From producing pilots for under US$500 to launching new shows on LinkedIn, Fawkes Digital founder Lucy Smith believes indies have “nothing to lose and everything to gain from getting your IP out in the open.”

Lucy Smith

Just as the infamous Yorkshireman Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up the establishment in 1605, Leeds-based Fawkes Digital is poised to explode the traditional media landscape and rebuild it for the digital age.

That was Fawkes Digital founder Lucy Smith’s pitch to the industry at last week’s Creative Cities Convention (CCC) in Bradford, where the former MultiStory Media and Wise Owl Films development exec told delegates to rip up the tried-and-tested rule book for getting unscripted shows made.

“TV audiences are collapsing. It’s time for established brands, innovative start-ups and digital platforms to become broadcasters in their own right,” states the company online, as it seeks to create digital formats that “engage, inspire, raise eyebrows and directly compete against the TV schedules.”

Indeed, why wait for a commission that may never come when YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and even LinkedIn allow you to reach an audience directly? This was Smith’s opening gambit, as she declared “anyone can be a commissioner.”

Realising this represented a “fundamental paradigm shift” in thinking for Smith, who prior to launching Fawkes spent a decade in TV development where she managed slates, pitched to commissioners, wrote treatments, developed and produced pilots, in addition to shooting and editing sizzle tapes.

“What if you took your brilliant new format and pitched it to marketing directors, to YouTube creators, to start-up entrepreneurs, to passionate collectors or talent agents? Suddenly, instead of five or six potential buyers, you have a pool of hundreds of commissioners for every idea, with the resulting production finding an even bigger audience on YouTube, TikTok or LinkedIn.

“At Fawkes, we’ve reached a point where we don’t distinguish between channels and tourism boards, broadcasters and beauty brands, commissioners and social media managers. For us, it’s all about finding the fastest and most lucrative way of funding new IP that we’re passionate about.”

CEOs Go Wild was shot on two iPhones in the Scottish Highlands

Since launching at the beginning of 2024, Fawkes has produced numerous series and put them out on YouTube, including Korea Ladder, funded with the Korean Tourism Organisation after the format was rejected by the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, plus

“The problem is there are too few customers in telly and if your broadcast commissioners don’t buy into the new format you’re selling, the ideas you love die in a spreadsheet,” said Smith, who urged producers to “broadcast your ideas.”

“Telly folk are fiercely protective of their format slates, keeping all their best ideas under wraps for fear of having them nicked or ripped off. But having worked with some of the top development teams in the country, I think this is a totally delusional strategy,” said Smith.

“Every company I’ve worked with over the last decade had a version of The Traitors on their slate. I developed and pitched a ‘too niche’ lesbian dating show two years before the BBC broadcast I Kissed A Boy. It may be frustrating, but you’ve just got to accept that everyone is in the same zeitgeist. Everyone has the same ideas.

“But it’s whoever gets to make them that wins. At Fawkes, we totally flipped our development model to get our ideas in front of an audience as quickly and cheaply as possible, collect the data and comments, and then use these metrics to hopefully improve and ultimately pitch our ideas.

“So, in telly terms, when we develop a new format, instead of shooting a taster tape that more often than not withers on a hard drive, we shoot a pilot to cut into a series of six+ shorts and publish them on digital platforms,” said Smith.

Baddest in the World, made on a tight budget and schedule

Step forward CEOs Go Wild, in which survivalist Tinuke Oyediran takes female business leaders and entrepreneurs into the British wilderness for an overnight expedition to explore themes of risk taking, work-life balance, hormones, motherhood, competition and investment.

“We shot the pilot on two iPhones in the Scottish Highlands. And a week later, we started dropping clips on LinkedIn to gauge the response. Incredibly embarrassing, but to turn this around rapidly, I owned my imposter syndrome and posed as a guest,” said Smith, before showing the trailer to the show.

“That cost £250 (US$332) to make, including the fuel in my car,” said Smith, to audible gasps from the audience.

After posting the trailer on her personal LinkedIn, it generated 26,811 organic views with comments and likes from Netflix commissioners, high profile CEOs, founders, and Forbes journalists.

“Imagine how many ambitious people and inspiring entrepreneurs we could reach with more influential female leaders posting on their social feeds. We’re now self-funding the format as a LinkedIn-first brand, with episodes and clips on both the CEO’s Go Wild channel and guest profiles.

“We’re deep in the casting process, talking to loads of incredible women from across the UK and beyond. We’re also in discussions with a major recruitment company about sponsoring a US and UK series and are planning further series expanding to cover India, Nigeria and Japan.

“Who knows, once this content brand is established, there is total scope to sell up a mammoth version to a broadcaster. Can you imagine a version with Michelle Obama, Anne Boden, Jacinda Ardern, Taylor Swift and Sheryl Sandberg? You have nothing to lose and everything to gain from getting your IP out in the open,” said Smith.

Paige Lewin has made a name in the afro and curly-haired community

Clearly, the strategy at Fawkes turns much of the received wisdom of doing business in unscripted on its head, specifically around development and protecting IP.

“If you take one thing away from this session, publish all your development tapes. Maybe audiences will hate your idea, but best to find out quickly. Maybe audiences will love your idea. Use that data to de-risk every pitch to a broadcaster,” said Smith.

“Broadcast your ideas and share IP. Say you’ve successfully secured finance to produce your new format and you’ve made a brilliant pilot series that you want to put out on TikTok. But how do you guarantee views?

“There’s a fundamental power shift happening as value transfers from IP creators to audience curators. Eyeballs are everything. So Fawkes shares IP with our talent as a default to launch new formats,” said Smith.

For example, Smith said Fawkes has gone 50/50 on the rights to a format developed alongside podcaster and presenter Paige Lewin, who has gained legions of fans discussing the ups and downs faced by those in the afro and curly-haired community.

“We’ve also co-developed a successful line of merchandise, the proceeds from which we part reinvest in her original content. It’s a total collaboration. Our formats would get nowhere without Paige and her incredibly engaged community and Paige wouldn’t be able to produce stand-out formatted shows that grow her audience without Fawkes,” said Smith.

“This is one example of a content partnership, but there are many other creative ways of splitting IP, whether that’s carving out a share of back-end or splitting revenue from direct monetisation. The key to this is that creators bring the audience to your shows, so there needs to be a significant incentive for them to promote them. So share your IP.”

Wrapping up her presentation, Smith said: “The entire value and future sustainability of the entertainment industry rests on the ability to test, iterate and grow new IP. Yet there are way too few opportunities to get new stuff made on British telly, with our broadcasters commissioning de-risked IP that’s already tried and tested as either a reboot or in foreign markets.

“The game is on to get the first iteration of a format commissioned by anyone at whatever scale to broadcast it and test with audience as quickly as possible. At the very least, you have the opportunity to grow out a digital format you can exploit through merchandising, brand deals and direct monetisation. But who knows, maybe a gargantuan Netflix series could land off the back of it?”

Famously, Guy Fawkes was unsuccessful in his attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament and assassinate the King four hundred or so years ago. Smith may not be looking to do something quite so radical, but her strategy at Fawkes is set to shake things up when it comes to getting new IP on screen.

Lucy Smith was speaking during the session Local to Global: Where’s the Money? at the Creative Cities Convention, which took place in Bradford, UK, last week.