The BBC has a problem.

The nation’s youth is departing in droves. Weekly reach of under-35s has fallen 11% in two years. Auntie Beeb is out of touch. And increasingly out of mind, with young people spending 21% more time watching Netflix.

To attract youth audiences, we first had to get the BBC onto their radar. And that meant addressing the brand challenge – consideration.

In ‘I May Destroy You’ (IMDY), we had the makings of a golden ticket. Written by BAFTA award-winning writer Michaela Coel. Chock-full of leading talent. And addressing the topic of sexual consent that really matters to u35s.

But we faced a communication challenge too.

With youth audiences increasingly absent from BBC channels, on-air trails would be ineffective alone. Using broadcast advertising ran the risk of feeling like your auntie (literally Auntie Beeb) sitting you down to talk about sex. Cringeworthy.

We needed a different way.

But this is where we ran into our communication challenge.

The BBC lacked the authenticity required to engage with U35s directly and meaningfully, in fact this could jeopardise the impact of the show.

Perhaps counter-intuitively, we resolved this by going right to the heart of what makes the BBC unique. It is a public service that must meet the needs of the entire community it serves.

With direct communication ruled out, and no credible media content to align to, we had to build our own.

And so, our strategy was born.

Use media as a public service to address the issue of sexual consent directly, creating a trusted, authoritative place for people to explore, discuss, and engage with the themes of the series.

Our idea was to create a truly authentic and honest digital zine, through the lens of the show, where these important issues could be tackled and explored.

We needed a fresh, impartial voice.

We therefore partnered with The Face and gal-dem. Both had years of legacy when it came to shaping authentic conversation around the culture and passions of our audience. In a media first, we changed the BBC’s inherent conservatism and bravely surrendered control of content creation, allowing an authentic narrative to be created.

Coinciding with Sexual Health Awareness week, our digital zine ‘The Ins and Outs of Consent’ explored the grey areas of consent from multiple perspectives. It featured an A-Z of consent and seven ‘chapters’, covering topics like gender identity. The whole zine was interlaced with evocative video clips and pictures from the show, plus expert voices.

“Brilliantly challenging, refreshingly nuanced. Couldn't take my eyes off it.”

Just some of the positive feedback from those who watched IMDY, and iPlayer’s ‘experience score’ for the month of transmission was one of the best U35 results in 2020.

Our digital zine created an outpouring of support on social media. Not only from individuals, but from organisations working in sexual health services. This drove 11k incremental social engagements.

Average dwell time on the zine was 21 minutes; x4 times higher than benchmark.

YouGov’s Brand Index told us that youth consideration for the BBC increased 17.5% across the campaign’s duration.

Social mentions for related terms like “Sexual Consent” and “I May Destroy you” were at 2,300 in the UK for January - June 2020, after the show launched in June, the data for the final 6 months of the year shows total mentions at 36,000.