Securing international coverage through creative campaigns

Unique and thorough methodology:

● Utilising IMDb we compiled a list of the top 100 most popular “Children’ television shows. We also included those that are rated TV-14 or below.

● For each show, we analysed YouTube clips and episodes, to create a sample of 25,000 words to identify unique words used in the transcripts.

● Transcripts were obtained from full episodes of the TV shows available on YouTube, using a data script to retrieve them, but it was limited to English or auto-generated subtitles. Audio descriptors and non-dictionary words were removed to focus solely on the language used.

● The winner, Spongebob Squarepants, came out on top with 213 unique words per 1000.

Created an onsite report and visualisations: 

We produced a visually appealing report showcasing the unique word analysis for each show, highlighting that Spongebob Squarepants was the most word-rich show among the 90s children’s programmes. The design style of this campaign purposely used a colour palette and design features shown in 90s children’s programmes for the nostalgic element, an element which would we later use as an outreach approach.

Outreach to target journalists: 

We reached out to journalists specialising in entertainment and parenting, sharing our unique findings and the report’s insights. Our pitch emphasised the headline, “Spongebob May Make Your Kids Smarter,” aiming to grab attention and generate interest. We knew that Spongebob, as a character often used in memes and internet culture, was a brilliant winner that was sensible to emphasise in the lead.

Leveraging Twitter engagement 

After our campaign gained traction, tweets about Spongebob’s being the most wordy received significant engagement, including interactions with a writer associated with the show. We incorporated screenshots of this Twitter engagement in our subsequent pitches to journalists, showcasing the positive response and encouraging further coverage.

A solid strategy and multiple angles

Initially, when trying to cut through the noise to get journalists’ attention with headlines like “Spongebob is the Wordiest Kids TV Show.” The emphasis wasn’t emotive enough. We revised our approach and crafted a more captivating headline that spoke to making children smarter, using a psychology study that found a link between the two areas. This pivot helped spark curiosity and interest among journalists, and gave us a more interesting headline’ Watching SpongeBob May Make Kids Smarter, Study Finds’. Which ended up being used by a number of pieces of coverage verbatim.