Sydney Festival appoints brand and visual comms studio Alphabet to handle creative
Brand and visual communications studio Alphabet has been appointed to lead the Sydney Festival account for the next three years.
In its first year the agency will rebrand and position Australia’s leading annual cultural event, developing a broad-reaching integrated campaign spanning print, online, outdoor and television advertising, direct marketing, printed and promotional collateral, as well as signage.
The win is a major coup for the studio and the result of a rigorous tender process which shortlisted five agencies. The pitch process was initiated when Sydney Festival appointed Lieven Bertels (left) as its new artistic director.
The 37 year-old festival, held annually in January, is the largest arts and cultural event in Sydney. Last year the Festival drew crowds of over 580,000, who attended a diverse array of both free and ticketed events from local and international artists at venues across the city and greater metropolitan Sydney.
Alphabet has been briefed to create a strong and easily recognisable brand that sets the festival apart in an increasingly crowded summer-entertainment marketplace. The studio has also been charged with the tasks of creating a concept for Sydney Festival that will evolve over the next three years, and developing a strategy that will allow the festival to ‘own Sydney’ 
during January.
Tim Kliendienst, co-creative director at Alphabet, believes his studio is up for the challenge.
Says Kliendienst: “This is Australia’s best arts and cultural festival and it’s put Sydney on the entertainment map globally. Our task is not only to maintain, but grow that reputation and ensure the Festival keeps competing and winning in this space. We see our selection by Sydney Festival as a show of their confidence in our ability to achieve that.”
Sydney Festival’s head of marketing, communications and digital strategy, Jill Colvin, says Alphabet showed great strength in their understanding of the arts and cultural market and how it crosses over to the mainstream.
Says Colvin: “While we are a cultural event our audience is anything but niche. Alphabet showed the strategic and creative skills needed to help us build the Sydney Festival brand further over the next three years and put us on track to make the 2013 program among our biggest ever.”
Alphabet’s first campaign for Sydney Festival will launch at the end of the month.
1. Alphabet Studio Co-Creative Directors – Paul Clark (left) & Tim Kliendienst (right)
Photo credit: Brett Boardman
2. Sydney Festival Artistic Director – Lieven Bertels
Photo credit: Prudence Upton
3. Semele Walk, Sydney Festival 2013 – A Show by Ludger Engels. Couture by Vivienne Westwood. Music by Handel. Photo credit: Monika Ritterhaus