The coronavirus pandemic. It’s the challenge everyone faced in 2021. Despite new hurdles, our goals for the Hong Kong Ballet (HKB) remained. We had to top our previous campaigns, maintain the HKB as an institution of national prestige, reach new audiences, and generate sustaining subscriptions, but this time with a tightened budget, limited access to locations, restrictions on dancers, inability to travel to Hong Kong, and constant uncertainty. Not knowing what was next in the pandemic, we had to use our imagination — and NEXT would become the theme for the HKB seasonal campaign. Inspired by the searching curiosity of the post-WWI Surrealist movement, we conjured a series of key visuals that blended ‘dreams with reality’ to create a new reality — a surreality — for the Hong Kong Ballet. We artfully mixed elements from nature, science-fiction, and the metaverse to create a fantastic world for HKB subscribers and the next generation of Gen Z patrons. Despite art-directing the shoot remotely from the United States, and a season calendar marked by surprise closures and short-notice re-openings, the 2021 HKB season campaign succeeded. The campaign delivered delight and whimsy with images that were instantly recognizable as the Hong Kong Ballet. The HKB operations team saw an increase in subscriptions and grew its social media audience more than 15%. NEXT further elevated the HKB as a premiere cultural institution in Hong Kong, and a vital artistic voice for the world.