The Power of a Creative Theme: A Large-scale Study of the Implications of Working with a “Forced” Creative Theme in Strategic Partnerships.

In 2017, Denmark’s second largest city, Aarhus, holds the title as European Capital of Culture. From the initial project proposal, a significant part of the strategy for the mega event has been centered around the chosen theme; “Rethink”. The theme has thus been a continuous, common thread from the process of applying for and becoming Capital of Culture, to the subsequent processes of establishing strategic partnerships between the Aarhus 2017 Foundation (the commercial foundation in charge of planning and running the mega event) and the wide range of partners (e.g. public organizations, cultural institutions, etc.), till now where Rethink is synonymous with the mega event as it plays out this year.
 
From the time of the official opening in January 2017, the theme has dominated most of the communication from Aarhus 2017 to the extent that many of the participating partners and other stakeholders (e.g. the media) have also adopted the theme in their communication of and around the mega event which is often simply referred to as “Rethink”.
 
The role of a predetermined creative theme
The mega event therefore opens up a rare opportunity to explore the implications of working with, and communicating, a predetermined theme in strategic partnerships, vis-à-vis co-branding. Most often, the choice to enter into a co-branding process would be established by partners supporting one another in reaching a shared goal on the basis of shared values. But here, the value-base is already decided upon by the Aarhus 2017 Foundation before the partnerships have even been established, and the participating partners are bound to work with this theme regardless of their own, individual value-base. Thus, with this case, we can explore the consequences and potential output of working with a predetermined theme in a process of collaborating in and communicating about a strategic partnership.