Scaring Viewers To Record Breaking TV Ratings

Sky Living’s biggest commissioned show of the year was the retelling of a ‘real life story’ from the 1970s when there was a much publicised incident of a haunting in Enfield. The haunting involved a family who appeared to be suffering from a poltergeist in their house moving furniture around and shutting and closing doors.

To promote the show, which at the time was on a less well known Sky channel we decided to gain PR around creating a stunt and gain earned media.

We went back to Enfield and found a house with a 70s style to it. We then rigged rooms out with special effects, from taps which turned on and off by themselves to moving chairs and bookcases that fell over. We then required some ‘victims’ in this case some local estate agents. Set up by their bosses and led around the house by our actor ‘house owner’ Roise, we went to produce a prank horror film.

The film got into the daily papers and viral content websites and help the program gain the highest ever ratings for a new show in the channels history and one of the most watched programs across all Sky channels at that time slot, beating the major Sky entertainment channels.

The film can be watched here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEF4Cz1Q8MI&t=27s