Shakespeare Birthplace Trust - Selfie with Shakespeare
There’s so much going on in Stratford-upon-Avon around the time of Shakespeare’s birthday, and it’s a brilliant opportunity for local organisations. But how do you secure a decent slice of the exposure cake for your Shakespeare-related brand when the media is saturated with the Bard?
That’s exactly the challenge that the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust put to us earlier this spring, We set about devising a social media campaign that would get the Trust’s name out there during a peak period of this important year – the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.
The idea
The team approached us asking initially for a bit of help with the branding work they’d done so far – and it was a great starting point. We decided we could help them best by solidifying and formalising the work they had begun.
With a clearer identity acting as a sort of statement of intent, the venture and its outcomes become attractive to corporate sponsors. We hoped this approach would also make it easier to generate public interest.
Results
The hashtag has been busy with selfies from all over the world, and plenty of literary, theatrical and historical accounts are getting in on the action. We’ll be gathering the results in a week or two now that the main birthday celebrations are at an end, but for now the selfies are still coming in – the ruffs are a very popular new feature at Shakespeare’s birthplace and family homes!
In action
To get the ball rolling, we produced a suite of on- and offline collateral for the team at the Trust to circulate and share. This included life-size (ish) illustrated Shakespeare cut-outs, flags, flyers and posters, and – most importantly – a quantity of ruff props (a new breed of selfie stick, if you will) to give out to visitors and staff.
To get the ball rolling, we produced a suite of on- and offline collateral for the team at the Trust to circulate and share. This included life-size (ish) illustrated Shakespeare cut-outs, flags, flyers and posters, and – most importantly – a quantity of ruff props (a new breed of selfie stick, if you will) to give out to visitors and staff.
We knew that staff, volunteers and friends of the Trust would play a crucial part in getting the campaign off the ground, and they didn’t disappoint. The ruffs were quickly distributed through the houses – a few staff even took them off around the world – and visitors were really quick to cotton on.
Results
The hashtag has been busy with selfies from all over the world, and plenty of literary, theatrical and historical accounts are getting in on the action. We’ll be gathering the results in a week or two now that the main birthday celebrations are at an end, but for now the selfies are still coming in – the ruffs are a very popular new feature at Shakespeare’s birthplace and family homes!
The hashtag has been busy with selfies from all over the world, and plenty of literary, theatrical and historical accounts are getting in on the action. We’ll be gathering the results in a week or two now that the main birthday celebrations are at an end, but for now the selfies are still coming in – the ruffs are a very popular new feature at Shakespeare’s birthplace and family homes!
Successful brands deliver on a promise. Great brands go one step further. They bring that promise to life at every opportunity. We help brands to shape their promise and express it through design. We call it mark-making*. It’s who we are and what we’re passionate about.
