Results and Impacts

For our work for Glasgow Museums, the Gate won a clutch of Scottish Advertising awards and helped the newly-opened Kelvingrove notch up record visitor numbers. The challenge we faced was this: how do you tell a city of art-lovers that their favourite museum will be closed for a major refurbishment for three whole years? When Kelvingrove closed its doors for a revamp, The Gate helped to break the news gently to the people of Glasgow with a witty campaign which brought both the move and the refurbishment to life.

The Challenge and Objectives

Glasgow City Council had been planning an overhaul of its much-loved museum for a while, but the vast scale of the refurbishment wasn’t widely known amongst the city’s residents and visitors. Our challenge was to inform people of the facts while advertising its potential future treasures and attractions. Due to the length of time it would remain closed, we also needed to keep the museum at the forefront of the public imagination until it reopened.

Our strategy

Taking our cue from the public affection for Kelvingrove, which has long been known in Glasgow as The People’s Museum, we created a series of humorous, down-to-earth outdoor and press ads which showed various exhibits being cleaned, put away and improved. The ads were instantly likeable and strongly visual, using funny copy and images of well-known Glasgow artworks to remind the public of the treasures on their doorstep. They also succeeded in creating the impression that the city’s most precious objects were in safe hands and would be back – better than ever – in the near future.