Hampstead Theatre
Bringing an iconic theatre into the digital age
Hampstead Theatre was born in a humble hut over fifty years ago with a simple mission: to create original theatre without creative restriction.
Hampstead Theatre have come a long way since then and are now recognized as one of London’s most vibrant theatres, occupy a theatre which was purpose built for the 21st century to allow our writers, actors, directors and producers maximum creative flexibility.
The brief
Hampstead Theatre’s old website wasn’t reflecting the theatre’s incredible success, vibrant brand or hugely respected position in the community. It was visually out of date and difficult to use on modern devices leading to lower than average conversion rates.
Whilst Hampstead Theatre were happy with the existing CMS, with the recent launch of an update, they also wanted to upgrade the CMS to improve the efficiency of day-to-day updates which are vital to sell tickets effectively.
Our approach
As a result, 7DOTS began to create a new website with a focus on creating a new design and user experience that was fit for the modern age.
The strength of the theatre’s visual identity meant that the website needed to be visually striking, better reflect the brand online and provide a consistent look and feel across all devices - building trust and ultimately encouraging more people to book online. There were a number of technical challenges involved in building the site, not least the integration with the theatre’s ticketing system which had to work in perfect harmony with the back office. The website also experiences traffic spikes when plays are featured in press articles. To help minimise the risk of downtime, SilverStripe platform was used to host the website and provide security and scalability.
The outcome
Following the launch of the new site, online sales of theatre tickets saw a significant increase and now accounts for 70% of all ticket sales. Year-on-year, organic traffic is up by 12%.
The site has been extremely well received by the theatre’s customers, with the majority of positive feedback centred around the look and feel of the site and ease of use.
Hampstead Theatre themselves have been particularly pleased with how well the brand has been translated onto the new site, and how simple the content is to manage - allowing them to market and sell more tickets than ever before.
