The Swedish Royal Dramatic Theater, known as Dramaten, needed to renew its digital communication, and wanted to attract interest in the performing arts from multiple target groups. The result was a prize-winning website that stands out from the crowd. At dramaten.se, modern, ground-breaking design meets a distinguished, traditional brand.
About Dramaten
Dramaten is Sweden's national stage, tasked with producing both classical and modern Swedish and foreign plays. It was founded in 1788 by Gustav III, and has been based at the Royal Dramatic Theater in Nybroplan, Stockholm since 1908. Around one thousand performances are put on annually via the theater's seven stages and guest appearances.
Creuna and Dramaten started working together in the summer of 2007. The new website was launched on 15 February 2008, as the national stage celebrated its hundred-year jubilee and around six months after the project began.
The challenge
With traffic to dramaten.se increasing and a growing number of people choosing to buy their theater tickets online, it was time for the national stage to think innovatively. Dramaten needed a website that met the needs and expectations of its users. Building a new site was the first step in developing the Swedish national stage's digital communication. The aim was to create a modern, inspiring, and easy-to-use website that would function as both as a means of communication and a sales tool.
The solution
Creuna developed the concept, interactive design, graphic format, and production, and oversaw the technical implementation of www.dramaten.se. The events showing at the theater control both the new structure and the graphic format. The aim for the graphic format was to highlight the core of Dramaten's wide-ranging work and make it stand out from other Swedish stages. Visitors to the Dramaten website should remember it afterward. The front page of the website therefore unites a distinguished, traditional brand with modern, ground-breaking design inspired by street theater posters.
Technical solution
Dramaten.se was built using EPiServer CMS 5, complemented by Creuna Platform. The website is integrated both with Dramaten's internal scheduling system, so that visitors can see when the actors are performing, and with the Tickets.com ticketing system.
The result
The modern website improves the customers' (that is, the theatre visitors') overall experience of the theater visit. Relevant information is available to site visitors, and the theater's core activity – the plays – is presented clearly and directly.
In 2008, Creuna won a Swedish Design Prize in the Online Information category for the new Dramaten website, proving that the challenging goals for the website have been met. The Swedish Design Prize is a competition open to anyone involved in graphic communication, in which the public vote is given equal weighting with that of the professional jury. The jury said: "Skilled design that guides the reader in exemplary fashion. Easily navigable pages with clearly delineated categories. The layout combines images and illustrations in a playful and inspiring manner."