Newport MansionsLive the Drama
ChallengeAttract more new and repeat visitors.
Strategy“Don’t tell me about the chair. Tell me who sat in the chair.”
Results17%
increase in ticket sales YOY
9x ROAS
“Don’t tell me about the chair. Tell me who sat in the chair.”
With those words from legendary storyteller Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey, The Gilded Age) ringing in our ears, we set out to help drive interest in the Newport Mansions for the Preservation Society of Newport County.
It’s no secret that our society is completely transfixed by wealth and the lifestyles of those fortunate enough to have it. Our fixation with the royal family and the undying popularity of television hits like White Lotus, Bridgerton, and Succession underscores the cultural obsession with wealth.
And if you’ve been to any of the Newport Mansions, you know the one thing they communicate unambiguously is ostentatious wealth.
So the challenge became: How can we breathe life into these inanimate shrines to wealth?
Our strategy? Don’t sell it like a house. Sell it like a movie. We determined that the best way to breathe life into them was to put life into them. So we spotlighted the deliciously dramatic lives of the wealthy families who lived in them. And with that, the “Live the Drama” campaign was born.
The campaign dramatizes the people and stories behind these lavish properties in the style of a Hollywood blockbuster. For The Breakers, the grandest of the Newport Mansions, that meant introducing the inimitable Vanderbilts through a trailer, billboards, landing page, etc.—all the trappings of movie marketing.
The results? The first phase of the media launch earned measurable results: E-commerce conversion is up 15.52%, Social Media CTR was 10.12% (1,000% higher than the benchmark).