Understatement serves up brilliant stunt
OPINION: Who doesn’t remember cowering behind the sofa watching Doctor Who as a child?
So, it was a big thing for Whovians, aka Doctor Who fans, when BBC Worldwide announced the first female to take the lead role: Jodie Whittaker, best known for her lead role in ITV crime drama Broadchurch.
This was big news in the United Kingdom and a major step for the BBC sci-fi series.
It was also another great example of how the Doctor Who brand has reinvented itself to rise, phoenix-like, from the ashes.
To recap: Doctor Who ran from 1963 and was compulsory viewing for my generation in the UK. Despite being almost comically low-budget, on reflection, it managed to scare the bejesus out of my sisters and me.
The show slipped from screens in 1989 and into the realms of nostalgia but, like all strong brands, it was always there ready to be rejuvenated. Think Marvel’s Spider-Man and DC’s Batman for similar shape-shifting reinvention.
Doctor Who returned to screens in 2005 and was named one of BBC Worldwide’s biggest exports in 2014, estimated to make the BBC a profit of about £14 million (NZ$25m) each year.
Doctor Who has always generated collectible merchandise to go along with the show, but in recent years the marketing team has clearly been thinking much, much bigger, and global, in its promotional tactics.
Taking advantage of nostalgia and a growing international fan base, the Doctor Who team went big for the show’s 50th anniversary in 2013. BBC Worldwide held the world’s biggest-ever simulcast of a TV drama showing the anniversary special.
The ‘‘Day of the Doctor’’ episode screened in 94 countries and in 1500 cinemas worldwide, simultaneously. I can remember people rushing to get tickets for the premiere in New Zealand.
The team also ran a massive social media campaign to promote the event, resulting in the episode becoming the most tweeted about UK drama of all time. This in turn grew the show’s Facebook audience by 1.2 million fans.
When Peter Capaldi took up the sonic screwdriver in 2013, he did a world promo tour, travelling to seven cities in 12 days with 200 journalists attending the events. This kind of promotion is usually the preserve of box-office blockbusters, not quirky English TV shows.
In 2015, Doctor Who teamed up with Lego to launch its Dimensions game featuring characters from the series.
Behind all of these events there’s been huge social media activity to push the show into new countries and to widen its appeal to younger audiences.
So, we were due another showstopper to keep the Doctor Who brand front of mind, and last week we got it. As you probably know, I do love a good teaser campaign and a public relations coup and the team for Doctor Who did a great job on both fronts announcing the first female Doctor.
The hype about who it would be has been raging in the UK and online since January, when the last Doctor, Capaldi, announced he was leaving. I’m sure the BBC’s publicity department has loved every minute of the conjecture, dropping a few big hints to ensure maximum speculation and more free promo time.
The big reveal was also a brilliant PR stunt. An understated advertisement went out at just at the end of the Wimbledon Men’s Finals, which had peak viewing figures of 6.4 million and was a must-watch for most of the UK.
The UK media went predictably manic weighing up the pros and cons of a female lead and therefore generating more free publicity.
With regeneration at the heart of the Doctor Who concept, I’ll be watching with interest to see what stunt comes next. Who knows, we might even see a non-white Doctor Who next time round.
The UK media went predictably manic weighing up the pros and cons of a female lead.