The Newport Mansions has teamed with Nail Communications to launch a marketing campaign for The Elms that invites visitors to “Live the Drama” at the National Historic Landmark mansion.

"Telling the stories of the people who lived and worked in the Newport Mansions is crucial to giving our visitors a memorable experience," said Trudy Coxe, CEO and Executive Director of the Preservation Society of Newport County, which owns and cares for the Newport Mansions. "This campaign sets the stage to experience The Elms in a compelling way."

The new campaign builds on the successful “Live the Drama” campaign that focused on The Breakers and the Vanderbilt family who lived there. The decision was made to focus on The Elms, a spectacular but often overlooked mansion on legendary Bellevue Avenue.

“So the question became, can we bring a very different Gilded Age mansion to life by dramatizing the people and history that took place there?” said Nail Creative Partner Alec Beckett.

Working with the museum’s curators, they honed in on the story of the Berwind family, whose coal mining fortune built The Elms, and the staff of immigrants who went on strike over working conditions in one of the earliest examples of labor protest in the country.

“We distilled that story down to the theme of ‘American ambition.’ Then we set out to dramatize this history in the form of a theatrical trailer,” Beckett said.

“We also used our actors, costumes, and the remarkable ‘set’ of The Elms for a series of interviews and social content to make it clear that these people and stories were real — not characters in a movie,” added Kevin O’Leary, Director of Marketing for the Newport Mansions.

To view the trailer video and learn about the characters involved, go to www.newportmansions.org/mansions-and-gardens/the-elms. The webpage includes video-recorded conversations with three of the actors who appear in the campaign. 

ABOUT NEWPORT MANSIONS

The Preservation Society of Newport County, Rhode Island, is a nonprofit organization accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. It is dedicated to preserving and interpreting the area's historic architecture, landscapes, decorative art, and social history. Its 11 historic Newport Mansions properties – seven of them National Historic Landmarks – span more than 250 years of American architectural and social development.

For more information, please visit www.NewportMansions.org.

ABOUT NAIL COMMUNICATIONS

Nail Communications is where every brand finds its fascinating. For 27 years, Nail has made award-winning advertising, design, and branding work for regional, national, and global brands. www.nail.cc

CREATIVE CREDITS

Creative Direction: Alec Beckett, Brian Gross

Strategy: Stephen Fitch

Senior Creative: Sam Holland

Senior Creative: Iman Richards

Senior Producer: Cameron McCormack

Senior Editor: Jack McKenna

Account Director: Susan Hasten

Production Company: Sovereign State Films

Director: Pete Sestina

Color: Phil Choe