Using Screens To Hook An Audience

Aidan Mcclure, Wonderhood Studios co-founder and chief creative officer and Katie Rawcliffe, ITV's director of entertainment, reality and daytime, talk about how content can build brands

By Scarlett Sherriff

10 October 2025

Since the emergence of digital platforms, efficiency has been unavoidable and dominant. But immediately measurable - and sometimes shallow - performance metrics risk distracting from the bigger picture: that brand equity and entertainment matter - and together they deliver. It's a problem that is easy to identify and yet frustratingly challenging to resolve.

As much as System1 has raved about the importance of consistency and cumulative gains for brands - it can be a hard task to steer boardrooms away from instant gratification in order to create genuine, sustained long-term development.

This is precisely the tension the IPA's annual Effectiveness Conference aims to navigate. Despite the many challenges faced by the ad industry, the need to celebrate and push for cultural relevance, laughs, and boundary-breaking work has never been clearer.

That was the message from Aidan McClure, co-founder and chief creative officer at Wonderhood Studios, and Katie Rawcliffe, ITV’s head of entertainment commissioning, as they joined the IPA's director of effectiveness, Laurence Green, to explore how brands can move beyond short-termism to truly captivate audiences and earn their place in culture.

"Slightly unusually, we make ads and we make TV shows," McClure says of Wonderhood Studios. "TV production studios don't have the foggiest about brand building, so it felt like there was an interesting gap in the middle," he explains of the company's origins.

An example of this was the social media activity Wonderhood created around Waitrose's Christmas work last year, incorporating the Line Of Duty cast around the wider "whodunnit" theme of the campaign.

"It was a sprinkle on top that just helped extend thee story," McClure says.

Likewise, Rawcliffe emphasises how ITV re-engaged audiences by bringing in influencer and musician, KSI to become a judge on Britain's Got Talent, replacing Bruno Tonioli.

She says this brought in a wider audience but also allowed longstanding viewers to "see the show again through someone else's eyes".

Here are three main takeaways from their conversation about audience retention:

1. Prioritise impact over numbers

Rawcliffe says that audiences value content that sparks conversation over high production values.

"Everything we play has to make you feel something," she states.

She also emphasises that in a highly fragmented media environment, ITV increasingly values a show becoming part of the public conversation - for example, "I'm A Celebrity" or "Britain's Got Talent", which evolve when they are shared or discussed widely.

Rawcliffe says that shows with cultural relevance may have more value than those with high viewership but little emotional or social impact.

She explains that ITV took over a format from the BBC for a show called 'The Assembly' in which learning disabled and neurodivergent adults interview celebrities.

Despite being an unconventional format that was not built for high ratings, she argues that the raw, authentic approach allowed it to become a vehicle for talent.

2. Captivation over interruption

McClure contrasted traditional advertising methods of disrupting content through ads with a more modern, audience-first approach.

"We talk about captivating audiences rather than interrupting them. We've talked a lot today about the fragmented media landscape, and reaching difficult audiences is becoming harder than ever," he says.

He explains that Macmillan Cancer Support had approached Wonderhood as the charity had exhausted much of its messaging and wanted to produce something fresh. That led to the creation of TV series 'A Second Chance At Life', alongside Channel 4.

"The show itself trended on the internet and the brand was the fourth most talked about in the country at the time," McClure reveals.