“My brother always says, you treat the person, not the animal.”
-Tristan Farnon, All Creatures Great and Small
OVERVIEW
Winner of 83 Primetime Emmys® and 18 Peabody Awards, MASTERPIECE on PBS has been essential Sunday night viewing for millions of drama fans since 1971. Digital efforts for the series have revolved around not only delighting current fans with digital features, short-form videos and weekly emails, but reaching out to younger viewers to build a strong future for the series.
On the email front, our weekly, general emails have been a popular staple for years. Noting the audience’s desire to go deeper, we introduced separate sign up show-specific “insider” emails for MASTERPIECE hits like Poldark, Victoria and others. These “insider” emails went behind-the-scenes of these shows, offering subscribers an unprecedented look at the productions, in a tone and style that would be especially resonant for fans.
When it came time to premiere an all-new adaptation of the beloved All Creatures Great and Small in 2021, based on the bestselling books depicting veterinarian James Herriot’s life and work in a small English village, we knew a new insider newsletter series would thrill fans, and bring the balm of series companion content to our fans in the harrowing time of a global pandemic.
EDITORIAL
Delivering essential content, comfort, and community, the All Creatures Great and Small Insider newsletter had a singular strategy in its editorial voice—absolute empathy—to match both the tone of the show it promoted and the circumstances during which the show aired (January-March, 2020). During that long winter, when many of our subscribers were isolated, the newsletter offered warmth and connection. Episode-related emails delivered during the course of the seven-episode first season promoted exclusive content, quizzes, cast interviews, behind-the-scenes features and more.
Because community lies at the heart of All Creatures Great and Small, for the first time we invited subscribers to tell us about their own experiences watching, and also solicited “featured creatures,” beloved pets from our subscribers. We promised not only to read and consider every email from our audience, but also showcased subscriber stories in the newsletter.
In the post-season time frame, we’ve continued to nurture this email community, keeping them abreast of the latest details on Season 2 filming, while also fostering a continued connection with subscribers.
DESIGN
Base design elements for the newsletter came from graphics created by our production partners in the UK. The design challenge was to present as immersive and elegant a template as possible within the considerable technical confines of email coding. The warm, cozy palette brought the look and feel of the broadcast open to the email. To ensure the content-heavy newsletters landed in readers’ inboxes without being clipped on Gmail, the underlying code needed to be slimmed down. This efficiency allowed us to include long, text-based interviews, as well as animated GIFs to bring some life/movement to the design. Also, small art elements were swapped out during the season to reflect content in the episodes and keep the audience engaged.
RESULTS
Subscriber wise, the All Creatures Great and Small Insider was our fastest growing series-specific email, with more than 120K subscribers in the first season. Within the broadcast season window (January-March, 2021), the emails had an average unique open rate of 51.05%, double the average for our regular, ongoing emails. The emails had a 14.83% click rate, more than triple the average of our regular emails.
Subscribers enthusiastically engaged with us telling us of their connection to the series, and the joy it brought in a challenging time. We conducted a post-broadcast season survey. 22K subscribers responded, and gave the email series a 9.5/10 in an overall satisfaction rating. Nearly 7 out of 10 subscribers strongly agreed the email series enriched their experience of watching All Creatures Great and Small.
In December, 2020, we conducted follow up focus groups with All Creatures Great and Small Insider subscribers to more deeply understand their reactions to the newsletter. Participants described their close connection with the newsletter, and noted it was an entirely unique offering.
CREDITS
Susanne Simpson, Executive Producer, MASTERPIECE
Steven Ashley, Managing Director, MASTERPIECE
Bruce Kohl, Senior Digital Producer, MASTERPIECE
Barrett Brountas, Senior Digital Content Producer, MASTERPIECE
Jesse Haley, Senior Digital Designer, GBH Digital
Anna Fort, Digital Producer, GBH Digital
Teri Lamitie, Managing Director, Digital Revenue Strategies, GBH
Ben Marshall, Title Design for HelloYes
Edward Dalton, Title Design for HelloYes
Gary Redford, Illustrator
ENTIRE EMAIL SAMPLE
