So PR - An award-winning, multi-discipline PR company with a national & international client base.

Doctor Who toy range

Some celebrity-led fun achieved sales £20m (67%) over target.

By finding high-profile opportunities for a hero product, we helped to smash sales targets across the range.

"SO is creative without being unrealistic, and has a ‘never-say-never' attitude. Most importantly, they get great coverage that directly increases sales."
Jerry Healy, head of marketing, Character Options

The context

SO has been working since 2002 with Character Options (part of The Character Group, the UK's third-largest toy manufacturer). We've helped launch a range of high-profile character product ranges-most exciting of which was the Doctor Who toy range, produced in association with BBC Worldwide.

The task

We were asked to create consumer demand for the Doctor Who action figures and related products, and to help Character Options meet its sales targets.

The big challenge

This is an arena where the promoting of a heavily branded product is invariably prohibited. Taking into account the strict broadcasting regulations laid down by the BBC, we worked with their licensing arm, BBC Worldwide, to plan a heavyweight PR campaign.

What we did

• The Cyberman Voice Changer Helmet was earmarked as one of the hero products in the range. We sent helmets to all top regional/national broadcast & internet media
• We invited their readers, listeners and viewers to send in the craziest sightings of wearers of the helmet, or to post them onto websites
• We made follow-up calls to convince broadcasters that the ‘talking head' would be a perfect prop for their high-profile presenters
• Key to the planning was targeting the database of media contacts that SO had built up over the last five years

The results

• Paul O'Grady presented his Channel 4 teatime show wearing the Cyberman Voice Changer Helmet, as did a 5 Live late-night news and weather presenter (listeners contacted 5 Live to ask where they could get one)
  
• The helmet became one of the top-12 toys at the British Toy & Hobby Association Dream Toy event-creating instant demand and increasing retail sales by over 500% 
  
• Actual sales for the full Doctor Who range were £50m retail (the target was £30m) 
  
• We achieved hits in 72 national newspapers, 74 national consumer publications, 403 regional newspapers and 27 websites. We also achieved 85 TV & radio segments
  
• We reached an audience of approx 87 million people (excluding TV, international or online coverage), equating to 174 million opportunities-to-see. The UK population is just under 60 million, so this equates to 3 times each
  
• The advertising equivalent value was over £1.5m (not including TV & radio, international or online)
  
• Working closely with researchers on The Jonathan Ross Show, we initiated coverage of the 5-inch Rose action figure which coincided with Billie Piper's appearance on the show