The Challenge:
In its 3rd year, Parrtjima, a light festival in Alice Springs, needed to move away from local negative perceptions and start to elevate awareness of the 2-week long event on a national level.
The festival, still in its infancy, needed to not over promise but find differentiation through brand repositioning to focus on a more targeted audience and adjust the on-ground experience.
Our Insight:
We identified a gap in the national market for a festival that was premium, but transcendent rather than interest-led.
Due to this, we identified Parrtjima as: ‘a festival that makes people feel the sublime by creating collective cultural experiences that allow you to interact with the people, yarns and landscape on an unexpected & intimate level.’
We positioned the festival as an event that would encourage people to see indigenous culture in a new light.
Our key content recommendations:
Focus on the unexpected:
- People feel like they have seen Aboriginal art and already know Indigenous culture from what they’ve seen and read via mainstream media so surprise them
- Look for contentious debate topics and meaty discussion that will engage people and extend the life of the event through conversations that live on – both socially and via the media
Look for event themes that sit more on the edge – the current themes are too tame and expected of an Indigenous audience
Consider a bridge between Indigenous and wider cultures:
- The School of Life has modernised philosophy by applying philosophical wisdom to tools and talks around modern days woes like how to find calm, love and meaningful work
- We can take a leaf out of this book and relate Indigenous wisdom to modern issues and also consider questions around identity, community and relationships
- Look at how you could truly remix this ancient culture with new technology
Think of how the event will be documented and shared online:
- This will either make or break its reputation.
- Social presence and prevalence not only results in inspiration and affirmation to join this different or enjoyable experience, but it also prompts sharing and organic, ‘genuine’ advocacy.
Parrtjima: ‘A festival where light unites’
This was the guiding thought for all branding elements, messaging and program initiatives. With a focus on co-creation, the festival explored the creation of rituals between Aboriginal and non-aboriginal Australians at Parrtjima.
Compared to last year, our re-brand and re-launch campaign achieved the following:
34%
Spike in attendance
17%
Spike in room nights
20,000
More attendees