13 Things We’ve Learned From The New ‘Class’ Trailer!

❉  Here’s an assessment of the promotion of ‘Class’ to date, camouflaged as commute-friendly churnalism. Number 7 will make you burst!

Every day, everything fluctuates.  In the assault of information cacophony it’s harder to concentrate.  Unkillable institutions turn out to’ve been bluffing for decades.  Trumpeting, hubristic howls echo down deserted high streets as antique bulks vanish under the tar-pits of history, well-polished shoes hold those massive heads under the ichor until the thrashing ceases.  No time, no time, you’re already late.  Articles are shrinking into abstracts, the more resistant become labelled ‘long reads’.  Ain’t no-one got time for that.

These are the troubling and troubled times that Patrick Ness is bringing ‘Class’ to life in, bonus midwifery courtesy of Steven Moffat, TV’s Lord of the Bait-and-Switch.  In the spirit of the age, here’s an assessment of the promotion of ‘Class’ to date, camouflaged as commute-friendly churnalism.

Head down!

 

  1. YOU’RE GONNA LOVE IT!

“Everyone at New York Comic Con loves comics.  Well, live-action media based on comic source material anyway,” says someone from BBC Worldwide’s marketing department.  “In fact, it doesn’t really matter if it’s based on comics if it’s cool cosplay potential!  What better place to launch this exciting new series from BBC Wales?  Just in case potential audiences get confused we’ve made sure that the first trailer only features Peter Capaldi.  Well, ‘Class’ isn’t directly associated with the flagship brand yet.  Doesn’t hurt to keep it at a safe distance either.  Hmm?  No, no reason.  No reason at all.”

  1. YOU’RE GONNA LOVE IT!

“That teaser trailer’s gonna leak, whatever happens,” they continue.  “Best multi-platform it for maximum impact.  Hey, it’s almost exactly a year since we announced we’d be announcing an announcement.  Anyone’d think this’d been planned. ”

  1. YOU’RE GONNA LOVE IT!

“By setting it in Coal Hill School – sorry, Coal Hill Academy – we give the content providers the opportunity to link to both recent iterations of the flagship brand (our main demographic scored Clara’s story arc high) and the historic back catalogue.  We feel that Peter Capaldi and a recurring character should really help reinforce brand recognition amongst audiences.  Just in case, there’ll be plenty of big speeches.  Lots of sound and plenty of fury.  Is that significant?  You’ll just have to be patient.”

  1. YOU’RE GONNA LOVE IT!

“Previous spin-offs have had mixed success, both critically and culturally.  If we combine elements of both – schoolkids, monsters of the week, relationship problems – then we’ve got a projected high-satisfaction score amongst the BBC Three demographic.  This has to work.  We’ve lost ‘Top Gear’, nobody knows what’s happening with ‘Bake Off’, this is our last major asset.  Well, there’s ‘Sherlock’ and ‘Strictly’, but we aren’t talking about those.  Don’t forget… there are dark forces breathing down our neck.  We have to keep this online channel viable.”

  1. YOU’RE GONNA LOVE IT!

“It’s ideal, actually.  Young Adult media is currently extremely popular amongst consumers in several age brackets.  The novels are massive sellers, and the film adaptations are going great guns.  Oh, hey, get this: Steve’s kids are exactly the right age for this, so it’s like he’s got a focus group to hand all the time.”

  1. YOU’RE GONNA LOVE IT!

“Speaking of which, Steve’s got a metahuman – is that we’re calling ‘superheroes’ now?  Yeah, Steve’s got a metahuman in the main brand’s winter event!  How cool?”

  1. YOU’RE GONNA LOVE IT!

“Everything Whedonesque tests great, so obviously we’ll be using those tropes.  Plenty of pop culture references, metatextual observations, character arcs, inclusive characters and the type of witty banter that Steve’s material is famed for.  There’s even a ‘Buffy’ reference in the trailer!  You didn’t spot it?  It’s when everyone’s shorthanding other series.  Yeah, that’s a term.”

  1. YOU’RE GONNA LOVE IT!

“It is a term!  Like those ‘if you liked this, you’ll LOVE this’ recommendations that online shopping algorithms throw up.”

  1. YOU’RE GONNA LOVE IT!

“There’s a vibrant, modern feel to the trailer music; very Crystal Castles, well glitchcore.  Maybe a bit Witch House.  Worked for ‘Skins’, so that ticks the top end of the demographic and maybe catches some of the younger elements in the nostalgia market.  ”

  1. YOU’RE GONNA LOVE IT!

“We’re making ‘Class’ appear ‘monster-of-the-week’, but we might use the box-set model too.  With eight episodes, it’s the perfect length to recommission if successful or kill without tarnishing the parent brand.  The aim now is to get social media interaction moving forward: forums, blogs, 13 Things We’ve Learned From The New ‘Class’ Trailer clickbait-pieces.  We get the message we want out there and then it spreads itself virally.  It’d be nice to trigger a pandemic.”

  1. YOU’RE GONNA LOVE IT!

“Some guy once said something about this format being limited to ‘alien invasion or mad scientist’, but that all sounds rather ‘Fan4stic’, and you can see from the promotional content we’ve released that ‘Class’ couldn’t be more distant from that particular film if it tried.  Anyway, there’s no ‘old’ any more.  Past shows are source content waiting their turn to be reanimated.  ‘member?”

  1. YOU’RE GONNA LOVE IT!

“The cast are all gorgeous, which is incredibly important for the online audience we’re initially targeting.  We’re then going to follow up by rolling out across standard broadcast, iPlayer and timeshifted models to maximise exposure.  And, let’s be fair, it’s not going to hurt the audience figures either.  Global uptake’s been good.  The parent brand’s trusted and loved, so we can tap into a lot of goodwill.  I’m sure the ‘Class’ audience reach in territories with a 2017 broadcast isn’t going to be affected by pirating either.  There’s a bright future ahead, and we’ve learned from the mistakes we’ve made in the past.  Yes, people, we won’t be making those errors again.  To be perfectly honest, the BBC can’t afford it…”

  1. YOU’RE GONNA LOVE IT!

‘Class’ wants so much to be loved by you.  It wants it so very, very, very much.  It doesn’t even really matter who you are.  Maybe this is the series that’ll finally test the ‘Doctor Who’ spin-off rule.  Time will tell, but time, especially now, is money…


❉ ‘Class’ arrives at BBC Three, on Saturday 22 October with the first and second episode For Tonight We Might Die and The Coach with the Dragon Tattoo.

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