How we raised the profile of an Outdoor Art Mural in Bournemouth
THE BRIEF
SBPR was tasked with raising awareness of the Upside Gallery project in Bournemouth, an outdoor mural gallery where eleven of the UK’s finest mural artists transformed the dull grey pillars below Wessex Way, the first campaign of its kind in the UK!
The team were super excited to be involved with such a creative regional campaign and couldn’t wait to be involved and see the finished project.
THE CHALLENGE
Despite being defined as a form of expression, graffiti and street art can be associated with negative connotations with many people associating it with that of crime and vandalism. So how did SBPR raise positive awareness of the work of the Upside Gallery and the team behind it, Paint Shop Studio?
THE SOLUTION
SBPR created a target media list of specialist, regional and broadcast journalists who we then built positive relationships with for the duration of the activity.
By plugging the involvement of the well-known national street artists, the story had a strong enough news angle to generate positive, local editorial coverage in a range of media including print, online and broadcast.
The campaign aimed to engage on an emotional level by using strong imagery to showcase graffiti and street art in a way that improved the community, rather than a problem that needed to be tackled.
We issued press releases pre and post event to maximise our coverage generation and sourced quotes from the creators and members of Bournemouth Council to strengthen the story.
We researched and invited key media contacts, blogger and business owners to the launch event which celebrated the project and showcased video footage of the artists in motion as well final photos of the murals.
Each contact whether broadcast, regional or specialist was followed up with every few days to maintain interest and secure our chances for media cut through. This was done both pre and post event to increase our opportunities to generate more coverage.
THE OUTCOME
In just a few weeks, the SBPR team achieved 11 pieces of regional, specialist and broadcast coverage for The Upside Gallery and Paintshop Studio – all including positive messaging and brand mentions about the underpasses revamp.
This included radio mentions on Wave 105 and BBC Radio Solent. In total, the coverage reached more than 480,000 people with an advertising value of nearly £14,000.