Booker Prize 2024 Red Carpet

• First time the Booker Prize mounted a bespoke red carpet video production

• Hosted by Jessica Knappett and with guests including Ruth Jones, Sir Lenny Henry, Charles Dance and Gillian Anderson

• 30 video packages produced garnered 27,000,000 views on social platforms

In 2024, we decided to separate the red carpet coverage - which had previously been incorporated into the livestream - into its own production. We were aiming for something along the lines of Amelia Dimoldenberg’s Oscar night coverage, or the GQ Awards carpet. We partnered with Small Wonder, who had previously streamed red carpet coverage of the MET Gala, and also live social coverage of the 2024 Olympics, to produce this for us.

This effort resulted in a much more glamorous Booker Prize ceremony, with celebrities ranging from Sir Lenny Henry to Gillian Anderson to Ruth Jones among others, all of whom were game enough to engage with Jessica in some humorous bantering on the step-and-repeat. I oversaw the filming and latterly the editing of the pieces, of which we wanted to publish six or seven on the night. In the final analysis, Small Wonder produced over 30 short videos which have been fuelling our social feeds since. The videos published on the night were viewed 27.3 million times, achieving our aim of reaching a more general audience than the Booker Prize typically attracts. This number clearly dwarfs the viewership for the previous red carpet coverage we produced as part of our livestreams, and has clearly provided a template for how to cover this for future awards.

In addition to the social content, the press coverage of the night was greatly elevated largely because of the celebrities in attendance, with the Booker Prize featuring in the Daily Mail’s sidebar for the first time in recent memory.