‘How about a crazy drag queen with a megaphone?’
Indulge us for a moment. It all sounds quite mad, but actually far more relevant than it may first appear. Barley House Agency had just undergone a dramatic brand re-positioning, with a shiny new proposition – Helping Brave Brands Become Remarkable – taking something brave and making it truly outstanding.
What we wanted was a launch campaign that would shake things up. A lot. There was no point in playing it safe, we needed to get people talking about us and sharing on social media. After weeks of research and phone calls we struck glitzy gold in the form of ‘Rougie’, a 6’5” Bournemouth-based drag queen, and arranged a call to chat the idea through. ‘Sounds amazing, right up my street, I’m in’.
Perfect. Well, almost. We then had the task of co-ordinating all of the media planning, logistics, social media scheduling, filming and editing ahead of Gay Pride London on the 7th July. ‘It would have been pointless to blend in with all of the Pride festivities – we needed to stand out like a drag beacon’ says Marketing Manager Sonia Turnbull ‘the race was on’.
Thankfully we managed to call in a few big favours from our media student friends at Elstree UTC, who helped us get all of the video footage and photography nailed ahead of the planned brand activation and social media support.
Off camera, between takes ‘Rougie’ was quizzed about her bravest achievement to date. Without missing a beat she said ‘coming here and doing this session is pretty terrifying’.
Check out Rougie’s story below
Find out more about our remarkable adventure with Rougie here.