The University of Melbourne has launched a global campaign to mark the transformation of its Fine Arts and Music Southbank campus.
The campaign, created by McCann Melbourne in partnership with Weber Shandwick, aimed to put the University’s fine arts and music courses, along with its students, in the global spotlight.
“Over the past nine years, we’ve invested $200 million in the capital redevelopment of the Southbank campus, so we wanted to build perception of the University of Melbourne as a leader provider of fine arts and music tertiary education in Australia,” says Alix Bromley, strategic marketing manager at the University’s faculty of fine arts and music.
Entitled First Commissions, 30 University students and alumni were commissioned to reinterpret historical commissions for the present moment through different disciplines.
These disciplines included dance, design and production, theatre, film, music, music theatre and visual art.
While Bromley admits it was a “high-risk” project, she told AdNews the University wanted to capture the public imagination in a similar way to the Girl on Wall St.
After weeks of exploring different ideas, McCann Melbourne account director Meg Andrews says the team boiled it down to three ideas with First Commissions being the standout choice.
“We knew the idea was audacious and brave, but as the institution that itself encourages and inspires its students to have the bravery to push the boundaries, we felt that there was an undeniable synergy,” Andrews says.
“Of course, there would also be a considerable investment from the Faculty and its students, so these conversations around expectations of involvement happened up front.”
Born from the discovery of the original commission given to Michaelangelo for the Statue of David, the project centred around this particular work with a final exhibition held in Florence.
Commissioning the artists
As the idea to commission the artists was set in stone, a callout was distributed at the end of 2018 to graduating students.
The academic heads of each discipline shortlisted applicants down to 30 students and the team at McCann located a number of original briefs for some of the world’s most well known work.
Special care was taken to choose masterpieces from different parts of the globe.
Unbeknown to the chosen artists, the commissions came from original responses spanning Frida Kahlo’s Self-Portrait with Monkeys and Tschaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty to Michelangelo’s David.
“Although commissioned over 500 years ago, the brief to create a vision of perfection is still a potent and provocative one for the artists of today,” McCann Melbourne creative director Andrew Woodhead says.
“But it wasn’t until we discovered the existence of the original 50-page commission tasked to Michelangelo did the excitement surrounding the idea really started to percolate.
“The challenge was then to find as many of these original commissions as we could. This saw us trawling the internet for days and nights on end.”
Artists were paired with a different discipline to the brief they were responding to. For example, a sculptor wouldn’t respond to the commission of the Statue of David or a visual artist to Frida Kahlo’s self-portrait.
Over the six to eight week creative process, five of the artists were documented to present an in-depth behind the scenes look at how they would produce their work.
“To have a fly-on-the-wall view giving an honest account of was extremely rare and insightful, and witnessing the bravery required of these young artists really cemented for us the incredible role the Faculty has in allowing them to find their own, unique voice and helping them to discover that bravery,” Andrews says.
“It also made us work harder, as we wanted to do them and their work justice.”
The birthplace of commissions
Garnering international attention and exposure for these emerging artists was paramount to the project.
With the Statue of David playing a vital role in its foundations, Woodhead says hosting an exhibition in the work’s birthplace was the perfect location to kick off the campaign.
“First Commissions launched in Florence Italy, the birthplace of Michelangelo’s Statue of David,” Woodhead says.
“It was also the birthplace of the commission, with the Medici family being the first to commission artists.”
A fourteen-month process from approval to launch, orchestrating this was more of a challenge than the University and McCann had imagined and there were plenty of hurdles along the way.
“At one point, changes to government regulations in Florence threatened to deny us access to the David,” Andrews says.
“These were regulations were being introduced to protect the integrity of the masterpiece, and would prevent any perceived commercialisation connected with the historic work.”
Once they had overcome this though, everything fell into place.
The works were exhibited against the classical Renaissance backdrop of the Florence Fine Arts Academy – a local institution with roots dating back to the 1500s.
The artists selected to show in the Italian art capital were those who responded to Michaelangelo’s commission: Jack Riley, Esther Stewart, Ash Perry, Danna Yun, Samuel Kreusler.
Their works placed David’s perfection in a whole new context, creating pieces that examined how digital algorithms and social media filters inform our relationship with human perfection.
Their hyper-contemporary works were exhibited against the classical Renaissance backdrop of the Florence Fine Arts Academy – a local institution with roots dating back to the 1500s.
The exhibition began at the feet of Michelangelo’s David, and placed the University on the radar of international dignitaries, media and key audiences.
Attendees were then directed to an online gallery to immerse themselves in the other works.
Back on local turf, all 30 works were put on show in July at the Southbank campus’ Open House weekend.
The faculty’s external relations manager Elena Del Mercato says the public engagement was one of the project’s biggest highlights.
“We had larger than expected crowds of around 3,500 visitors to the Southbank campus over Open House weekend in July, who enjoyed the fine winter weather and explored the campus including the First Commissions exhibition,” Del Mercato says.
The launch was then further amplified in a significant content, digital and OOH campaign.
The results
With five short documentaries and over 100 original content pieces, the campaign exceeded all benchmarks.
The campaign reached a global audience of more than five million across Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Over 70,000 people visited the First Commissions website.
The campaign’s total reach was 146 million, and covered in media across Italy, China, the US, and the UK, including The Guardian UK and Wall Street Journal.
Many of the artists have been approached internationally by those who wish to commission or collaborate with them.
Several of the musicians have also featured on national network television.
Following its success, Bromley says the University is looking to make it an ongoing alumni program on a smaller scale.
“First Commissions also demonstrated a commitment to our alumni outcomes. Building an artistic career is not an easy path, so giving our students their first commission was a way we can help support them,” she says.
“We know too that creating global networks is incredibly important to an artistic career and that has also been one of the benefits to the artists.
“We are looking at how First Commissions might be able to evolve outside of marketing into an alumni engagement program on a smaller scale, perhaps integrating a regional touring element.”
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.