Client: Royal Ballet & Opera
When you walk into the Royal Opera House, everything whispers: “Behave.”
The marble, the velvet, the history. The price of champagne.
The brief for our team wasn’t “give us an XR idea”, it was: “How do we stay world class and still matter to people who don’t feel this building belongs to them?” That’s a much more interesting problem.
The collaboration with Brave Duck and Robots, grounded in innovation and a shared drive for unforgettable experiences, has truly shown what we can achieve together.
RBO had just rebranded: new name, same 300-year-old expectations. Inside the building, a few tensions were clear: Core audiences skew older and affluent. Younger Londoners admire the art form but don’t see themselves in it.
Globally, the appetite for cultural spectacle is huge but attention is fractured. Revenue can’t rely purely on tickets anymore. Trustees want innovation but not gimmicks. Artistic leadership wants integrity but not dilution.
The Chief Commercial Officer didn’t need cool ideas, she neede a structured way to talk about innovation, and a plan that didn’t feel reckless, something credible for the internal team and strong enough to take to Trustees.
Boston Ballet Pop-Up Public Art Installation ÜNI - June 2022
Jasmine, 27
Culturally curious
Feels excluded
Eujiin, 35
Globally minded
Seeks premium
cultural experiences
We designed and led a workshop to help the teams reframe everything around two lenses:
We gave them names, backstories, desires, frictions, not to be cute but to move the room from taste to strategy.
When you ask, “What would this mean to Jasmine?” people argue less and think more.
We introduced a shift that changed the tone of the room: Attention is cheap, while intention builds loyalty. If RBO only chases visibility, they become content, if they build intention, they become culture, and that becomes the backbone of everything.
De-risk ambition inside legacy organisations.
Translate innovation into something boards can approve.
Separate short-term revenue from long-term brand equity.
Turn abstract transformation into structured choices.
No gimmicks. No tech theatre.
Just a system that makes bold moves possible.
Created a shared vocabulary
That’s high leverage work.
More than a workshop, this was about giving a 300-year-old institution a way to move without tearing itself apart.
We helped them make ambition feel safe enough to pursue, translate “innovation” into language Trustees could stand behind, and separate short term wins from long term brand equity.
No gimmicks. Or tech theatre, just a system that makes bold moves possible.
More importantly, we created a shared vocabulary and when leadership shares language, decisions get easier.
This is exactly what Hatchery is built for: low cost, high clarity.
It introduced IP thinking without threatening artistic integrity, reframed revenue as an ecosystem, and built confidence before budgets were committed.
It didn’t produce a show but permission, and that’s often the hardest thing to build.