"Get Insight the Gallery" is a compilation of 10 lessons, on advertising, that dawned on me as I made my way through the pieces found in the New South Wales Art Gallery and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.

1. By Alex Goh,
Associate Strategic Planning Director,
M&C Saatchi, Kuala Lumpur.
Get
Insight
the
Gallery
10 Things I Learned On
Advertising In An Art Gallery

2. #1
Find the counter-trend behind every trend.
On insights: Flip the “insight” to uncover its other side. In the
example below, the artist attempts to capture the idea that
the other side to globalism and commoditisation is the rising
instance of social alienation and cultural exclusion.
Images taken from: New South Wales Art Gallery & the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

3. #2
Be Open to Multiple Viewpoints.
Learn to be open to different viewpoints. You don’t need to
always agree with it. But you need to acknowledge that it exist
and work with it.
Images taken from: New South Wales Art Gallery & the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

4. #3
Don’t be an
advertising academic.
If advertising is all about getting
someone to do or think something
differently, we need to remember that
real change is all about “feelings” –
what emotions are you looking to
trigger?
Selling anything comes from “feeling”;
not “telling.”
Images taken from: New South Wales Art Gallery & the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

5. #4
There are no absolute rights and wrongs.
To be in advertising, you need to constantly adapt and
evolve. To do that means not being fixated with a specific
way of doing things. You need to play in-between the black
and white. There are no absolutes.
Images taken from: New South Wales Art Gallery & the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

6. #5
Ideation tip: Work with binaries and ironies.
The world and the people in it is a very interesting place
partly because of the ironies that surround us.
In bringing a feature to light, consider juxtaposing it with its
opposite – hard/soft, permanent/impermanent, light/heavy.
In the example here, a bronze “balloon” (soft) was
juxtaposed with small clusters of “barnacles” (hard).
Images taken from: New South Wales Art Gallery & the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

7. #6
Always create work you can be proud of.
There will never be enough time. So with whatever time you
have, short or long, create work you can be proud of, given
the limitations and constraints.
Images taken from: New South Wales Art Gallery & the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

8. #7
Make heavy work, appear light.
True experts simplify rather than complicate.
It’s your duty to help clients feel smarter, rather than
confused, when they are around you.
Images taken from: New South Wales Art Gallery & the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

9. #8
Make things up as you go along.
With the Internet, we can search for opinions on anything,
online. That also means we think less, on our own – instead,
oftentimes adopting the opinions of others.
The guy you see below was tasked with teaching children
how to experience art. His advise? Make up your own story to
whatever is before your eyes. The act of “making up stories”
itself forces you to more deeply process what’s in front of
you. That’s “appreciating” art.
Images taken from: New South Wales Art Gallery & the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

10. #9
Die to self, daily.
Don’t stop yourself from trying anything new or different
because “I’ve never done it before”, “I’m not the creativetype”, “I’ve tried before; it was baddd…”, etc.
Every day is a new opportunity to be a different “you” – to be
the best version of “you”, yet.
Images taken from: New South Wales Art Gallery & the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

11. #10
Excuses never stopped time.
Whether we do or we do not, the clock goes along its
merry way. If we do, then the passing of time would have
thought us something new and that’s time well-spent.
Images taken from: New South Wales Art Gallery & the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

12. By Alex Goh,
Associate Strategic Planning Director,
M&C Saatchi, Kuala Lumpur.
alex.goh@mcsaatchi.com.my
Get
Insight
the
Gallery
Now, go be the
best version of you.