Old Royal Naval College fundraising campaign

Old Royal Naval College conservation promotion

Old Royal Naval College

Creating the visitor attraction brand in 2011 with many years of brand rollout across visitor materials, digital spaces, signage, reporting, advertising, and fundraising.

The Old Royal Naval College is one of London’s great visitor attractions, its listed Wren-designed buildings set within stunning grounds. Supporting its maintenance and conservation requires income from visitor spend, events, venue hire, donations, and legacies. Initially approached following our work with Greenwich Market, we quickly identified that the existing brand was not fit for purpose. Over a long and successful relationship, we developed a distinct brand strategy and visual language, rolled out across a wide range of online, onsite, and print needs.

Sectors and services: Heritage; Brand presence; Reporting; Digital + Film; Exhibition + Signage

Tags: branding; brand family; brand language; brand positioning; brand strategy; brand guidelines; strapline; messaging; illustration; photography; marketing; event promotion; fundraising; retail; literature; internal comms; branded merchandise; campaign; advertising; strategy report; website; large format graphics; wayfinding; interpretation materials; world heritage site; tourism; naval; historic building; charity; conservation

Branding

Working with the management team and the board of trustees, we developed a contemporary brand identity focused on the most recognisable element of the site – the twin domes. A supporting brand language was created, and full guidelines and artwork were produced. Throughout our time, we continued to develop the brand in implementation.

“Fit Creative have worked closely with the Old Royal Naval College since rebranding it in 2011. Over the years, our communications and marketing needs have spanned digital, print, 3D, advertising, and more – for all of these Fit have been able to find an effective solution and put together the best team to deliver high-quality results. They have always brought fresh thinking and enthusiasm to every project, achieving great results to help us raise our profile and encourage donations.”
Brendan McCarthy
Chief Executive
Old Royal Naval College

Website

Creation of a fully responsive website with clear navigation, events, ticketing and calendar functions, a supporters area, an interactive site map and much more interpretive information.

Strategy report

A striking brochure outlining the 5-year strategic plan featured fold out central section, which allowed the four pillars of the strategy to be read together. Used as a tool to gain support, either through influence or large-scale donations, the brochure helped communicate the trust's vision for the future.

Fundraising

Fundraising is often a key income for large visitor attractions with substantial running costs. Engaging support for the site from the wider public, legacy givers, and corporate partners is an ongoing communications need.

We have supported a number of fundraising campaigns for both specifically to conserve the Painted Hall as well as to maintain the whole site.

We created a sub-brand for a new friends network, ORNC Angels. Friends are offered exclusive events and discounts in the shop in return for membership fees, which go to support the ORNC.

Conservation promotion

Conservation work was interpreted through a 'Get up close' campaign, which included an exhibition to explain the work, a series of talks, and accessible scaffolding tours to literally get you up close to it.

Signage and hoarding

We designed the graphics for the on-site signage and created branded hoardings for use during on-site works.

Advertising

Large-format adverts promoting a visit to the site. We produced many campaigns over multiple seasons extolling the virtues of the buildings, a top 12 London visitor attraction.

Visitor materials

Events are a strong feature of visitor engagement with the site. We designed and produced quarterly events leaflets and individual event programmes, adverts and marketing. In particular, we created striking cover imagery that celebrated the physical site throughout the seasons for each leaflet.

We designed interpretation leaflets for both the Painted Hall and the Chapel in multiple languages. These supported on-site laminated panels, which allowed visitors to identify the different elements of the interior design and architecture.

We also produced school materials to support age-targeted learning activities around the site during school visits.