Promotion Plan for Exhibition

7.8 Promotion

The key will be to direct as much traffic as possible to a well-designed and thought-out website, which will engage the visitor, provide information and encourage them to not only attend our exhibition but discuss it online and offline, thereby encouraging others to attend. 

The following are the channels to be used and the collateral required to achieve this.  All of our communications must be in line with brand guidelines and cannot begin without these and without the key messages from the curatorial team. 

Channels and Collateral

7.8.1. Website: Discuss with curatorial team, in essence this should be the main hub for our promotional campaign.

7.8.2. Social Media: free services that can be used easily and creatively to drive traffic to the website - be aware that users of some social networking sites will not want to be forced to join other sites, and hence they must only be directed towards the website.  References on social media sites, whether they be images or links, should lead back to the website.

7.8.2.1. Facebook: Create a page that everyone in the cohort must join: each person has an average of 130 friends, everyone must ask their contacts to like the Facebook page.  It must be updated each day with images from each member of the cohort, videos and photos of the studio being built, exhibition set up, artefact creation etc.  All images must be tagged with the appropriate names, so that more of their contacts see the updates.

7.8.2.2. Twitter: Create an account, use the formulist tool to follow appropriate people, a percentage of whom will follow us.  Twitter has a large professional audience, as well as members of the community local to Kings Cross. All members of the cohort are to follow the Twitter account, and again ask their contacts to do so.  The Twitter account should have links that lead people to the website, where followers could perhaps get sneak-peaks of our progress as individuals and as a cohort.  During the exhibition there should be a live Twitter feed, conversation should be started by the cohort to encourage others to tweet about the experiences. 

7.8.2.3. Linked-In: Create a Linked-In group, again, all the cohort should join and encourage their contacts to join.  From the contact lists we are creating we can send messages inviting appropriate professionals to join our group. Discussion groups on Linked-In should be developed. 

7.8.2.4. Blogs: Key bloggers in our field are more important than traditional journalists and have very loyal followers.  Bloggers should be sent personalised correspondence about the exhibition, as well as VIP invitations to the private view. Marketing team to collate a list of key bloggers.

7.8.2.5. Viral/You tube: Are any of the cohort already creating videos for the project? Do we have any videographers? Discuss with PM group. 

7.8.3. DM email campaign – we must be wary of the opt-in issue with email marketing.  A solution to this is that when we drive the traffic to the website through the method above, visitors are encouraged to sign up to our newsletter, they can provide merely an email address and profession, this will then automatically build up a contact list of people who have already shown an interest in our work.  Once we have this list we can send out updates and promotions to our network.  I would not however send out more than once fortnightly emails, and again these must be within brand guidelines and on message. 

7.8.4. Newspapers and magazines – target magazines, arts supplements and appropriate journalists with the aim of receiving media coverage.  Once we have the necessary information from the curatorial team we can build a compelling message.  PR through this channel must be properly targeted and professionally handled. 

7.8.5. Posters/flyers – are we looking after the design and printing of these or are the curatorial team? Promotion-wise, all of our topline contacts need to receive a flyer in the post (or postcard or stickers).  Posters should be displayed around the university and in any other relevant retailers who will allow us to display them.  All the cohort who work should ask to display posters at their workplace.  Please note a mail out is an extremely expensive tool, we can reach far more people using our social media tools effectively. 

7.8.6. Exhibition Collateral – this includes Signage (curatorial?), Catalogues (curatorial), Branded items (sponsorship?) and Stickers/Postcards.  Stickers and postcards are extremely effective; they can be made interesting enough to keep them from being trashed.  Stickers are applied in visible locations to attract the interest and attention of our target audience.  Stickers are seen as more interesting than posters and flyers.  If people find our stickers attractive and interesting; they will instantly apply them to any kind of surface they see. 

Key elements we can’t do without:

Website

Social Media

Catalogue: Curatorial have said they will deal with this.

Posters/Flyers

Common factors: All communication must be on message, set by the themes from the curatorial team.  All communication should also be within brand identity set by the curatorial team.  Press Releases must be used for as many channels as possible.  Everything should be quality-checked.  The marketing team is responsible for constantly researching, finding and writing engaging stories about the cohort, the exhibition and our general progress, as well as sourcing images and footage to support them. 

7.8.2 Advertising Strategy

If we can get free advertising than it's worth it. The only magazine worth paying for an advertisement could be Creative Review. I have secured us a 20% discount, but feel the prices are still out of our league.  I am happy to push for more discount nearer the time, as if the have some space left in an addition we could get a good deal.