Myself and Megan met up yesterday (Wednesday 8th Feb) for an hour to discuss the brief (Royal Opera House) and define what it was looking for.
We brainstormed a few initial ideas and unpicked the brief bit by bit.
The Brief: Royal Opera House
Encourage culturally engaged young people to experience ballet for the first time.
The Royal Opera House and AKA, the international entertainment marketing agency, are challenging you to create a campaign that will encourage culturally engaged young people aged 20-30 to experience ballet for the first time.
(Millennials, people who already go to the cinema, art galleries, talks and the theatre on a regular basis)
Why Ballet, what can it bring to young peoples’ lives?
Ballet exists in many forms from the lyric narrative beauty of a Swan Lake to the abstract modernism of Wayne McGregor’s Chroma.
(Focus on the more abstract and contemporary elements of ballet to bring it into the 21st Century)
Like opera it deals with the big human themes – life, love, death, loss, passion, joy, anger and humour – all things that we deal with in everyday life.
(Similar to films at the cinema or plays)
We believe in sharing this beautiful art form as widely available as possible, which is why we bring world-class composers, conductors, dancers, writers, artists, technicians, craftsmen, and administrators together in our iconic theatre to make it happen, and publicise what we do as broadly and inclusively as we can.
(Think outside the box, there are no rules. Can expand campaign into app, merchandise, posters, murals, giant TV screens)
The Problem
While some young people might attend the ballet once a year as a special occasion, we find that in some areas our audience is not as diverse as the population as a whole, and, in particular, young people are under-represented. We want to change this and engage and inspire more young people to be part of our audience if we are to ensure the long-term survival of ballet as an art form.
(Find out why young people aren't going to the ballet. How can we make it more engaging to younger generations? What is off-putting? Price? Venue? Atmosphere?)
To quote The Royal Ballet’s founder, ‘Somebody must always be doing something new, or life would get very dull.’ We are always doing something new on stage and we want you to help us do something new off-stage to communicate it to young people.
(Explore different potentials and concepts? Hashtags, snapchat filters, trends, viral campaigns)
The people we’re talking about for the purpose of this brief are those aged between 20 and 30 who already attend plays, gigs, and exhibitions, but who don’t consider ballet. Why? Because they simply think it isn’t for them.
(Think of what would engage this target audience?)
We want to challenge this perception, and to invite these young people to give opera a try – which is where you come in.
The Creative Challenge
We – that’s the Royal Opera House and our advertising agency AKA – would like you to come up with a creative concept or idea that dispels the preconceptions and celebrates the beauty and emotion that ballet brings to the stage, something that challenges our target audience to look at ballet as an art form that could be a new love in their lives. Break down those preconceptions that have become a barrier to attendance. We’d like to you show them that ballet as an art form isn’t what they think is it – and moreover that it is for them.
Our target audience currently think that
• Ballet is old fashioned, filled with tutus, musically dry, stuffy, formal and traditional and not relevant to contemporary life
(Highlight the modern, contemporary side of ballet, DITCH the tutus and traditional icons related to ballet, introduce more engaging and modern music such as rap, pop, r'n'b, focus on using bright colours and engaging visuals)
(Footballers and rugby players do ballet as it's intensive exercise and not for the faint hearted. Make the campaign modern, fun, bright and funny/humorous)
• Ballet is for the wealthy middle England and old people, not ‘people like me’
(suggest offers / discounts / reward systems for this age range. Suggest what the price of a ballet ticket is equivalent to - £18 = 2 trips to the cinema, or half of what you'd spend on a night out)
• You have to understand the language of choreography to understand or enjoy it
(Body language is universal. Ballet is inclusive to everyone as there are no language barriers)
(Interview ballet dancers / ballet teachers to identify their understanding of ballet)
• There are certain accepted opinions about ballet, and open interpretation or appreciation of it is not welcome
(Everything is open to interpretation, just like cinema and everyone is welcome to watch it)
• Ballet is just men in tights and ladies en pointe pretending they are in a fairy-tale
(Focus on the more contemporary themes and plots than the 'swan lake' and fairytale visuals - Needs to be strong, bold, poppy and eye-catching)
(make a survey asking which of these plots is a ballet? The answer is all of them to showcase the variety in plots - Could be the basis for the campaign)
• Ballet is mainly for girls
(Show visuals of men doing ballet including footballers and rugby players and how difficult / and impressive it actually is. Demanding, challenging and hard core. So people find a new appreciation for the dance)
We would like to communicate to them instead
• Ballet can be exciting and alive and a thrill to watch - it’s everything from graceful and beautiful to violent and passionate
• Ballets may have been created for the Royal Courts of Europe many, many years ago, but new ones are being created all the time – it’s a modern and energetic art form
• Because it deals with the big human themes – life, love, death, loss, passion, joy, anger, humour – it’s relevant to everyone, and everyone can understand it
• Ballets can draw from a wide range of influences from fashion to literature and rock/pop music to full orchestral work. There are no rules.
Creative Considerations
You need to show how your idea will work as an advertising campaign – across digital, print, out of home and social media advertising.
Creative needs to feature the Royal Opera House logo.
Further Ideas
- Think of a charity you could link the campaign to eg. LGBT - breaking stereotypes of ballet as well as social and cultural norms. Challenge preconceptions.
- Northern Ballet is in Leeds. Use to our advantage.
- Organise a ballet flash mob
- Create a hashtag with an accompanying campaign
- Stick poster on big bulletin boards / hexagon columns amongst the gig posters
- Snapchat Filter to raise awareness
- Merchandise - T-shirts, bags, stationary, gift cards
- App making it easier to book tickets, find local performances
- Advertisements, poster
- Find unusual venues and events to do with ballet
- Promotions for first time ballet goers.
- Make a survey asking what would make going to the ballet more appealing
- Make a hashtag - use iconic ballet poses - nominate
- There are no rules.
- Make it spontaneous like going to the cinema
- Avoid luxury. Make it accessible.
Following this talk we have given ourselves a list of research tasks to undertake before our next meeting which will be Wednesday the 15th February at 1:30pm
For Next Time:
- Watch contemporary ballet related films (Billy Elliott & Black Swan)
- Conduct a survey to find out what is putting people off going to watch the ballet
- Make a Pinterest board of bright, bold, eye-catching posters we find engaging that could have the potential to inspire a more modern poster series for advertising ballet.
- Find contacts from the Northern ballet to get in touch with and potentially conduct an interview with.
- Think of relevant questions you would like to ask the Northern ballet.
- Research previous campaigns and analyse what makes them successful.
- Think of different charities to potentially link up with.
