English National Ballet

Campaigns

English National Ballet had been through a fairly radical rebrand in early 2013, using dark, brooding fashion-led photography to distinguish the company from its peers. But that imagery was proving inappropriate for their family friendly offerings.

They came to us to bridge the gap, first for their revival of Coppélia in spring 2014 and secondly for their Christmas season, both of which needed creative flair for creating original concepts and attention to detail for managing tight-timescales.

Poster layout with all the billing in place and the dancer central in a more traditional ballet pose

Working in both photographer Eric Richmond’s Bethnal Green studio and on location in a huge warehouse-space, we captured a range of shots to compile in post production. Hand-crafted polystyrene tools and giant Christmas baubles played key parts in these campaigns, alongside ENB’s very talented dancers.

Pulling it all together on the day of each shoot was a real thrill. It was important to keep everyone on the right track to make sure we got the images our client needed for a successful campaign.

Cast and crew in
Eric Richmond’s studio

Photographer Eric Richmond
with Begoña Cao

Cog delivered perfectly on the brief: a stunning, adaptable image that we can use in all sorts of contexts. We’re delighted.

Charelle Griffith, Marketing Manager, English National Ballet

We delivered a single, layered file that could be reformatted to suit any size or media. The in-house team at ENB rolled-out the campaign to a wide range of applications.

Coppélia is one of the most regularly performed ballets so we had to make ENB’s production stand out from the crowd. In discussion with Artistic Director, Tamara Rojo, we created imagery that brought colour and a sense of European folk art to the mix.

We delivered two images – a traditional balletic pose for classical audiences and a doll-like pose to appeal to more adventurous audiences.

We were working to a tight deadline, calling on the skills and professionalism of a team of people. They all exceeded my expectations.

Michael Smith

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As well as every bauble, ENB had full control over the size and position of the portraits. This gave them the flexibility to focus the image on only character at a time when they were in need of more specific marketing materials.

ENB make the most of the festive period by staging two large productions that could fill the Coliseum for almost six-weeks solid.

The campaign needed to ensure a high-level of engagement from a wide-range of ticket-buyers, without losing the edge, creativity and innovative approach that ENB pride themselves upon.

Mixing traditional Christmas decorations with circus equipment (an unusual prop for any ballet dancer) provided the right ‘twist’ on a highly marketable image. We used a stylish icy-grey background to complete the look.

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enb_christmas_yonah_hoop_500px

We found an amazing, high, warehouse space for rigging the hoop. It was great to see the dancers power and poise while suspended in the air, they really did make it look easy.

ross@cogdesign.com