In September this year, marcusbrewster launched a social media first called Twuedo. This social media game included a group of bloggers who were “accused” of stealing the largest work ever produced by artist Irma Stern from the KWV’s new gallery space, Sensorium. Little did we know that our game would play out in real life some time later.
This weekend’s art robbery at Pretoria Art Museum just indicates that sometimes creativity is not that far removed from reality after all – except, in the world where realism applies, the Irma Stern was left behind by the robbers because it was too big to fit into the getaway car…
marcusbrewster was approached by Gloo to create social media buzz around the opening of KWV’s new wine and art space, Sensorium. The brief stated that this engagement should be created via microblogging platform Twitter – incorporating an arty clip designed by the award-winning digital agency. The challenge was to get a young crowd of Millennials to take note of a gallery space dedicated to SA’s old masters.
marcusbrewster responded creatively by weaving a group of bloggers into a Twitter first called Twuedo. Based on the murder mystery game Cluedo, this simplified social media version required bloggers and/or tweeters to respond to accusations levelled against their alibis (@libis). The crime? They were all accused of stealing the largest work every produced by artist Irma Stern from the KWV Sensorium before the gallery’s official opening night. By following a process of elimination, participants sought to pin down the thief amongst them – and created a Twitter buzz as a result.
It was a personable and highly effective approach to what could easily have been just another vanilla PR social media outing, which would’ve enjoyed very little traction. Instead, in a matter of one week,Twitter mentions of
KWV’s Sensorium gallery reached over 24 067 accounts and gathered some 87 237 impressions, created by only 29 tweeters.
A fascinating experience by any measure, the question that we are left with is: Just how far did these Tweets reach? Far enough to inspire an overseas shopping list for our local art?
Farfetched no doubt, but we are glad to learn that the KWV has beefed up security at the establishment – just in case.
IMAGE: Irma Stern’s The Harvest
Jeanri-Tine van Zyl (@jeanritine) is a Senior Account Manager at managed communication services firm marcusbrewster where she drives the digital portfolio.
