Engaging with Village Underground and EartH’s cultural segments
Village Underground and EartH · Freelance Marketing and Editorial
Apr 2014 - Sep 2022 · Shoreditch
Creative copy for regular newsletters that boosted open rates and click through rates from 15% to 25-35% across 50k+ subscribers
Targeting copy for audience segmentation
Delivering brand personality and tone of voice training for marketing teams
In 2014 I started writing the weekly newsletters and website copy for Village Underground to promote their live and club shows. In 2007 the converted Shoreditch warehouse had a burnt out car in its centre and earth on the ground. Ravers flocked to the former Victoran viaduct and it became a new hub for underground parties and live music. By the time I joined the team, Hackney and especially Shoreditch had already undergone huge changes to the area. Working with the Head of Marketing, I helped to develop Village Underground’s brand personality and tone of voice. This needed to reflect the venue’s starting point at the forefront of music trends and clubbing in the city, whilst providing tempting copy and information to promote ticket sales and the profile of the venue. The newsletters take a broad look across the highlights of the venue’s disparate programming, speaking to numerous music tastes and genres. My challenge each week was to research each artist or performer, and promote their work in a way that both a newcomer and avid fan would find appealing.
Over the years I received extensive training from strategic research consultancy Morris Hargreaves McIntyre (MHM). Through an in-depth understanding of Village Underground’s audience segments, I was able to increase our newsletter open rates from 15% to 25-35% across 50k+ subscribers. I’ve also delivered training on MHM’s cultural segments and lead tone of voice and brand personality training sessions for the marketing team at VU. The copy I created has since been used by MHM to demonstrate keen awareness of audience segments.
When we launched a new arts centre, EartH, in 2019, I was able to use my knowledge of cultural segments to develop EartH’s tone of voice and brand personality, which has a slightly different profile. Through crowdfunders and COVID-19 lockdowns, this understanding has helped me to craft and refine the ways our marketing team interacts with our audiences, now speaking on a much larger scale, but remaining true to those initial days as an underground cultural space.