Recalling 1993
New Museum
Issue 27 | July 2013
Agency
Droga5
Creative Team
Creative Chairman: David Droga Executive Creative Directors: Ted Royer / Nik Studzinski Associate Creative Directors: Ray Del Savio / Jerry Hoak Copywriter: Colin Lord / Bryan Wolff Art Director: Jen Lu / Daniel Sumarna
Production Team
Head Of Integrated Production: Sallyann Dale Executive Producer: Scott Chinn Executive Interactive Producer: Lindsey Slaby Producer: Jennifer Mckenzie Production Assistant: Goldie Robbens Technical Director: David Justus Creative Technology Lead: Fran Devinney Ux Director: Kathrin Hoffman Ux Designer: Eileen Tang Associate Digital Producer: Ian Graetzer Senior Print Producer: Jeannie O’toole Print Production Assistant: Annick Thomas Editor And Sound Engineer: Matthew Badger
Other Credits
Brand Strategist: Matthew Gardner Strategy Intern: Pj Mongell Researchers: Amelia Barry / Sarah Gancher / Bo Jacober Group Account Director: Olivia Legere Account Director: Caitlin Chandler Account Manager: Louisa Cronan Communications Director: Maura Mcgreevy Associate Communications Manager: Carly Bennett
Date
March 25, 2013
Background
In the early 90s New York was a city in turmoil. 1993 was a pivotal year that began to shape the New York we know today. The New Museum exhibition, NYC 1993: EXPERIMENTAL JET SET, TRASH AND NO STAR, transports you to what life was like back then. To drive awareness, the museum created Recalling 1993 and brought the exhibit to every street corner in Manhattan using one of the last remaining relics of that time: the pay phone. The campaign turned 5,000 of these pay phones into time machines, delivering over 100 stories from real New Yorkers who were there twenty years ago.
Idea
They first recorded more than 150 unique stories about 1993 from 60 individuals, all of whom donated their time at no cost. Each was a rich, location-specific historical anecdote that ended by asking listeners to head to the New Museum for a corresponding portrait of 1993 through the lens of modern art. Simultaneously, we built a database containing every Manhattan pay phone and categorized each story by neighborhood, in order to serve stories specific to the location of each incoming call. Their budget was less than $10,000, which covered back-end programming, a micro-site where visitors could locate their nearest pay phone, stickers and posters displaying our toll-free number, and an online promo video. So with only two discounted pay phone kiosks for their posters and some donated banners on Gawker, they coordinated a targeted PR plan to get the word out about our campaign.
Results
PR outreach around the campaign garnered articles in more than 730 unique publications, ranging from international newspapers to national radio stations to local TV news programs to news websites across a diverse range of niche interests. No press release was issued on the wire; all placements were generated from direct outreach and the resulting viral communication about the project. In the four weeks after launch, earned impressions totaled more than 162 million. Most importantly, the launch of Recalling 1993 increased New Museum ticket sales by 14% week over week and 31% year over year (as compared to the museum’s exhibition at the same time last year), bucking a national trend of an annual decrease in art museum traffic. Additionally, the museum saw a 250% increase in social mentions, and a total of more than 160 million earned impressions. Within four weeks the Recalling 1993 toll free number (1-855-FOR-1993) was called more than 7,000 times, and the site saw more than 82,000 visits.