The Arkenaut’s Assignment

As of the summer of 2025, 20.6 million UK households were subscribed to at least one paid video streaming service. In this crowded market, our long-term client, the British Film Institute (BFI), asked us to help BFI Player broaden its audience and stand out among streaming giants.

The Arkenauts jumped into the director’s seat, crafting a full-funnel digital strategy to drive free trials through a full-funnel digital strategy, nurturing users from awareness to conversion.

With a comprehensive marketing strategy spanning paid media and creative implementation, we combined targeted video and static ad campaigns featuring BFI branding, optimised search advertising, and robust retargeting, enhancing BFI Player’s brand awareness as a streaming service.

Utilising an “always-on” approach for paid search and paid socials, we divided the media plan into priority releases, back-catalogue, and brand-supported campaigns with flighted campaigns during key periods.

Our targets were:

• Increase average free trialists per month.
• Increase free trials during the peak January/February period by 100% YoY.
• Trial to paid conversion rate of 50%.
• Keep paid subscribers churn in line with -/+ of platform average.

Audience in Focus

BFI Player’s core audience was UK adults aged 25 to 54, interested in independent film and Video on Demand (VoD). Arke’s challenge was to reach a broader UK audience, especially at a time when many people were facing reduced disposable income due to the cost of living crisis.

Our goal was to position BFI Player as a serious competitor to the streaming giants, while growing and diversifying its subscriber base.

To target audiences more effectively throughout the year, we introduced a seasonal strategy shift. With BFI Player typically seeing a spike in January and February, we focused on conversion efforts during this period. In summer, we pivoted to a search-led approach, with plans to scale media spend again in winter when VoD interest naturally increases.

Churn was another key challenge. As is common with subscription models, drop-off rates were expected, so we built in regular promotions to reduce this. An always-on campaign was supported by tactical bursts around key retail moments such as Prime Day and discounted subscription offers, all designed to keep churn low and conversions high.

The Drawing Board – Creative Asset Development

Before we began, Arke’s Head of Creative and Head of Strategy facilitated a Creative Workshop, with the aim, to identify the opportunities available to evolve creative assets, whilst aligned with the eventual evolution of the BFI Player brand. This enabled us to create eye-catching graphics with a clear CTA.

Replacing some of BFI’s creatives would also future-proof the BFI by providing them with innovative tools and templates for sustainable, in-house asset production.

Our creative team changed the previous creatives from a 9:16 to 1:1 dimensions, as previous campaigns showed that 9:16s typically see higher CTR’s and lower CPCs at the video viewer retargeting level.

Clear branding allowed with brand recognition, and a linkable and clickable CTA allowed for trackable and reportable results.

Working with BFI’s creative department, 14-day free trial messaging was split-tested amongst audiences within the creatives to understand if this or the price point led to more trialists becoming long-term subscribers and which message should dominate on landing pages.

Messaging was regularly reviewed and iterated, with pricing transparency emerging as a key conversion driver amongst mid and bottom-funnel segments. Arke then created and templated optimised assets for BFI teams to utilise for the subsequent releases.

Ads needed to work across 12 different formats, requiring significant design flexibility while ensuring consistent branding, messaging and promotions.

The core messages were: “Stream hand-picked cinema” and  “Immerse yourself in indie film“.

The final product: a unified visual identity that enhanced campaign cohesion. Engaging video and static ads effectively communicated subscription benefits, capturing audience attention across segments.

Funnel Stages

The first step was to increase awareness. Arke launched campaigns using YouTube, SkyAdSmart, and Meta, building awareness among targeted audiences and creating high-quality retargeting pools.

Since BFI Player is now available via Amazon, Amazon DSP Ads were our programmatic provider, with exclusive access to IMDB. Arke extended the use of Amazon DSP, TikTok, and Meta to drive engagement and traffic to BFI Player via Amazon Prime, optimising for maximum volume with a target CPA.

We didn’t simply target the core audience: using additional audience segmentation, we were able to customise the strategy based on film-genre interests and mosaic groups through Experian.

At the top of the funnel, we targeted users with a broad interest in indie film, layered with VoD consumption behaviours across Meta and YouTube. We also added title-specific targeting, building custom audiences around film titles.

Mid-funnel, we leveraged rich BFI first-party data to build high-intent lookalikes and niche interest segments, and at the bottom of the funnel, we used highly segmented campaigns targeting high-intent queries, retargeting users who visited the site and didn’t subscribe, or watched <75% of video content.

Performance activity across decision-stage platforms focused on cost-effective trial starts and subscriptions, optimising to a target CPA. Finally, we activated a hyper-targeted Google Search strategy, reaching high-intent users through genre-specific and title-led targeting. 

We developed a comprehensive full-funnel strategy to nurture users throughout the customer journey.

• Prospecting focused on interest and behaviour-based targeting, with creative assets optimised for awareness and discovery.
• Mid-funnel audiences were reached with engagement-focused creatives, informed by tested audience data (e.g. lookalikes, layered interests).
• Retargeting was segmented to reflect intent signals, with messaging focused on price and exclusivity of content.

Arke’s Integrated Approach

We understood that the new, broader target audience we wanted to reach spent their time in various communities on the internet, so we placed BFI Player there as well. 

We used Reddit to interest groups and subreddits targeting niche audience engagement in specific threads like r/A24 or r/ObscureFilmClub. We used Spotify‘s genre targeting of indie film enthusiasts, and Sky AdSmart for geographic/demographic targeting with viewing passions overlaid.

Results: A Standing Ovation

Despite the complexities of modernising an established brand like BFI Player, Arke successfully revamped assets across six channels to attract a diverse audience and achieved incredible results

Primary Objectives: Increase Free Trials

Secondary Objective: Trial-to-Paid 

Retention Objective: Churn

UK Agency Awards 2025

The Niche to Known campaign won the UK Agency Award for Best Integrated Campaign. It was celebrated as an example of strategic marketing, highlighting its sophisticated grasp of lifecycle management and well-structured use of multiple channels, demonstrating both range and accuracy.

Feedback received from the judges:

Your Audience Is Waiting

As a performance-driven marketing agency, we help platforms like BFI Player grow audiences and drive conversions in an increasingly competitive digital landscape.

From shifting consumer behaviours to evolving media habits, we build scalable, full-funnel strategies that turn interest into sign-ups, and sign-ups into loyal subscribers. Whether you’re aiming to boost trials, reduce churn, or cut through the noise, we help you make every impression count.

Got a challenge on your hands? Let’s talk through it.