To launch Apple TV+’s ground-breaking natural world docuseries, Prehistoric Planet, a launch moment of epic proportions was required.

The series, narrated by David Attenborough, promised new facts about life on Earth 66 million years ago and aimed to bring the prehistoric into the present, with a movie-like production value, a sharp eye on scientific accuracy and a sustainable focus on the natural world.

The brief from Apple TV+ was to create and execute a show-stopping visual launch activation that would catapult the series into the cultural spotlight in the UK, as the series premiered globally.

The objective was to generate excitement among a mainstream audience and drive tune in, but crucially, the creative needed to align with the series’ environmentally friendly and scientifically accurate ethos.

We knew our creative had to be impactful, worthy of an epic new show, sustainable, but also adhere to the scientific accuracy of the series. Moreover, we knew we needed to hang our creative off a newsworthy fact.

Our target audience was broad, so anything we did needed to be simple, bold and shareable. We landed on creating a super-sized, all-natural beach billboard, depicting a herd of giant T. rex footprints heading towards the ocean, reflecting a key scientific revelation from the show that T. rex could swim.

Not only was our idea rooted in science, but it also spoke to the series’ movie-like production value, as well as celebrating and honouring the importance of the environment that was central to the production.

The sustainable billboard was 50M in length and featured over 64 palaeontologist-approved footprints, designed to scale.

We began with research - sifting through the many facts and stats unveiled in the series, which included previously unknown behaviours of the more famous dinosaurs, including that T. rex could swim.

We had our creative insight, as well as the fame of the T. rex – a recognisable dinosaur that would resonate with our mainstream target audience and hopefully pique their interest to tune in; our key message.

Together with Apple TV+’s palaeontologists and a team of sand artists, we designed and installed our 50M long, all-natural beach billboard the day before the series premiere – ensuring the assets couldn’t be seen as ‘old news’.

Working with a drone photographer, we captured ariel visuals and hero video content, plus imagery and soundbites with passers-by, showcasing the scale of the prints, plus behind the scenes content – all sold into consumer and news media on the day of launch.

We only had three weeks from sign off to activate, and it had to go live on the day of launch, so everything had to be timed with precision.

Traeth Llyfn beach in Pembrokeshire was chosen as the perfect location – not just aesthetically, but because it linked to the series (it was a filming location).

We worked closely with Apple TV+’s palaeontologist to understand the shape, imprint (how the weight of these animals would impact the depth of our footprints, as well as their gait) in order to achieve accurate designs.

Two teams of sand artists helped bring our vision to life. The billboard was created across two tidal cycles (with video editing and photography selection happening inbetween shoots), was 50M in length, and featured 64+ hand-dug and sculpted prints. Assets were sold into media the morning of the premier, following a week of soft selling to the press.

This epic stunt produced some epic results, with more than 283 pieces of earned media coverage, and a reach of over 340 million.

The series was also the number 1 driver of new viewers to Apple TV+ (inclusive of S1s, returning series and films) and had the most viewers of any unscripted content on the platform.

Prehistoric Planet was also the largest series premier on the platform in terms of absolute audience - bigger than titles such as Foundation and Severance.

• Top 5 'most-streamed' show in launch week

• The largest series premier on the platform in terms of absolute audience

• 280+ pieces of coverage

• 340m earned media reach

Additionally, the assets created were particularly spectacular, receiving praise from Apple colleagues globally, resulting in the ‘billboard on a beach’ being elevated as a secondary set of ‘posters’ for the series.