Vikings Insta Exhibit

Royal Alberta Museum

The
CHALLENGE

Vikings aren’t all blood, guts and swords

Vikings: Beyond the Leg­end was sched­uled to be the Roy­al Alber­ta Museum’s (RAM) first fea­ture exhi­bi­tion in its new home. A lot was rid­ing on the suc­cess of this trav­el­ling exhi­bi­tion com­prised of 602 arti­facts from the Viking era. One of the most unique and chal­leng­ing aspects of this exhib­it was how it show­cased the every­day lives of Vikings through quite ordi­nary, yet fas­ci­nat­ing, every­day objects such as coins, riv­ets and thread. It wasn’t all blood, guts and swords. Admit­ted­ly, a much eas­i­er sell. Our task was to brand the exhib­it and make these every­day objects entic­ing so the RAM’s goal of tick­et sales would be met.

The IDEA

You want to do what with the entire exhibit? – Client

To say we teased the exhib­it would be an under­state­ment of Viking-esque pro­por­tions. We took a bold move and show­cased the entire collection—all 602 artifacts—in a dig­i­tal exhib­it on Insta­gram. Our client raised one con­cern. What if peo­ple don’t come to the exhib­it because we just put the entire exhib­it in their hands—literally? We were con­fi­dent the Ins­ta Exhib­it would actu­al­ly cre­ate more inter­est in the objects. So, we coun­tered their ques­tion with a ques­tion of our own. How often do you get the chance to see an ancient Tor­toise Brooch or pieces of an actu­al Viking war­ship up close and in per­son?

The RESULTS

Visitors made like Vikings and stormed the RAM

As a cen­tral piece of our dig­i­tal for­ward cam­paign, the Ins­ta Exhib­it brought the epic fac­tor need­ed for Vikings: Beyond the Leg­end. It not only cap­ti­vat­ed the public’s imag­i­na­tions, it helped draw in Viking-sized atten­dance num­bers. The intend­ed audi­ence of fam­i­lies and mil­len­ni­als flocked to the exhi­bi­tion, mak­ing the RAM’s inau­gur­al fea­ture exhib­it an unmit­i­gat­ed suc­cess and help­ing set the tone for the future shows.

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