Being asked to create a campaign to promote your own city to visitors at Christmas is a dream brief. But defining what makes Bristol such a great place isn’t easy. We had to appeal to a very wide audience and showcase all of the attractions and great things happening in the city over the festive period.

We wanted to create something that was typically Bristol and represented the vibrancy and uniqueness of the city. Graffiti seemed an ideal choice as it is synonymous with Bristol and allowed us total creative freedom. But we didn’t want it to be too urban. We needed something that also represented the more glamorous side of the city. Something festive and sparkly!

Our solution was to recreate the Visit Bristol logo in shimmer discs, which we sat on top of a graffiti mural painted by local legends Cheo and Silent Hobo, bringing it all together with the line – Make Your Christmas Sparkle. This, alongside the hashtag #MerryBristmas, meant we had something people could interact with and easily share across social channels. Leaflets, bags, colouring pages and numerous online assets completed the campaign.

Such was the success that the following year we aimed even higher, securing an amazing location on one of Bristol’s most iconic buildings, allowing us to work with not two but eight of Bristol’s best graffiti artists. Alongside Cheo and Silent Hobo, we brought in Kid Crayon, Marta Zubieta, Elaine Carr, Andy Council, Tim Ulewicz and Lucas Antics.

We came up with a different scene for each artist to make their own, each one depicting the different attractions and festive offerings of Bristol and spelling out the word BRISTMAS. The result was a wonderfully colourful and creative piece of work, celebrating all that is great about Bristol at Christmas.

Next year, the COVID pandemic gave us a different problem to solve. One that we overcame by taking the entire campaign online and creating an interactive advent calendar. Keeping with the previous theme, we commissioned local artist Bex Glover to create the calendar, including 24 separate illustrations, each one representing a different attraction. This was shared online across the Visit Bristol social channels each day from the 1st – 24th of December, providing vital support and awareness to local businesses at a difficult time.

Services:

• Campaign planning
• Media planning & buying
• Creative development
• OOH
• Press advertising
• Digital marketing
• Social media
• Photography
• Video production
• Direct Mail
• Leaflets
• Ambient media
• Illustration
• Animation
• Branded merchandise