Our good friends at Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) brightened up our year here at Sundae when they asked us to look after the events and communications campaign for the newly refurbished, renamed and rebranded Nova Cinema in Woking Town Centre.
As the name suggests, the brand spanking Nova Cinema is out of this world and we wanted to give it a launch schedule to match, so we got to work and came up with an exciting series of events to work alongside a comprehensive press and social media campaign.
EVENTS, you say?! Well we started working on this project as the UK very first went into lockdown back in March and, as you can imagine, we have planned, replanned and replanned the replan since then; we simply had to adapt, develop and move forward with enough contingencies to deal with anything that was thrown at us.
Under the government restrictions at the time of planning, we worked with the incredible Louise from the Nova Cinema team to put together a socially distanced press launch with a 3D screening of Hollywood hit, Gravity starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.
We engaged and built new relationships with the lovely local press down in Woking and invited them along for the evening. With all 25 (yes ALL) of the press list including journalists from nearly media every outlet in Woking turning up to support the launch, we needed no more proof that the media in the area were right behind the venue!
Coverage around the launch appeared in Surrey Live, Radio Woking, Surrey Advertiser, Surrey Mag Online, Woking Writers Circle, Girl About, Rewrite This Story, Love London Love Culture to name a few, with a front page and double page spread in the print edition Woking News & Mail and a live interview for Venue Director Simon Thomsett on BBC Radio Surrey to add the proverbial cherries to an already marvellous cake.
The event was absolutely brilliant; screening a venue showreel, coordinating staggered venue tours in safe numbers, facilitating press interviews and then screening a blockbuster with a bespoke seating plan while following social distancing regulations was never going to be easy but with the help of an unbelievable Nova team, the operation was slick and all in attendance really loved the experience.
Just two weeks later came the launch event for Nova Kids; a Halloween screening of The Addams Family where families could attend, safely and securely, in their bubbles to enjoy a fancy dress contest, special prizes, arts and crafts and a spooky cake decorating workshop from local favourite, Victoria’s Kitchen.
The event was a complete sell out after gaining coverage in Woking News & Mail, Surrey Mag Online, BBC Radio Surrey, Radio Woking, BFBS Aldersot Radio and Love London Love Culture to name a few with journalists from Woking News & Mail, Surrey Blogger Collective and, leading national kids newspaper, First News bringing their little ones along to enjoy the day.
We were so happy with the first two events in our launch schedule for Nova Cinema that we simply could not wait to get started on the next one! Unfortunately the pandemic had other ideas and into Lockdown 2.0 the country went.
If this year has taught us anything though, it is that arts, culture and entertainment will never be defeated and we will be back with our new friends in Woking to deliver the rest of the launch campaign under whatever restrictions apply at the time and help Nova to shine bright like the true new star that it is.
Until then, cinema…. “We’ll be back in no time..” – Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995)
Tom x
