Virgin Media needed to build its brand equity and reach a 25-44 year entertainment-loving audience. It wanted to strengthen its association with film as a means to push Virgin Media's Video-On-Demand TV product offering of 500 films at a time. Digital Cinema Media (DCM) recognised that cinema was the perfect medium for Virgin Media to communicate its film offering, champion young filmmakers and give them the biggest and most prestigious arena to showcase their work.

To make Virgin Media known for film amongst film fans.

In order to maximise exposure of the Virgin Shorts competition, DCM developed the Short Film Showcase for Virgin Media - a four-minute pre-reel content position running before the ad reel at 211 independent cinemas across the UK - giving Virgin Media ownership of a cinema space and enhancing the audiences cinema experience with engaging content. The campaign culminated in an Awards Ceremony attended by the celebrity judges Kevin Spacey and Richard Branson where the films were screened, the winner announced and given £30,000 of funding for their short film.

Last year over 1,500 film makers showed off their work through Virgin Media Shorts. - 12 million people saw winning entries via cinema sites - The campaign generated widespread PR and word-of-mouth - 75% of those aware of Virgin Media Shorts were more likely to consider Virgin Media with film and 58% felt warm about the brand. - Right now, last years winners are working on their next film... Virgin Media thought the campain was so succesful they rebooked for another year starting in September 2009.

What set this apart from every other short film competition was the fact that DCM could offer the 12 shortlisted candidates the opportunity to have their films screened on cinema nationally. Shortlisted films were also showcased online, on Virgin 1 TV, VOD and mobile, making this is a truly multi-platform campaign with cinema at its heart.