About the show
Internationally renowned ballet superstar Carlos Acosta brings his critically acclaimed Cuban dance company Acosta Danza to venues across the UK, with a programme of four new and existing works. The first piece in the programme, Paysage, Soudain, la nuit, is by visionary Swedish choreographer Pontus Lidberg, and celebrates youth between twilights and dawns in rumba – a genre of traditional Cuban music with African roots. The second, Impronta, was created specially for Acosta Danza by Spanish choreographer Maria Rovira, who provided the choreography for Yuli – the recent film of Carlos Acosta’s life. A solo piece, it brings together modern and contemporary dance in an evocation of folk dances of Afro-Cuban heritage.
Video trailer
Faun is Flemish-Moroccan Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s interpretation of L’Après-midi d’un faune, set to Nitin Sawhney’s take on the instantly recognisable score by Debussy. Originally commissioned by Sadler’s Wells, Faun sheds its cultural baggage and becomes in itself dual or multiple, primeval and modern, suddenly uprooted from history and geography. Finally, Carlos Acosta makes a guest appearance in the iconic Rooster, choreographed by Christopher Bruce to music by the Rolling Stones. A celebration of the music and of the times these tracks were recorded, the result is a battle of the sexes, with preening cockerels that symbolise the stylish but chauvinistic young men, while the women look on with ironic amusement at the male posturing.
Content creation
HdK created a variety of digital assets to promote the UK tour of Acosta Danza’s Evolution, including videos, graphics and GIFs. In addition to the main trailer, for which we filmed footage of each piece being performed on stage at Sadler’s Wells, we worked with the dance company to film three feature videos, interviewing members of the company on stage. These videos include one on Carlos Acosta and his legacy, one looking at what makes Acosta Danza such a unique company and another exploring the Cuban influence in the programme. Working with the marketing team, we ensured that each asset built upon the polished aesthetic of the main campaign, using a variety of production photos to showcase the dancers and the striking dynamics of each piece. We also produced a number of animated videos, including compilations of key press quotes, review GIFs, dynamic posters and stills featuring media quotes and tweets from audience members.
Carlos Acosta interview
Acosta Danza, Faun. Photo: Johan Persson
Digital Marketing
Using key learnings from past social media campaigns with Dance Consortium, we established a digital marketing strategy, coordinating with key agencies to create a calendar to maximise awareness and engagement surrounding the tour. This included social media activity (with a combination of organic and paid posts), email marketing campaigns, web content, digital advertising across Facebook Ads Manager and Google Ads, and venue outreach.
The Company
Audience reactions
Targets
Our aims for the Acosta campaign are centred around increasing awareness for the tour, engaging young and diverse audiences, and supporting the venues. As such, they are centred around these, with objectives including follower/subscriber milestones, website sessions, advertising impressions, asset views and social media posts from venues.
Throughout each campaign, we monitor analytics and provide regular reports to ensure that we can optimise results ongoing. This culminates in an end-of-campaign report, in which we break down what has and hasn’t worked well, educating our strategies ongoing and providing the opportunity to make recommendations for the following tour.