Campaign: Historic Royal Palaces - The Enchanted Palace

Challenge:

In 2010 a planned £12million re-presentation project was to shut down most of the palace. Amongst the rubble a small "Enchanted Palace" was formed featuring couture fashion, theatre and modern art to awaken fairytales of princesses past. Our challenge was to attract a 'Cool Rejector' and 'Culture Family' audiences that had previously not visited.

Insight:

London's 'Cool Rejectors' were blind to the palace because they like an exclusive story to share. "Culture Families", meanwhile, worried that the palace had little to offer the family.

What we found however is that they all loved mystery, magic and fairy tales.

Strategy & Plan:

We 'opened the gates to the fairy-tale world in public', letting the stories escape around London. The media delivered the strategy in four phases:

  1. "A seed of mystery" – "Fashionistas" heard of the designer's involvement on YouTube and in news bulletins on Vogue.com. Bloggers like Style Bubble and fashion411 were then invited to a launch party.
  2. "Palace stories escaping" – pre opening, 'Peter the Wild Boy' appeared in 'security videos' leaked online; through blogs, in VOD and on sites like the Guardian, Elle and Vogue. Copies of Time Out London were covered in his footprints. All directed to a hub of Palace tales, syndicated on Facebook, Twitter and email. Once hooked, an exclusive Time Out reader event invited readers to the first ever 'late opening'.
  3. "A beautiful Princess throws opens the gates" – a princess spread intrigue through digital and underground formats; online display, LCDs, a digiwall, 12 sheets and a long term 6 sheet holding. Press activity further fuelled interest in the Guardian Guide London, ES magazine, Time Out and Stylist.
  4. "The final step to enchantment" – PPC directed their interest, as did branded underground ticket gateways at High Street Kensington that directed them towards the palace gates.

The Results:

Research conducted in May 2010 showed ticket sales were 19% above target. 86% of visitors had never visited before. We delivered 773,742 video plays, 466,316 in full. 9% of visitors were 'Cool Rejectors' and we delivered a 20% increase in London based visitors.