THE CHALLENGE

Dynamo was the runaway Pay TV success story of 2011 with a series average of 1.5m viewers and a huge social media following, including many high profile celebrity fans. Our brief was to promote the second series and make it an even bigger success. The challenge was to bring in a new mainstream audience, without alienating Dynamo’s cult online following and establish Watch as the exclusive home of Dynamo.

THE SOLUTION

Our insight was to focus on the shared aspects of the Dynamo and Watch brands - out of the ordinary TV that intrigues and provokes a reaction, whoever you are.

Although Dynamo’s magic was truly awe-inspiring, what really made the show so compelling, was the audience’s astonished reactions. Based on this programme truth, we created a multi-media campaign.

We began by piquing people’s interests online and on-air through the creation of short teasers that had nothing but a date on them. This created a real sense of event and anticipation on the channel and online. People took to social media to discuss the teasers and speculate what they were for. Our main trail had to appeal to the online fans, but also to a new, mainstream audience. So we developed an ad that had a hidden clue for the hard-core fans hinting at an upcoming trick, whilst drawing in new viewers with a strong concept about the potential ‘power’ of this street magician. Press ads were created to drive further excitement ahead of transmission and paid digital media was used to target new and returning fans.

To tap into the influence of social networks we also wanted to create something magical that would stoke fans into recommending the series ahead of transmission. We came up with a Facebook app that turned Dynamo’s TV street magic into a personal, unmediated experience, provoking huge amounts of online reaction.

THE RESULT

The campaign was a huge success. With over three quarters of a million people seeing an online reaction on Facebook through 65,000 app plays as well as the exposure generated through the paid media, the campaign drove another record set of viewing figures for the programme – the first three premier episodes were in the top 5 pay TV programmes for 2012* (excluding sport/terrestrial) and up 30% on linear viewing compared to Season 1.

And even Dynamo himself was so impressed that he asked to use our main on-air trail for the programme title sequence.

It’s been a lesson in getting to the heart of a show and understanding an audience’s relationship with it and a clear demonstration of the power of a campaign that provokes a reaction.

“The campaign for Dynamo: Magician Impossible series 2 is one of the most ambitious ever mounted by UKTV. Red Bee Media have delivered a truly 360 campaign, linking the on air communication with an innovative Facebook experience, aimed squarely at engaging with the 16-34 year old target audience”. Annabel Porter, Marketing Manager, Watch.