Kings Theatre Portsmouth
Rebrand and Website Redesign
Kings Theatre is an Edwardian playhouse on the south coast, providing a high-quality entertainment programme supported by innovative learning and community engagement activities.
The Kings Theatre approached Ave in 2017. The brand identity and website did not evoke any of the passion, drama or historical nature of a Matcham 1907 Edwardian Playhouse.
They wanted to make clear the range of events available at the theatre and establish the Kings Theatre in Albert Road as a premier destination.
We undertook a series of qual and quant surveys with the audience groups, as well as taking to the streets and interviewing those in Portsmouth who go to the theatre, and those who don’t. This insight helped us form a brand and digital strategy from which the new marketing collaterals and brand identity were devised.
Our brief was to interpret the experience of entering the theatre, which has an exuberant aesthetic and wonderful Edwardian architecture. The marketing team wanted to ensure that the new brand, website and printed comms all felt part of the theatre-going experience. We went through the archives, which contained posters and leaflets from 1907 when the theatre began. The fonts and colour palette for the new brand were picked directly from these old materials. We then developed a ‘K’ icon, based on the architectural geometry of the theatre’s curves and contours.
The website was a WordPress build, supported by a range of third party integrations, including Google Tag Manager, analytics, Yoast, and accessibility software. TicketSolve was the account and booking system that we integrated, using both the branded microsite and the XML feed to integrate the show booking into the native WordPress site.
Results
Significant increase in online purchases
• 53% increase in online users
• 55% increase in individual sessions
• 75% increase in page views
• 91% increase in online purchases
• 25% increase in e-commerce rate.
