Published : Thu 29th Sep
When the critically acclaimed film 'The Dig' launched at the end of January 2021, covering the dramatic story of the archaeological discoveries at Sutton Hoo, it created an opportunity to put Archaeology and some of our most historic places at the centre of our story.
February started with an extreme buzz after the film release and there were over 200,000 page views on the Sutton Hoo home page over the first weekend alone! A cross discipline team of marketing, website, visitor experience, member engagement and archaeologists worked together to ensure interesting and engaging follow up content was available. This excellent example of cross directorate, specialist and regional working, focused on three properties; Sutton Hoo, Chedworth and Fountains Abbey. The team featured articles on the newly established Archaeologist's blog written by Trust archaeologists such as Angus Wainwright, who outlined his personal reflections on the digs and discoveries at Sutton Hoo. These focused blogs proved very popular, with over 13,000 hits to date, and further blog posts – on subjects as varied as historic graffiti or conflict archaeology – continue to be added. We also created behind the scenes tour videos, activity packs and much more across the three locations with great success.
This excellent example of collaborative working has shown how the complex and compelling archaeological stories at our places can capture the attention of the public, sparking curiosity, creativity and connection. These are stories more than worthy of the Hollywood treatment and we hope to build on them in 2022 and 2023.
