Bonniers Konsthall is an art gallery that shows contemporary art and performance art; which is not for everyone. In order to recruit visitors for this niche offer, we created a non-personal invitation. By scanning the QR-code on our Outdoor or Print ads you received a free ticket to our current art exhibition. The only catch: you couldn’t use it. The ticket wasn’t functional until you sent it to someone else via twitter or Facebook. We encouraged the recipient to find a more suitable match for our offer, by passing on the invitation to someone in his or her social network. The person who received this second-hand invitation could in turn save the digital ticket on their mobile and show it at Bonniers Konsthall in order to get free entrance. Just as we had hoped, lots of people could identify with the fact that Bonniers Konsthall was not for them. The campaign became a success as the non-personal invitations eventually found their way into the right hands. Over 4000 people used their mobile phones to actively get a ticket they could´t use, but instead send to a friend or colleague. The exhibition gained record-attendance and the uninviting invitations were picked up both by broad media and niche press. Sweden’s largest TV-channel, morning paper and art-magazine all reported on the campaign. Bonniers Konsthall went from being invisible to becoming Sweden’s most well known little unknown art gallery, and found an audience thanks to sticking to what they believe: that they are not for everyone.

To remind people of the fact that Bonniers Konsthall is not for everyone and create buzz for the gallery, we created an unsocial event in social media. The event Max99 people went live 9 am and the rules were simple: the 99 first to join got a silkscreen T-shirt from the art piece “Untitled”.

However, if it gathered more than 99 people before 9 pm it was cancelled and nobody got anything. To start things off we invited 3 people who in turn could invite whoever they wanted of their Facebook-friends, if they dared to risk it. Every share and every invite was a risk, since every accepted guest was one person closer to a cancelled event; and therefore; no t-shirt for you. The challenge was simple; can you not share?

The campaign became a success as the non-personal invitations eventually found their way into the right hands. Out of 1,900 direct mails over 400 were cashed in as free tickets by someone other than the original recipients. The exhibition gained record attendance and the uninviting invitations were picked up both by broad media and niche press. Sweden’s largest TV channel, morning paper and art magazine all reported on the campaign. Bonniers Konsthall went from being invisible to becoming Sweden’s most well-known little unknown art gallery, and found an audience thanks to sticking to what they believe: that they are not for everyone.