London Calling

You want to encourage new student audiences. Everyone wants to reach student audiences, and every year there’s a perfect opportunity in the form of the ever popular Freshers Fair. But you also need to cut through the chatter, because there’s a lot of different social options being promoted out there so how do you do it?

One of the immediate answers is collaboration. After all, first and foremost you’re promoting the arts experience and encouraging an audience often unfamiliar with the city to take their first steps out further than the union bar; and it’s often those first, formative visits that can build continued loyalty and resonate for years to come. A shared message – there’s a wealth of art in London – can also create a greater sense of cultural value. You’re not just visiting a venue you’re participating in a rich cultural and contemporary heritage.

Last week London Calling went back to university as part of a shared promotional effort by some of the capital’s finest Galleries and Museums, all keen to engage new student audiences at the start of their first term.

We were originally approached by the Art in London group to coordinate the creation of their bespoke information packs, handle the logistics of delivery and, most importantly, manage the assembly of multiple pieces of promotional print into one simple package that could easily be handed out all in one go.

As a little extra bonus we also made sure that all of the packs were made from 100% recycled paper stock and printed using sustainable vegetable inks while still coming in on budget. Another small step on the path to showing that green print needn’t cost the Earth.

The packs were distributed to students from the Art in London tables at Freshers Fairs taking place at Goldsmiths, UCL, the University of the Arts and University of London with gallery reps on hand to answer questions and sign students up to a shared emailing list.

While we had originally planned to go back and collect any remaining supplies, the teams did so well each day that there wasn’t a single pack left over by the end of the campaign.

What did we learn? Clearly there’s as big a demand for arts information amongst student audiences as ever, and perhaps the real trick to engaging with them successfully is in taking the extra time to consider the context of the message you want to present.

By teaming up the Art in London group were able to create a simple but powerful proposition that combined messages from 17 different cultural venues into a single call to action that added value way beyond the sum of its collective parts.

Here’s  a rare picture of a stocked up and ready to roll table, crush of art-loving students just out of shot…