How did we help?
Marketing strategy
Conceptual creative
Design
Paid social
Goal
To increase awareness of the museum shop and drive both in‑store and online Christmas sales through a bold, high‑impact creative approach.
Client: Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM)
When the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) approached Chalk & Ward in late summer, their ambition was to transform the museum shop into a must‑visit Christmas destination for gifts.
The challenges.
As part of the Government’s Museums Renewal Fund, this was an opportunity to reframe the way audiences discovered, and valued, the hidden gem tucked inside one of Exeter’s most iconic cultural spaces.
The campaign strategy began with a clear understanding of the challenges at hand: a centrally located but largely undiscovered shop, limited time to deliver, and the age-old question for retailers at Christmas – how do you stand out when everyone else is shouting too?
With no shop window and a listed building restricting traditional signage, we needed an approach that grabbed attention fast and guided audiences directly to the doors or to the online shop. Our solution was a bold, multi‑channel strategy that combined witty, memorable creative with smart media choices.
Bold, Bright and Pun-Intended.
Humorous wordplay, vibrant visuals and a confident tone helped RAMM cut through the festive noise. By leaning into humour, the Christmas campaign offered a refreshing alternative to traditional holiday sentimentality, giving the brand a fun, memorable and bright personality.
To help push awareness of both the museum and the shop within it, we developed witty straplines that played on the RAMM name, including ‘RAMMed with gifts’ and “cRAMM it in your stocking” which paired perfectly with the bold colours and geometric shapes already established in the brand guidelines.
These headline concepts formed the centrepiece of the campaign but we also developed a more descriptive strapline which encouraged people to ‘Discover a new world of gifts at Exeter’s museum’. This helped to draw attention to the location (as many people may not know the name RAMM) and was a clever way to reference the unique nature of the gifts to be found.
Unwrapping a new audience on digital.
With such a visual campaign, we planned our digital strategy to run paid ads on Meta and Pinterest as the platforms naturally attract more considered, inspiration‑seeking shoppers rather than those prioritising price and convenience. This approach also ensured we were using our budget wisely, avoiding unnecessary competition with bigger players on Google.
To maximise impact, we targeted a local audience, who were likely to know the museum but hadn’t yet discovered the shop, and who favoured choosing unique gifts and supporting local businesses. We wanted to showcase RAMM’s curated collection of stocking fillers, global treasures and locally made gifts to encourage both footfall and direct click-through to the online shop.
We created digital ads and carousels that quickly showed a selection of gift ideas and were book-ended with our conceptual headline and strapline to build consistency with the rest of the campaign.
Bringing the campaign into the real world.
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Offline, maximising impact was just as important. Knowing that almost all the shop’s revenue came from in‑store purchases, we leaned into traditional marketing to help drive footfall. It also gave us the perfect opportunity to showcase the fun, bright campaign throughout the streets of Exeter.
Although the museum is a listed building, we made creative use of its impressive pillars by installing wrap‑around signage to capture shoppers’ attention. We complemented this with digital screens in key locations such as the train station, external panels on buses travelling across the city and printed ads in several popular local magazines. This all contributed to an increase in visibility and encouraging people to ‘avoid the Christmas RAMMpage’ on their usual high‑street route and head to the Shop at RAMM instead.
A Christmas to remember!
The 2025 Christmas campaign for the Shop at RAMM delivered record-breaking results, driving a £10k year‑on‑year increase in total sales for the Christmas period and boosting both transaction volume and average spend.
The biggest leap came from the online shop, where revenue increased sixfold, rising from 1% to 4% of overall profit. This uplift was fuelled by a 33% increase in conversion rate and a 70% surge in web sessions, highlighting a highly engaged and motivated audience.
All In all, these results cement the campaign as the Shop at RAMM’s most successful Christmas performance to date.
Testimonial
“It’s been great working with Chalk & Ward; the team really understand our brand and values. They have produced excellent work for us which has resulted in a significant uplift in shop customers and revenue. The whole team are friendly, knowledgeable, collaborative and creative, and we look forward to continuing to work with them on new projects in the future. Thanks Emily, Gemma, Al and all!“
Nicki MicCaskie / Marketing and Communications Offer / RAMM
