The solution was to turn our target group’s everyday commute into an emotional journey – letting them sample opera on their way to work. All the 100 stations in the Stockholm subway were renamed and replaced with an emotion. And for every “emotionstation” there was a designated piece of opera music. On the website the “Emotion planner” (mimicking the digital travel planner used by everybody in Stockholm) the target group could enter the emotions they wanted to travel between. And get a playlist of music to enjoy along the way.

In this way, the everyday journey to work turned into an emotional journey! The music was linked to the subway´s timetable in order to match the music and the stations. At posters at the stations, different emotional journeys were presented, each unique for every station. At selected stations, singers and dancers from The Royal Opera were performing the designated emotions live.

The campaign created a lot of PR for the Royal Opera, both in mainstream media and online, driving the sales of tickets and yearly memberships. Over 20,000 people visited the site and made their own emotional journey. And we had successfully integrated the opera into the Stockholm subway, exposing it to Stockholm’s million of commuters.

By giving the target group the opportunity to “try” opera in a simple, unpretentious way and showing opera’s emotional impact, we made it easier to visit The Royal Opera, and helped the people of Stockholm rediscover the pleasures of ballet and opera.