Gangster drama, Peaky Blinders, was returning to the BBC for its fifth series. Since it first aired in 2013, it has built a diehard following of fans that are captivated by its unique blend of gangster bravado, 1920s fashion and contemporary rock music. Its growing popularity meant it was moving channel, from BBC Two to BBC One, and would be exposed to a much broader audience.

The brief was to create a campaign that unlocked the power of the Peaky Blinders fanbase to demonstrate its cult status.

After uncovering masses of fan art and fan music online, we realised the most powerful way to answer the brief was to let the show’s talented fans create our campaign. A call for #PeakysFanArt submissions across social media led to over 1200 fan art entries. We turned the top 100 pieces into an online gallery and the eventual 16 winners were used for our billboards and posters, becoming part of a nationwide fan art exhibition. We then got the most iconic Peakys fan in the world—Snoop Dogg— to record a cover of the show’s theme, “Red Right Hand”. We turned the cover into a music video, featuring shots of Snoop in his studio alongside clips of iconic moments from the show.

Our campaign racked up 30 million OOH impressions and over 100 million digital impressions, helping make series 5 the most watched Peaky Blinders series ever. It also received press coverage in a wide range of international publications, including Rolling Stone, Vulture, Billboard, Esquire, The Independent and Creative Review.