Museums at Night/Connect10 with artists Bompas & Parr (2012)
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The challenge:
Having won the right to work with nationally-acclaimed artists Bompas & Parr, we discovered Museums at Night clashed with the Olympic Torch landing on British soil. Television and other media contacts told me they would be in Cornwall, especially concerning as we needed media coverage to stimulate ticket sales.
Approach:
Inspired by creative direct mail campaigns, I delivered red envelopes, containing the news release, an image of the highly eccentric Bompas & Parr, a photo-shopped picture of the ship surrounded by a gelatinous green ‘sea’, plus two jelly babies. Now receptive to the pitch, I persuaded BBC Points West to send reporter Andrew Plant to cover the story for national lunchtime news.
Results:
The item was also used on the BBC’s evening and late news, and BBC Breakfast and Newsround the following day. One in 70 of the UK adult population watched it through the BBC website (the second most popular story, above the arrival of the Olympic Torch). The event was a sell-out, it was the main feature in the Arts Council film A Night to Remember, and helped the museum attraction reach new audiences and challenge out-dated perceptions. Bompas & Parr described it as one their favourite projects and the media coverage as ‘phenomenal’.