Ideas We Love Issue no.11
The V&A's "It's in the V&A"
Hi. How are you?
Matt is back from holiday. The torrential rain that seems to have dominated the last couple of weeks in the UK has briefly stopped. The Sun is rising a little earlier and setting a little later. Spring is hopefully on it’s way.
Things are looking up and normal service resumes this week at Ideas We Love HQ.
To start - One lovely communications idea. Our main course, some thoughts on why we love it and how we’d stretch it. For dessert, some references and ‘further reading’ should this sort of thing be up your street. Bon Apetit!
This week we serve up a love letter to London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and their new campaign 'It’s in the V&A’ which broke this week, brought to life by Adam & Eve DDB London & our friends across the bridge at PHD London.
The Idea. It’s in the V&A
The objective of the campaign is to try and reframe the idea of a museum in the minds of the consumer - us, the British public. According the data published alongside the campaign most people don’t think ‘museums are for them’ - a figure which gets worse when you get out of major cities. Given the sheer range of artefacts in a place like the V&A, this is unlikely to be true. The organisation’s aim is to ‘invite everyone to enjoy the power of creativity’.
We love how this campaign seeks to unashamedly bust any myths or preconceived notions of what we’d expect to be on display and does so in a confident and proud way. There is not a bit of snuffiness or snootiness about this. The sheer variety of messages and components of the campaign (over 70 different executions) works hard to meet the objective at hand. The media is the message. The campaign stretches across OOH, Social, Gaming and Experiential - inserting itself into very specific communities and contexts in a way which uses the signs, symbols and iconography of these respective groups to deliver the message. We also like how this has launched alongside a new series of ‘Secrets of the Museum’ a documentary about the V&A on iPlayer.
Why we love this idea
Not only does this campaign look nice, there are loads of interesting components to it which we think give it extra heft….
Platform thinking
Unlike many publicly traded companies, institutions like museums and galleries are able to think long-term. In fact, they’re actively encouraged to - their job is conservation and preservation. At the heart of this campaign is a brilliant platform thought - and you could see how this idea can come back year after year.
By using new artefacts, talking to new communities and activating in new channels, this is a big enough idea that speaks to an enduring truth about the organisation and can be refreshed and refreshed without fear of it getting old or thin.
Context, Context, Context
The marriage of media and message and context is such a foundational part of great communications planning that it almost feels silly to highlight it. However, it takes real skill and effort to achieve properly - and when you see examples of brands and their agencies doing it well, it’s hard to not to smile.
In a cluttered marketplace, the effect of marrying media, message and context provides a multiplier effect - and helps to create cut through. Some of the placements in the campaign will undoubtedly have been ‘manual’ in their nature (like the gaming example above), but we can also see how Dynamic Creative Optimisation (DCO) has been used to do some of the heavy lifting in channels like outdoor to help scale the idea and drive reach.
Acts & Ads
We really like how this campaign balances ‘saying stuff’ and ‘doing stuff’. Alongside the advertising assets being deployed, the campaign has extended into real life artefacts which have been essentially hidden for people to find.
These include a set of embroidered pocket squares that will be given away by a specialist tailor, a silver tankard engraved with the campaign slogan that has been hidden in a popular ‘detectorist’ spot, a 120-year old book that has been rebound and hidden in a second hand book shop and a special ‘plaque’ attached to a theatre seat in London.
What we’d love to have done with it….
#1 A ‘Media-Led’ Idea. YouTube Director’s Mix
The first thought is a straight up media placement.
A technique that may have been part of the campaign we’re not sure, but YouTube Director’s Mix is a brilliant tool that enables advertisers to deploy contextual video placements at scale.
Contextual video? Sorry, what, pardon? For the unfamiliar, you can familiarise yourselves with this technique via this brilliant activation from Campbell’s Soup.
An approach that was hacked together by the media agency, then ‘productised’ by Google, to become YouTube Director’s Mix as it’s now known today.
For ‘It’s in the V&A’ this technique would enable them to pair up their artefacts and collections with likeminded videos people are searching for or watching on YouTube.
With playful context and copy combos that would enable them to drive incremental reach, relevance and resonance vs. the key visual alone.
#2 A ‘Content-Led’ Idea. Haul of Fame
This campaign feels like a lovely exclamation mark on top of the BBC documentary; taking the magic of what’s in the V&A out to people with likeminded and varied interests.
It got us thinking though about how do you keep ‘The V&A’ front of mind, once the docuseries has finished and campaign budgets have been exhausted.
So, why not flip this idea on its head and make ‘a moment’ out of what’s making its way into the V&A from the present day, on top of what’s already in there.
Akin to the release of the new Michelin guide, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, or even new words being added to the Oxford Dictionary, the V&A could at opportune moments induct an annual, seasonal or topical range of items of cultural significance and make some noise about it.
An idea that has newsworthiness built in, that positions the institution not just as preservers of culture, but shapers of it too.
#3 An “Experience-Led” Idea. V&AVision Pro
The problem when curating over 2 million artefacts, is that displaying them becomes a challenge. There’s only so much space on-site, but up in the cloud it becomes limitless.
The likes of Apple Vision Pro going mainstream could enable an institution like ‘The V&A’ to develop VR experiences that transport users back in time to witness the origination, the creation or the cultural context that surrounded some of the V&A's most famous pieces - or to get up close and personal with historical events related to the artefacts.
It’s nice to go to the V&A and see a plaster-cast of Michaelangelo’s David, sure.
It would be way cooler for my 11 year old though to wander around Florence as it was in 1501 and have a chat with Michaelangelo, in his studio, back in the day, whilst he’s sculpting it.
Re-vamping the formats by which some of the V&As most famous exhibits are experienced like this, has the potential to expand their reach internationally and recruit new generations potentially not interested in wandering around formal Victorian-era museums.
If you liked this, you’ll love….
The thing we’ve realised whilst writing these newsletters is that for the best ideas, this section writes itself.
There are loads and loads of analagous examples and things it reminds us of.
Further proof, if any were needed, that the best ideas are never entirely new but in fact are remixes of other interesting or good stuff. This campaign is no exception.
The British Journal of Photography & JC Decaux’s ‘Portrait of Britain’
Portrait of Britain is a long-running competition that asks for entrants to ‘celebrate the changing face of Britain’. Working with Outdoor contractor JC Decaux, The British Journal of Photography handpick 100 of the best entrants and then use OOH advertising sites to exhibit them to the nation. What a great example of ‘media for good’, democratising beauty and distributing imagery many would not normally get to see. Crucially, this also addresses the issue of representation in media, something central to DEI efforts in the industry.
Channel 4’s Faces of 4
A long-running series of idents and ads on UK broadcaster Channel 4 showcasing the talent on the channel in a lovely, human and often humourous way. Unfortunately the only version we can find online is one that contains copious amounts of foul language…. viewer discretion is advised.
Johnnie Walker’s Johnnie Walker Experience
For brands looking to cement their reputation and drive quality credentials, it might be that actually being more like the V&A is the answer. Johnnie Walker’s Princes Street venue is part retail space, part museum, part restaurant and bar…. A fully rounded brand experience putting ‘the liquid’ front and centre.
Until next time….
As always, we’d love to know what you think…. and if you're enjoying the newsletter please send on to colleagues, friends and loved ones. The support is very much appreciated… and as we figure out how the linkedin algorithm works, peer to peer recommendation really helps
Until next time. Cheerio
Tom & Matt
I love the campaign and I love this breakdown. Thanks chaps.