As it's the end of the year, we thought we would try to create a new year-end tradition, by featuring a "campaign of the year." The guidelines were loose -- we wanted something unusual and innovative, that other organizations could take inspiration from.

We're pleased to have selected a campaign submitted by Alison Bomford, Marketing Officer of the National Gallery of Art in London, UK.  It represents exactly what we were hoping for in terms of innovation. We hope you enjoy reading about it... 

JigTSAR Campaign
 National Gallery Russian jigTSAR Campaign

2004 Feature Campaign

Campaign: JigTsar 

Sent On: June 16, 2004

Sent by: The National Gallery

Recipients: All subscribers (33,500).
A month after it was sent to subscribers it was made available on the web site to all visitors.

Click here to view the campaign.
The National Gallery on jigTSAR and e-marketing...

(left to right) Jenny Brown - New Media Design Assistant, Andrea Easey - Communications Editor, Charlotte Sexton - Deputy Head of New Media and Alison Bomford, - E-Marketing Officer.

The Marketing Team at the National Gallery is made up of 4 staff members working alongside the 3 New Media staff who work on the web site. The Gallery worked with an external creative agency (TemplarDowney) for the JIGtsar web site (which was linked to from their e-postcard campaign) but all of their e-cards and many of their campaigns have been designed in-house by a full-time web designer.

The Gallery's e-marketing budget (separate to web site budget) is only 6% of the overall marketing budget but is very much an integrated and integral part of their overall marketing strategy.

In the Q & A below, the Marketing Team provides the details of this very successful campaign.  Read on...


What was the goal of the JigTSAR?

JigTSAR was used to introduce the exhibition 'Russian landscape in the age of Tolstoy,' which featured many pictures never shown outside Russia. Its aim was to provide an interactive, engaging and informative taster of the exhibition, which would appeal to both the regular art attendee and the first-time visitor to the National Gallery. The challenge was to create a campaign that would encourage people to engage with and find out about a collection of paintings and artists that were largely unknown in Britain.

JigTSAR featured four interactive, online jigsaw puzzles, with a competitive element. The four jigsaws were graded on difficulty level and the entrants were timed on their completion. On completion of each jigsaw a brief explanation about the painting and artist was given including a map of where in Russia the painting was depicted.  Having completed all four jigsaws the entrant was placed into one of three categories based on their final time. In descending order of completion time they were: Russian Bear - "Too slow and cumbersome"; Rasputin - "Spent too long staring"; Peter or Catherine the Great. Those that fell into this last group were eligible to enter the competition for exhibition tickets and gifts. Subscribers who did not have Flash could either download it or use the non-Flash version 'TasTSAR' (taster), which could be downloaded to their computer.


What were the results?

49% of the 33,500 National Gallery subscribers who received the campaign opened it and of them 22% clicked through to take part in JIGtsar, 0.6% forwarded the campaign to a friend and 3.1% subscribed as a consequence of receiving a forwarded email.

After having sent the campaign, traffic to the exhibition site, which was linked to JIGtsar, increased by 250%. The exhibition overall was a massive success, selling 68% over our original ticket sale target.


What aspect of the campaign made it successful and why?

The interactive and competitive element! Regular feedback from subscribers highlights that they want to find out more about the exhibition but also love the competition element and the chance to win something for free!

The challenge for this campaign was to introduce our subscribers to artists and paintings in the exhibition, 'Russian landscape in the age of Tolstoy,'  that were little known to a British audience. By transforming four stunning pictures from the exhibition into jigsaws it encouraged people to really focus in on details within each painting, while also providing some interesting background information about the artist, the circumstances in which the painting was made and where it was set, using a map of Russia to show the location depicted.

The competitive element encouraged many repeat visits to the campaign, as subscribers tried to complete the four jigsaws in the quickest time. National Gallery gifts were given to the 10 subscribers who completed the campaign in the quickest times. This campaign provided an interactive element that would have been impossible with printed promotional material, enabling our subscribers to engage with these distinctive paintings.

The campaign was produced both in Flash and HTML and there was a Flash download facility, making JIGtsar accessible to all our subscribers. 


What conclusions can you draw from the success of these campaigns?

Based on ongoing subscriber feedback, we always aim to produce campaigns that are informative, reflect the style and content of the exhibition and most importantly create campaigns that are fun for both the experienced Gallery attendee and first-time visitor alike.

 Visit the National Gallery's web site

 2004 Wrap Up

This year has been an exhilarating one for Patron Technology and all of us on the staff are grateful for your support. As the year ends, we're proud to share just some of our successes with you here.

PatronMail growth : We passed our 300th client organization just last month - we now have clients in 42 states in the US, and in Canada, Europe and Asia.  We're working with a tremendous range of institutions from the NY Philharmonic to the National Gallery in London, to the Anchorage Museum and best-selling author Nelson DeMille.

Technology: We launched a major upgrade of PatronMail last month such that we now provide what we've been told is the most comprehensive and easiest to use online text editing capability.

Customer Satisfaction: We just fielded our annual customer satisfaction survey and we're thrilled that 92% of our customers said that they would recommend PatronMail to a colleague.

New Pricing Plans :  We now offer a variety of affordable pricing plans for organizations that are just starting out and have no e-mail lists, to seasonal organizations that mail to over 300,000 messages per month.

Publishing:  We published our second book "Sign-up for Culture" written by Patron Technology's president  Eugene Carr. (His next book "Web sites for Culture" is already in progress to be published this spring. 

Newsletters & Expertise: It's been a year since we launched our bi-monthly e-mail newsletter and judging from the great open rates, clearly these are of interest. For next year, you can look for a lot more from us in the area of expertise -- helping you do better online and e-mail marketing.

In the meantime, all the best from our staff to yours for a happy and healthy 2005!
 Visit the Patron Technology web site