I wanted to create a character for the Sky History TikTok to make it more interesting for our audience, to have it feel like someone was really there talking to them and teaching them about fun facts from history in a way that felt native to the platform. Also to break it up from promos and clips from shows. So I came up with the idea of using the History branded suit of armour to create a character, inspired by The Pub Landlord, Rattus Rattus from Horrible Histories and Robin Hood, a well know history Tiktokker, to create a character that was relatable and able to talk to our audience in a down-to-earth manner.
I tried to wear the full suit of armour but after realising just how heavy it was and that we needed the character to speak with his hands as we can’t see the face, I opted for a comfy jumper, again to give him a relatable history teacher vibe.
I’ve used this character to explore a few different ideas, to see what works best with our audience, from Top 5's, answering questions posed by other TikTokkers and fun facts around events that happened that week in History.