The Show must go on
During lockdown, we had to figure out a way of taking the Royal Highland Show – one of the UK’s most prestigious and important agricultural events – to an online audience.
Challenge:
The Royal Highland Show is considered so integral to the agricultural industry that a solution to ensuring the event still went ahead in 2021 was paramount. With 90 days from concept to delivery, we were tasked to create and deliver an immersive, accessible and live digital event and website with a truly international reach. Not only that, we also created the launch campaign, Showcase logo, TV interstitials, ecommerce store and all other visual assets too.
Our insight & solution:
We needed to reach and engage the agricultural community and create an online destination for the Showcase to take place. We achieved this by developing an online event hub providing a platform to drive international reach, as well as creating a digital media campaign that stimulated interest and excitement around the Showcase.
The Process:
Our creative had to demonstrate the importance of the event to the international agricultural community and our imagery therefore celebrated the best of farming, food and rural life that would be present at the show. This was combined with messaging on reconnecting with your community, which had strong resonance amidst Covid-19.
The creative assets we developed used images from previous Shows that we felt best captured the drama and excitement of the animal competitions, the grace of the equestrian and heavy horses, and the sheer variety of the sheep and cattle shows. Images were designed to appear within a colour ‘window’, using a palette that mirrored the muted browns, greens and blues usually seen in-person within the showgrounds.
Using a mix of social media and podcast targeting, these assets were used to reach those in the agricultural community in eleven countries across the world, from Ireland to Australia. We also used offline mediums to reach the agricultural community within the UK, including TV and trade press with messaging split into two pillars: informative and emotive. Our informative messaging explained what was involved in the Showcase and how to access the online event, while emotive messaging reminded our audience of the opportunity to reconnect and participate with the agricultural community.
Website build
The Showcase site was built on Umbraco 8, as the site needed a flexible CMS structure so content editors could continuously upload and edit content during the event. We integrated with YouTube to provide live streaming and play on demand content, a CDN was utilised to provide resilience to the hosting solution – and we even created a password protected members area that provided exclusive content to RHASS members who were viewing at home.
We created eight master page layouts that included the Homepage, Video Category Listing page, Retail Directory Landing page and the Password Gateway Page. We also looked after content population and management during the Showcase and provided technical support and reporting too. Within this, we were gathering live customer feedback and actioning or amplifying their comments to help improve customer experience along the way.
Another element of the project was the design and build of their merchandise store on Shopify, and another consideration was that if this online version of the Royal Highland Show was successful, the design and build would form the foundation for future Showcases too.
The Showcase was able to capture the best of farming and rural life, elevating the Royal Highland Show to a key cultural event for the international agricultural community. Our results showed that the Show was even better as a digital hybrid event, a model that will continue into 2022.
Results
The Showcase was able to capture the best of farming and rural life, elevating the Royal Highland Show to a key cultural event for the international agricultural community. Our results showed that the Show was even better as a digital hybrid event, a model that will continue into 2022.
Website engagement:
• 161,624 sessions
• 6 minutes and 45 seconds average visit duration
• 5,297 booking sign-ups for 2022
• 396,717 non live stream video plays
Livestream:
• 270,000 live stream viewers in 87 countries
• Social media reach of 2 million
