City of Hampton

The Problem

To coincide with the arrival of the tall ships in Hampton Roads, Virginia, during the OpSail 2000 event, the city of Hampton started an annual festival based on local connections to the infamous pirate Blackbeard. With five neighboring cities all having festivals on the same weekend, creating advertising that stood out was essential in order to get a share of the tens of thousands of visitors coming to the area.

The Solution

The print campaign we created helped set the tone for the festival itself, celebrating the city’s pirate-related history in a fun way. While the ads never quite went overboard with their “colorful” details about Blackbeard’s life and times, they always came pretty close. Of all the festivals started during OpSail 2000, only this one has endured to become one of the area’s most popular and distinctive annual family events.