Queen's Jubilee Themed Window Art Treasure Trail Campaign- HA1 Business Improvement District (BID)
HA1 business improvement district (BID) wanted to take advantage of the celebrations surrounding the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. In this crucial time of public activity, they were looking for a campaign that brought the community together, both in real life and across social media, all whilst increasing town centre footfall, recognition & spend.
With the organisation’s location, alongside residents already looking to make their way into central London to enjoy singular day celebrations, they wanted a campaign that would be accessible in a “drop-in” style format. This is so that guests could participate in the campaign in their own time, and at their own pace through the month of activity.
It was imperative that the campaign was inclusive, fun and interactive for residents all whilst involving the town centre businesses too.
Window Art Treasure Trail Campaign
The process
We proposed the idea of the creation of a Jubilee themed window art campaign which acted as a treasure trail that all ages could be a part of, running within in the town centre for one month.
The window art campaign would involve 11 town centre businesses, with hand-painted pieces of window art all containing a unique puzzle to solve. Each of the window art designs which housed each puzzle captured a moment in time from within the Queen's reign… From Y2K, to the Apollo 13’s mission to the moon, to the London 2012 Olympics… and much much more!
The idea was that guests would be able to pick up a printed treasure map, locate each business involved and solve the puzzle on each window. Puzzles were made easy enough for all ages, and upon solving each one correctly, guests were added to a prize draw to win a gift hamper- At the end of the month, one lucky winner would be picked!
Our team created social media content which helped to promote the campaign on a local level and carry the positive dialogue online.
Read more about the importance of an arts-based campaign to strengthen community/organisation relationships here.
To kick things off, WeTheSeeds created a sub-brand which worked with the official Queen’s Platinum Jubilee branding guidelines yet remained fun, upbeat and modern to hint at the window art treasure trail.
Two pieces of teaser content were posted across social media channels, advertised within North West London targeting local residents. These two pieces of content introduced the overall campaign, the campaign’s launch date and showcased elements of the newly formed sub-brand.
Both posts reached a combined 1535 views in the run up to the campaign’s launch date.
Growing the seeds
Working alongside the HA1 BID team, we created partnerships with 11 local businesses.
We educated them about the campaign whilst managing the sign up process by creating a landing page with helpful FAQ’s. At this stage our team were available via email or telephone to answer any further questions each business may have.
Once the partnerships had been formed, our specialist design and branding team created unique pre-paint designs of what their high street facing windows would look like painted in real life for visualisation purposes. These all included the “educative element” of the campaign, showcasing a period in time from within the Queen’s reign, also housing the window art puzzle!
Eg. How many…(𝑥) can you count?
Partnerships included: Barclays, Boots Opticians, Brian Cox estate agency, Buzz gym, The Landmark department store, Greenhill library, Mcdonalds UK, Sony Centre, St Lukes hospice, Sue Ryder charity and Virgin Money.
Below are the pre-paint digital designs also showcasing each window’s theme corresponding with an era of the Queen’s reign.
Taking each businesses’s feedback on our window art digital design drafts into consideration, it was our task now to book in installation dates with each business. Once booked, we filmed and edited “behind the scenes” style content of the window installation over on our social media channels to further boost excitement of the launch of the campaign. These also followed the new sub-branding guidelines.
Our team created marketing collateral, reinforcing the sub-brand of the art trail within each piece of printed media.
This included an inside window poster which explained about each window display’s puzzle, an overall campaign poster, a A3 printed treasure map with a local map illustration and a window sticker.
A week before campaign launch, we appointed specialist WeTheSeeds window artists to install each window painting at the location of each of the 11 high street businesses.
Each window was painted in accordance to the unique high quality digital design drafts and window posters were attached inside businesses to explain more about the puzzle for each window and overall campaign, for those who may not have seen the campaign online before viewing the window painting IRL. Printed treasure maps were also left at participating retailers.
See the window installation details at the bottom of the page here.
We also reached out to local independent media outlets and the council’s official media channel for extra promotion on the run up to the campaign’s launch date. Our window artists love interacting with the local community, and were successful in engaging with local residents informing them about the campaign whilst installing the window art pieces on site.
We created day to day “behind the scenes” style installation content over on our social media story to retain digital engagement and made sure to tag stakeholders who were excited to re-share the stories on their own social media channels too.
Upon launch, we created a “how-to” guide on starting the treasure trail alongside another piece of content which enticed those who may not have started the trail yet.
These were both made in mind to boost engagement across digital channels as the campaign was running in real life!
To add further value to the town centre’s high street businesses who had all participated in the treasure trail our team filmed and edited “mini-documentary” style videos showcasing each business.
These videos were focused on not only speaking about the success of the campaign, but an opportunity for businesses to speak about themselves and about their role within the local community.
At the end of the one month period, the campaign ended with an amazing 60+ window puzzle answer submissions from the local community with positive campaign feedback from both businesses and residents!
Our clients picked one winner from the bank of submissions and we were proud to deliver the final post over to them: