E11: Vikki Stephenson on creating viral trailers for the BBC

Today’s guest has interviewed everyone from Sir David Attenborough to Ben Fogle, but today we get to turn the mic on Vikki Stephenson, Senior Creative at the BBC. Vikki joins Mad Influence to talk about her career of over 20 years promoting content with purpose. We chat about everything from the time she landed her “dream job,” only to find out that it clashed with her values, to coming up with the idea to add old-school hip hop to Planet Earth trailers, which then went viral. We talk about her involvement in the ‘1 in 5’ programmes that are created, filmed and produced by people with disabilities. We also discuss jumping between serious topics like Hurricane Katrina and 9/11 to writing scripts for CBeebies, and why both are just as important for children. 

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Key topics

- Finding a job with value

- Getting into the BBC

- Representation of disabilities in TV

- David Attenborough

- Natural History, Planet Earth and Perfect Planet

- How to interview people

- Children’s TV

- Are your last ideas the best ideas?

- Advice for young people starting their careers in TV or marketing

Where to find us

Guest: linkedin.com/in/vikki-stephenson-creative/

Host: @madinfluencepod on Twitter and linkedin.com/in/helensaul/

This episode was recorded remotely with music by Joseph McDade