Our Work.
in association
in association
with TikTok
with TikTok
Two brands come together to support the theatre industry.
In the spring of 2020, as theatres across the country closed their curtains for what would be the most difficult time in theatre maker history, the Evening Standard and TikTok started talking about what they could do together to support the creative arts. In just a few months, the Future Theatre Fund was born.
PLATFORM
Digital, Print, Social, Video, Event
Our Solution
In partnership with the National Youth Theatre, The Evening Standard Future Theatre Fund in association with TikTok is £120k dedicated to discovering new and emerging talent after this unprecedented year for the Arts.
Ten recipients from a range of disciplines were given the opportunity to win £10,000 each to help with their chosen career path, with mentor support from notables from the world of theatre. Two #TikTokBreakoutStars would also be given the opportunity. What happened next was extraordinary…
59 Nominating
59 Nominating
Institutions
Institutions
signed up
signed up
A formidable
A formidable
panel of experts
panel of experts
388 nominations
388 nominations
across 6
across 6
categories
categories
36 entries
36 entries
shortlisted
shortlisted
12 winners
12 winners
THE CAMPAIGN
Print.
The Evening Standard, which reaches 20 million people every month, embarked on an extensive and ambitious build up to the Future Theatre Fund across The Evening Standard, ES Magazine, Standard.co.uk and social channels. Working with leading talent and thought leaders from the world of theatre, we showed our overwhelming support for an industry in the midst of the pandemic shutdown.
Digital.
We included 12 ES BrandPost articles in the campaign giving TikTok a unique voice on Standard.co.uk.
Our commercial digital articles cover a wide range of diverse content on TikTok. The content was extremely popular with our readers and our LGBTQ+ page has over 12.5K page views and was one of the top 5 most viewed pages on our entire culture channel at the end of February.
- 60% of readers agreed that the BrandPost content was engaging
- 62% of readers said they now had a better impression of TikTok as a result of reading
ES Magazine.
Beautiful spreads in ES Magazine culminated in a 4 page showcase of the recipients of the Future Theatre Fund awards. The announcement feature in ES Magazine put the recipients of the award at the forefront of the coverage, highlighting their story and hopes for the future, and reinforced the diversity of the talent and their breadth of skill.
There were also five advertorials and print display in ES Magazine highlighting the diverse and surprising range of content on TikTok.
Social.
The campaign was supported by a wide and diverse range of social posts covering the “What I wish I’d known” series featuring brilliant talent from Judi Dench to Josh O’Connor, along with the heavy event promotion and highlights video. Social was also used for a mixture of page promotion posts, Breakoutstar promotion and event highlights.
Event.
The campaign was supported by a virtual event organised by our ES Live team. 80k people watched the 75min feature which aired on Standard.co.uk, YouTube, and BroadwayOnDemand.
It featured special performances from: Everybody’s talking about Jamie, Sam Tutty, SIX The Musical, Grad Fest
THE RESULTS
Drove Awareness
Drove Awareness
2/3 of those who saw the theatre fund activity said they would not have otherwise been aware of TikTok’s support of theatre.
Increased positive
Increased positive
brand sentiment
brand sentiment
77% of those who saw the Theatre Fund activity said they now had a better impression of TikTok.
Strengthened perceptions of
Strengthened perceptions of
TikTok’s association with theatre
TikTok’s association with theatre
200% increase in agreement with the statement ‘TikTok is becoming a key part of the UK theatre scene’.
63% of those aware of the Theatre Fund agreed that ‘TikTok is supporting the next generation of theatre makers’.