Recreating the essence of Butser Ancient Farm online with a video membership platform

Butser Ancient Farm were seeking to draw a global community of people looking for an alternative to a physical visit to the farm.

During COVID-19 and post-pandemic Butser Ancient Farm became more and more convinced of the importance of places like Butser to provide a space of tranquillity and inspiration in an increasingly uncertain world.

The director of the farm described it as "“As a not-for-profit, we have been affected very badly by the pandemic and loss of visitors to the site over the past year. Without the generosity of people across the world, it would have been impossible to stay viable given that it has been costing us around £800 a day just to keep the Farm running, maintain the buildings and feed the animals.”

We were brought on board to re-imagine what Butser Ancient Farm would look like online through a membership platform. As Creative Lead and designer on the project it was my job to bring this to life through new branding, website and membership platform design. We did a lot of research with core audiences' to discuss the challenges and come up with relevant solutions that would encourage people to donate and be part of a thriving online community for the farm. Documentary-style videos were uploaded to the platform and consumed by members as well as updates on where money was being spent on the farm.

Results
The launch of Butser Plus was a huge success with media coverage from the likes of ITV News Meridian and Visit Hampshire. World-renowned archeologists also took to twitter to support the launch and encourage people to donate. Butser continue to promote and have success with the platform using their Instagram page to promote snippets of video content and encourage donations. You can read about the launch here: https://www.butserancientfarm.co.uk/blog/2021/4/19/the-launch-of-butser-plus?rq=butser%20plus

You can see the members area prototype here: https://www.figma.com/proto/yA1purFwQUcU63FgZZXC9o/BAF-Desktop-Designs-(1)?page-id=201%3A4704&type=design&node-id=201-4705&viewport=801%2C655%2C0.26&t=vjG1NYp1VnC0q3e9-1&scaling=min-zoom&starting-point-node-id=201%3A4705&mode=design