Presentation by Patsy Convery, Acting Director of Audience Engagement at the National Galleries of Scotland at the Scottish Communicators Network event Collaborating for Success on 24th June 2015.

3. • A celebration of 25 years of contemporary art
in Scotland
• Over 100 artists exhibiting in over 60 venues
around Scotland
• Key part of Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme
in association with the Commonwealth Games

4. Objectives
• Raise awareness of the GENERATION project
and venues involved
• Encourage the public to visit as many of the
exhibitions as possible
• To raise awareness and understanding of the
importance of contemporary art in Scotland
over the past 25 years
• To encourage young people to engage with
Contemporary Art

5. Target Audiences
• Young audiences – 12 – 25 year olds
• Contemporary art enthusiasts
• Gallery attendees who are wary/ unsure of
contemporary art
• Tourists
• Local audiences

6. Brand guidelines

8. Rationale
• PR main resource for print and broadcast
publicity
• Social media and website deliver digital
elements of campaign
• Majority of budget focused on outdoor media
for maximum visibility / effect
• Maximise partnership opportunities

9. Media

10. Media

11. Partner Activity
• VisitScotland
– Leaflet distributed through VICs in towns and
cities who have venues participating in
GENERATION
– 23 VICs in total
– Posters sited in VICs also
– Banners ads sited on visitscotland.com
– Ads in six different languages sited on
visitscotland.com

13. PR Campaign Snapshot
• Key coverage in all major national newspapers
and many regional newspapers highlighting
the Scotland wide programme of exhibitions
• Art Journals – for example Apollo and Art
Forum
• Bloggers/Online coverage
• Local radio
• Key broadcast coverage on BBC Scotland, BBC
2, BBC 4 and STV

15. NGS exhibition

16. Urban Outfitters Window Art
• Collaborated with Urban Outfitters, targeting
18 – 30 year olds
• Opportunity to win chance to design the
Urban Outfitters’ Edinburgh store window
– Covered period 7 – 28 August
– Allocated whole window & doors
– Themed GENERATION: 25 Years of Contemporary
Art in Scotland

17. Urban Outfitters Window Art
• Brief posted on national galleries.org and
promoted via social channels
– Shortlisted entrants interviewed by Urban
Outfitters and NGS
– Winner received £500 Urban Outfitters vouchers
& GENERATION goodies
– Event held instore to celebrate install completion

19. By Night
• GENERATION: By Night event took place in
September
– Targeted towards young target audience
– Music was the focus of evening, featured Optimo
and Golden Teacher
– Tours of exhibition and curators on hand to
answer questions
• Collaborated with List on content and evening

22. Nationwide Results
• Total attendance: 1.3 million visitors to all of
the exhibitions throughout Scotland
• Over 65,000 participants in the learning and
engagement sessions throughout all of the
venues
• Guide sent to every single secondary school in
Scotland

23. NGS Results
• NGS - 400,740 (up until 31 December 2014) vs 243,907
forecast
• 23% of visitors were under 25*
• 80% of respondents who visited the exhibition were
likely to talk about it in a positive way*
• 45% of respondents were attending their first
exhibition and were likely to attend more as a result*
• Under 25s were more likely to report feeling excited
when they walked into the exhibition*
*N.B. All results based on interim findings from 4 July to 18
October 2014.

24. Digital Results
Multi-channel digital offer:
• generationartscotland.org
• Twitter, Facebook, eBulletins
• Mobile app – ArtHunter takeover
• nationalgalleries.org/generation – trails, features, videos
• In gallery touchscreens
• 90 online features
• 17 videos
• Interactive timeline
• Legacy site
Stats for generationartscotland.org
• User sessions - 119,932
• Page views - 770,587
• Avg. session duration - 8:15