Assignment:
To raise awareness of the Own Art scheme and increase sales of art within the participating galleries.
The Art’s Council’s project offers art lovers interest free loans to purchase items from sculptures to paintings, in the hope of making art more accessible and affordable. Not only is the scheme aiming to sustain the pleasure of art across the nation, it also hopes to support local galleries and artists who display and produce high quality art
Background:
Originally established in the 1940’s The Arts Council has had a long and established history in making art accessible.
In 2002 a merger of 10 regional arts boards created Arts Council England who are now recognized as the national development agency for art, and for distributing public money from the Government and the National Lottery into various arts schemes.
The Own Art scheme was launched in 2004 and is designed to make it easy and affordable for members of the public to buy original, high quality contemporary works of art. The scheme is made available through a network of around 250 member galleries across England and Scotland. Customers may apply for up to £2,000 of credit, repayable over a period of 10 months at 0% APR.
The scheme has proved to a popular success both with the public and in the press. To date, over 8,000 customers have used the scheme for art purchases valued in excess of £7million.
Insight:
Research revealed that this is the only scheme of its kind, no-one else offers a 0% interest rate when purchasing such goods.
To help fully understand the scheme and how it operates we contacted a selection of galleries. We found that 50% of the galleries customer bases were aware of the scheme and that galleries found it easy to explain and administer the scheme. All the galleries we contacted had web pages dedicated to the Own Art scheme and many of their customers found out about the scheme through the Arts Council England website.
Creative development:
We created a fresh advertising and promotional campaign designed to increase awareness and inspire more people to take advantage of the scheme.
Part of the campaign was to ensure that the Own Art logo became recognisable as a symbol that promoted the visions and values of Own Art and bound together all elements of the Own Art culture.
We needed to develop the brand so that both the public and artists wanted to participate. We also wanted the galleries to value their Own Art membership as a tangible and effective marketing network.
Once the key messages had been identified we worked on producing a selection of concept ideas, which we presented to the client.
Then through a series of 4 bold and striking designs, based round a single chosen concept we created a campaign which applied itself to a range of media including posters, postcards, pull-up banners, web pages/banner ads and e-flyers/bulletins.
We hired 4 models to represent various everyday occupations demonstrating that the Own Art scheme is accessible to everyone. We then used captivating pieces of art, which created a memorable and arresting contrast between the characters and the surprising art they may buy. This contrast illustrates that everyone buys art for their own reasons, and sometimes reflects a very different personality than what you'd expect.
We also produced an A5 handbook for all member galleries that contained information on all advertising regulations, brand guidelines, helpful hints, useful links and a catalogue of Own Art materials.
Timing:
From start to finish we completed the creative of this campaign in 8 weeks.
Results:
The campaign will be launched later this year.