Arguing that Public Relations can benefit the cultural sector is, generally speaking, quite easy. Proving it on the other hand, is a bit more challenging. As society and people’s demands evolve, so do PR campaigns evolve, and today, most successful PR campaigns include a social component. This evolution is visible in the PR campaigns for the cultural sector. What follows are some examples of successful and inventive campaigns created by PR firms from Belgium and the United Kingdom. All the cases are some of my personal favourites and all are created especially for the cultural sector.
Every year, the city of Ghent, in Belgium, is under the spell of the ‘Gentse Feesten’, a music, dance and theatre festival that lasts ten days and covers the whole inner city. The festival has become a mass event with approximately 2 million visitors attending every year, giving it international standing and allure. The campaign for the current 2012 edition of the festival has been created by Modulo.
This PR firm unveiled the promotion picture of the festival to the public at a press conference. The image consists of a cowgirl (sign of rebellion en enthusiasm) riding a mythical dragon (sign of the city). This picture is used on posters, flyers, stickers, letters and so on. It will also be used on a specially designed clothing line which will promote the festival. However, the campaign also uses social media and online advertising. Updates and news will be posted daily on Twitter and on the Facebook fan page, where the public can also ask questions. The festival has a newsletter on which people can subscribe, and a homepage. This elaborate campaign runs in Belgium, the North of France and South-Holland.
In Ghent, Belgium, a museum called the STAM recently opened its doors. Since then the museum has won quite a few prizes such as ‘Best Museum in Flanders’. An award it has definitely earned. The STAM has, in the short time since its official opening, created a ton of events, stunts, promotions and so on. For example, in the children’s section at the end of the museum tour, children can recreate the city of Ghent with ‘LEGO’ building blocks. The children can draw some inspiration from the 4 most famous towers in Ghent made in LEGO by Dirk Denoyelle, a professional LEGO builder. The museum has also created a videogame in which museum visitors can play the part of the mayor of the city, and take (imaginary) decisions concerning certain city projects. A competition was also organised by the STAM, in which the most popular word in the Flemish Ghent dialect was elected. Furthermore, the museum has also created an app in cooperation with Google street view, which allows the public to compare pictures taken of the city by Edmond Sacré a 100 years ago, with the current view of city. In general, the museum organises events, competitions, activities, stunts, and uses new as well as traditional technology to keep visitors interested and surprised. The museum also uses traditional and new media channels such as Facebook and Twitter. It is clear that the STAM invests a lot of time and effort in building and retaining customer loyalty, for example by celebrating the 50.000 and 100.000th visitor. Because of their continuous efforts to create awareness for the museum and attract visitors, they receive a lot of press and media coverage.
In Ghent, Belgium, an exhibition called ‘Sint-Jan’ has opened in the ‘Saint Baafs’ cathedral, showcasing the work of more than 50 Belgian artists. Because the exhibition is free, the PR firm Famous had to work with a limited budget to promote the event. The firm came up with the idea to use Jan Hoet as a human promotional tool and as advertisement for the exhibition. How they did it? By linking Jan Hoet’s name to the event and by collar advertising.
Jan Hoet received shirts with subtle advertising on the collars, which he will wear as long as the exhibition runs. An artwork consisting of two mini-coopers was also positioned in front of the cathedral to promote the official opening of ‘Sint-Jan’. This received quite a bit of media coverage, especially since the cars got a ticket for parking in a spot where it was not allowed. Furthermore, the exhibition is supported by the newspaper ‘De Morgen’. Together with the firm Famous, this newspaper will create more stunts and so on to promote the exhibition.
In the city of Antwerp, Belgium, a new museum was recently opened, called the MAS. To promote the launch and official opening of the museum, Prophets PR firm came up with an innovative campaign which created a lot of buzz nationally and internationally. Because the firm had to work with a limited budget, they invested mostly in idea execution, partner bannering and awareness traffic through social cascade effects. Their idea was to work with 5 full time phygital guides who offered real life tour experiences on a web-based hub to online visitors. In the first 3 weeks of the museum’s opening, these guides enabled each online customer to experience the museum in real time during the official opening hours of the museum, while pre-recorded movies for outside opening hours offered a similar experience. Furthermore, each experience was ended with relevant travel deal offers from promo-partners. Some targeted affiliate banners were also pushed via OpenAd and personalised emails were send from travel partners to customers. This resulted in massive online and print media coverage.
In the city of Mechelen, Belgium, a large scale archaeological excavation revealed an ancient cemetery near the Saint Rombouts cathedral. The PR firm d’Artagnan was hired to create awareness and inform the public of the importance and results of the dig. The firm created a teaser trailer about the dig, follow up trailers and an ‘archeo-blog’ on which the archaeologists would blog about their new finds and daily activities. The site also had an official promo image/mascot, a spotted dog ‘digging for bones’, an official website and a newsletter. Guided tours were organised on-site, there were open days, special events, school classes who came to have a look… Posters and information boards were hung up around the site, and a portable museum was created in a small on-site trailer. On most days the archaeologists wore sweaters and t-shirts with the city’s logo or the promo image on it. Furthermore, the public could become an official ‘godfather’ or ‘godmother’ of any skeleton that was discovered. The public had to pay 15 euro’s and would in return receive a shirt and detailed information about their adopted skeleton, such as its age, sex, … Off course this campaign created quite bit of interest and press coverage.
In the city of Liverpool, the PR firm Black and Ginger produced a campaign to promote a Titanic street event called the Sea Odyssey. Several short teaser animations depicted a little girl giant interacting with key city spaces in Liverpool where the event would take place. The regional campaign focused on the fact that one in ten crew members of the Titanic were from, or had links to, Merseyside. For the first time in the city’s event history, a mass participation programme was developed which encouraged every resident, organisation, charity and community group to get involved. Competitions were organised, a back-in time fayre was created, presentations were held for the public, special merchandise was promoted… The Sea Odyssey event itself existed of a Little Girl Giant marionette exploring Liverpool, to commemorate the 1912 Titantic disaster in which she lost her father. Black and Ginger also worked with Apposing to design and develop a free app for the event, which included features such as allowing users to take pictures using themed filters and post them on Facebook or Twitter. The campaign ran alongside an outdoor advertising campaign that promoted a free exhibition ‘Titanic & Liverpool: the untold story’. A commemoration book was also created and screen prints of the events are still available on the official website.
People’s Collection Wales is a website on the history of Wales and its people, showcasing an online archive, with photographs of World War II evacuees to audio clips of pensioners recounting their memories of the Queen’s last visit. The PR firm Working Word was hired to encourage the people of Wales to become the heart of their own history by submitting their own stories and experiences for future generations to explore. The PR firm carried out media activity with a call to-action to encourage possible contributions. To demonstrate what kind of contributions could be made, the firm researched existing related content in the People’s Collection Wales and used the photos or artefacts already showcased either as inspiration for, or as accompanying imagery in media relations. By engaging with local characters as case studies such as a TV chef who uploaded her grandmother’s old recipes, other local people could identify with their story and were encouraged to contribute. The firm also created a platform for a blog, along with a content calendar tying up with media activity, where themes were explored. A 3 minute video was also created to ensure that people understood the practical process of uploading content created. The video depicted a Cardiff man in his 60s being shown how to upload images of old bottles he collected on the shore at Cardiff Docks by a teenage neighbour. Each blog and video could be shared on social media sites. Twitter and Facebook were also used, for example to inform the public of celebrities such as Cary Grant who had visited the town. Local press and local Welsh language community newsletters were also used. The campaign resulted in a lot of media coverage and contributions.
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