Client
The National Gallery & Hewlett Packard
Project
The Grand Tour Outdoor Poster Campaign
Design Agency
The Partners
The Brief
How do you promote the National Gallery’s permanent collection, drive positive reaction for sponsor Hewlett Packard, and create a summer talking point for a modern, culturally aware audience?
The Solution
The idea itself was a simple one. Instead of waiting for the public to go to the gallery, we decided to take the gallery to the public. The Grand Tour was born.
The Grand Tour is a Nationwide exhibition of National Gallery paintings, outside on the streets of Britain – amongst shops, pubs and traffic. In the thick of real people’s lives.
This is only made possible by creating a brand identity distinct from the National Gallery, that allows it to behave in a more challenging and contemporary way to find a new, non-traditional audience.
A support campaign was created, including printed maps, posters and advertising. The tour appeared in listings magazines under ‘free exhibitions’.
A new way of talking about the paintings was adopted, to reflect the street surroundings, but that didn’t compromise the eloquence of the Gallery brand.
Special curator commentaries were recorded for each painting and accessible by phone. The curators talk in a frank way about the paintings, in a way that perhaps wouldn’t be appropriate inside the Gallery.
The Grand Tour has it’s own website, www.thegrandtour.org.uk, distinct from the Gallery site, where you can download bespoke tours.
Themed tours were created that split The Grand Tour into manageable chunks, each with a map and audio commentary.
In a first for the Gallery, photosharing was encouraged on Flickr, with amateur snappers trying to complete the whole set.
Worked on as part of a team at The Partners in London.
