Mission Dalek

CHALLENGE

Our task was to drive buzz about the ninth series of Doctor Who and to get the hardcore fans as excited about the new series as in previous years when we’ve had iconic anniversaries and new Doctors landing.

SOLUTION

Instead of simply seeding clips of the new series, we decided to harness the passion of the fans and set them a challenge: to create their own 90-second episode entitled #MissionDalek.
 
Their episode needed to solve the riddle of where the Doctor had gone since the last series, which the fans could do by following various clues we had embedded into a 2000-year old diary, footage of which was seeded in Doctor Who social feeds. Fans were then able to use BBC film-making tips videos to help them with their creations.
 
We celebrated the best entries by sharing them back in official Doctor Who social channels. This rewarded fans in a surprising, relevant way, personalising it with their names and social handles. These then became shareable assets themselves, the ultimate kudos in the Whovian universe, inspiring further enthusiasts to take part. 

RESULT

Over 500 animators and editors crafted some incredible Doctor Who content for us, including some stunning stop-motion, hand-drawn and computer-generated animation. The winning five entrants were sent to Cardiff and given the chance to meet Peter Capaldi on the Doctor Who set, and had clips of their creations aired on BBC One. 

Buzz around the completion spread around the Whovian universe and in just three weeks the Mission DALEK competition was discussed over 7500 times on Twitter, and we delivered 91,000 unique visits and 191,000 Page views on the Mission DALEK site.

View the winning entries