Art Gallery Society NSW: PORTRAITS

Credits & Description:

Category: Special Build

Advertiser: ART GALLERY SOCIETY NSW

Product/Service: CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP

Agency: WUNDERMAN

Executive Creative Director: Matt Batten

Copywriter: Theodora Gerakiteys

Art Director: Amanda Glover

Account Supervisor: Eithne Mcswiney

Advertiser's Supervisor: Mark Manton

Producer: Paul Hayes

Account Manager: Katie Oslizlok

Account Manager: Katie Oslizlok

Other Credits: Account Manger: Rebecca Masterson/Retouchers: Aaron Sutter And Seamus Fagan



Ambient Execution Description

The Art Gallery NSW, Australia’s premier art gallery since 1874, relies on donations and corporate sponsorships.



Our challenge was to get the key decision-makers of major Australian corporations to attend the gallery to hear about corporate sponsorship and convince them to become a sponsor.



The Art Gallery wanted a creative strategy to better their usual 5% response rate for leads, and 0.6% conversion rate for acquisitions.



We chose to leverage the Archibald Prize (Australia’s largest, most important portraiture competition since 1921).



Usually, only celebrities and politicians have the honour of getting their portraits entered into the Archibald. So we made our target audience feel special by giving them a similar honour.



We secretly sourced photos of our targets, digitally treated them to simulate different ‘paint ‘ techniques (Van Gogh, Münch, Durer, Rembrandt, Monet, etc), printed them onto canvas, stretched them over wooden frames, and then applied gel medium (very thick clear paint) over the surface to create the texture of real brush strokes.



The finished pieces looked so genuine, even the art gallery staff thought they were real oil paintings.



We then sent a direct mail piece to our targets inviting them to collect their own portrait painting from the famous Archibald exihibition in the prestigious gallery.



Upon arrival, attendees discovered their own portrait on display and were instantly receptive to being a sponsor.



The direct mail piece had a 34% response rate (nearly seven times the average).



Those who attended the event were delighted to see their personal portrait displayed in Australia’s most prestigious art gallery. This generated an acquisition rate of 14% (over 23 times the average).



The Society used the ‘portrait offer’ as an ongoing hook to attract further acquisitions, resulting in the largest increase in annual sponsorship in decades.