Disciplines

Moving Image, Digital

Craft

Direction, Creative Strategy, Animation, Website, Interactive, Brand Strategy

Collaborators

Stuart Dearnaley, Echoic, Fred Aldous

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

Bruntwood are a family owned commercial property business with a portfolio of over 100 developments across four UK cities. As an organisation with strong values they are committed to creating vibrant places to live, work, and play. That’s why they support and sponsor cultural initiatives in cities, including the groundbreaking biennial Manchester International Festival.

For their MIF 2013 sponsorship campaign, Bruntwood asked us to develop an innovative approach that could help elevate their brand profile within the growing creative and digital business communities in Manchester, something new that could capture the spirit of the Festival itself and connect them to new audiences.

Introducing New Work All Play

Our solution was to create a multi staged digital campaign centred around the idea of connecting online communities with an interactive installation in a central Manchester location. The concept behind the installation was "New Work All Play", celebrating the partnership of culture and commerce in Manchester and the new artistic work being commissioned for the festival.

The installation ran during the lead up to, and for the duration of the festival, inviting the public to interact with it online through a dedicated digital portal.

Interactive Installation

Building online engagement

To engage an audience ahead of the installation reveal, we launched a digital campaign using e-newsletters and social media to direct recipients towards a teaser website.

Here they could watch an intriguing animated movie, and help build online buzz by sharing their own custom version of the phrase "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" via Twitter.

Followers were rewarded with a chance to win coveted Festival tickets for sold out headline events. Social media engagement continued once the installation launched online, with further rewards for those who found its city centre location.

Teaser campaign

220,900 impressions
47% engagement
57% influence

Animations also appeared on digital screens in Manchester city centre to augment the campaign, spark intrigue, and direct people to the upcoming Festival and digital destination.

Combining the analogue and the digital

The installation brought together many of the diverse talents in our team. Designing and constructing a 5ft tall paper crafted origami head, bringing it to life with moving image and making it interactive across the web required a multidisciplinary approach.

Technologists, copywriters, animators, web designers, and editors worked side by side together with PR and social media strategists to create an exciting campaign to connect people across physical and digital touchpoints.

The making of New Work All Play

Described by the public as "incredible", "spectacular", and "proper cool", New Work All Play offered a window to an extraordinary Festival and to bold, corporate and cultural sponsor Bruntwood.

"With The Neighbourhood on board our sponsorship campaign became an extension of the Festival itself, telling the story of MIF and their ground-breaking events using bespoke digital platforms. It enabled us to reach a previously untapped audience and encourage them to interact with our brand.

What really made the difference was their bold approach to the brief, the desire to do things differently, try new things and stand out, something a lot claim to do but never quite pull off. We were looking to be inspired and have our boundaries pushed. They didn’t disappoint."

Sally Hill, Head of Brand Strategy, Bruntwood

This is Paddington

The Paddington Partnership

Branding, Digital

Gasholders London

Digital

New Work All Play