Effie Winner Spotlight: New Museum & Droga5’s “Recalling 1993”
The New Museum was launching NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star, a new exhibit featuring art from early 1990s New York City - a pivotal social and cultural period in recent NYC history. With museum attendance at a record low and a small budget to draw crowds into the museum, the New Museum and agency partner Droga5 launched Recalling 1993, an interactive marketing campaign that captured the culture, heart and soul of this memorable year by taking the exhibit to the streets and allowing New Yorkers to step back in time.
The team built a database containing every Manhattan pay phone number, turning 5,000 pay phones across all corners of Manhattan into time machines back to 1993. Through a toll-free number, users could listen to over 150 neighborhood-specific stories from influential New Yorkers that captured the state and sentiments of the city at that time.
Recalling 1993 took home an Effie Award in the Culture & Arts and Small Budgets categories at the 2014 North American Effie Awards.
Case Summary: It’s not easy getting visitors through the door of an art museum in 2013: attendance in the US recently reached its lowest point in three decades. In New York, dozens of world-class art museums use big names and big budgets to draw crowds. For the New Museum’s “NYC 1993," we had neither. Our objective was to drive buzz that would lead to higher attendance to the museum compared to one year prior. With no paid media, “Recalling 1993” generated over 210 million earned media impressions and boosted attendance 31% year-on-year.
We spoke with Matthew Gardner, Director of Brand Influence at Droga5, to learn more about how his team pulled this effective guerilla campaign off.
In one sentence, how do you define effective marketing?
MG: Effective marketing is an idea so powerful that great numbers of people can’t help but be moved – moved to change their behavior, moved to rethink their surroundings, or just moved into a museum.
What was the insight that led to the “big idea” behind Recalling 1993?
MG: To feel and understand how much the year 1993 shaped the New York City of today, we’d have to transport New Yorkers back in time.
What was the biggest challenge you faced in bringing your idea to life?
MG: Making sure we had enough stories to cover every inch of Manhattan. I’m into history and the city, so uncovering forgotten gems from far-flung neighborhoods was fascinating. Who knew Chinatown had a 20,000 square-foot shantytown called The Hill near the Manhattan Bridge? It was demolished in 1993.
What was the key to getting the brand influencers and younger demographic you were targeting to not only pick up the phone, but also get them in the door of the New Museum?
MG: The key to making this an idea that people loved was the content. We dug deep into the cultural fabric of 1993 NYC and interviewed hundreds of the coolest, most fascinating figures from the time. These are icons of a disappearing New York and some of their stories had never been told. The audio we got from them is compelling, personal and could only be heard during Recalling 1993. Just like so much of NYC from 1993, it was here and if you missed it you’re too late.
What about the Recalling 1993 campaign are you most proud of?
MG: I’m most proud of the story of G.G. Allin’s last show and death told by Johnny Puke that managed to make it into pay phones around Avenue B and E 2nd St.
To read more about "Recalling 1993," visit the Effie Case Database.
[..] Agency and client have launched "Recalling 1993," offering a raw, unfiltered listen to what was going on around New York City 20 years ago. The campaign turns pay phones into geo-located time capsules—dial (855) FOR-1993 from any pay phone in Manhattan, and you will hear a personal account of what was going down in that particular area in 1993, a pivotal year in the city's history. The recordings offer memories of everything from the World Trade Center bombing in the Financial District to the club culture at Limelight in Chelsea to the opening of Angels in America in Midtown.
Blast into the past with “Recalling 1993”, a New Museum exhibit where people can call from a NYC pay phone to hear stories about what happened on that same exact block 20 years ago. As one of 150 featured narrators, Chef superstar Mario Batali recalls the grand opening of his first restaurant. You too can find a pay phone in your neighborhood - simply pick up a pay phone, dial 1-855-FOR-1993, and anxiously wait to see who picks up on the other line.
The New Museum and Droga5 Turn 5,000 NYC Pay Phones Into Time Capsules From 1993
The New Museum and Droga5 have done a collaboration that recalls the nostalgia of the '90s in celebrating the nearly extinct pay phone. The project, titled “Recalling 1993,” turns every Manhattan pay phone—from Inwood to the Financial District—into geo-located time capsules from 1993. By dialing toll-free 1-855-FOR-1993 from any Manhattan pay phone, people can hear hundreds of never-been-told, local stories and memories from people like WNYC’s Brian Lehrer, the Village Voice’s Michael Musto, CUNY’s Suzanne Wasserman, Mario Batali, Chazz Palminteri, Fern Mallis, Doug E. Doug, Robin Byrd, James St. James, and more.
http://bit.ly/YcZnU3
@NewMuseum is launching "Recalling 1993," an interactive project turning every #Manhattan pay phone into a geo-located time capsule of NYC in 1993, all inspired by our current exhibition, “NYC 1993.”
Call toll-free from any pay phone in Manhattan by dialing 1-855-FOR-1993 and hear real stories from '93 about the neighborhood you're in and in many cases the very corner you’re standing on.
Holy WOW this might just be one of the coolest projects I've ever encountered. In conjunction with the New Museum’s current exhibition, “NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star”, enter Recalling 1993. Pick up a payphone on any street corner in NYC, dial 1-855-FOR-1993, and listen to people talk about stories, events, and daily life in that neighborhood (sometimes on that very block!) in 1993. I haven’t even made a call yet, and I’m already obsessed. 5,000 payphones/stories await!
In today's amazing-shit-we-can't-believe-exists, the Recalling 1993 project takes payphones and turns them into time machines. Here's how it works: Call 1-855-FOR-1993 from any NYC pay phone to hear what was happening on that block in 1993.
Seriously. Now when you're feeling nostalgic for slap bracelets or Slick Rick, you can telephone the past. All you have to do is step outside and hunt down one of those janky old receivers.
