Project Overview
Moonlight Cinema is an outdoor cinema operating from December to March in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane.
Moonlight wanted to refresh its brand identity for its summer 2013/14 season in order to position itself as a must-do on summer’s entertainment calendar. More than just an ‘outdoor cinema’, Moonlight is an event with a festival-like atmosphere, a unique experience including social, entertainment and food and beverage components.
The aim of the 2013/14 season advertising artwork was to market Moonlight Cinema as a fun and festive event, to excite audiences and encourage them to purchase tickets in advance, as they would for a popular summer music festival.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Moonlight Cinemas / Amalgamated Holdings Limited
Team
Gemma Axford: National Marketing Manager - Moonlight Cinemas
Robert Eror: Senior Designer - AHL
Project Brief
The key objective was to create a fun, festive, on trend brand identity via Moonlight Cinema’s advertising artwork, and encourage audiences to recognize Moonlight Cinema as a must-do summer event rather than just a means to watch a film. We wanted our artwork to excite audiences about attending Moonlight Cinema and naturally associate Moonlight with the fun, carefree vibe of summer. Ultimately, we wanted this excitement to translate to the audience purchasing tickets in advance and ‘saving the date’ as they would for a popular summer festival.
The Moonlight Cinema audience is predominantly females aged 25-40 with a high disposable income. They are socially active, style conscious and live in the inner city.
To appeal to this audience, we wanted our artwork to incorporate current catwalk and travel trends. We were inspired by the colours and textures of 1960s Acapulco, the Palm Springs summer landscape and the kaleidoscope prints, geometric shapes and symmetrical reflections of the summer catwalks.
Project Innovation/Need
Previous season artwork was very literal and incorporated illustrations of the moon, owls, trees, a cinema screen and couples holding hands. We wanted to move away from this literal interpretation and use current trends to develop a creative piece that invokes a feeling and depicts the atmosphere of Moonlight, rather than its literal surrounds.
The result was a vibrant piece of art that encapsulates Moonlight Cinema’s fun and festive atmosphere. Rather than focusing on one element, the design showcases a kaleidoscope of colour, texture, landscapes and intricate mosaic prints interwoven within geometric reflections.
Design Challenge
We wanted to position our artwork in front of 25-40 year old fashion savvy females, and therefore placed print advertising in magazines including Yen, Frankie, Vice and Sneaky, as well as mX and JCDecaux CityLights street furniture. In order to appeal to our demographic we didn’t want a poster, we wanted a piece of art. The challenge lay in communicating the necessary information including brand, call to action, date, location, sponsors, food and beverage offerings and social media information whilst maintaining a creative piece of art.
Throughout the season publications consistently upgraded our advertising to premium positions and cited their reasoning as the artwork appealing to their readership and aligning with their brand. The Moonlight Cinema full page ad was upgraded to the back cover position in Yen Magazine (issue 67) and mX (21 January).
The artwork also needed to be translated to all other marketing collateral including postcards and flyers without compromising its look and feel.
Effectiveness
The below stats show a comparison to the previous 2012/13 season:
• 20% increase in attendees
• 94% of customers purchased tickets in advance of their session (up from 86% in 2012/13)
• 10% increase on moonlight.com.au pageviews
• 22% increase in e-news subscribers
• 42-62% increase in followers on Moonlight Cinema Facebook pages
• 83% increase in followers on Moonlight Cinema Instagram
• 15% increase in followers on Moonlight Cinema Twitter
Advertising - Print
This award celebrates creative and innovative design for visual communication intended to persuade an audience to purchase or take some action upon products, ideas or services. Consideration given to the technical, conceptual and aesthetic elements, audience engagement and message delivery.
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