American Express & Summer Series at Somerset House

Big Fish facilitated a 3-year headline partnership between American Express and the Summer Series at Somerset House, working in close conjunction with American Express’s agency, Momentum.

Business Challenges

Provide relevant rewards for the American Express preferred seating programme

Deliver up-weighted experiences for American Express card members

Opportunity to promote the reward scheme and association with the event

Produce compelling artist content for use on Amex portals

Solution

The Summer Series of 10 gigs takes place each July in the courtyard of the iconic Somerset House in central London. Now in its 13th year, the gigs are renowned for their eclectic mix of talent, with each show pulling in a crowd of at least 3,000.

This breadth of talent provides American Express with rewards that appeal to a wide range of card members. The partnership delivers American Express with a level of tickets for an exclusive 72 hour pre-sale period for their card members, and also a provision of VIP tickets for an upgraded experience.

The ability to promote this reward scheme through above-the-line media, with the use of the integrated event billing ‘The Summer Series at Somerset House with American Express’, means that for non-American Express customers the perceived benefits of becoming a card member are clear.

For those card members that took advantage of the preferred seating programme with Somerset House and attended the shows, the partnership enabled American Express to provide an exclusive branded terrace catering for 200 of their customers. This extended to an after-show party with celebrity DJ talent performing.

The partnership also provided American Express with access to artists in order to take backstage interview content for use on Amex channels, post event. In 2011 this content took the form of an exclusive conversation with Blondie.