BBC Brit: Marathoff

David Hasselhoff was one of the biggest stars in the 80’s and 90’s, however his fame has slowly faded over the past decades. In the crazy “mockumentary” Hoff the Record, we follow Hasselhoff’s journey back to the top.

As part of the release of Hoff the Record, BBC wanted to reach Norwegian males between 18-35 with a message to save David Hasselhoff.

The concept challenged Norwegians to save David Hasselhoff under the slogan “every viewer counts”. It was developed a “charity event” to collect viewers. Furthermore, comedian Esben “Dansken” Selvig and the people’s reality favourite “Charter-Svein” were recruited for the event.

PR work was executed in advance, spreading the word about both the event and the TV show. We conducted real-time approaches towards the capital based media and started an editorial corporation with the VGTV series “Becoming a celebrity” and P4 Radio.

The press input that stuck out the most was on the radio channel P1’s well-known program “Nitimen” where Charter-Svein joined in his red swimming trunks doing an outdoor slow-motion interview in the middle of October.

In total the event ended with a reach in traditional media on over four million, during the almost four-week long period. BBC Brits logo and times of broadcast for the TV series were often included.

One of the highlights was the participation in the VGTV series “Becoming a celebrity” where the main character Petter really took ownership to the event and attended as one of the celebrity ambassadors. Furthermore, VG Helg, VG’s weekend magazine, had a six-page long interview with Hasselhoff. The radio channels P4 and P8 both did interviews as well as dedicated Hasselhoff competitions.

Also the actual Marathoff was a success. We reached roughly 150 000 people on Oslo’s main street Karl Johan with 80 participants. Furthermore, we had a reach on over 150 000 in social media, in addition to 1500 engagements.