This document provides a case study of the digital campaign for the BBC comedy series "The Wrong Mans". It summarizes: 1) A cross-functional team was formed to collaborate on a campaign that extended beyond just the first airing and throughout the series. 2) The campaign included both "out of world" shareable content and an "in world" immersive experience to appeal to different audience motivations. 3) Analytics were used to monitor engagement and the campaign was adjusted weekly based on what content was most popular. 4) Unconventional tactics like a live tweet-along helped drive viewership despite scheduling conflicts. 5) The coordinated digital campaign was successful, with the

1. Doing the right thing
for The Wrong Mans
A digital campaign case study. Nov 2013
1

2. Purpose of this case study
Different BBC teams
/ genres with different
campaign ideas
Single campaign
idea, executed by
individuals or teams
Multiple audience
experiences
In March 2013 the campaign
support for The Wrong Mans was
being developed in the normal
way, with different teams creating
their own collateral
Targeted audience
experience
We wondered what would
happen if people worked together
to support a common aim

3. To do this we’d need a new way of
working
Awareness driving on-air, PR and radio (that would build anticipation
and drive to first TX) was already in development…
How could digital channels compliment this investment and extend
enjoyment and interaction throughout the series?
3

4. What did we do?
First, we created an additional digital requirements section
within the trails briefing document
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5. What did we do?
Formed a cross-group working team to collaborate and
see the campaign through to series completion (not
just first TX)
Orchestrated by the Digital Lab, we met weekly – BBC
Comedy, Creative Marketing, Brand Marketing, Red
Bee, Audiences, Media Engagement, and BBC 2
Social
5

6. Initial considerations
Replicate what had already worked well for other
campaigns, e.g. ‘Africa’, ‘Psychoville’
Invest into and leverage digital skillset inside the BBC
Comedy Team
Learnings should be shared – so analysis techniques
needed to be as generic as possible
Current tools (e.g. SecondSync) weren’t broad enough,
so the Digital Lab invested in new tools for the BBC
(Brandwatch) and insigated new processes (Social
Media Dips)

7. Putting this into
practice
“This is a game changer Sam. The game has
changed”
7

8. Beyond first TX
We recognised that digital media had a different role to play at different
points in the lifecycle of the series.
Pre Series
During Series
Post Series
Inform, create
anticipation
Generate conversation, compel to watch (live
/iPlayer)
Activiate fans for
repeats and
commercial
releases/ Series
Two
Pre TX
TX
Introduce
characters
and stories
Curate reaction, Curate
amplify key plot reaction,
moments
extend story
(create iPlayer
demand)
Listen, measure, review, iterate
Post TX

9. How do we get audiences to engage
with us?
By understanding their motivations…
‘Out of World’
‘In World’
Most people want light engagement
Some want more involvement & deeper
engagement
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10. Our approach: Two strands of
online activity
‘In World’ immersive and rolling deeper
‘Out of world’ badgeable & shareable content
10

11. How were these
different audience
strands delivered?
11

12. 1. Map the user-journey
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13. 2. Translate to a total campaign plan
The ‘uber grid’ – all activities mapped onto a single chart
and stored on a shared drive
13

14. 3. Drill this down into a weekly
communications calendar
‘Uber-grid’ reviewed every
week in order to assess
what’s working, what isn’t
and what should be added
for the next 7 days
14

15. Campaign monitoring
The Wrong Mans Team Ninjas met every week.
TV Overnights and Brandwatch were reviewed to
see what content was catching fire (not only what
was being shared but who was sharing)
and who our key influencers were - enabling us to
react accordingly.
15

16. Creative examples
Out of World; creating shareable content
16

17. Out of world;
17

18. Out of world:
BBC Comedy Team exploited every opportunity and
sweated every asset.
18

19. Out of world: personalising for fans
19

20. In World
How we rolled deeper - creative examples
20

21. In World:
Meet the show’s anti-hero – Noel:
The TV Production & Online team had created a series of
videos for Noel on Red Button, so we created a wider,
transmedia experience around his fictional world – and ran
it in real-time across the series
This gave super fans the opportunity to explore the world of
The Wrong Mans and roll deeper into the show
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22. INSERT NOEL ONLINE/BBC2 VIDEO HERE
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23. 23

24. In world: The Noel Truth on Wordpress

25. Being agile:
70/20/10%
A campaign calendar gave us the 70% ‘traditional’
marketing plan with approximately 20%
“programmable” content we wrote in advance of
each episode.
The final 10% of activity was made up by being
reactive to both talent availability opportunities
and monitoring how audiences were reacting
online
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26. Achieved by? Analytics & Agility
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27. Putting agility into practice – 10%
Ideas delivered on a weekly basis – GBBO final
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28. Putting agility into practice – 10%
Response for viewers confused by plot, post ep. 5
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29. Putting agility into practice – 10%
• Building up to the series finale with a social media countdown
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30. Putting agility into practice – 10%
What happens when you need an immediate fix?
Champions League Celtic
Final WC qualifier England
V Barcelona on ITV
v Poland scheduled 8pm
on ITV
We knew we’d have to do something bold for Ep. 4…
30

31. The answer: #wrongmanathon
A live iPlayer tweetalong with James & Mat (an iPlayer
first, we believe)
Continuing through/ trying to protect live audience for
Ep.4
What could be achieved with only 5 hours notice…?
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32. What can you achieve with 5 hours notice?
32

33. Out of world: #wrongmanathon

34. Fans loved the abilty to get closer to their favourite
characters/ actors. All brought to them via the BBC
Out of world: #wrongmanathon
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35. #wrongmanathon iPlayer watch-a-long
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36. Out of World – #WrongManathon
•
Straight after England 2 – Poland 0
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37. So, did it all work?
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38. So, did it all work?
The Wrong Mans was
BBC2’s biggest
comedy launch since
‘Extras’ in 2005
Based on Ep. 1 TX
38

39. Online delivered higher recall than radio
Source: BBC Brand Tracker
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40. Recallers of the Social Media are more likely to have an improved
perception about the channel/brand
63% of Social recallers had an improved perception of the channel
Social recallers
36%
Main marcomms
25-54 recallers
12%
0%
much better
27%
35%
22%
20%
a little better
62%
40%
didn't change
60%
a little worse
Q9A. Thinking about BBC Two how much did this ad change your opinion about BBC Two?
Source: BBC Marcomms tracker and social media boost
1%
1%
3%
1%
80%
much worse
100%

41. Competing with established programmes
At its peak The Wrong Mans was able to reach the levels of social media engagement that are
enjoyed as standard by well establish programmes such at Doctor Who.

42. Audiences clearly driven to watch post-TX
42

43. iPlayer request data - Barb models this for
average views but The Wrong Mans had over 1 million requests per
episode
43

44. “Who wants to go go-karting?”
The Wrong Mans ‘Team Ninja’ were:
Will Saunders, Jon Aird & Clarissa Maycock – Comedy Production
Tom Barker & Natalie Charlton – Digital Lab
Adam Cadman – Creative Marketing
David Dunn – Brand Marketing
Tim Whirledge – Red Bee Media
Ben Tattersall Smith – BBC 2 Social
Houmi Miura – Media Engagement
Claire Hester & Alice Alden – Brand Measurement
44