Virgin Media Edit
Client
Virgin Media
Industry
Telco
Category
CRM programme, email, social
If you want the clearest picture of how I work as a Content Director, this is it: the programme my career has been built around, owned end to end and grown year on year, with an editorial team I lead against fast-moving, high-stakes briefs.
Virgin Media Edit (formerly Virgin TV Edit) is a weekly email and website programme that drives retention and NPS for almost two million Virgin Media O2 customers in one of the most competitive markets there is. It is not an email or a website but both: the email earns the click, the site pays it off, and the two feed each other. Its success rests on editorial credibility and personalisation at scale, built around real customer passions and pain points.
I joined the account in 2018, first as Content Editor and then as Content Director, responsible for the entire publishing output: content planning, writing, commissioning and editing, scriptwriting, subject lines, segmentation and social strategy, with final sign-off on every email that goes out.
My role is to lead on content strategy and innovation that delivers tangible results, presented to the client weekly and monthly, while managing and developing an editorial team to deliver world-class content against challenging briefs, and maximising budget to drive revenue. I’m also the collaborative link between creatives, clients and stakeholders across multiple concurrent projects.
What makes it work is the marriage of data and editorial craft. We use viewing habits, package tiers and demographics to take a genuinely analytic approach to storytelling, with every output informed by real-time data, whether that’s email engagement or our SEO footprint. Every decision is testable. We conducted a semiotic analysis of the email to define exactly how the brand should sound. We subject line test and bank the learnings. We heat-map what customers click to reshape the next email. We segment the base by what people actually hold, how long they have been a customer and what they have consented to, so the right story reaches the right person.
But that data is underpinned by real editorial expertise. Knowing which show everyone will be talking about on Thursday, and which angle will travel, is just as important. This isn’t copywriting; it’s editorial, and that’s what elevates the content above SEO fodder or, more recently, AI slop. By operating like a genuine entertainment newsroom staffed by entertainment experts, whether that’s partnering with Marvel to showcase a game launch, interviewing stars backstage at the BAFTAs or bringing TV and film previews to life with exclusive interviews, we build the brand credibility that drives clicks and fuels social conversation.
Continuous optimisation has moved the numbers that matter. Redesigns and refinements have lifted email open rates by 91% and action rates by 138% over time. When the data showed mobile customers were not engaging with a weekly send, I moved them to a monthly one, and their open rate nearly doubled while their action rate more than doubled.
And it does the job the business actually cares about. The Edit is a core channel in Virgin Media O2’s contact strategy, measured on retention and NPS as much as on opens and clicks. Customers who engage with the content show a markedly higher NPS than those who do not, and a markedly higher likelihood to consider Virgin Media O2 for their next broadband or TV service. The programme also carries real commercial weight, delivering a significant share of the contractual marketing value owed to channel partners such as Sky and Paramount.
It’s why a programme that’s run for years is still a growth programme. It sits right at the heart of the brand’s customer engagement, as the home of sponsorships, customer education, channel-partner relationships and more, featuring weekly email and website content alongside social assets, featured graphics, solus emails and website banners.
Some of what that leadership has delivered:
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A weekly email and website programme reaching close to two million customers across every product holding and a core role in Virgin Media O2’s contact strategy
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Industry-leading open and action rates at scale, with open rates up 91% and action rates up 138% through continuous optimisation
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An 80% year-on-year rise in SEO traffic after I pivoted editorial strategy overnight in response to Covid-19, and premium guides that outrank the broadcasters’ own pages
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Measurable NPS, retention and brand-consideration uplift among customers who engage, plus significant contractual marketing value delivered to channel partners
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Record website traffic, following a full strategy and design overhaul focused on driving NPS
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Growth into new channels (social, film, DOOH and a second email programme for O2), increasing both the scope and the revenue of the account
What it shows: sustained content leadership – building and developing a team, owning a multi-million-pound, multi-channel account and using hard data and editorial judgement to keep a mature programme growing and to turn content into engagement and real business value at scale.
