Recollections of marketing Borgen 1-3

Borgen is back for a fourth season - scheduled to start soon on Netflix!

I have to say that I didn't see that coming. I believed that the 3rd season was to be the end of it. In Denmark, series rarely go over 3 seasons. I actually felt, artistically speaking, that the series was a perfect two season set - with the story arc coming to a very natural conclusion. But season 3 did have some genuine merits. I mean, these actors are a very special group and this is one of my all-time favourite series.

The first project I attended to upon joining Arrow Films in January 2012 was Borgen, the first season, on DVD. This was after the phenomenon that was The Killing, which literally killed it in terms of DVD box set sales, with two seasons already released, making Arrow a great deal of revenue. Revenue, the like of which, never before seen at the distributor.

So, whilst The Killing had been massive, there was really no guarantee at all that Borgen would follow suit. A series about Danish coalition politics was never on anyone's U.K. series success bingo card! But massive it became, if not ever quite reaching the rocket-high sales levels of The Killing.

Like The Killing, Borgen was scheduled on BBC FOUR on Saturday nights with double episodes. We could release the DVD box set after the airing of the final episode, so we had a window of about a month to plan things out. I have to stress at this point that this was a BIG time for DVD Box Set sales. 'Box Set' meaning a physical thing that you hold in your hand, not something you stream or download.

It occurred to me that this British love affair with Scandinavian drama was here to stay. At least for a while. The vast majority of it was crime drama, which was kick-started by Wallander on BBC FOUR (later to be made in English language starring Kenneth Branagh) and then given a hyper-fuelled adrenaline boost by the publishing phenomena that was 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo', and then the subsequent TV films that launched the career of Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander.

So, if it was truly here to stay - and Arrow were to be acquiring as much of it as possible, we should be looking at creating a brand within which to encompass it all, and help pull together as a cohesive consumer offering. The first logical question to ask was 'is there an umbrella term in existence for Scandinavian crime drama'? The answer was yes, 'it's known as 'Nordic Noir'! And thus a brand was born. 'Nordic Noir' TV.

'Nordic Noir TV' was established in January 2012 along with a logo that became instantly identifiable. Nordic Noir TV social media accounts were set up immediately so that we could do live tweet-alongs with each episode transmission. We also set up a separate Borgen U.K. Facebook page (now at 20,000 followers). BBC Four didn't really have any resources for such things so we effectively became the voice of the series in the U.K. and this continued throughout. We were 'official' as we had the rights to the materials we were posting, but I think our followers thought that we are somehow linked to BBC FOUR itself. The pages grew quickly and the fact that we had some budget to put behind it really helped us grow. And grow fast we did.

The reviews for the series were outstanding so when we came to advertise the box set release we utilised these for a full page press ad.

Sales of the box set were way above expectations and a second season was to come within a year. So, to prepare for that, we looked to capitalise on the Scandinavia Show in October, where we had arranged to have our very own stand, and for this we brought over Birgitte Hjort Sorensen, who plays journalist Katrine Fonsmark. We negotiated the rights to play the first episode of season two simultaneously with the BBC Four broadcast, at London's plush Soho Hotel screening room, followed by a Q&A two days before the Scandinavia Show, where Brigitte met fans and did a signing. We also utilised Birgitte at this time for several press opportunities. She has since gone on to star in Hollywood films and series such as Vinyl and Pitch Perfect 2.

In February 2013 we arranged for the lead star of Borgen, Side Babett Knudsen, to do some press in Scotland, as well as another Q&A screening, this time at the Edinburgh Filmhouse. The Q&A sold out immediately so we added in another one straight after. Then that sold out within the hour, so we added a further one after that, and then that sold out as well! So that day Sidse did 3 Q&A's as well as a host of press and broadcast interview, plus she met Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, who is a massive Borgen fan!

At this time we also decided to create a mini magazine to place inside our Box Sets and the Nordic Noir Magazine was born. The first issue featured Sides in her fetching plaid suit from her memorable day in Scotland.

The Q&A successes and the resulting fan frenzy, which we had witnessed at our events, lead to a far bigger idea than our 'Nordic Noir Film Club' screenings (which also featured Stellan Skarsgard and Rolf 'Wallander' Lassgard) and that idea became 'Nordicana' - a 2 day festival of our own celebrating this unique genre, and now we would also bring in the book publishers as well as Scandinavian musicians and purveyors of Nordic Culture and brands!

Setting about planning Nordicana - which coincided with a new, lesser known series called Arne Dahl (after the name of the author of the stories), we brought the lead cast over from that show, but we really needed a 'marquee' name to help boost the event, so went back to Side, who agreed to come over and kick start our event with a Q&A plus a signing afterwards. This proved to be just the boost we needed to ensure that the event was well enough attended. It was very much a 'first' and I don't think initially people knew what to make of it, but it was certainly an audacious move on our part as a distributor. I won't going into that in too much detail here as it would require a blog of its own. Suffice to say that a year later we did a big Borgen panel discussion at Nordicana 2014, that included other cast members and writers, such as Pilou Asbaek (later to be seen in Game of Thrones - where Birgitte also played a White Walker!).

I was rather starstruck meeting the stars of these shows. Especially Sidse, although I was born eight months before her and would have been in the year above her at school. I also got to know Pilou, as we also distributed a film that he and Borgen co-star Soren Malling starred in, A Hijacking, as well as the writer, Camilla Hammerich, composer Halfdan E, and actors Dar Salim, Marie Askehave and Lars Knutzon. Soren was hilarious, he joked that he wanted his per-diem paid in Ugandan dollars - he was always cracking jokes, despite being a ferociously talented actor. They were all so self-effacing and down to earth. Actors, it seems, in Denmark, just get treated like everyone else!

As well as the DVD Box sets, a magazine and live events, we also went as far as to publish the Borgen book in the U.K. Our ambition and flexibility knew few limits. We were invited to posh events at the Danish embassy and were genuine social media influencers in this field. Our twitter account was followed by the likes of Anthony Scaramucci - the one time White House spokesperson, Jonathan Ross, Edith Bowman and Suzi Perry (my old flatmate). Even our PM at the time, David Cameron, was a fan. we sent him a box set and he replied with a letter of thanks, saying 'who knew that I would want to fill my spare time watching a series on Danish coalition politics'!