'Doctor Who: Legend of the Sea Devils' is a swashbuckling pirate special, which sees the Doctor face the eponymous Sea Devils, an underwater enemy she first battled in 1972. It was also the thirteenth Doctor’s penultimate episode before regenerating.

Our brief was to attract a younger demographic to both the programme and channel and explain the Sea Devils to a new audience, while exciting them about their return.

To do this we partnered with TikTok influencer and musician Nathan Evans to co-create a special version of his No. 1 hit.

We were tasked with explaining who the Sea Devils were and promoting the nautical themed adventure to a younger demographic, so who better to approach than TikTok star and king of the sea shanty Nathan Evans, singer of the No. 1 smash hit, the Wellerman.

Our idea was to create a fun sharable piece of content by releasing a Doctor Who themed sea shanty of our very own.

We knew the target demographic were on TikTok and by reaching out to a global star, with over 1.7 million followers we knew we would generate organic reach.

Together, we wrote new lyrics and co-created a Doctor Who themed version of the iconic shanty, filled with playful lyrics about the Doctor’s enemy, whilst, most importantly, humorously explaining who the characters were to a brand-new audience.

We were keen to bring a younger demographic to BBC One and Doctor Who and were aware that our target audience were largely on TikTok (the percentage of TikTok users by age: 10-19 – 32.5%, 20-29 – 29.5%)

We used this opportunity to jump on the back of the Sea Shanty trend as it was a perfect fit for the nautical themed episode. So, we contacted the singer of the Wellerman, the song that started the trend and added a fun new twist to the song our target demographic love.

Nathan Evans has 1.7 million followers on TikTok and agreed to post the film across all his social channels, to reach this younger demographic. This was supported by the Doctor Who channels posting the film and engaging with fans who were excitedly discussing the song via Twitter and Instagram.

The film was widely covered by international press and delivered incredible engagement in our target demographic, delivering results beyond our wildest dreams.

It saw a phenomenal organic reach of 3.4 million, with over 206,000 interactions, 184,000 likes and a view count of over two million across all platforms.

The comments and brand perception were universally positive, with fans of both Doctor Who and Nathan Evans delighted with the crossover and demanding the track be released as a single.

But, most importantly this success translated into stunning success in our main ambition: increasing viewing figures for the age demographic; with the percentage of under 35s beating the last five Doctor Who releases (series and specials) and nearly tripling the BBC One drama average.

We also achieved massive increases for younger demographics compared to slot average - up 43% for 16 to 34-year-olds and 37% for 4 to 15-year-olds.