The V&A were launching their first digital art exhibition - Decode: Digital Design Sensations.We were tasked with promoting the exhibition (on and offline) over a 4 month period, with a total budget of £40k including media.We wanted to create a collaborative, inclusive, organic and dynamic campaign that reflected the nature of digital art, to engage our audience in new ways.We created a completely open source campaign called Recode Decode that would not just promote the exhibition, but enhance and extend it.

We worked with world famous digital artist Karsten Schmidt to create an amazing interactive art application to form the centerpiece of the campaign.We invited our target audience to turn this generative art into their own digital masterpiece. The best Recodes were used to promote the exhibition in an integrated campaign.

100 Digital art & design influencers were identified using social anthropology technology– they were invited to a sneak preview of the exhibitionInfluencers begin to blog about their experience – with rave reviews.We then launched Karsten Schmidt’s digital artwork for our audience to Recode.Re-engagement with existing influencer list and then some more (300 in total) to get them to download the code and create their own artworkPR coverage followed – as did broader buzz around the competition & exhibition.Outdoor campaign (London Underground 6 sheet posters and digital projection screens) runs with Decoded artwork.Online campaign kicks in. Display advertising, behaviourally targeted to those exhibiting an interest in arts and culture.In addition, we took over a shop front in Westfield shopping centre to act as an extended exhibition space for Karsten Schmidt’s work and Recoded work.

Exhibition attendance completely exceeded clients’ expectations, now sold out with 88,000 admissions expected, smashing targets of 40,000 visitors, 220% of their original estimate.Average ticket price (across concession, pre-booked and door prices) was £5.63.The campaign therefore is expected to yield revenues of approximately £495,440 from a marketing budget of £40,000Recode garnered significant coverage in press, including NMA (site of the week) Shots and Creative Review; however we were equally pleased to observe the deluge of conversation that took place around the concept on blogs and via Twitter.A total of 1,122 features across social media channels and 69 features across online news/ industry publications.Online campaign reaches 1.57m unique users.By inviting a new younger audience to take part in the exhibition, Recode has given them new reasons to connect to one of the world's greatest art institutions like never before.