Festina Lente Collective Amsterdam

CASE
6/7

City of Utrecht: Trajectum Lumen

Trajectum Lumen is an event combining light, art and storytelling that takes place every night of the year in Utrecht city centre. The event was initiated as part of the city’s marketing strategy to increase the amount of over-night tourists. The city council asked Festina Lente, in cooperation with Habbekrats, to develop the brand and marketing strategy.

www.trajectumlumen.nl

What we did:

- Strategy

- Visual Identity

- Campaign

- Print

- Website

- App

- Video

invitees walking the route for the first time april 7, 2010

Trajectum Lumen itself is a ninety-minute walk through the centre of Utrecht, taking in bridges, churches and other significant buildings from the city’s past and present. These monuments have been specially illuminated to create an enchanting atmosphere after the sun goes down, turning Utrecht into a stage for bewitching tales and stories. Trajectum Lumen takes place every day from sunset until midnight, and is open to all and completely free.

Creative direction
Remy Harrewijn

Creative direction
Victor Ponten

Art direction
Reinier van der Ven

Graphic design
Reinier van der Ven

Graphic design
Tom Bogman

Spatial design
HIK ontwerpers

Technical direction
Tom Walter

Web development
Marvin de Bruin

I-phone app development
Eelke Feenstra

Android app development
Mobile Movement

Animation
Marlies van der Wel

Sound design
Arjen Schut

Public relations
Lieke Timmermans

Social media
Anne Heijs

Project support
Nico de Haan

Project support
Andre Malotaux

Project support
Frieder Wallis

A Utrecht Tale of Light

logo

After detailed research into the product values and target groups, we decided to create a brand positioned somewhere between an amusement park and a museum. A brand that would be equally entertaining and informative, and tell great stories in a beautiful, visually appealing way.

Luman's facebook profile picture

The result was a fictional character who would not only appeal to the public, but could also become a strong marketing tool for the whole of Utrecht: Luman, Utrecht’s Lord of the Night, who would guide you through the city‘s dark secrets.

scenery and relations (selection)

Teaser phase

To create a buzz around the event before the launch, we introduced Luman to the people of Utrecht via a series of guerrilla actions.

We made the Schiller Theatre in the Korte Minrebroederstraat Lumen’s temporary home in Utrecht. During the day, you could him snoring away in the basement, while at night he’d be hard at work on his creations for the city.

Schiller theater: house of Luman

Lumen’s physical residence was complemented by a campaign website that showed a sleeping city during the day, that came to life at night when Lumen was at work. At dusk or dawn you could see the website change from its day status to night.

teaser website

lanterns, footsteps and construction signs

flyers, before and after

You could also see Lumen’s handiwork in the rest of the Utrecht as he left signs, footsteps, lanterns and flyers all over the city.

The flyers featured transparent stickers that could be stuck to a random light source. During the first phase of the campaign these stickers featured Lumen’s lantern, later his profile picture.

count down to its launch event, projected on the Neude

As for today

Thanks to all this publicity, around 50,000 visitors took the Trajectum Lumen walk in 2010. Nowadays the local Tourism Agency is in charge of promoting Trajectum Lumen. One of their special activities remains the guided tour. And guess who’s in charge…

desktop website

We did our utmost to try and capture the majesty and beauty of the Trajectum Lumen experience in online form, and we think the fact that that 80% of all visitors to the site viewed the film all the way through shows that we did something right. Lumen leads you on a tour of all the locations and artworks, and will even do a moonwalk for you along the way. There’s also a HTML version available so you can view it on your smart phone. The website won a silver W3 award in 2012.

In 2012 iPhone and Android apps were launched. As well as the Trajectum Lumen city map, they contained a GPS-navigated scouting expedition.

iphone & android application

route card and map display

For people without a smart phone, or people who just prefer a more hands on experience, we also made good old-fashioned maps, available at all the tourist spots in town.

While the other old school media we used, the poster, was placed along all the important roads and routes into Utrecht.

Finally, the bus adverts really drove the campaign forward.