Black Lab Films were charged with creating a series of films that were crafted as intimate poetic journals that put the nations epic seascapes, beautiful beaches and coastal communities front and centre.

Our over-arching challenge was building and reinforcing a new visual identity for Wales.

Black Lab Films brief was to promote Wales to the world as a 21st century coastal destination for adventure & life-style explorers. Putting the nations epic seascapes, beautiful beaches and coastal communities front and centre of Visit Wales brand voice. Moreover reinforcing Wales as a world leading sports, adventure and cultural destination by challenging any ‘bucket and spade’ perceptions of the country with on-brand emotive story telling that inspired, moved and motivated.

Approach

We concluded that we needed powerful modern Welsh voices, vital ambassadors from the sports and adventure sector, to tell their stories. Black Lab Films response was to delve deeper, crafting journeys that felt like the intimate journals of our ambassadors, charting both the geography of the Welsh landscape in their words, and their emotional relationship with it. Having chosen well known sporting and adventure icons, so began our journey.

The journal concept gave us the opportunity to showcase the vast diversity of the Welsh landscape through a lyrical lens. We also wove the changeable nature of Wales weather into each narrative – something Visit Wales were keen to embrace with honesty, heart and vigour. – owning it, rather than trying to apologies for it. It rains in Wales and we love it.

The poetic scripts, voiced by the ambassadors, were odes to the heart and spirt of Wales.

The Result

• Black Lab Films saw a 45% Increase in Visit Wales’ social media followers, taking the total close to 1m.
• 5 million+ unique visitors to the Visit Wales website in the past 12 months.
• North Wales voted as the 4th ‘top location’ in the world to Visit, according to Lonely Planet’s annual ‘Best in Travel’ list.