Key Takeaways

• Channel 4 needed to create buzz around new series of End of the F**king World so it would be watched on their channel rather than Netflix.
• Partnering with Future Publishing’s Den of Geek, fans were invited to illustrate their theories about the series 1 cliff-hanger.
• The campaign drove the highest awareness of a C4 show amongst 16-34s for three years, with attribution to C4 up 11% and association with Netflix down 15%.

One page summary

Client Quote

“For The End of the F***ing World’s return, we really wanted to give fans of the show something to be excited about. So, in partnership with Den of Geek, 4creative produced a magazine of real fan theories of what people thought might happen after THAT cliffhanger from Series 1, which we then distributed to hundreds of excited fans at Comic-Con 2020. A huge goal for the campaign was drumming up excitement amongst fans, and the fan theory magazine did this in spades.”

Alan Moss, Marketing C4

The Challenge

A homegrown, critically acclaimed comedy-drama, The End of the F**king World (TEOTFW) was an international hit and, in November 2019, it returned home to Channel 4. The challenge was to defeat the world’s most popular streaming platform Netflix and get TEOTFW superfans to tune into the new series on C4 instead of waiting for it to appear on Netflix, all on a tiny budget.

The Plan/Execution

TEOTFW was based on a graphic novel and had an existing, enthusiastic fanbase, a group mostly under-30, who had grown up on social media. The first season ended on a massive cliff-hanger and the aim was to get this socially active, meme ready fanbase sharing their theories about the second series. To steal attention from Netflix on a minimal budget, this campaign focussed in on fan culture in the hope of roping in a broader audience.

To better fuel the conversation amongst the fanbase before the launch, C4 partnered with Den of Geek, the Future Publishing-owned home of cult TV and film.

First, to prime the fanbase, TEOTFW went on tour to Comic Con, the world’s biggest comic convention and a Den of Geek partner. With the convention hosting TEOTFW’s biggest fans, a stand with the stars in tow was created, helping enthusiasts get the inside track on series 2, dressing up in costume and re-enacting their favourite scenes in a replica of the set, and have a 4Creative artist illustrate their theories about the series 1 cliff-hanger.

Then, to promote these theories, comic books of illustrations were created – first online and then as a limited-edition series of 5,000. The physical copies were distributed to TEOTFW’s biggest fans, with the last pages left blank to allow them to sketch and then share their own theory about the cliff-hanger – which they did in their thousands, generating a tidal wave of online conversation ahead of the launch.

The Results

• Overall, the campaign reached 1.8m (more than 90%) of the audience and generated even more attention organically through PR and social conversation.
• The campaign drove the highest awareness of a C4 show amongst 16-34s for three years, with attribution to C4 up 11% and association with Netflix down 15%.
• The launch episode achieved 1m viewers, up 75% on series 1 viewing.
• The entire series totalled 5.6m views in 28 days, making it the second biggest show on All4 ever, the single biggest show for 16-24s on All4 in 2019, and the single biggest C4 drama in 2020 for the same audience.