Bletchley Park

Rebranding the home of code-breaking

Brand strategy
Brand identity
Brand campaigns
Brand architecture
Brand assets
Brand guidelines
Brand activation
Exhibition graphics
Signage and wayfinding
Packaging design
Art direction
Tone of voice

Client

Bletchley Park is a place of exceptional, global historical importance. It is a unique British visitor attraction, celebrating the brilliance that changed the world through code-breaking, computing and electronic security.

Brief

As one of Britain’s best kept secrets for more than 50 years, it was no surprise that awareness of Bletchley Park and its significance, was low. To generate awareness and increase visitor figures, The Bletchley Park Trust asked Rose to help them develop their brand to become more sustainable and enable growth in audiences, revenue and commercial opportunities.

Solution

Rose advised Bletchley Park that their brand needed to be relevant to the present and future, not just the past – a brand that could help Bletchley Park attract more individuals, families and groups locally, nationally and internationally. We proposed that what had made Bletchley Park so special, was the unique combination of the brilliant minds who could see patterns within the code, together with the army of practically minded people collating the findings at speed. As a result, Rose defined the Bletchley Park brand strategy with the essence – ‘Practical Intelligence’. Rose employed this principle to create the Bletchley Park brand identity, defining a ‘Bletchley Park way of doing things’ across all brand touch-points, to connect with new audiences, attract commercial partners and increase revenue streams.

Results

Establishing consistent brand principles and assets has allowed Bletchley Park to diversify into new areas, building commercial relationships and partnerships (including BT, BAE Systems, Google and Facebook) to become more sustainable and enable long term growth. Positioning them as ‘The Home of the Codebreakers’ has also allowed them to take ownership of codebreaking on an international scale, and recognised as the leading authority on the subject. In the first year following the rebrand by Rose, visitor figures increased by 43%¹. In addition to winning several international creative awards for our rebrand, The Bletchley Park Trust has also been honoured with numerous prestigious industry awards, including the ‘Best Attraction for Group Visits’ at the Group Travel Awards for four consecutive years, and Gold in the ‘Large Visitor Attraction of the Year’ category at the 2023–2024 Beautiful South Awards.

¹ Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) visitor figures