Vicky Beercock

Idea

To mark the launch of Vintage festival, the ultimate celebration of British creative culture, and to celebrate the 80th birthday of a British creative icon, Sir Peter Blake, we re-created the iconic Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover with the help of a cornucopia of British creative icons and influences, and the man himself, Sir Peter Blake.

The image was made up of the following components:

1. Wayne Hemingway, Sir Peter Blake and two headline talent names at the centre of the shot, replacing the Beatles.

2. Vintage festival partners and curators showcasing the key looks and movements of British culture.

3. A collage of British icons from six pillars of Vintage: music, art, design, film, fashion and food from the 1920’s to the early 1990’s.

4. A series of props and British design classics provided by the Land of Lost Content and the V&A.

Why then?

In 2012 there were three relevant milestones:

1. Sir Peter Blake’s 80th birthday.

2. 45th anniversary of the release of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

3. London 2012 meant that British culture, history and pride were high on the media agenda.

Execution

The image was created in two phases:

1. A live shoot at the stunning new festival site, Boughton, the English Versailles. The shoot was to be made up of the Hemingway family, props, festival curators and partners in front of Boughton House.

2. Sir Peter Blake re-created the iconic collage of cultural icons (alive and deceased) around the photograph.

Amplification

• The image was syndicated to all press and image wires, with an accompanying press announcement of the project.

• Media interviews were placed with Wayne Hemingway and Sir Peter Blake.

• We approached each of the talent included in the photo (those alive) to source a quote for the press release.

• Content and information around each of the icons were sourced and placed on the Vintage social media channels, introducing or reminding the community of the work of each of the British icons included in the image.

• A behind the scenes video was created of the process of the recreation.

• A social media campaign encouraged people to send in their own pictures to be included in a separate recreation of an album cover of Vintage festival-goers.

On-Site Amplification

• A band-stand was to be created on-site featuring ‘Sgt Pepper’s Mystery Hearts Club Band’. A live band was to be joined on stage by a mystery guest vocalist to cover each of the songs from one of the nation’s favourite albums. Media were to be invited to watch performances and interview acts.

• Competition prize for attendees at Vintage Festival were to be photographed by Sir Peter Blake as part of a festival collage. One group photograph per day.

RESULTS

• This achieved 400 pieces of coverage across 11 countries,

• The 8th most read on BBC.com,

• We were the ‘and finally’ piece on the News at 10.

• ROI 83:1