Parrtjima Light Festival

Re-Launch Strategy, Brand Creation, Advertising, UX

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.

Parrtjima social

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.

Parrtjima key visual