Our core insight for our campaign was Austen’s lack of descriptive prose around Mr Darcy’s appearance – there is just one line in the book, (‘he soon drew the attention of the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features’) which gives very little away.

This gave us the basis for our creative – TV and Hollywood casting directors had always cast Mr Darcy as tall dark, chiselled and handsome but this was not Austen’s Darcy.

We wondered what Mr Darcy have actually looked like in Jane Austen’s imagination. Could we work with a team of academics and an artist to uncover the ‘real Mr Darcy’?

The creative was designed to ensure that Colin Firth, (regarded by many as the definitive 'Mr Darcy' and star of the season’s lead show), would be pictured alongside our historical recreation. This ensured the lead show of the season was integral to our story.

The team of academics embarked on a month-long research project, looking into existing descriptions and illustrations of the character, along with Austen’s known suitors and the socio-economic and cultural factors of the time that would contribute to Darcy’s appearance and lifestyle.

Illustrator Nick Hardcastle came on board to bring the research to life, creating two new portraits; a detailed bust and a full-length picture of the ‘Real Mr Darcy’.

A video was created to support the news story, featuring behind the scenes clips of the illustration process, interviews with a Drama Channel spokesperson and key findings from the research. The video was optimised for social channels and served to amplify the research news story and imagery for online media.

Our Professors served as spokespeople on the day of launch.

The news story generated over 400 pieces of fully credited editorial coverage which linked back to Drama's Jane Austen season and UKTV Play. The story trended on Twitter and Facebook throughout the day generating 153 Million social media impressions within 48 hours and the ‘Real Mr Darcy’ became the talking point of the day generating 273 broadcast items including the likes of Radio 5 Live and coveted ‘and finally’ pieces on the BBC News at both 6 and10pm

Every British national paper featured the story as a page lead story, all of the titles who carried the story embedded the accompanying campaign video online.

The campaign led to a 63% uplift on slot for Drama viewers and helped UKTV Play to record its highest ever day for Drama viewership.

This was the lead creative – all results were entirely PR generated

Results included:

• 63% uplift on slot for Drama

• UKTV Play enjoyed its highest ever day for Drama viewership

• 153 million social impressions

• 400+ pieces of branded print coverage including Metro, Daily Mail, Evening Standard, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mirror, The Times, I, Daily Express, The Sun, The Guardian etc.

• Target audience hit directly via key pieces in Good Housekeeping, Woman + Home, Mail online, Red, Elle, Marie Claire, Hello, OK! Harper’s Bazaar, Country Living, Female First

• Broadcast pieces included BBC News, Sky News, BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio 2)

• UK Circulation/reach: 1,208,404,563

• International coverage included New York Times, Vogue Australia and Daily Telegraph Australia