Made to Make You Think

Made to
Make You Think

Role
Brand Strategy
Creative Direction
Design
Copywriting

Year
2024

Credits
BBC Studios Creative Team
Campaign: R/GA
Media: Swellshark

Awards
Gema (8)
Brand Impact (1)
Creative Pool (1)
Gerety (1)

A Critical Time

The most provocative thing you can do is not have an agenda.

Fewer than 8% of the world's population has access to a free and independent press. Wars are reshaping borders. Misinformation is outpacing facts. Trust in media is at historic lows while billionaires are buying media companies as megaphones for mega-donors.

In this world, the BBC's role is not just relevant. It is necessary.

News brands are caught between being credible and being relevant, especially on social platforms. The more they chase relevance, the less trustworthy they feel. Audiences are fatigued by outlets that dictate perspective.

US audiences know the BBC. Respected, trusted, but not top of mind. In partnership with R/GA, we launched the first-ever US brand campaign for the BBC. Rather than compete within the cycle of opinion and reaction, the strategy positioned the BBC outside of it.

"We're not here to tell you what to think. We're made to make you think."

Impartiality reframed as an active benefit. Not passive balance, but respect for audiences as the curious, globally minded, independent thinkers they are.

Make People Think

Two hero films anchored the launch. The first, inspired by the BBC's Royal Charter, treated impartial journalism and global storytelling as founding principles, not marketing claims. The second moved from hard news to documentary to culture, proving range through the content itself. Footage shot by BBC journalists gave the films the texture of reporting, not advertising. The score, by Bleeding Fingers co-founded by Hans Zimmer, carried the weight.

The campaign scaled across three phases, from reintroduction to amplification to destination. Large-scale out-of-home across New York, including Times Square. In the NYC MTA subway system, synchronized triptych placements echoed the three blocks of the BBC logo, turning repetition into recognition.

Phase three drove audiences to the newly redesigned BBC.com. The entire campaign had been built around this destination: a rebuilt product organized around how audiences actually consume news. Segmenting traffic across the site gave the first real read on how US audiences used it, which stories traveled, which formats held attention, and what brought people back. BBC.com has the highest stickiness of any news site. The campaign routed audiences into that advantage.

Wearable Provocation

The platform extended into merchandise designed as provocations, not giveaways. Each piece was built to make people do a double-take in public space.

The strongest was a graphic tee featuring the moment a BBC News reporter's camera was obstructed by Chinese authorities before the journalist was banned from the country for life. Wear the shirt, carry the story.

Other pieces extended the logic. The "Thinking Cap," a direct play on the tagline. A version of the BBC logo with the letterforms removed, turning recognition into a puzzle for anyone who clocked it on the street.

2024 US Election

The timing was deliberate. April 2024 put the campaign in market six months out from an election that would define the year in news.

As the cycle intensified, every other news brand was picking sides. The BBC was telling Americans to think for themselves. The louder the noise, the sharper the message cut through.

Results

The BBC's first brand campaign in the US made the BBC relevant in America without compromising its impartiality.

Made to Make You Think Campaign:
+25% over benchmark intent to visit
90th percentile attention
90% Brand Recall
+37% video completion rate
+13% click-through rate
+31% lift in ad recall

2024 US Election:
77M US visitors, the largest US audience in BBC history.
4.1M engagements.
8.4M video views.
Brand uplift of +2% awareness
+2% trust, and +3pp intent
Strongest lift among 25-34 and 55+ audiences.

Awards:
Recognition across the Clios, GEMA, Gerety, Brand Impact Awards, and Creative Pool.