The Brief
Following their successful inaugural year in 2016, ART X Lagos wanted to bring attention to the breadth of their programme in national and international visual arts and lifestyle media, raising the profile of Art X Lagos internationally, and increasing the number of visitors from the previous year.
ART X Lagos is West Africa’s first international art fair which runs over three days from 3rd – 5th November, situated at The Civic Centre on Victoria Island in Lagos, Nigeria. ART X Lagos’ exhibition space, live art, curated projects, live music, outdoor installations, alongside a programme of talks including the guest speaker Njudeka Akinyili-Crosby, a MacArthur Genius Fellow, offer a magical mix of art, music, and entertainment. Artists exhibiting at the 2017 art fair included Yinka Shonibare MBE, Zanele Muholi, Ben Enwonwu, MBE and Jeremiah Quarshie amongst others.
The Work
Midas worked closely with the art fair Founder Tokini Peterside, the exhibiting artists and their galleries and management teams, to secure the maximum number of interviews and blanket coverage for the art fair including news stories, listings and previews. We worked closely with Art X Lagos to identify news stories from the fair to sell into the press and organised a publicity schedule of interviews and media meetings for Art X Lagos founder Tokini Peterside, resulting in a select number of high profile interviews with broadsheets and magazines.
Art X Lagos 2017 saw a 50% increase in visitors. Over the course of the three-month campaign, Midas PR secured 33 pieces of press coverage across national and international broadcast, print and digital media, including:
- FT Weekend Collecting supplement (cover)
- The Times
- Tatler
- The Art Newspaper
- Daily Mirror
- BBC World Service: Arts Hour
- BBC World Service: Focus on Africa
- CNN
- Voice of America
- Italy’s Financial Newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore
- EFE newswire
- AFP newswire
In total the campaign reached a combined audience of 303 million internationally with a total PR value of £18 million.