Harrison Patten Troughton Brand Response has been appointed to
reposition the theatre ticket agency, First Call, as it expands into new
areas.
HPT will be responsible for all advertising and direct marketing. It has
already begun work for the client on internal communications launched
last week and a mailing to existing customers going out this week.
First Call provides more than two million tickets each year, mainly to a
theatre-going audience, and aims to extend its business into other areas
such as rock concerts, sports events and travel.
HPT’s brief is to communicate that both internally and externally. First
Call was recently bought by International Loyalty Group, the company
that set up Air Miles before selling the scheme to BA.
The campaign will initially run through direct mail, the national and
listings press and tube tickets, although HPT is also looking at less
conventional media.
The theme is to combine two diverse areas of First Call’s remit into one
image.
In the first of four press and poster executions, a Scotsman is standing
on an air vent, having his kilt blown up Marilyn Monroe-style, with the
line, ’For tickets to everywhere from New York to the Highlands.’
The second execution shows a skull, wearing black spectacles, being held
up by a Shakespearian hand - and the line suggests that First Call can
provide tickets for everything from Buddy to Hamlet.
The green hairdo of the Prodigy’s singer, Keith Flint, appears on the
next execution atop the body of a conductor, offering tickets from the
Prodigy to classical concerts.
Finally, an enormous rugby player is shot from the back wearing a shirt
emblazoned with ’Terminal 4’, offering tickets for everything from big
matches to short breaks.
All the work was written by Xanthos Christodoulou and art directed by
Brian Storey.
Martin Troughton, HPT’s managing partner, said: ’First Call is an ideal
client for us because its original brief was to provide a brand idea
from which all of its communications would proceed.’
