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How rug designer Luke Irwin used video to tell the story behind his latest collection

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By Jessica Davis | Consultant Journalist

October 12, 2016 | 4 min read

Rug designer Luke Irwin knew that the story behind his latest collection was a little bit special, so he approached creative agency Manifesto to bring it to life with a range of video assets.

Luke Irwin

While converting a barn on his property in Deverill Valley into a table tennis room for his children, Irwin was alerted by builders to the existence of floor tiling which turned out to be an untouched Roman mosaic, part of a villa built between 175 AD and 220 AD, lain around 1,700 years prior. The mosaic, enriched with autumnal colours, stretched for 50m square, and subsequently became the inspiration of Irwin’s Mosaic Collection.

Manifesto was responsible for the concept, planning and shaping of the story, in addition to production of the videos based around a 10-minute documentary film. These included 3D renders of what the villa would have looked like in 200AD, which gained coverage on BBC News, Sky, and several other national news outputs.

By embedding the YouTube documentary onto the website, users were invited to follow the mindset behind the designs and educate themselves on the rich history behind the product. The video presents Luke Irwin talking into the camera, discussing the discovery and how this developed into the plans for a new collection.

mosaic

By casting the face of the company as the narrator, Luke humanises the brand. Viewers could see the personality behind the product and therefore buy into the entire idea, rather than just a quality rug. The campaign aims to break the boundaries between brand and consumer by introducing the reality behind the scenes of advertising.

By revealing snippets of the findings across all platforms of social media, the agency could tease followers and engage them with snapshots of the grounds and final designs. This relationship encouraged a large following because it allowed the brand to breathe a common interest into their products: resuscitating history and converting it into a fashion.

rug

The brand created emotive content that resonates and inspires its audience into positive action for its product – the material was adapted to suit the platforms it appeared on, including broadcast news, YouTube and Facebook, illustrating the ways in which video can be angled to suit certain platforms, target audiences and adapt to behaviours across different digital platforms.

In the best examples, the story is ‘baked’ into the brand. Therefore, longform video is an extremely powerful way to show the brand in action. In the case of the Luke Irwin Mosaic collection, the product is nothing without the story; it’s simply a rug - albeit a very beautiful and luxurious rug. Yet, when somebody buys the rug they are buying into the story. It’s something they can connect with, that means something to them and it is a story they will want to share with others - helping the story live on.

The documentary has reached audiences that wanted to follow a story, in addition to people needing a piece of furniture. The execution has flipped the traditional relationship with customers on its head and reached a new level of communication that Luke Irwin will continue to apply as his audience grows.

Al Hutchison is motion content director at Manifesto.

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