Funding Circle is kicking off a £12 million marketing bonanza with a Great British Bake Off TV ad

Bake Off

LONDON — Online lender Funding Circle is kicking off a £12 million ($15 million) marketing campaign with a prime-time TV advert during the Great British Bake Off.

A 30-second TV spot, of a woman drumming will run during the premiere of the smash hit baking show on Channel 4 on Tuesday evening.

The ad, one of two TV spots, is part of Funding Circle's new "Made to Do More" campaign, which will run from September until March 2018.

Chief marketing officer Darryl Bowman told Business Insider that Funding Circle plans to spend £12 million on TV, radio, and outdoor advertising.

Bowman said the Great British Bake Off ad would likely be one of the most expensive slots Funding Circle buys as part of its seven-month campaign. He estimates that the 30-second spot will cost as much as £95,000 depending on the viewing figures.

"At the moment, businesses think bank first," Bowman said. "We want them to think Funding Circle first. This big investment in advertising is the next move to really capitalise on the great foundations Funding Circle has built."

READ: I just watched the new 'Great British Bake Off' — and fans can breathe a huge sigh of relief

Here's the ad:

Funding Circle, founded in 2010, is an online platform that lets small businesses borrow money directly from either institutional investors like hedge funds or small retail investors, earning returns of around 6%. The platform has lent £3.3 billion to businesses globally, £2.5 billion of which has been in the UK.

Bowman said: "The next stage of our journey is to really embed and make Funding Circle a household name for small businesses. The Great British Bake Off is one of the most talked about shows on TV at the moment. Knowing that it coincided nicely with when we wanted to launch our campaign, we thought it was a great idea to be part of a big show on TV."

Channel 4 paid £75 million to lure the Great British Bake Off away from the BBC last year and Bowman said he expected the channel to do well from the advertising potential of the programme. Over 14 million tuned into the final of the last series.

Bowman said: "They wouldn't have spent the money to acquire the rights to that programme if they didn't think there was a huge amount of demand to make it viable on a commercial channel.

"If I could advertise on the BBC, I would. Knowing that the Great British Bake Off has been on the BBC and is now jumping to Channel 4, my sense was it's a really smart way of reaching a very hard to reach an audience that we couldn't reach normally."

Funding Circle has spent a year and a half working on the campaign, working with branding agency Rooster Punk and ad agency Lucky Generals, which has done work for Amazon and Paddy Power. The ad campaign coincides with a rebranding of the business. Funding Circle raised £82 million in January to fund expansion.

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