Bershka On Stage by

A new stage concept

For the stage itself, we created a language by playing with colour and light, tinting the stage, rather than through a fixed display. Each artist was associated with a different colour, for the backstage shootings as well as their live event. Further strengthening this concept, the stage itself was designed to be more of an art installation, an abstract cube placed temporarily in each venue, from CASTEL with art direction by Folch. ‘On Stage’ branding was implemented around its outer edge using an LED moving banner display that linked back to the motion graphics on all the social media assets. 

Communicating an attitude

Our aim was to generate a new perception, giving the brand more visibility by taking it beyond the world of fashion and into the field of music. We decided to take advantage of the perfect locations of Bershka’s global Flagship stores to host a series of six concerts across Europe, each with an emerging artist or group taking the music scene by storm. The name ‘Bershka On Stage’ was chosen to connect Bershka with the world of live music and the experiences of the moment. Collaborating with young artists allowed us to connect with the target audience as well as communicating the attitude of the brand.

A massive global production

We defined a recognisable music event format for six of Bershka’s flagship stores, each one in a different country, with the first one taking place in London and transmitted via live streaming. With Bershka managing copywriting and community management and Dazed handling PR, the rest of the project was managed entirely by White Horse and Folch. The sheer size of the project meant we needed a large, dynamic and capable team to create a huge variety of content. We expanded our team significantly as we took on the responsibility for event management, production, art direction, animation, print and digital design, as well as designing the stage itself. 

Generating content

Each production was designed to generate content for a series of social media assets for Bershka to use to communicate the On Stage concept and create hype around each event. Assets included sponsored Ad Display & Social Ads as well as organic posts for Instagram, Facebook & Twitter, using motion graphics, Super 8 and digital videos, and images. We also designed a newsletter sent out to Bershka’s global database to generate interest ahead of the event. The bulk of the printed assets was in the form of in-store promotional displays and printed artwork. We developed posters, flyers, and stickers to be included in an influencer kit for attendees. We also developed a presskit for media partners. 

A transversal visual language

We chose a bright, bold, recognisable red for the colour scheme. This red was used across all online and offline assets, including text, banners below an images and video content, for bitmap images – for everything. The aim was to create consistency across all communications. For the typeface we chose Mars, a typeface with two distinct weights, extended and condensed. Combining these weights gave On Stage rhythm, movement and a distinct identity, as well as allowing us to easily integrate it with the existing Bershka logo. Finally, we incorporated the outline of a planet to some of the motion graphics to communicate the global scale of the project, and highlight the specific cities. 

A world in motion

A major part of the campaign was motion graphics. Almost every single asset was animated, bringing the branding alive while creating a consistent sense of dynamism that was communicated across every channel and via every platform. The bright red banner animation that accompanied every video or image on social media was also featured on the edging of the stage itself, further demonstrating the transmedia nature of the campaign.

Liquid communication

The project needed to be communicated fluidly, adapting to every medium, both online and offline, to engage with different opinion makers and to reach a global audience. We separated the strategy into three distinct phases, before, during and after the event. Each event followed the same communications strategy to create consistency and allow for an easy and seamless transition from one event and artist to the next, essential for a series of this scale.

Artist curation

In order to create a lot of noise and to get access to the kind of artists that would speak for the brand’s values and communicate the right attitude, Bershka needed to bring in a media company with guts. We put forward Dazed Magazine as the right media partner for the project. Dazed came on board to curate and manage the artist selection across all six events. For the first event they narrowed down the selection and eventually honed in on UK duo, Let’s Eat Grandma, and for the second they selected up and coming Argentine singer and composer who fuses soul, jazz, rap, salsa and swing.

Part of the partnership meant Dazed would also be publishing a series of editorials about the collaboration. As well as the ongoing partnership with Dazed, the project was also covered by a number of different fashion and music magazines, including Vein, Fashion United, Metal Magazine, Glamour, and Harpers Bazaar, among many others.

Transversal Website

We designed a specific On Stage website to host the content as well as allowing access to the live streaming. The webpage has three phases: the PRE where you can enter the Onstage competition to get your tickets and get some info related to the concert and the Incoming Artist; the LIVE where we livestream the concert and enable a GET THE LOOK live where you can buy the clothes your favourite artists are wearing at the moment of the concert; the POST where you can see all the content of the Concert (Q&A, Pictures, Videos) and we start the rotation for the next On Stage artist. The focus is always on the next artist, with a countdown to the show featuring on the main page as well as an index of the whole tour in the form of a banner. The artists’ pages include an ‘about’ section as well as a Q&A.

Production in three stages

Communications were set to start 15 days before each concert so working backwards from each live streamed event, we managed a series of different shootings at Manhattan Studio in Barcelona to provide content during the run up. Backstage we had a broad team composed of graphic designers, motion designers, art director, director of photography, cinema director, photographer, artists and a production crew, working on everything from the shootings to the live event in tandem with the Bershka communication department and Dazed. 

01 Artist introduction

White Horse produced and directed a backstage shooting with each artist, styled by Bershka, ahead of their concert in London. This first production led to a series of assets announcing the event, introducing the artist, allowing users to choose which songs they should add to their setlist, and finally a Q&A. The shooting, directed by Aitor Bigas with Pol González as DOP and Teddy Iborra as photographer, involved an intimate interview with the duo using a mixture of Super 8 and digital footage, inspired by ‘Backstage with Jorja Smith’ for British Vogue and with art direction, featuring bold colours and a clean set, loosely inspired by Drake’s music video for ‘Hotline Bling.’ The idea was to create an On Stage – Off Stage dialogue, giving an insight into the lives of each artist.

02 Capsule collection

A key aspect of Bershka On Stage is that a Bershka’s limited edition capsule collection would be designed by two of the six artist-influencers. Nathy Peluso was curated by Dazed to be the first artist to collaborate with Bershka. In order to communicate this, White Horse produced and directed a behind the scenes shooting of the chosen artists designing the capsule collection with Bershka’s team. The shooting took on the same style, using a mixture of digital and super 8 footage and edited with a selection of raw and dynamic behind the scenes images.

03 Live streamed event

The first event took place on London’s most famous commercial area, Oxford Street. The second took place in Barcelona’s iconic club, Razzmatazz. For the third, we took the team to Berlin. The fourth event happened in Milan. For the fifth concert, the event took place in the distinguished Palais de Tokyo in Paris. All of the events were attended by an extensive list of social media influencers and Bershka VIP’s as well as the general public who registered to attend the event via the website. Directed by Aitor Bigas with Pol González as DOP,  White Horse and Folch managed absolutely everything from event planning, production, lighting and set design to sound and art direction. 

Where digital meets physical

Producing a global series of events, simultaneously physical and digital, in order to generate a huge variety of content for both online and offline communications in a massive transversal campaign encapsulates the concept of ‘new narratives.’ The results in terms of reach and engagement were a great success. The first live streaming was watched by nearly 40,000 people (25,493 iOS + 14,402 Android) in almost 20 different countries. 

For the following concert we decided to rescale the project, further combining the different platforms under one overarching strategy. Rather than live streaming the event via the website, we decided to migrate the streaming to Instagram Live, Instagram Stories, IGTV and YouTube, using the microsite more as an archive for people wanting to find out more about the artists and Bershka On Stage. 

For each concert we aim to understand both the challenges and opportunities, to measure our impact, adapting the formula to reach and engage new audiences more successfully across a wider variety of formats.