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Move it, lose it or rework it? Fearne Cotton's Happy Place Festival goes virtual

By The Drum Network, Staff Writer

July 8, 2020 | 3 min read

Award-winning content agency, Starstruck, is helping Fearne Cotton and her followers get into the festival spirit, as the production partner for this year’s Happy Place Festival.

In its second year, Happy Place Festival, devised by talent agency YM&U, is a celebration of wellness, mindfulness, health and inspiration that follows on from broadcaster, Fearne’s highly-acclaimed Happy Place Podcast and her best-selling book, Happy.

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the event was set to be held in London in August and Cheshire in September but will now be available as a virtual festival from 12 June. The event is free to access here.

Working closely with YM&U’s client brief, the Starstruck team has worked across more than 120 pieces of content during the lockdown. An interactive site map will help users navigate between talks with celebrity guests and inspiring individuals to creative and fitness workshops and mindfulness classes, with all video content held in different areas and online tepees.

James Delow, Starstruck’s creative director, commented: “Trying to unlock the festival spirit in a virtual setting is difficult but we wanted to find a way to help elevate self-shot content and create the welcoming atmosphere that Fearne generates so amazingly at the physical events.

“Working closely with YM&U’s head of content, Will O’Connor, we’ve been remote filming for the last six weeks, using multi-camera set-ups on the key content pillars to ensure heightened production value for the amazing two-way conversations between Fearne and her contributors. We’re also helping create an appoint-to-view schedule for ‘festival goers’ with a series of live playouts throughout the month of June. There are obvious challenges with filming everything remotely, but like a lot of brands currently, the team were facing a choice: pivot to a digital format or face cancellation. We’re absolutely delighted to help YM&U bring the festival to life in a very unique way.”

Starstruck’s production work on Happy Place marks the start of a summer of virtual content for the agency who are working with talent and corporate clients to re-work physical events into streamed ones. The team are currently re-imagining concepts for Shell, Virgin and LinkedIn.

Starstruck, whose clients include British Airways, WWE, MTV and the BBC, operates in London and Los Angeles, creating award-winning content series, human-interest stories, documentaries and live broadcasts for brands in sectors spanning travel, sport, television and publishing.

Technology The Drum Network

Content created with:

Starstruck

Blending brand, broadcast and experiential. Award-winning content, strategy and live. Clients: @Shell, @BBC, @AmericanAir, @SonyMusic, @British_Airways, @WWE

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