Brand Gold Coast is changing. The touristy, meter maids, glitz and glamour to a more sophisticated offering—lifestyle, surf and culture. Audiences are increasingly ‘omnivorous’, and the binary ‘popular versus elitist’ does not exist here. Everyone in the Gold Coast will ‘give something a go’. Boccalatte created a cultural brand whose primary competition is the beach
With Home of the Arts (HOTA), Boccalatte was tasked with creating a brand that transformed perceptions and increased cultural engagement with Gold Coast locals, as well as national audiences. The competition was coming from places we least expected, not just the beach, but from local shopping centres and casinos who were encroaching on the cultural offer by adding conviviality and day out offers for the whole family. Brands are moving from employers to educators, ownership to post-ownership, tenants to place-makers. There is no safe ground. With that in mind, the brand needed to be ‘quintessentially Gold Coast’, welcoming locals who might not usually participate in the arts.
Brands who wish to leave a legacy are investing in audiences decades from now, and with an injection of funding into a cultural precinct, Gold Coast Council wanted to do just that. The amphitheatre and gallery began a new conversation to create new experiences and go beyond the traditional transactional exchange, moving away from a regional art centre to an international destination.
Image: John Gollings
We conducted community engagement in the region, which was essential to understand:
• Established and potential audiences’ interests, lifestyles, motivations and behaviours
• Attendance patterns and barriers to attendance
• Attitude towards the Centre and arts in general in the region
• Awareness of and perceptions
• Motivations to participate that the brand could leverage
The brand was open, friendly and accessible to meet the needs and values of a diverse audience—but avoided one-size-fits-all offerings.
A family-of-brands architecture enabled parts of the offer to target relevant audience tribes and for the brand family to grow as new infrastructure comes online (amphitheatre, gallery, etc.).
HOTA Highlights
—Built an increasingly rich, profound arts and cultural offer for the Gold Coast—bright, brighter, brightest.
—Nurtured the cultural ecosystem and encouraged the creative community to feel proud and stay on the GC.
—maintained the GC offer while not disenfranchising the more discerning and traditional audiences
—Wrangled disparate stakeholders and community members, with much investment
—Shifted from event marketing to brand building.