THE MARLOW
MURDER CLUB S3

Idea

Hook:
Nothing brings people together like a seriously good murder mystery

Aim:
To promote series 3 on U and U&Drama, with a visually distinctive idea that both stands out in the overly crowded cosy-crime market, and is an evolution of the already established puzzle motif used to promote S2 'solving crime, piece by piece'.

Idea:
'Playing Their Strengths'

Inspired by the world of playing cards, we presented The Marlow Murder Club as the ‘four of a kind’ winning hand in crime solving, with each woman bringing their own unique strength to the table...

Four women. One club. Together, they are the Queens of Solving Crime.

This distinctive visual idea powered the campaign across key art, promos and social, in a playful but premium way, to stand out within the crowded cosy-crime space.

Tagline:
They’re Back in the Game

Creative Development

* I experimented with AI to generate sketched scamps for the proposed key art idea

Illustration

Working in collaboration with illustrator Freya Betts (known for her work for Netflix on Sex Education and the 50 Years of Star Trek Royal Mail stamps), a set of beautifully illustrated, personalised playing cards were carefully created for each woman.

Hidden clues and character nods were embedded within each of their own suits and borders, to reflect each woman's individual personalities and sleuthing styles.

* Illustrations created by Freya Betts

* Video of Freya's illustration process that we shared in a collaborative post on our instagram page

We also asked Freya to subtly incorporate the show's iconic Marlow setting within the backs of the cards, without taking away from the whole 'playing card' aesthetic.

Marlow cues such as the church spire, bridge, river and countryside elements then were woven in, as part of the classic repeating playing-card pattern which also added a nice, bespoke cosy-crime look and feel, that felt true to the series.

Design

With our in-house print designer, we then expanded the artwork to create additional card variations to be used both as background dressing and to reveal copylines in all AV assets.

We ultimately ended up creating a fully playable deck where the women are the only face cards!

The cards were then physically printed with a bespoke Marlow-styled box and self-shot, in-house, to form the campaign key art image and motion graphic captions used across on-air, performance and organic social assets.

* I self-shot pick up shots in-house, with our motion designer with our Sony A7S Mark III.

The shots functioned as punchy graphic captions and endboards that carried the campaign’s card motif across on-air, performance and organic social.

20'' Teaser

I cut the teaser and launch promos to Blondie’s One Way or Another, with self-shot playing cards revealing the punny copylines.

The track became the perfect underscore to the women’s relentless pursuit of the killer - reinforcing the ‘Playing Their Strengths’ idea throughout the edit.

Creative, Director & Editor: Jess Newark

DOP/Lighting/Motion Designer: Rachel Shearman

40'' Launch Promo

The 40″ launch promo builds on the 20″ teaser, expanding into a more narrative-led edit introducing the storyline context while reinforcing the central idea.

Creative, Director & Editor: Jess Newark

DOP/Lighting/Motion Designer: Rachel Shearman

5'' Countdown Stings

To build further anticipation of the series 3 launch on-air, we also created a set of playful countdown stings using the card-flipping motif.

Multiple versions ran across broadcast, with additional versions shared on our Instagram Stories to tease the series return online.

We also produced individual character stings, one for each woman, to air in the ad break during transmission of each episode

Creative, Director & Editor: Jess Newark

DOP/Lighting/Motion Designer: Rachel Shearman

5'' Character Stings

Creative, Director & Editor: Jess Newark

DOP/Lighting/Motion Designer: Rachel Shearman

15'' CTV Trailer

I cut additional trailers adapting to the various performance placements (CTV, Meta and YouTube bumper formats).

15'' Meta Social

6'' YouTube Bumpers

Episodic 20s

For viewer retention purposes, I also cut individual storyline-led episodics focusing on each new case the women investigate.

Key Art

In collaboration with illustrator Freya Betts, we created a set of illustrated, personalised playing cards for each woman, with hidden clues and character nods embedded within each of their suits and borders. Read more here.

Our in-house designer adapted her illustrations to form additional cards for background dressing, to form our final key art image which we self-shot in house.

The result was a lovely bright, unique image that really stood out on our VOD platforms within the crowded cosy-crime space.

Illustrator: Freya Betts

Artworker: Mario Gambardella

Overnights:

On launch day the series was the #1 programme across our VOD platforms delivering 232k content starts
Marlow S3 was also in the top 5 episodes across VoD, showing strong binge engagement from launch
The title significantly outperformed all other content

JESS NEWARK

Creative · Video Editor · Director

THE MARLOW
MURDER CLUB S3

Idea

Creative Development

Illustration

Design

With our in-house print designer, we then expanded the artwork to create additional card variations to be used both as background dressing and to reveal copylines in all AV assets.

We ultimately ended up creating a fully playable deck where the women are the only face cards!

The cards were then physically printed with a bespoke Marlow-styled box and self-shot, in-house, to form the campaign key art image and motion graphic captions used across on-air, performance and organic social assets.

20'' Teaser

I cut the teaser and launch promos to Blondie’s One Way or Another, with self-shot playing cards revealing the punny copylines.

The track became the perfect underscore to the women’s relentless pursuit of the killer - reinforcing the ‘Playing Their Strengths’ idea throughout the edit.

40'' Launch Promo

The 40″ launch promo builds on the 20″ teaser, expanding into a more narrative-led edit introducing the storyline context while reinforcing the central idea.

5'' Countdown Stings

5'' Character Stings

15'' CTV Trailer

I cut additional trailers adapting to the various performance placements (CTV, Meta and YouTube bumper formats).

15'' Meta Social

6'' YouTube Bumpers

Episodic 20s

Key Art

THE MARLOW MURDER CLUB S3

Idea

Creative Development

Illustration

Design

With our in-house print designer, we then expanded the artwork to create additional card variations to be used both as background dressing and to reveal copylines in all AV assets. We ultimately ended up creating a fully playable deck where the women are the only face cards!

The cards were then physically printed with a bespoke Marlow-styled box and self-shot, in-house, to form the campaign key art image and motion graphic captions used across on-air, performance and organic social assets.

20'' Teaser

I cut the teaser and launch promos to Blondie’s One Way or Another, with self-shot playing cards revealing the punny copylines. The track became the perfect underscore to the women’s relentless pursuit of the killer - reinforcing the ‘Playing Their Strengths’ idea throughout the edit.

40'' Launch Promo

The 40″ launch promo builds on the 20″ teaser, expanding into a more narrative-led edit introducing the storyline context while reinforcing the central idea.

5'' Countdown Stings

5'' Character Stings

15'' CTV Trailer

I cut additional trailers adapting to the various performance placements (CTV, Meta and YouTube bumper formats).

15'' Meta Social

6'' YouTube Bumpers

Episodic 20s

Key Art

THE MARLOW
MURDER CLUB S3

With our in-house print designer, we then expanded the artwork to create additional card variations to be used both as background dressing and to reveal copylines in all AV assets.

We ultimately ended up creating a fully playable deck where the women are the only face cards!

I cut the teaser and launch promos to Blondie’s One Way or Another, with self-shot playing cards revealing the punny copylines.

The track became the perfect underscore to the women’s relentless pursuit of the killer - reinforcing the ‘Playing Their Strengths’ idea throughout the edit.