Virtually Parkinson PR Evaluation

Campaign Overview

When tpr media consultants was approached to devise a PR campaign for the announcement of the Virtually Parkinson podcast series, two things were uppermost in our mind: Michael Parkinson was one of the country’s most respected TV presenters, broadcasters and journalists whose career spanned seven decades and AI is a controversial and polarising subject.

We knew it was crucial to ensure that the first positioning pieces for the campaign lay the ground in a way that was positive and sympathetic to the new podcast series. After several discussions, tpr created a media strategy which we shared with Deep Fusion and Mike Parkinson.

We knew that it was important to contextualise Virtually Parkinson in a number of ways The podcast would be created by the team behind the award-winning documentary Gerry Anderson: A Life Uncharted Jamie – Gerry Anderson’s son – was very happy with how sensitively Benjamin Field had used AI to make the documentary; the pair now ran Deep Fusion Films together. The podcast series had the full backing of Michael Parkinson’s son and producer, Mike Parkinson As the launch approached, we had several sessions to develop Q&As. We worked closely with Cheryl Clarke at Mushroom Media who handles the trade press for Deep Fusion

Benjamin Field was a leading industry voice in discussions about the ethical use of AI and had advised trade organisations The public launch of the podcast series took place at Broadcast Now’s AI Creative Summit Conference at The Ethics of AI in Entertainment session on 6 November. This would position the people behind the new podcast series as responsible, having thoroughly thought through the implications of this new AI technology: from the issue of industry job losses to clarity over signposting.

The strategy was to launch on Sunday 27 October with The Observer in order to stimulate interest on Monday and the rest of the week. The story was leaked and the Sun and Mirror ran pieces on the Friday afternoon but they had minimal impact The Observer’s Media and Arts Correspondent, Vanessa Thorpe, loved the story and wrote an intelligent and positive first piece. On Sunday morning we contacted the Today Programme who went ahead The ripple effect of Today resulted in 5 radio and 6 TV interviews from Good Morning Britain to mentions on Have I Got News for You and Thought for the Day (Today). The icing on the cake was an animated discussion between Richard Osman and Marina Hyde on The Rest is Entertainment podcast set up by Benjamin Field

National & Regional TV & Radio TV, Radio & Podcast

Mike Parkinson and Jamie Anderson were interviewed by Emma Barnett on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, This was the first radio interview of the campaign. (Reach: 6M) The story ran on BBC news on bulletins throughout the day28.10.24

Virtually Parkinson was featured on The Rest is Entertainment, exploring the AI behind Michael Parkinson’s posthumous podcast and the sensitivities of the project.05.11.24

Mike Parkinson and Benjamin Field were interviewed by Charlotte Hawkins and Ed Balls on Good Morning Britain in an extensive interview - 29.10.24

(Reach: 5.4M)

Mike Parkinson and Benjamin Field were interviewed by entertainment reporter Rishi Davida on ITV News - 29.10.24

(Reach: 19M)

Mike Parkinson was interviewed by Dan Walker on Channel 5 News in a wide-ranging interview - 29.10.24

(Reach: 1M)

Jo Brand, Nabil Abdulrashid, Tom Peck, Paul Merton and Ian Hislop talked about Virtually Parkinson on BBC iPlayer ‘Have I Got News For You?’ - 01.11.24

(Reach: 4.3M)

Benjamin Field was interviewed by Hugo Rifkind on Times Radio - 30.10.24

(Reach: 500k)

After the Today interview with Mike Parkinson and Jamie Anderson, Professor Mona Siddiqui referred to Virtually Parkinson on BBC Radio 4 Today programme ‘Thought for the day’ - 30.10.24 (Reach: 6M)