Fuelling Brunel’s
time machine.
This was a brief from heaven for me because I’ve been a lifelong fan of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. For me, Brunel is the greatest, most ingenious figure in the history engineering.
As ‘the ship that changed the world’, Brunel’s ss Great Britain is today one of the UK’s leading visitor attractions. However in recent years had seen visitor numbers plateau at the same time that an ambition was emerging to generate lottery funding for a new world class ‘Brunel’ experience. The solution to the brief had to achieve two key objectives: a significant increase in visitor numbers and a reappraisal of the impact of Brunel and his ship on the industrial revolution and Victorian Britain.
Visitor numbers
increased
by over 25%
I presented Brunel as the true visionary that he was and the ship as a wonder of its age by taking cues from the ‘Steam Punk’ vernacular to marry the historic with the contemporary. We also shifted media spend from wasteful broadcast media (TV) to outdoor and online channels. The campaign delivered a far more targeted and efficient communications programme. Crucially visitor numbers increased by over 25% and funding for the £7m Brunel experience was secured.
