Creating a mobile-first site worthy of a renowned global event
Background
The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is a military charity that creates and produces the spectacular annual extravaganza in Edinburgh, witnessed by a live audience of over 220,000 people from around the globe every August.
This event, set against the dramatic backdrop of Edinburgh Castle, celebrates British and international military bands by showcasing their music and heritage – as well as a range of contemporary musicians, dancers and entertainers – all intensified by world-class lighting projections and cutting-edge sound technology.
Strategy/Thinking
The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo have a mission of becoming ‘the world’s greatest immersive event’. This ambition was the catalyst for them to approach us to re-design their website, allowing us to consider how we could achieve this by using the latest mobile-first designs and UX standards.
Bringing over £77M in ‘additionality’ to the economy, the charity and its associated production companies were looking for increased agility in a complex and competitive global tourism and entertainment market. So it was vital we supported them to help continue to fund their charitable purposes and connect people and culture with its global event.
What we did
After winning the tender – and before beginning the site re-design – we worked to a specific and site-critical deadline with REMT to upgrade their Umbraco platform before their current version went to end of life. This vital piece of house-keeping was particularly crucial as it had to happen in the summer and during one of their busiest ticket-selling periods.
After this was achieved, we were lucky enough to witness the Tattoo for ourselves, and we wanted to bring the feeling of being at the Castle Esplanade by translating this vibrancy and the spectacle of the show into the site experience as far as possible.
To do this, we utilised hero video footage in the design so first-time ticket-buyers are instantly enthralled, while repeat visitors are reminded of the stunning visual and audio experience they’ve had.
