Henry 500

Category entered: Best integrated marketing campaign

Title of work: Henry 500 - Henry VIII: Dressed to Kill and Henry VIII: heads and hearts

Company: Historic Royal Palaces

Henry VIII, copyright Walker Art Gallery

1. Objectives:

The 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s accession in 2009 presented an unprecedented opportunity to establish the biggest, most ambitious, integrated marketing campaign ever undertaken by Historic Royal Palaces (HRP). The following objectives were set:

To raise awareness of the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s accession to the throne
To raise awareness of HRP’s two key exhibitions: Henry VIII: Dressed to Kill (Tower of London) and Henry VIII: heads and hearts (Hampton Court Palace) (from April 2009)
To position HRP as a modern organisation embracing new, digital methods of communication to tell historic stories
To drive incremental visits to the palaces

2. Budget:

£51,000 (online activity only)

3. Strategy:

Henry 500 is a fully integrated marketing campaign that leverages the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s accession to promote two exhibitions and two palaces simultaneously. The campaign targeted domestic and overseas audiences, with emphasis on a new, non-traditional history/heritage audience and families. A range of channels were used including social media, website, viral games, online advertising, search and offline (press, outdoor, print). Henry 500 is a fully integrated marketing campaign that leverages the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s accession to promote two exhibitions and two palaces simultaneously. The campaign targeted domestic and overseas audiences, with emphasis on a new, non-traditional history/heritage audience and families.

4. Methods deployed:

A range of channels were used including social media, website, viral games, online advertising, search and offline (press, outdoor, print).

Please click on the links below to find out more.

Viral games >
HRP website - Henry VIII: Dressed to Kill >
HRP website - Henry VIII: heads and hearts >
Display advertising and search >
Multiple social networks >
Henry VIII on Twitter >
'Words of Henry VIII' on Wordia.com
Offline >

5. Creativity / innovation:

Imaginative, bold creatives combined imagery of Henry layered against the iconic palaces to capture audience imagination. Each creative stood alone, yet complemented the other, and had to work throughout multiple formats, such as animated MPUs and posters. The viral games allowed a large degree of customisation hence giving the user a differing gaming experiences and encouraging repeat play.

6. Outcome (including formal evaluation of results):

Media coverage in press, broadcast and online to date indicates Henry 500 to be HRP’s most successful communications campaign. Based on April – October 2009, HRP’s website had a +52% increase in unique visitors y-o-y. Online admissions revenue was +68% y-o-y and, in Summer 2009, HRP’s website took a record breaking 12% of Hampton Court Palace’s admissions revenue (compared to 7% the previous year).

Our visitor exit research in Summer 2009 revealed a particularly notable y-o-y increase for the HRP website as a key source of encouragement to visit; 28% in 2009 compared to 13% in 2008.

13% of total visitors said that the Henry VIII: heads and hearts advertising directly encouraged their visit (a +116% increase on advertising recall from Summer 2008). Furthermore, 14% of visitors to the Tower of London said that advertising was a source of encouragement for their visit; the highest advertising rating since 2004.

7. Return on investment (ROI) in relation to strategy:

Since launch, 964,000 people have visited the Henry 500 activities at the Tower of London and Hampton Court Palace, a year-on-year increase of 46% at Hampton Court and 21% at the Tower - for both palaces, this is the highest visitor figure for 10 years.