The Big Fish Fight
Channel 4 has a justified reputation for hard-hitting campaigns in the food industry, with the lead set by Jamie Oliver's pioneering School Dinners crusade back in 2005. The Big Fish Fight - the latest strand in the series - saw the UK’s top chefs join forces in a cross media campaign to champion sustainable seafood and call on consumers to diversify the species they eat. As the lead agency for Channel 4 Food, Zone collaborated with production companies to bolster the online presence of six television programmes aired over ten days in January 2011: Hugh’s Fish Fight; Jamie’s Fish Supper; Gordon Ramsay: Shark Bait; Heston’s Fishy Feast; Arthur’s Hell On High Water; Dispatched – Fish Unwrapped.
Zone’s editorial content harnessed both the Channel 4 Food website and social media platforms to allow viewers to get actively involved in the issues the campaign raised. Our editorial support included in-depth reports, debunking features, sustainable fish and seafood recipes, and the ‘Fish Inspiration’ application. Designed by KentLyons and produced by Zone, the application is a practical video guide to the different types of fish you can eat and how to cook them.
Zone used the Channel 4 Food website and its 12,000-strong Twitter feed, @Channel4Food, to promote Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s www.fishfight.net (designed and built by Keo Digital) and its online petition. To date over 600,000 people have signed Hugh’s petition lobbying the European Parliament to change the current Common Fisheries Policy quotas, which are causing half of all fish caught in the North Sea to be discarded.
Our ongoing editorial is helping extend the lifespan of the campaign which is going from strength to strength. With its hub at www.fishfight.net, interactivity around it is continuing to grow, petition numbers multiplying, and the sales of sustainable seafood increasing week on week.