Anarchic, edge of the seat, innovative.

This year’s Fringe has been a resounding success, and Whitespace were delighted to win the project to create the overall concept, print and promotional materials, as well as a campaign microsite.

Whitespace were selected to create this year’s campaign concept and promotional materials for the biggest festival in the world. We created the concept of the ‘egg’, an iconic symbol (hopefully a memorable one), this egg symbolised the fact that the Fringe is an unknown, always different, you’re not sure what is inside or what might pop out.

We dressed Kevin, Charlie and Johan in protective clothing and had them run up and down Princes Street with a metal case, taking photos on mobiles and from various angles. These shots were sent via email to friends and family being constantly forwarded on, to generate interest. The initial story of the egg was born – found during the tramworks in Edinburgh and taken to the special laboratory at the Fringe – overseen by the fictional character, Professor Ed Hegg.

This initial story was launched months before the Fringe, with the single goal of generating awareness to new audiences and getting people to put the dates in their diaries and start planning ahead. Dr Ed Hegg received nearly a whole page in the Scotsman – pre-launch publicity not normally received by the Fringe.

As well as all of the photography and artwork required for the various print items required by the Fringe – from T-shirt designs to banner displays to ticket wallets and press passes. Whitespace also developed a campaign microsite and social media campaign to help promotion in the months running up to launch. This involved setting up Dr Ed Hegg’s twitter page and blog along with shooting over 100 video experiments for inclusion on the microsite. You can see examples of these at www.thefringething.com.

“From the outset, Whitespace understood and captured the personality of the Fringe in their ideas - cutting-edge, challenging, innovative, entertaining, unexpected and quirky. They have successfully delivered to our very tight deadlines and it’s been great fun working with them.”

Alan Gibson - Head of Marketing, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

The result (despite the credit crunch) has been an increase of nearly 9% in ticket sales and the Fringe Programme was so popular that a re-print was required.