City Art Centre 2000
| Organisation |
Scottish Poetry Library |
| Project |
Marketing review and development of a marketing strategy |
| Artform |
Literature |
| Location |
Edinburgh |
| Application type |
Project development |
| Date |
2002 |
| Status |
Completed |
| Grant |
£5,000 |
| Total project cost |
£6,650 |
The consortium of seven galleries presenting the British Art Show 5 (BAS5) comprises:
- City Art Centre, the City of Edinburgh Council’s main temporary exhibition venue, which shows mainly visual arts exhibitions of historical, modern and contemporary work
- Collective Gallery which promotes emerging and less-established artists with particular emphasis on encouraging diversity and experimentation
- Fruitmarket Gallery presents a programme of high quality, national and international visual art
- Royal Botanic Garden – Inverleith House has built up a reputation for exhibitions that address the interface between contemporary art and science
- Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (SNGMA) is one of the four National Galleries of Scotland which together aim to preserve and display Scotland’s national collection of fine art and show temporary exhibitions
- Stills runs a continuous programme of temporary exhibitions by national and international artists
- Talbot Rice Gallery exhibits contemporary art with commitment to showing work by Scottish artists in group projects and monograph exhibitions.
A collaborative audience development initiative by the seven galleries presenting BAS5, a major contemporary art touring exhibition which opened in Edinburgh and ran from 8 April to 4 June 2000.
BAS5 was one of the major contemporary visual arts projects of the millennial year and arguably the most important visual arts event taking place outside London during the year. Launched in Edinburgh, BAS5 provided access to the work of over 50 selected artists, including a significant number of emergent Scottish artists, all of whom are at the leading edge of contemporary art.
The consortium of seven galleries hosting BAS5 in Edinburgh was keen to maximise the opportunity afforded by the show to gain a fuller understanding of the contemporary visual arts audience and to extend the audience for BAS5 beyond those who usually visit contemporary art exhibitions.
Objectives:
- to obtain a profile of visitors to BAS5
- to obtain visitor feedback on the quality of the show and their enjoyment of it
- to assess the effectiveness of the joint marketing campaign and inform how it could develop this consortium approach in the future
- to provide research data for further audience development visitor research.
A marketing campaign comprising TV, cinema and bus superside advertising, designed to broaden the audience for contemporary visual art and target first time/lapsed attenders in Edinburgh, was undertaken. Faulds Media were commissioned to undertake the advertisement campaign. A 20-second commercial was shown on Channel 4 Scotland over a two-week period. As it was not possible to proceed with the cinema advertising, copies of the BAS5 handbill and The List’s BAS5 supplement were distributed to cinemas in Edinburgh instead. Advertising appeared on 50 bus supersides for six weeks during April and May. (This was additional to the core marketing activity for BAS5 undertaken by venues which included posters, leaflets, an exhibition preview card, and venue banners.)
An impact study to evaluate the effectiveness of the BAS5 marketing strategy and gather visitor data was undertaken by Lynn Jones Research Ltd. This took the form of an exit survey undertaken throughout the duration of the show at all seven galleries. A target of 1,600 interviews was established.
- A total of 1,438 interviews with BAS5 visitors was achieved, which was only slightly below target.
- The visitor profile was fairly evenly split in terms of sex (56% female, 44% male). Just over half (51%) were aged under 35. Most (90%) were in the AB and C1 socio-economic groups, with 51% working full-time and 23% in full-time education.
- Almost half (47%) lived in Edinburgh with 20% coming from the rest of Scotland. Visiting BAS5 was the sole reason for visiting Edinburgh for 24%, and a very or fairly important reason for a further quarter.
- A significant number (41%) came on their own, which has implications in terms of gallery tours, catering etc. The next biggest group was ‘with friends’ (22%) followed by ‘with family members’ (15%).
- 80% said that they regularly visited arts exhibitions. This suggests that some new attenders were being attracted and that the marketing had had some success in broadening the audience for contemporary visual arts.
- Word of mouth/personal recommendation was the most important way that visitors found out about BAS5 (25%), following by seeing information on arrival at the gallery (13%), newspaper advertising (13%) and print (post 13%, leaflet 11%). A disappointingly low percentage cited the bus superside advertising (2%) and The List supplement (4%). The TV advertising was not mentioned.
- The lack of success with the bus superside advertising was attributed to BAS5 being held in several venues and to the fact that it is a concept rather than an exhibition which is a hard thing to convey.
- Feedback on the TV commercial was that it was ‘funky’ but not clear what it was about. Showing the commercial for just two weeks was not felt to be long enough to be effective. The production costs for the TV advertising ended up being considerably more expensive than the estimate.
- Some 4% had seen information at another gallery. The importance of SNGMA having information on other galleries was highlighted by the survey, as it is often the first destination venue for visitors to Edinburgh.
- There was a BAS5 website but few had heard about the show through the internet. Most of the participating galleries had no website.
- A total of 90% of visitors had been to another gallery hosting the BAS5 already or intended to go on to another such gallery.
- In terms of visitor feedback on the quality/enjoyment of the show, the average score was 6 out of an overall rating of 10.
- The study included a list of all the comments made about the exhibition, giving galleries a valuable insight into what visitors really felt. Other valuable information afforded by the survey included details on other arts exhibitions that they had visited recently.
- A large number and range of events were organised during the show, and the need for an event co-ordinator was recognised.
- The seven galleries felt that the collaborative aspect of the project had been extremely successful and they are keen to work together on future audience development initiatives.
Assistant Keeper, Touring Exhibitions
City Art Centre
2 Market Street
Edinburgh EH1 1DE
Tel: 0131 529 3958
Fax: 0131 529 3977 |