ELVIS has produced an unordinary campaign for an unordinary “brand”. The brand is the London suburb, King’s Cross. The campaign features its shared public spaces, its fountains, canal-side banks and cobbled streets, positioning them as the emotional heart of a visit, not just the route between one.

The campaign celebrates King’s Cross as a laidback urban oasis at the heart of London. It aims to driving summer visits and encouraging dwell time by reminding Londoners that the neighbourhood offers a distinctive mix of food, culture, shopping and open-air public spaces unlike anywhere else in the city. ELVIS built Escape in London as a platform rooted in the feeling of being there – the unhurried, connected moments that happen when people slow down in the spaces between, watching the sun set canalside, soaking up the sounds of summer, or stumbling upon something unexpected on every visit.

Three hero key visuals anchor the campaign, each a full-bleed, unposed photograph capturing a different snapshot of life at King’s Cross – children playing in the Granary Square fountains; a couple wandering down Lower Stable Street heading into their evening; and a group of friends laughing together on one of the site’s canal-side grass banks. The images, shot across two days on location and in studio, are deliberately candid and human.

A layered typographic device runs across the work. Its meandering form echoing the varied, discoverable nature of the site and allowing the campaign to represent multiple experiences within a single execution. Poetic copy threads through each visual, deepening the emotional register of each scene. Sublines demonstrate the breadth the destination has to offer including restaurants, bars, shops, cultural programming and public spaces.

Escape in London runs across OOH in 48-sheet, 12-sheet and 6-sheet formats, digital ribbons, LEPs, digital banners, and social video and statics. Media is handled by The Media People, with production by Curious.

Josh Green, CCO, ELVIS, stated,”What struck us early on was how much was already happening in the spaces between the buildings – people gathering at the fountains, settling in by the canal, happening upon a market or a performance. These aren’t incidental moments, they’re the point. King’s Cross has always been genuinely open to everyone, and ‘Escape in London’ is really just shining a light on that – the everyday magic that’s already there if you slow down enough to notice it.”

Jazmin Beale, director of marketing, communications & events, The King’s Cross Group, added,“King’s Cross has its own energy in summer. Public spaces, restaurants, shops, culture and everyday moments all come together here, whether that’s an evening by the canal, a market find or music you weren’t expecting. We wanted the campaign to reflect how that actually feels: unhurried, real and open to everyone, while reminding Londoners that King’s Cross is a place to spend time, not just pass through.”

Credits
Client: The Kings Cross Group
Director of Marketing, Communications & Events: Jazmin Beale
Senior Marketing Managers: Sinead O’Herlihy & Karin Donnelly
Digital Marketing Manager: Louise Sagnia

Agency: ELVIS
Chief Creative Officer: Josh Green
Creative Partner: Ross Newton
Senior Creative: James Bougourd
Editorial Director: Bill Dunn
Client Services Director: Keelie Lynch
Account Director: Tabitha Merritt
Senior Account Manager: Maddie Corlett
Managing Partner, Strategy: Camilla Yates
Senior Strategist: Will Barren
Producer: Trent Webster
Head of Design: Matt Sanders
Senior Designer: Sam Adefe
Designer: Emma Gray
Senior Retoucher: Nick Swaffield
Motion Designers: Rhys Clarke & Ben Honeyball

Production Company: Curious Productions
Producers: Lee Sands &  Harley Brooks
Photographer: Adrien Crasnault
Assistants: Gabor Herczegfalvi & Valdrin Rexhepi
Retoucher: Rob Lanario & Stuart Frost