Stephen Donohue

Case study 04 of 06

Puzzled? You will be.

Client
WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre
Year
2024
My role
Creative lead: concept, messaging, visual system, campaign rollout
Team
Me; the creative director on the initial concept
Disciplines
Campaign, copywriting, art direction, environmental graphics, digital
Clear Channel billboard on a roadside: D is for flamingo? Crack the Summer Code Breakers Trail. A girl looks up, puzzled.
On the road into Slimbridge.

The brief

Get more people looking, and lingering, at Slimbridge’s wetlands during the summer holidays.

The insight

Families don’t come to watch birds. They come to do something together. Give them something to work out, and looking closely becomes the point of the day.

The idea

Crack the Summer Code Breakers Trail. Each giant letter hides an animal, and each question is slightly wrong on purpose: D is for flamingo? Letters hidden around the reserve spell out a phrase, Wetlands are amazing, and cracking it puts families in the draw for an annual family membership.

The line does the inviting: Puzzled? You will be.

Eight yellow letters, each hiding an animal: D is for flamingo, G for otter, R for pelican, I for tree frog, T for kingfisher, S for avocet, N for tufted duck, A for nene.
Eight letters, eight animals, each question slightly wrong.

Three decisions

A question, not a statement.

D is for flamingo? stops people because it’s wrong. The mistake is the hook, and it works from a 48-sheet to a leaflet.

A magazine advert with “I is for tree frog?” beside the WWT website showing the trail.
Press and web carry the same question.

Species chosen from WWT’s own research.

The featured animals came from WWT’s audience research into what visitors engage with most, so the trail leads people to the animals they want to find.

Two children at a yellow Word Search? board on a post in the wetland grass, one pointing at the grid.
On the trail: the word search board.
A basket of yellow trail leaflets reading PUZZLED?
Leaflets at the entrance.

Inside WWT’s new guidelines.

The yellow, the cut-out letters and the playful type sit within the new WWT brand, rather than starting a sub-brand that would be gone by September.

The campaign lock-up: Crack the Summer Code Breakers Trail in dark green on yellow, inside a dotted trail line.
The campaign lock-up.
Digital 48-sheet for WWT Martin Mere: D is for flamingo? with a family looking puzzled. Can you crack the Code Breakers Trail this summer?
The same campaign on a digital 48-sheet for WWT Martin Mere.

Who did what

The creative director and I developed the initial concept from several directions. I then took it on alone: I shaped the idea, wrote the messaging, designed the visual system and produced the rollout across OOH, press, web, social, leaflets and on-site signage.

What happened next

The trail ran on site through the summer holidays: letter posts across the reserve, puzzle boards, leaflets at the entrance and hanging signs in the shop. Numbers were up that summer.