14 hours of filming, 11 sets, 1 shot: Why BritBox went all-in on craft for its new ad

The commercial starts with an actor sitting in front of a TV, remote in hand. Suddenly the world around her changes, and she changes, too, as makeup artists transform her from a couch potato to a Victorian-era lady to a skeleton buried in dirt. The time-lapse filming looks like AI, but it’s exactly the opposite. In fact, the 90-second commercial—shot for BritBox’s first ever brand campaign—is the product of a single, continuous shot that took 14 hours, 45 minutes, and 31 seconds, and was filmed with 11 different sets, at one frame per second using a precision motion control unit.

The British streaming service is aiming to woo potential subscribers with its attention to detail and craft. Its new spot also feels like a protest or counterpoint to the waves of AI experimentation hype in film production we see flooding our feeds each day.

The Brits are coming

Diana Pessin, chief marketing officer of BritBox, says that while the platform has done a great job of growing its core audience of British expats, Anglophiles, and people who generally enjoy British content, now it’s time to broaden the scope. 

The streamer has topped the 4 million subscriber mark across the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Nordic countries. It reported 25% year-over-year growth between 2023 and 2024, and so far is seeing double digit growth between this year and last.

“We’re at a point now where we really want to attract people that may not self-identify as liking British content, but they just like great content,” says Pessin, who joined BritBox in 2023, after a long career at Warner and HBO. So much streaming marketing is clip-based, playing highlights from upcoming shows and movies, but Pessin says this campaign aims to avoid that.

“If we want to grow even a little bit, we’re going to have to make more of an impact and create sort of that intrigue and excitement,” she says. “We need to take a step back and really create a reason for people to pay attention because there’s so much sameness out there. And so in some ways that clutter and sameness benefits us as a specialty streamer.”

The pitch

The brand campaign launches in time for a slate of anticipated series coming soon to the service, including the season finale of Ludwig, a detective comedy starring David Mitchell that broke U.K. viewership records, and premiered in March on BritBox in the U.S. and Canada. There’s also Towards Zero, a new Agatha Christie adaptation starring Anjelica Huston and Matthew Rhys, premiering on April 16. 

Created with agency Uncommon, the campaign includes national TV, broadcast, and cinema, as well as several billboards in Times Square, a takeover in the Moynihan Train Hall in NYC and The Grove in LA. There’s also IMDB takeovers, sponsorship of The New York Times’s Wordle, and four custom cartoons with The New Yorker.

Nils Leonard, Uncommon cofounder and chief creative officer, says that the goal was to do something purposely difficult in order to bring attention to what BritBox offers. “We were really keen to make sure it was something that people saw, and from that moment on know they’re in the business of film and creativity and story,” says Leonard. “We’re in an age where everyone’s talking about AI and how it’s gonna replace stuff, or about Apple and how amazing they are, and how much money they spend. So with this, we really wanted to try and do something different. Not out of vanity, but because it made it special, and we had one go at it.”

The one-take scene concept is having a bit of a moment right now, between the Netflix hit Adolescence, and Seth Rogen’s The Studio. It’s filmmaking at its most intense. Here, Britbox is making it central to its pitch for new viewers who appreciate that intensity. 

“We really wanted to take the brand to a more emotional space and tap into something unexpected,” says Pessin. “Something people will see as worth trying because they actually may find a lot of hidden treasures.”

View the full article