PART 2: from Grindr to the National Trust

In part one of this seminar summary, I looked at how, in our rapidly changing times, and on top of all their increasing pressures, arts charities can still learn from the commercial world to develop an integrated brand strategy. Our secret weapon, creativity, will be the fuel to take us there. But we all have to dial up the urgency before we are over-taken by purpose-driven profit-hunters.
For part two here, I cover some of the origins of branding, the background to Birmingham Hippodrome’s award-winning journey of change, and a few useful insights for developing your own arts brand.
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Let’s start here for fun. Three online brands — Flickr, Grindr and Tumblr.
I love their names as they all use a technique called ‘disemvowelling’. Abbreviating words in this way by removing a letter was originally to cut through censorship or moderation on online message boards. So these brands are obtaining some ‘anti-establishment, alternative/subversive cool’ to convey their attitude and reinforce their positioning. They’re encoding for a specific audience to decode, and so bypassing extraneous friction or noise.
It’s a good brand move, plus the word ‘brand’ comes from ‘Brandr’, apparently an Old Norse/Viking word for a burning sword, from where we get the branding iron for cattle and livestock. This original use of branding, dating back thousands of years, was an important signifier both of ownership and of quality. In a pre-literate society if you knew the mark, you knew the owner, and you could judge from their reputation what quality you might be paying for.
This was echoed by coats of arms and mottos, military insignia and famously religious ephemera. And it’s then a short step to the authenticity, sincerity, and personal bond of an owner’s signature, which we still rely on for contracts, cheques, and deliveries.
Early mass-market goods and services we are still familiar with used the proprietor’s signature as a mark of quality (think Cadbury’s, Boot’s, Kellogg’s, Disney). And this is since echoed in handwritten design styling even when it’s not a personal name (think Coca-Cola, Virgin, Ray-Ban); or even if it isn’t the actual originator’s signature (eg. the fashion designer Paul Smith).
Because as humans we value the sense of security and truth which this conveys.

In addition to marking your property, your brand can mark your territory. This ensures you occupy space common enough to your sector (for easy identification), but different enough to ensure you’re distinctive (so you stand out).
Mad Men fans might recall Don Draper’s insight when reinforcing that Lucky Strike cigarettes were ‘toasted’ — exactly as all other tobacco (this was used in actual campaigns through the 20th century). Lucky Strike could confidently and exclusively occupy that territory as any competitors directly copying the same thing would merely strengthen their claim. Think about First Direct 30 years ago, or Monzo today — both clearly banks, but creatively doing the same thing very differently and staking out their own brand territory convincingly.
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos defines brand as ‘what people say about you after you’ve left the room’. And this resonated for me, as 100 years ago when the Hippodrome was briefly named The Tivoli, the somewhat austere strapline expressed largely the same view: ‘Let the evening’s entertainment bear the morning’s reflection’. Would fans still think you were funny after sobering up? Would they recommend you to others? Were you convincing in that brand territory? Would your reputation and promise deliver lasting value?
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When we reviewed Birmingham Hippodrome’s look and feel a few years ago (winning a Brand Impact Award along the way, against some stiff competition), we went for a monolithic ‘X marks the spot; H marks the culture’ idea. For many, we were still under-explored, often overlooked, buried treasure.
We navigated several ‘core thoughts’. Amongst them, we wanted to be a ‘stage for life’ (always performed live, whatever stage of life you are at); and we wanted to be ‘more than’ you might have thought (not just Panto, or musicals). And most importantly we wanted to move on from being merely the locater badge in the corner — a fate that so many venues have to contend with.

So we brought the logo to life as a character brand unashamedly taking inspiration from the playful techniques of these leading names:
· BBC2 — constantly reshaping itself in playful and surreal ways;
· the ever-changing Google doodle — surfacing almost the entirety of human knowledge by moving from technically efficient search to become a never yielding playful and curious quest;
· and Channel 4 — a multifaceted platform (with lots of endorsed sub-brands) able to shift from serious to silly, from provocative zeitgeist to national treasure, with a sometimes ‘kidult’ attitude.
So the big directional ‘H’ became an ever-changing icon with a different wardrobe depending on who we were collaborating with (exactly as we were doing week after week on stage). One minute we could look totally Dirty Dancing or Shrek, and the next ready for opera and contemporary dance, or celebrating St Patrick’s Day.
The touring shows jumped on board and we moved from a constantly changing conveyor belt of disconnected product, driven by different styles and producers, to an immediately recognisable Hippodrome portfolio — a curated selection of guaranteed and unmistakable high-quality cultural experiences. Audiences who hadn’t heard of something were far more likely to trust the Hippodrome brand as the common root.

We went further and updated our under-appreciated Patrick Studio by identifying it more closely with the core, and increasing use of the space by thousands of tickets every year through programming a wider range of contemporary and family shows. The confidence boost this gave to the venue enabled it to take centre stage at the same time as reinforcing its wider community engagement through festivals and extensive learning programmes. It also brought a dash of theatrical sparkle to the event hire and award-winning catering offer.
The brand became even more connected and convincing, with a versatile artistic programme that made multi-faceted sense. In one notable 48 hour period, while we were selling out Mamma Mia for nearly six thousand ticket buyers, a further 4,000 people were experiencing a free surrealist 14–18NOW project in a park, and at the same time a company of Cuban dancers were rehearsing a new joint commission at Sadler’s Wells.
The Hippodrome brand could stretch and clone itself in that many diverse directions and still make sense. The rebrand had made us rethink how our ideas about what was possible with our skills and passions could be realised through our actions and choices, and communicated in a convincing and unique style.
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David Hieatt (formerly of Saatchi’s) describes an excellent brand framework and I particularly think three of his pillars have relevance for our industry: love, purpose and storytelling. For me these are effectively the constituent parts of successful integrated delivery which can add value to your offering, make you stand out in the market, reassure existing audiences, attract new ones, and build your charity.
- Consider LOVE from a fundraising perspective.
Why do people donate to your arts charity? (The winning answer is of course ‘because they have been asked’.) But it’s also because they love what it means to them. They believe in the difference that their contribution will enable. There is an exchange, they feel ownership and involvement. They play their small part and your brand (your idea, your purpose) becomes a part of them.
Brands which recognise love and belonging as a powerful driver, and integrate it into their comms build on a huge advantage to do with ‘social proof’, a very influential bias (thanks Richard Shotton). On their new building hoardings in this campaign, The Museum of London (by definition a historic institution focused on the past), becomes ‘Museum of Naomi’, ‘Museum of Anna’ — local mums, part of the community (the exciting new Culture Mile), with eyes on the future… all expecting a new arrival.

This autumn’s National Trust advert (which I have been whizzing past on trains) uses a similar tack highlighting a sense of shared ownership by reinforcing how a participatory brand experience makes people feel: “All my senses are heightened — what I can see, smell, and hear (Sarah’s Shugborough Hall).” And this incidentally boosts the relevance of the NT’s deeper charity work on sensory experience for learning disabilities. Win-win.
Colleagues working front of house should record personal audience feedback as much as possible, not just for immediate operational efficiency but for deeper motivational intent and emotional drivers. You will quickly amass tens of thousands of love stories which you can use in your comms and staff training, and feedback to your Boards. For integrated brand building, especially with very small budgets, love can be your secret weapon to build your community, to grow your culture, to galvanise your teams.
2. I mentioned earlier the idea of the ‘core thought’ and how important this is to building a strong sense of PURPOSE.
It’s about reducing your essence to a simple core statement and extracting congruent values to drive behaviours and aid decision-making. Somehow clarity of purpose can keep you focused in a way mission and vision statements rarely do. John Hegarty of BBH talks about the discipline of reducing a brand story into a 30 or 60 second advert and cutting away anything irrelevant or distracting, and that’s what a strong purpose-driven core thought can deliver.
3. The brilliant Martin Weigel of Wieden + Kennedy offers this useful integrated STORYTELLING framing template.
Begin by establishing your current situation and how you got here (the founders/origin story). Identify where you’d really like to be (the ambition to improve). Quickly establish what’s in the way of this (the spanner in the works, the baddie). Prove there is a reason to be hopeful (and why you are best placed to deliver it). And clarify how (with the help of your audiences) you can arrive together at a solution, a brave new idea.

And be ready when those convinced think “what happens next? what do I have to do now…?”. Anchor their expectations.
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In the arts especially, everyone can glue their creativity around a brand focus.
It is not solely the preserve of the marketing and PR teams, and should not be entrusted to the artistic decision-makers alone, or left to the Board. But it is absolutely where commerce and culture intersect. It’s the key to true market orientation.
If you evidence LOVE and commitment for your unique ideas, if you reinforce your charitable PURPOSE with drive, and if you tell a captivating and compelling STORY — you can absolutely convey something inspiring both for staff and for audiences, that can really make a lasting difference.
