BBC brought Dracula to life after dark with a shadow billboard

By day, it looked like a billboard pierced with wooden stakes. After sunset, those same objects revealed the face of the vampire they were supposed to destroy.

To promote BBC One’s adaptation of Dracula, BBC Creative created an outdoor installation whose full image appeared only at night. The reveal made the Count’s connection to darkness part of the advertising itself.

Unveiled on 30 December 2019 ahead of the programme’s New Year’s Day premiere, the billboards appeared in London and Birmingham.

Wooden stakes hid a second image

Against a white background, the installation featured 50 stakes with blood-like markings. In daylight, they appeared to form an irregular arrangement across the poster.

Their positions were deliberate. Once a spotlight switched on after dark, the stakes cast shadows that combined into Dracula’s profile.

The effect depended on physical objects, their placement and the angle of the light. Viewers saw the same billboard become a different image as its lighting changed.

A vampire emergency kit extended the joke

The installations appeared on Brixton Road in London and Upper Dean Street in Birmingham.

A glass-fronted box beneath the billboard contained a wooden stake, accompanied by an instruction to break the glass in case of vampires. It gave passers-by another detail to discover and carried the campaign’s dark humour beyond the poster.

Alongside the wider campaign’s “Bloody Legend” line, the box suggested that the Count’s arrival might require a little preparation.

A short film carried the reveal beyond the street

The transformation also became a piece of social content. A 10-second time-lapse showed the billboard changing at sunset, allowing people elsewhere to experience the reveal.

That sequence gave the installation a clear beginning and payoff: first the apparently scattered stakes, then the shadow that explained their arrangement.

The billboard promoted the adaptation by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, with Claes Bang playing the Count. Its nighttime reveal offered a visual introduction to the character before viewers encountered him on screen.

Credits

Client: BBC / BBC One. Creative agency: BBC Creative. Executive Creative Director: Helen Rhodes. Creative Director: Olly Harnett. Creatives: James Fairfield, Mathew Rees, Reuben Dangoor, Vikki Stephenson and Dominic Lea. Head of Production: James Wood. Producers: Ivana Bohuslavova and Sophie Knott. Outdoor delivery partners included Havas, Talon and Grand Visual. Country: United Kingdom. Launch: December 2019, supporting the January 2020 premiere.