Derry Girls is a sitcom on Channel 4. Set in Derry (Northern Ireland) in the 1990s, it follows a group of school friends at a Catholic girls’ school. We were briefed to launch the third and final series; to cut through the entertainment noise and excite audiences about the show’s return. The series had a cult fan base from the first two series, so we needed to build on that and engage a wider target – UK youngs, 16–34 – leveraging a Gen Z/Millennial trend for 90s nostalgia in the UK at the time. The primary objective was to sustain our share of young viewers at launch (vs the previous season), and increase attribution of the show to Channel 4 (vs Netflix), on a budget of £185,000 in the UK local market.

We partnered with Bauer Media to relaunch Smash Hits – an iconic magazine for teens in the 90s – for a one-off, bespoke Derry Girls special. 28 pages of specially shot, written and designed articles and pieces, from 90s fashion shoots starring the Derry Girls, to how-to dance moves, advice columns and record reviews, even bespoke adverts, all featuring – or in the voice of – the characters from the show. Working with the 1990s editor of Smash Hits, we created an authentic version of the magazine – looking and feeling exactly like it did 25 years ago, just very, very Derry Girls. This authentic piece of 90s print became a huge talking point for fans of the show (and the 90s!), making the final season of Derry Girls feel as unmissable as getting a copy.

We had two core communications tasks as part of this brief - galvanise the existing fanbase and elevate the franchise into popular culture to engage a wider audience target (16-44).

Using a combination of proprietary audience planning tools, we identified an audience target that heavily overlapped with our focus segments - those born 1975-95 who grew up in the 90s and enjoyed reminiscing and reliving their youth, and those born after 1995 who were enjoying the revival of the 90s through current fashion trends.

Media consumption data showed us that 90s music and fashion ranked highly for our ‘90s nostalgia audience’, so we turned to cult teen bible of the 90s - Smash Hits magazine.

Out of print since 2006, we partnered with publisher Bauer to resurrect the magazine for a special limited edition print run featuring the Derry Girls and support with distribution.

We commissioned our photographer to capture all the issue’s content using a mixture of film, polaroid and 90s disposable cameras, giving each feature a distinct and authentic look. The design direction was informed by archive issues that we hunted down on eBay and we worked closely with the 90s editor of Smash Hits to ensure every bit of type and layout felt authentic - even down to the bespoke ‘adverts’ we placed throughout.

Taking advantage of the 90s nostalgia we knew our audience were looking for, we released 40,000 magazines bagged up with issues of Closer and Heat magazine, starting the giveaway 3 weeks before the show launched to tease our audience with what was to come. Then, from 5th March – 11th April 2022, 100,000 magazines were given away nationwide via brand ambassadors at major stations and student hot spots in the UK.

With 140,000 magazines distributed and coverage of the Smash Hits x Derry Girls partnership on every national media outlet and TV talk show - our magazines even found themselves the subject of a bidding war on eBay as fans clamoured to get hold of them.

Overall results? A total reach of 92% of our 90s nostalgia audience and Channel 4’s second most successful comedy series launch of all time. Awareness of the show was at 65% of all UK adults on the day of the first episode, far above average for a returning series.

Our marketing objectives were to sustain and grow our share of young viewers (16-34) and drive channel attribution to Channel 4. We achieved a 16-34 share of 29.1%, the best of any series – up +39% on series 2 and +28% on series 1. And, we achieved an impressive 61% attribution score for Channel 4.