Manchester Art Fair
The Brief:
Manchester Art Fair is one of the UK’s largest and most prestigious art fairs. Founded in 2008, the event has welcomed over 90,000 visitors since inception and amassed over £6m in art sales. Having worked with the acclaimed event since inception, Strong founder Jules was delighted to introduce Manchester Art Fair to The Strong Agency in 2019. Over the last five years Manchester Art Fair has tasked Strong with further raising the profile of the event in the core national, regional and specialist press, driving visitors and, in turn, sales. It’s a brief that we wholeheartedly relish.
Our Strategy:
The Strong Agency’s PR and communications strategies are designed to benefit clients with structure and flex. This is key to an event such as Manchester Art Fair, for whom fantastic PR opportunities can arise at any given time.
Working in close collaboration with the client and drawing on key business and media insights, our strategy sees stories developed to drive coverage at pivotal points in Manchester Art Fair’s sales and marketing campaign. This is whilst affording the team with the opportunity to leverage every emerging story.
Tactics are shaped by the Fair’s event programme and the media agenda, and typically include a mix of artist profiling, news generation, feature placement, event management, creative stunts, news-jacking, creative partnerships, and media relations.
Activity is meticulously mapped with the target audience in mind, driving exposure not just at the right time, but in the right outlets, and with reach to the right audience. It’s a highly collaborative, insight driven and creative approach that works.
The Results:
From BBC NWT to BBC Radio 4, Granada Reports, The Guardian, Stella Magazine, London Evening Standard, Metro UK, Time Out, the Daily Telegraph and more, The Strong Agency is proud to have profiled Manchester Art Fair in some of the UK’s most coveted media outlets.
In one year alone, The Strong Agency was proud to deliver over 100 items of coverage from just one story, testament to the agency’s ability to identify and create news stories with maximum impact.
This, coupled with consistent blanket coverage in the heartland North West media, sees Manchester Art Fair rightfully positioned as one of the most featured events in the North’s art and cultural calendar. We look forward to continuing to raise the bar…
Image Credit: Sara Porter
