As part of our work with Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG), we look after communications around the launch of its state-of-the-art multi-purpose entertainment venue, Swansea Arena, due to launch in 2022.
Swansea Arena is a brand-new waterside 3,500 capacity indoor arena, located just a short walk from Swansea Beach, Swansea Marina and Swansea city centre.
The game-changing venue is a key part of the £135m Copr Bay Phase One development and is expected to host 160 performances across music, comedy, theatre, esports and conference events for an estimated 230,000 visitors each year. Around 60 of the events will be exhibitions, conferences, graduations and other business-led events.
Having been involved in this incredible venue’s journey since before ground was broken on the build, we arrived at a point in the campaign that we were really excited about here at Sundae; it was time to introduce tour promoters, press, as well as local businesses to the Arena and reveal a state-of- the-art flythrough, as well as some incredible digital assets.
With social restrictions courtesy of the pandemic still well and truly upon us, we planned a hybrid event that would have the capacity to revert to fully digital should the situation dictate it… and dictate it, it did.
Due to the global situation over the last year or so, we have a lot of digital event experience under our belt, so we saw this as an opportunity to get creative and quickly threw ourselves into the new plan; an online event in which a respected music broadcaster would present their guide to the coastal city of Swansea, and introduce new GM Lisa Mart with an insightful Q and A about the venue, with the reveal of the state of the art flythrough and digital assets woven in.
We contacted our dream presenter; the one and only Huw Stephens (BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio Cymru), and told him about the project. In true Huw style, he cracked a few jokes and told us he was completely up for it… we just knew it was going to be amazing.
Because our event guests couldn’t visit Swansea and see how beautiful the city is, we knew that we had to show this off in Huw’s guide; the location is what separates this Arena from other venues of its type as Swansea is one of the few UK cities located on a sandy beach. It’s fringed with a coastal footpath giving panoramic views of the city on one side and the famed Mumbles lighthouse on the other.
We scripted the film, scouted locations, hollered at our camera crew, and met Huw and GM Lisa Mart in Swansea. A full day filming, dodging rainstorms, meeting locals, fun, laughter and, above all, gathering high quality material later, and it was ready to go to edit.
After Huw casually nailed his role of presenter, he kindly introduced us to the brilliant local band Bandicoot and we were able to secure the perfect soundtrack in their song ‘Fuzzy’; with much of the film dedicated to Swansea’s brilliant music scene, it was really important to ATG and ourselves that this was represented in the film.
Our hugely talented editor Damon returned the final film to us, with the flythrough etc stitched in to show the interior of Swansea Arena for the very first time, including how the different configurations for the multi-purpose venue will work for the wide range of events it will host… and it was absolutely fantastic.
With RSVPs from our super targeted guestlist filling up our inbox, we were ready to go; the date, time and viewing platform were all set, so we sent out the final instructions… the event was fully attended by guests that stayed for the duration, ran without a single hitch and received absolutely lovely feedback.
The event and its content was shown great support by the media with coverage across a range of key regional consumer, business and broadcast outlets, and national news and trade outlets including Wales Online, West Wales Chronicle, Planet Radio Online, Swansea Bay News, South Wales Evening Post, Business News Wales, Insider Media, Commercial News Media, Greatest Hits Radio, MSN, Total Production International, The Stadium Business, Ticketing Business News and Pan Stadia & Arena Management.
We have really loved this part of the campaign and overcoming all of the challenges that came with it, but we especially love this client and this Arena, and we can’t wait to see what the future holds…as the legendary Huw Stephens would say: See you down the front!
Llawer o gariad!
Tom x
