A critical analysis of how the BBC marketed to attract viewers for Planet Earth II and how social media contributed to the campaign’s success. Ten years after the BBC’s Emmy award-winning nature documentary Planet Earth (2006, BBC) stunned audiences with high-definition views of animal habitats across the globe, a sequel promising ‘the most immersive wildlife documentary experience to date’ was announced (BBC Media Centre, 2016). Revealed on February 22, 2016, Planet Earth II (2016, BBC) is the latest instalment of the highly successful Planet Earth franchise that includes documentary series The Blue Planet (2001, BBC) and feature film Earth (2007, BBC Worldwide). The new series, set to premiere later in the year, consists of six episodes that each feature a specific habitat including grasslands, forests, mountains and cities. Shot over four years, it utilises the latest camera and drone technology and is the first nature documentary to be filmed in ultra high-definition (4K). With never-before-seen footage and the return of well-respected presenter David Attenborough, Planet Earth II features all the elements necessary for high ratings; however, in a digital generation where primetime television is becoming less relevant, a strong marketing campaign was imperative to ensure success. Leo Birch, BBC strategist responsible for marketing the series, admitted in a telephone interview that primetime television is becoming increasingly harder to market, however the key to success is to plan a campaign suitable for the future (Birch 2017). By spreading content via various social media channels including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, the BBC took advantage of new technologies to bring traditional television into the digital generation. Only a few months after its UK premiere, Planet Earth II has already been reviewed as one of the best television programmes of the year, receiving a 9.7/10 rating on IMDB (2016). This report will identify the key elements of the series’ marketing campaign and investigate the role social media played in the success of Planet Earth II. After the initial series announcement in February, the Planet Earth II campaign remained quiet until October, when the BBC released the official trailer (2016a, BBC Earth) 1 that caused the internet to erupt in appreciation and excitement. Posted on BBC Earth’s YouTube channel on October 14, the 3-minute video now has over nine million views and has been shared across multiple platforms worldwide. The lengthy nature documentary trailer may seem out of place in a medium that thrives on humorous user-generated content such as hot knives, talking animals and unfortunate fails; however, Leo believes that the share ability of the content is second-to-none. ‘We [the marketing team] were given the most amazing content to work with, we knew it had to do well (Birch 2017).’ The ultra high- definition clips of animals in their natural habitat were unseen and, presented properly, the spectacle of the footage alone would intrigue an audience. To give the clips the attention they deserved, BBC treated the trailer as a cinematic piece that Birch refers to as ‘unprecedented’ (Birch 2017). The full-length piece showcases incredible footage alongside an exclusive score by renowned composer Hans Zimmer. The pairing of the two creates a trailer that walks the line between a nature documentary and epic drama. Serving as the one of the most important elements of the marketing campaign, the Planet Earth II trailer became its own spectacle that the BBC created an online ‘movie franchise’ atmosphere around (Birch 2017). One week before the official trailer release, a one minute teaser trailer (2016, BBC) was posted on the BBC YouTube channel to spark awareness. Following the upload of the full-length trailer, Hans Zimmer and David Attenborough appeared in online promotional videos that highlighted the trailer, much as the stars of a film would. Using YouTube’s new 360 degree viewing compatibility, BBC Earth produced a 360° view of Hans Zimmer recording for the trailer score that was shared on their YouTube and Facebook accounts (2016b, BBC Earth). The video currently has 231 thousand views and has sparked interest for multiple reasons: the appearance of Zimmer, the implementation of new technologies and the behind-the-scenes access. Supported by these other videos containing the same footage and score, the official trailer became a commodity for the campaign that as Justin O’Connor explains in The Cultural and Creative Industries: Literature Review, is ‘expensive to produce but cheap to reproduce - the more copies sold the greater the return on the original investment.’ Therefore, by distributing 2 supporting content quickly, the BBC maximised the trailer’s effectiveness while it was still relevant, as O’Connor further identifies that commodities such as these are ‘prone to a short shelf life, and income has to be maximised before it hits the sell-by date (O’Connor 2010: 23).’ While the Planet Earth II trailer and supporting videos found exceptional success, to keep the audience interested the BBC had to expand their marketing campaign. During the initial stages of the campaign, majority of the content was pushed through the BBC’s pre-existing social media accounts, including the BBC and BBC Earth’s YouTube, Facebook and Twitter pages. Rather than create new profiles specific to the upcoming programme, the established accounts had already built an ‘online social reputation’ amongst their vast number of followers and therefore could immediately ‘benefit from the advantages of social marketing (Davis 2010).’ Instead of having to build their brand amongst a new audience, the BBC were immediately able to tailor their social media campaign to a familiar and receptive demographic. The Planet Earth II content posted by the BBC was only shared to those who have intentionally followed or subscribed to the company’s networking pages, signifying they have some interest in the company, product or message and therefore eliminating any wasted efforts. This ability to directly communicate with target markets, known as integrated marketing communications, is recognised as one of the most influential marketing tactics of the information age and is the main role of a social media campaign (Mangold and Faulds 2009). Tailoring their campaign to only a specific demographic does not indicate however that the BBC only reached a small audience. The BBC social networks transcend the tyranny of geography and demonstrate economies of scale that are impossible with traditional billboard and television advertisements. On social media, the Planet Earth II campaign spread worldwide and reached thousands of followers at an extremely low cost. While the exact expenditure on the marketing campaign is disclosed, Leo Birch claims that even though the series had some of the highest production costs in television history, thanks to social media, ‘99.9% of the marketing was done for free (Birch 2017).’ 3 In a recent seminar at Royal Holloway University, Lee Bacon, senior digital producer at BBC Worldwide, recounted the YouTube collaboration with internet personality Michael Stevens as one of the most cost effective elements of the Planet Earth II campaign (Bacon 2017). Stevens has over 11 million subscribers on his YouTube channel Vsauce, where he posts videos covering topics such as science, technology and culture. In the collaboration video, Stevens introduces several theories regarding human’s relationship with wildlife and then goes on to ask David Attenborough for his thoughts. The video is not a traditional promotional interview that would be seen on a nightly talk show or read in newspapers, but instead asks Attenborough questions that Vsauce subscribers would be interested in and puts them in context of Planet Earth II. Since being uploaded to Vsauce on November 5, the video has been viewed over one million times. While Stevens’ channel benefited from the star presence of Attenborough, the Planet Earth campaign achieved economies of scope as it brought the television series to a new variety of people and potentially attracted over one million new viewers. The Vsauce video was one of the last marketing efforts to take place before the UK premiere of Planet Earth II on November 6. The first episode, ‘Islands,’ attracted 12.2 million viewers and was the second most watched BBC programme of the month, only to be beaten by the next instalment of the series the following week (BARB 2016a, 2016b). The marketing campaign was far from over however, as the social media marketing that took place during the series premiere was largely responsible for the second episode’s peak in numbers. Halfway through the premiere, audiences flocked to social media to react to what became the most viewed natural history clip of all time, ‘Iguana vs Snakes.’ The two-minute chase scene featuring a baby iguana miraculously escaping a plethora of snakes became the inspiration for tweets, memes and parodies across social media platforms. As ripped clips flooded the internet, the BBC had the right to shut down all user-generated content involving their footage, as the loose control over ‘symbol creators’ is often thought of as a negative aspect to digital marketing. Instead however, the BBC uploaded the chase in high definition to their YouTube channel (BBC Earth 2016c), inviting users to become the content 4 creators and simultaneously eliminate ‘distinctions between producers and audiences’ (Hesmondhalgh 2013: 3). This allowance of user-generated content created parodies that Birch claims are ‘extremely valuable as a viral marketing piece (2017),’ including a Messi voice over on ESPN (ESPN Staff 2016) and NFL primetime remake (Kleeman 2016). Often incorrectly assumed, viral marketing does not mean the content spreads automatically, but instead needs to be ‘actively managed’ by marketers throughout the process (Van Der Lans, et al. 2010: 349). With encouragement from the BBC, the iguana vs snakes content has been shared over 400 thousand times across various platforms and is one of the most successful examples of consumer-to-consumer marketing to take place on social media.