For the Prudential Eye Awards 2016, we took a specialist art awards, now in its third year, and turned it into a major international cultural event to rival the Turner Prize’s pan-Asian counterparts.
Our biggest problem to overcome was how to take the awards outside of the art market. We did this by making the brave decision to reposition the event from an industry awards into a public art event.
Planning & Execution
Phase 1 – Pre-Promote: The first thing we did was to make the awards programme feel ‘accessible’ was to open the awards ceremony up to the public for the very first time. By allocating 200 free tickets for the event on 19th January we generated coverage in Singapore lifestyle media including Honeycombers, Timeout, Singapore Tatler and SG – with the message being highlighted in larger features and standalone newspieces.
We also identified early on who we could use from the shortlist to meet our objectives of infiltrating the lifestyle press, by developing human-interest stories. One in particular is ex-Cambodian refugee on the ‘Installation’ shortlist, Sareth Svay, whose story was relayed to key markets including Cambodia, as well as in Singapore – resulting in features in Straits Times, Phnom Penh Times and TODAY. Further human-interest stories were developed with the respective Singapore, Thai and Indonesian artists with extensive features running, including Marie Claire Thailand, Marie Claire Indonesia and Singapore’s August Man and Prestige.
Phase 2: The Event: To move the awards from historically being an industry art event and drive further public interest, we suggested that Slot Machine, the Thai rock band shortlisted for the ‘Visual & Pop Culture’ award should take over the stage for a live performance. This initiative was ‘leaked’ to the media in advance of the event, which helped boost ticket application in Singapore, with coverage including a page on Slot Machine in The Straits Times, as well as extensive hype created across Thailand with music and lifestyle titles - from Billboard to Bangkok Guru and FHM.
Phase 3: Post Event: The day following the event, the Prudential Eye Awards began its two-month exhibition at the ArtScience Museum. To help reinforce the message of contemporary art being ‘accessible’, alongside exhibition preview coverage, we ramped up a campaign to build a strong story within the broadcast media and business press – highlighting the most affordable markets to invest in.
Identifying Bangladesh as a burgeoning new art market, alongside our Bangladeshi shortlisted ‘Photography’ artist, Shumon Ahmed, we set up a series of interviews with Prudential Eye Award Director, Niru Ratnam. This resulted in a page in the Business Times and Bangladesh Daily Star as well as a feature on CNBC Asia’s prime breakfast slot Squawk Talk. The CNBC piece, ran with the title ‘Is investing in art accessible?’.
Effectiveness / Results
Evaluation of Success / Measurements
The campaign, which generated over 300 pieces of coverage with $4.2m SGD value, saw an 75% increase of coverage outside of the art pages, compared to 2015, and key message penetration in over 50 pieces that demonstrated the ‘accessibility’ of contemporary Asian art to the general public.
Armed with a hugely successful PR campaign with targeted media messaging, Parallel Media Group are now securing sponsors to create further art events in Vietnam, Qatar and Seattle – with the ‘Vietnam Eye’ art event confirmed to take place with AIA in Hanoi, November 2016.