In 2025 something huge was set to make a return…25 years after the original broadcast, Walking With Dinosaurs was back.
Our objective was simple; create a social campaign that would bring it into the 21st century, ignite audiences across social, and build new fandoms.
We new that CGI Dinos would be a stretch for our traditional BBC Earth audiences, so the challenge was on!
Our strategy? Firstly, a ‘bread crumb’ launch, a slow release of first-look images. Then, drip-feeding mysterious snippets of footage in the lead-up to the trail drop.
With strength in numbers, we joined up globally with broadcasting partners across the world for their simultaneous release. The buzz was huge, landing not just 8.1million views and 700 thousand engagements, but a YouGov Poll & Hollywood movie socials covers.
Second – tactical use of the BBC Earth portfolio with carefully created content tailored to each fandom. Analysing each platform to deliver the preferred creative formats for that audience.
Our Insta channels drove views quickly and at scale, with programme clips and vertical-first creative edits like our Top Trumps cards.
TikTok was the platform for engagement, original vertical-first series Mind Blowing Facts really spoke to the audience - and they spoke back! With a 16% engagement rate it smashed through the 9.8% channel average.
Likewise bespoke vertical creatives leaning into social trends blew engagement up even further to an unprecedented 30%
On Facebook we re-kindled viewers of the original show provoking memories and inspiring a well of UGC.
Finally, YouTube was where we met the more niche audiences. With a Behind the Scenes Original series for the science and history lovers, and an original animated series for BBC Earth Kids. With the longer watch-time came a deeper connection, growing subscribers as well as views.
And the plan to reach audiences beyond our owned channels?
To attract influencers and global press partners like Minecraft and LadBible, it was a ‘Money can’t buy’ location trip to a dig in Canada, immersing them in a new and exciting world, giving them the opportunity and freedom to create content they knew their fandoms would engage with. This exciting value exchange generated strong coverage for minimal cost.
For our paid ads we took an alternative creative approach to the usual clip-based promos. Extracting elements from the show and weaving them into a more immersive and disruptive narrative.
The results were staggering, reaching over 35 million views globally, over 2 million engagements, and a growth in subscribers of over 90k.
