Friday 30 May 2008
Tina Norris
What do you think of this? - the background info
At the end of May, we launched the first Auckland Art Gallery brand campaign in over 5 years. This campaign, created by Saatchi & Saatchi, was a culmination of many long discussions and a review of market perceptions of the gallery. We began to realise that we needed to overcome the problem that people tend to perceive art and the gallery as a place where the culturally elite meet and pass opinion. It is also often seen, by some, as a place that only the erudite and sophisticated understand; not relevant to the ordinary person on the street.
Our solution was to send a message to people that art is not just for the elite, it’s for everyone, from all walks of life. This message needed to be straightforward and direct.
The idea was to get people interacting and forming opinions on art in their everyday environment by confronting them with original art pieces in their everyday lives and asking them ‘What do you think of this?’
To begin, we invited three prominent New Zealand artists to create original works of art, with the only stipulation that the work must include the words “What do you think of this?’ Other than that, whatever form the artwork took was entirely up to the artist’s imagination.
A warm and sincere thanks to Dick Frizzell, Judy Darragh and Richard Orjis who took up this challenge and together, with Saatchi & Saatchi, created a campaign for people to engage with and become excited about art.
So, what do you think of this?
Tina Norris
Manager, Marketing & Communications