World Monuments Fund

PROJECT: Heritage Brand Strategy & Cultural Positioning for World Monuments Fund

CLIENT: World Monuments Fund

YEAR: 2023-2024

Ahead of a new website launch, international heritage organisation World Monuments Fund (WMF) sought to broaden its appeal to new audiences and donors while retaining the trust of its established community. The project led us to ask how complex cultural work could be communicated in ways that felt relevant and resonant without losing its depth or authority. Aetia looked within and beyond the organisation to understand the cultural interests, behaviours and adjacent media habits of the younger, culturally curious audience WMF wanted to reach, and uncovered an opportunity to move away from an academic, institution-led approach towards storytelling that was more direct, human and connected to the wider cultural significance of the places WMF preserves and their built heritage. 

Aetia developed a new tone of voice and messaging strategy, alongside brand and copy guidelines, and centred the people living and working at WMF sites within the wider histories of the places they preserve. The strategy was translated into website content and user journeys, production frameworks for film and social, and creative guidance for the internal team. To test the approach, we directed and produced a short documentary film and social campaign around one WMF site, the iconic temples of Angkor Wat, Cambodia; positive responses from audiences and stakeholders led to five further film commissions across different sites.

The project reinforced that building resonance with audiences doesn’t equate to simplification, but reconsideration - thinking again about who is telling the story, from what vantage point, and what needs to be stated versus what can be demonstrated through experience, emotion and visual language.