2024 Stratford Festival Visitors’ Guide & Digital Campaign

Stratford Festival

Stratford, ON

The goal of the 2024 Visitors’ Guide was to expand an informational brochure for Stratford Festival ticket holders into a branded magazine to inform existing patrons and recruit new audiences. The first step was to change the size of the publication. The team chose to base the publication in an editorial aesthetic, hinged on creating unity between text, image and layout, reminiscent of the experience readers would have when enjoying their consumer magazine of choice. The strategic use of ample white space was critical to changing the reading experience from a utilitarian information hunt, typical of branded booklets, to a leisurely flip-through magazine. Ample white space enabled an inviting and directed reading experience where focal points were clear. The commercial value achieved through the design allowed the publication to do what magazines do best: stealth sell. Market reach grew exponentially by widening the appeal of the magazine through more generalized arts-focused content. As a central marketing asset used to seed and strengthen brand awareness, the Visitors’ Guide triggered a steady increase in ticket sales with past, present and new patrons, with 24% percent growth and a 10K increase in traffic to the site during the publication’s release month.

Stratford Festival Visitor's Guide invididual pages

Judge’s Pick

Jean Leclair RGD, Manager, Creative Services at Indigenous Services Canada, Gatineau, QC

“If this project’s goal was to attract and expand their audience… mission accomplished! Each spread in the guide and each visual for the digital campaign has its own pairing, personality and style and conveys the tone for each artistic event. The use of photos combined with exquisite typography leads the way, and the great page layout and elegant social media posts are all magnificent. I love the clever photo fine-tuning from one platform to the other and the typography adaptation for the digital campaign. The design of each spread and each digital post were well translated from the printed publication to digital media.”