“We’re the posse. We’re the Boys From The Dwarf.”
The feature-length return of Red Dwarf on Dave. Although much-loved by a passionate fan-base, our fear was that wider audiences had come to think of the franchise as passed its best and no longer essential viewing. With that in mind, the challenge was to demonstrate that this was a piece of event-TV that would deliver laughs, high-quality special effects and genuine drama. This and the switch to a one-off format gave us the idea to approach the creative as if it were the launch of a Hollywood movie. We started the campaign with a stripped-back AV and OOH teaser phase which dialled back the series’ humour in favour of a darker and more dramatic tone. This was continued into the launch trailer and a stunning, Drew Struzan-inspired key-art execution which was rolled out in multiple formats. The creative work was complimented by an ongoing social campaign which included an online cast commentary on the classic ‘Quarantine’ episode and a Twitter mystery-game in which fans were asked to decode morse code messages embedded in SOS transmissions from the crew to unlock an exclusive clip of the first five minutes of the special. Meanwhile, the cast were featured on a set of exclusive covers for SFX magazine, which also included a free copy of the poster.
Red Dwarf The Promised Land was the third-highest rating show in the channel’s history, gaining 923k live overnight and a 5.5% share with #RedDwarfThePromisedLand trending second on launch night.
Credits
Creative/Creative Manager – Paul Philpott
Key Art – Veer Assi
Logo/Motion Design – Callum Parish
PR/Comms – Ben Duncan
