,000 children, nearly double the amount that the channel had in May 2007.