Midas secures wide-reaching international coverage for American artist Shane Guffogg, positioning him as a pioneer in AI-driven art and music.
The Brief
Midas was appointed to drive an impactful and wide-reaching media campaign for Shane Guffogg’s new exhibition At The Still Point of The Turning World, launching during the 60th Venice Biennale at the Scala Contarini del Bovolo.
Our objectives were to promote Shane’s new exhibition to wider audiences; position him as a key American abstract artist whose latest body of work will send shockwaves throughout the art world and beyond; secure exposure to a broad audience of art collectors, galleries, cultural institutions, as well as major consumer influencers and brands; and create a buzz around the exhibition opening, by inviting key members of the media to attend and cover the launch.
The Work
Over the course of our campaign, Midas secured a wide breadth of publicity for and interest in Shane, spanning national, broadcast, business, lifestyle, art, and social media.
Following a kick-off meeting with Shane and having familiarised with his art practice and body of work, we created an in-depth PR Plan for our campaign, including strategy, key messaging, target audiences and media, and timeline of activity.
As Shane’s art is incredibly rich in inspiration and themes, we developed specific messaging and feature angles to target the relevant audience segments: art collectors and investors, Venice Biennale visitors, culturally engaged travellers, tech-savvy art lovers, art influencers, luxury shoppers and more.
In our media outreach, we positioned Shane as a pioneer in taking abstract art and music to the next level using AI. By using augmented reality and artificial intelligence, Shane expands the possibilities of what art can be, inviting viewers to engage with his works in a meaningful and immersive way. By sharing more details about Shane’s synaesthesia, we were able to generate keen interest in the way he perceives the world, as well as his artistic production and the music that he composed using AI. We also capitalized on his relationship with Europe’s Old Masters, the American pop artist and his mentor Ed Ruscha, and T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, which provided the inspiration for his Venice exhibition.
Working closely with Shane’s team was a priority for us, and we collaborated to ensure all stakeholders were happy with the targets and tactics of our campaign. We were also delighted to generate media interest in the work for Anthony Cardella and Jonah Lynch, who were involved in the exhibition from a music and AI perspective respectively.
To secure coverage for the exhibition launch in a competitive landscape such as the Biennale opening week, we identified key journalists from the target media to invite for an exclusive press trip to Venice. We liaised closely with Patrick to book flights, accommodation and transport for five journalists. We prepared detailed press schedules for all attendees, ensuring they had all the necessary details about their itinerary ahead of their trip.
During launch week, Midas travelled to Venice to deliver on the ground support, which included: ensuring the exhibition space was all set up and ready to welcome journalists; running the press morning and facilitating interviews with Shane; supporting the team with the guest list during the evening private view. We were delighted to receive positive feedback from all the journalists in attendance, who all had a great experience and were moved by Shane’s exhibition.
The Results
We were delighted with the spread of international coverage Shane and the exhibition received.
We secured a profile interview with Shane on BBC World / BBC One, talking as a spokesperson on the Venice Biennale – the interview was syndicated to 15 regional UK outlets including BBC East, BBC South, BBC West, BBC London, BBC Yorkshire, BBC West Midlands, BBC Scotland, BBC Wales, BBC Northern Ireland etc.
Earlier in the campaign, Shane was also interviewed for the CNBC website, for an insightful piece about art and generative AI, which was translated and ran in the French outlet Nouvelles du Monde. Another piece focusing on Shane’s work using AI, and in particular on the newly composed music inspired by his paintings, ran in The AI Musicpreneur.
Within consumer, art and business media, we set up a long-form feature on Business Insider, which also appeared in the German and Spanish editions, and was syndicated to Yahoo! News. 1883 Magazine published a long-form interview with Shane on their website, deriving from their conversation with Shane during the press day. Shane’s interview with SHOWstudio appeared on their social media (Instagram and TikTok) as well as on their website as a feature. The exhibition was included in designboom’s highlights to see at the Biennale, and got another mention in Tabish Khan’s round-up of top art exhibitions in Venice in FAD Magazine.
As part of the press trip, we had journalists from The Times, Forbes, SHOWstudio, designboom, and 1883 Magazine, all covering the exhibition either just after the press day or with coverage coming up shortly. We had keen interest that unfortunately didn’t translate into coverage from additional high-profile media including GQ, LUX Magazine, ArtReview, domus, Mail Online, Why Now and more.