‘Unbelievable’ by Derren Brown

‘Unbelievable’ was a show conceived by legendary illusionist Derren Brown, but crucially, it did not star him. Brown wanted to explore magic performed by non-magicians, taking the male ego out of the magic, which presented a different challenge: generating coverage for a Derren Brown show without the main attraction performing.

In order to shift the focus from Brown from star to co-writer & director, we launched a national press campaign that spotlighted Brown’s creative vision while teasing the show’s narrative with several different interviews and began to focus on the cast’s talents and background, making this a very different Derren Brown show.

We set up several prominent national features, including a feature in The i that went behind the scenes and introduced the cast, a segment on BBC Newsnight that went through the show’s vision in a six-minute piece, and a New York Times piece exploring the advantages of staging a magic show with a cast of musicians and actors in a very special and unique West show.

The strategic press campaign scored hundreds of pieces of coverage across the arts pages and stations to national and international press, including coverage on ITV, The Times, Sun, Mail, BBC Breakfast, and The Evening Standard, totalling almost 900 pieces of coverage.