Jane Austen’s character Mr. Darcy made waves last week (literally) when a 12-foot tall statue of the famously conflicted gentleman popped up in The Serpentine in London’s Hyde Park.

Modeled after Colin Firth’s portrayal of Darcy in the BBC’s 1995 rendition of “Pride and Prejudice,” the sculpture was more than just an attention-grabbing bit of stunt promo for UKTV’s new channel, Drama – it was a savvy maximization of a carefully cultivated data trend.

The UK’s Taylor Herring headed up the project. After being tasked with amplifying the launch of Drama, the PR company elected to focus its creative around the most memorable British drama moments of all time. To garner this information, it surveyed more than 2,000 TV viewers, offering up a selection of 25 classic scenes to choose from with the intent of immortalizing the winning choice in physical form.

The survey group chose Colin Firth’s heart-stopping lake scene in “Pride and Prejudice” as not only the most memorable British drama moment, but also the sexiest. As a promotional bonus, 2013 happens to be the 200th anniversary of the first publication of Austen’s enduring novel.

From there, Taylor Herring called upon a team of sculptors to, according to a case study on its website, “create a 12-foot tall composite version of Mr. Darcy complete with dripping wet shirt that was poly sculpted and coated in fibre-glass to make him fully waterproof.”

Supplementing the unveiling of the statue, Taylor Herring presented the findings of its survey in the days leading up to it. It released the results as “a compelling top 10 news release” and sourced audio quotes from celebrities on their favorite dramatic scenes to package as syndicated radio news stories about the survey. On the day of the statue’s unveiling, boats carried assembled media near the statue as select swimmers splashed past it to demonstrate its scale. All in all, the effort produced a global top-10 trending Twitter story for the day, and coverage in major media print, web and TV outlets around the world.

Brief Take: This clever piece of stunt marketing would have brought attention to UKTV’s new channel under any circumstances. By adding the data element to it, Taylor Herring ensured the attention-grabbing campaign would touch the hearts of British viewers as well as their eyeballs.

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