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Brief
Such Tweet Sorrow, Mudlark and the RSC’s innovative production of Romeo & Juliet on Twitter, launched on April 12th this year. The core objective of the campaign was to raise awareness of the production itself and drive the public, both the digerati and theatre fans, to follow the characters on Twitter.
The aim was to gain coverage across national press and broadcast as well as promote the production virally across social media platforms. From the moment Such Tweet Sorrow went live, the characters would have no initial followers so it would be vital to exploit all coverage and drive the public onto Twitter.
Strategy
Idea Generation was brought on by Mudlark to promote Such Tweet Sorrow – an online collaboration between Mudlark, the RSC, 4iP, Channel 4’s digital investment initiative and Screen West Midlands – billed as the world’s first real-time Twitter based performance of Romeo & Juliet.
With the complex nature of Such Tweet Sorrow and the fact that it was a world first, we understood that it would take some time to fully explain the unique nature of the project to journalists and the public alike. The decision was taken to embargo all production-based information to generate intrigue until the launch and hold a press conference to reveal all the details the morning that Such Tweet Sorrow went live.
As the production was entirely virtual, during discussions around the strategy we decided the campaign required offline stunts to make Such Tweet Sorrow tangible to those who were not social media experts and bring the production into the ‘real’ world.
Execution
We were given a tight timeline to prepare for the launch with only a few weeks to fully schedule activity and plan the campaign. Pre-briefing of key media created a buzz in the weeks leading up to the press conference. The Shakespeare’s Head pub off Carnaby St was made the offline hub for the production, serving to accommodate the press conference (attended by over 30 journalists) and as the location for all offline stunts. Throughout the production Such Tweet Sorrow branded beer mats were distributed in the pub, as a take-away URL prompt.
To generate offline and online intrigue before the launch we conceived and constructed the “World’s First Tweeting Balcony”, which was installed outside the Shakespeare’s Head. The balcony was branded with the Such Tweet Sorrow logo and supported a large screen. In the days leading up to the production, a branded ‘Love Index’ scrolled across the screen re-tweeting messages containing the words ‘I love you’ from Twitterers across the globe. The balcony started to create public and media interest around the project, as well as instantly going viral across the blogosphere and social media platforms. It also served as a location and backdrop for the numerous news reports, cast photocalls and broadcast filming. Once the production went live, the Tweeting Balcony was used to screen Such Tweet Sorrow as it played out on the production website attracting constant interest from passers by and encouraging the public to follow the characters.
With 3 Mobile network as a sponsor, when Such Tweet Sorrow went live, we negotiated a unique promotion putting the production URL on Planet 3 and on the 3 website, driving customers to become followers. During the third week of Such Tweet Sorrow partners sent mobile phones to key journalists who were known to use Twitter to encourage them to follow the characters online. When the production hit its fourth week, we worked with 3 and partners again to organise a Shakespeare themed pub quiz at the Shakespeare’s Head. Journalists were invited down to the quiz to answer pop culture questions on Shakespeare and Such Tweet Sorrow including a bonus round to put Romeo & Juliet passages into Tweets. Mercutio (actor Ben Ashton) was present to judge the best tweets and the winning line was incorporated into Such Tweet Sorrow later in the week. This activity successfully raised awareness among those journalists who had not already engaged with the production.
In planning the campaign strategy, we were acutely aware of the potential for criticism from the media and the public. With the backing of the RSC, Such Tweet Sorrow was likely to gain attention but there was also concern regarding the controversial nature of putting Shakespeare on Twitter and, with the complete loss of the original script and language, would it even be accepted as Shakespeare?
To manage this risk, we decided to bill the production, where possible, as an experiment; adopting the catch phrase “this is not just the curtain going up on a new production but the curtain going up on a completely new way of performing”. The team also exploited the fact that Romeo & Juliet has been retold time and time again by different playwrights, authors and screenwriters with different characters, and in no end of different genres of performance. While this satisfied many key opinion formers, with the nature of social media as a platform for discussion, it was inevitable that Such Tweet Sorrow would spark debate.
Results
With the launch of the production, media coverage went global spreading across all platforms including print, radio, TV and online. To date Such Tweet Sorrow has achieved 11 pieces of national coverage in UK newspapers, and over 500 pieces of online international coverage and counting. Notably coverage was also gained across 4 national BBC Radio stations, BBC 1 news and reached as far as Japanese TV, Indian national press and Sao Paulo radio. Within the first week, the project feeds had gained over 30,000 followers and Such Tweet Sorrow had become an international sensation, a huge point of debate across the blogosphere and even a Twitter trending topic.
Now the campaign has come to an end, here are some of the biggest highlights:
- International reach and number of followers far exceeded expectation. Within the 1st week of the launch, Juliet had hit over 5, 000 followers from all over the world
- Level of participation and interaction from the public:
- Juliet’s online birthday party – the public uploaded their own masks onto Juliet’s facebook invitation page prior to her birthday party. During the party, followers from around the world joined the cast online to listen to Juliet’s playlist on Last FM, upload their own music and party photos throughout the night. The online party continued well into the early hours of Saturday morning!
- Romeo & Call of Duty – huge number of fans played against Romeo on Call of Duty during the course of the production
- The public’s ‘save Mercutio’ campaign – fans started their own campaign to save Mercutio ahead of his impending death. This was not instigated by the production team so a hugely exciting development!
Stats as ofApril 30th:
94,910 Visits
4,519.52 Visits / Day
65,097 Absolute Unique Visitors
299,710 Pageviews
Character: #Followers (#Listed)
Juliet: 5834 (864)
Jess: 3847 (807)
Tybalt: 3941 (795)
Mercuteio: 3814 (795)
Laurence: 3723 (789)
Romeo: 3699 (649)
Jago: 625 (199)
SuchTweet: 2507 (212)
Official List: 419
JULIET'S YOU TUBE
Channel views: 2637
Total Upload Views: 22,344
Juliet’s birthday
Masks uploaded by public – over 400
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