The Brief
Midas was appointed to deliver an engaging social media strategy to build Shane Guffogg’s online profile with wider audiences. The goal was to expand Shane’s profile as an American abstract artist by captivating national art critics, journalists, industry peers, and influential creators with social content to celebrate his artwork, new exhibition (the inspiration behind it, including T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets), and the augmented reality (AR) components of his new pieces. To do this, we scripted a social media content calendar to implement, which involved leveraging key calendar events, national awareness days, and relevant hashtags to amplify Shane’s reach and engagement within the online art community.
Our objective was to work with Shane to produce a diverse array of content, including branded static cards and engaging Reels, to cultivate a visually appealing Instagram feed and foster recognition of Shane as an artist, building his online reach and engagement, whilst helping to generate buzz and excitement for his exhibition At the Still Point of the Turning World – Strangers of Time in Venice, which took place during the 60thVenice Biennale.
The Work
Following a kick-off meeting with Shane, Midas audited his Instagram profiles (both his personal and existing business account) as well as similar voices in the field, analysing the types of content that was performing well and where there was opportunity for improvement. This helped to develop the overall strategy, which included best practice guidelines. It was agreed with Shane, that the business Instagram account would be the focus for our campaign in order to not reduce potential reach and engagement.
We created a content calendar, working with Shane and his team to ensure the tone of voice of the copy was engaging to his target audience. This was designed to maximise engagement and drive meaningful interactions, whilst showcasing the extraordinary depth of themes within Shane’s artwork – particularly the dialogue with T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets and AI. This calendar strook a balance between promotional content aimed at highlighting Shane’s new exhibition and personable content with front facing and ‘behind the scenes’ images/Reels of Shane to captivate his followers.
To showcase Shane’s innovative approach as an artist using AI, we used Shane’s augmented reality (AR) inspiration as a hook for content to encourage a deeper understanding of the evolving landscape of creativity in the digital age, to engage wider audiences and generate buzz and anticipation leading up to the exhibition. We highlighted the AR elements of the exhibition in the content calendar, strategically scheduling these on the most popular days for engagement on Shane’s Instagram. We engaged a similar approach to draw out the T.S. Eliot themes to his artwork, tapping into fans of T.S. Eliot’s work online.
Throughout the duration of the campaign, we implemented a strategic approach to engage Shane’s audience through crafted Reels. We curated 21 Reels in total, which were created and uploaded using footage sourced from a shared Dropbox, ensuring a seamless collaboration process with Shane and his team. Each Reel was designed to resonate with Shane’s brand identity while also capturing the attention of his target audience, thereby amplifying his online presence.
Seeing the value in onsite social video content, we created a Q&A filming brief for Shane and his team, to be done in Venice. This content included questions about the inspiration for the exhibition, whereby Shane walked the camera around the beautiful streets of Venice showing the architecture and colours and tying it to conversations about his artwork. This filming served as a precursor to the event, generating anticipation and excitement among his followers, whilst showing more personable content. This proactive approach not only showcased Shane’s expertise and personality but also reinforced his position as an artist, further solidifying his online presence and that of his exhibition in Venice. Once footage was filmed, we would produce the Reels, including subtitles to ensure accessibility.
Shane’s socials were monitored daily, implementing approved content, sharing any mentions from other users and engaging with both followers and non-followers. Multiple digital updates were sent to Shane and his team, including monthly analytics reports that tracked the performance of our social media content and the progress of each element of the campaign. We worked closely with Shane’s team throughout the campaign to adjust the content calendar strategy according to the any new reach trends identified in the monthly analytics.
The Results
Our content generated 34.1K impressions and reached 9.4K accounts on Instagram. There was continued growth of reach and engagement, with +401% profile visits, +1.2K%Story interactions, +584.9% non-followers engaged during the campaign compared. Shane’s Instagram following increased +4.42%.
Throughout the campaign, we crafted, selected, and shared 21 Reels utilising footage from the archive. Notably, during the exhibition week, we briefed Shane on conducting a preliminary on-camera Q&A to generate excitement for the event and create enduring content. Our curated reels showcased highlights such as Shane’s behind-the-scenes painting session in the workshop and ‘Lunch in Venice’.
The online community showed their support for Shane, with comments including:
Pat Gainor (1.2K followers): ‘Ah this brings back happy memories of transporting my paintings over the bridges last June for my show. Venice is a magical place. Can’t wait to see more about your show.’
Jimi Gleason (2.7K followers): ‘Outstanding’
Karamia Designs Inc (13.3K followers): ‘amazing exhibit !!! One of the best today’s artist’
Daniel Trujillo (12.3K followers): ‘Always satisfying seeing your process’
Prominent Story reshares included:
- SHOW Studio (289K followers)
- 1883magazine (70.8K followers)
- Photographer Timofey Kolesnikov (49.2K followers)
- Artist Mark Acetelli (10.9K followers)
- Architect Giovanni Campaci (700 followers)
- Landscape Architect Luiz Gomez (2.3K followers)
- Micaela Scapin Communication (5.9K followers)
- Sudents of art at Università Ca’ Foscari Mariia Niko (655 followers) and Sara Bizai (766 followers),
- YaYa Design Studio (700 followers)
- Forest Lawn Museum (5.4K followers)
- Anthony Cardella (1.2K followers)
- Adlar AR Studio (250 followers)
- Alvise Schiavon (2.1K followers)
- Patrick Carpentier (2.2K followers)
- Sina Centurion Palace (7.6K followers)
- Pier Paolo Scelsi (7K followers)
- Visual/Art director Emilie Kloss (101 followers)
- Gioielli Nascosti di Venezia (13.6K followers)
- Victoria Chapman (4.6K followers)
- Blogger Venice my city (640 followers)
- Brayden Bugazzi Art (7.7K followers)
- Elena Cendret (1.1K followers)
