Hot August
Nights
The Darwin Festival is known for its energetic and diverse lineup. It was our job to translate this into a visual identity and coax people from the cold winter in the southern states.
The Challenge
Covid has changed everything for festivals around the World and Darwin Festival was not immune to it. With borders being closed and multiple lock-downs around the country, the last two years of Darwin Festival have been extremely challenging.
To keep the show going in 2020, the line-up was 100% local. It 2021, the Festival was forced to be
rescheduled at least 3 times with snap lockdowns being called all around the country when the event was supposed to be on.
For the 2022 event, it was important to get Darwin Festival back on the radar and dial up its uniqueness, especially when other competitor festivals in the same ‘winter’ timeslot were competing for the same audience.
The Solution
We created a new identity for the 2022 event that was inspired by Darwin’s tropical climate and unique flora. The electric Heliconia flowers, which are synonymous with the Territory, represent the various components within the Darwin Festival and the energy and diversity of the program line-up.
In contrast to the look and feel of its bleak, Southern states competitors, it stood out creating strong appeal for the Tropical Top End’s premier arts event.
We implemented an advertising campaign around this new identity with tactical components that targeted these competitor festivals in Melbourne & Hobart. We ‘ambushed’ these winter based, dark in nature events with our bright content.
This allowed our true colours to shine through with hero messaging around ‘Hot August Nights’ and ‘rising out of the darkness into our tropical light’.
The Result
