National Portrait Gallery unveils advertising campaign to drive visitor levels to its permanent collections

27 September 2004

With visitor levels over the last year at a record high, the National Portrait Gallery is embarking on a high profile print and underground advertising campaign to reinforce its position as one of London’s top visitor attractions. The campaign, which went live on 27th September, has been created by leading brand development consultancy Rufus Leonard.

The distinctive print and underground campaign aims to promote the Gallery’s permanent collection in order to drive further growth in visitors numbers, reinforce the attractions of the National Portrait Gallery and broaden its general appeal amongst potential visitors both those living in and visiting London. The campaign comes seven months after the National Portrait Gallery unveiled its new visual identity, which was also created by Rufus Leonard.

Rufus Leonard has designed a series of four advertisements, which will appear throughout the London Underground, with up to 50 tunnel posters being displayed across the tube network at any one time. The targeted advertisements will also run in key London guides such as What’s On in London and The London Guide.

To date, the new visual identity has been seen on all internal Gallery marketing literature, its Annual Review and promotions specific to each exhibition, starting with the Cecil Beaton exhibition in February 2004. The series of advertisements are based around the four key entry routes to the Gallery’s collection: History, Art, Biography and Fame. Media buying has been handled by Dewynters.

Speaking of the launch of the advertising campaign, Andrew Fleming, Creative Director at Rufus Leonard, comments:
'Having worked with the National Portrait Gallery on the creation and roll out of the refreshed visual identity, we were delighted to take it this step further and create their advertising campaign. It successfully encapsulates the Gallery’s whole identity into a single message that has something for everyone.'

John Haywood, Marketing Manager at the National Portrait Gallery, adds:
'Rufus Leonard’s brief was to create a campaign that communicates the breadth of the National Portrait Gallery’s appeal in a way that is both dynamic and immediately engaging to the widest possible audience. We are delighted with the finished result, and our relationship with Rufus Leonard and their understanding of the Gallery has been crucial to the development and realisation of the campaign