2021 Winner
2021 Winners
Royal Ontario Museum
#MyPandemicStory
This past year has been unlike any other in modern history, and like many other organizations, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) was forced to close its doors for nearly twelve months. As a government funded organization, the Province of Ontario asked the ROM to help rebuild the province by bringing back culture and helping Toronto re-emerge as a global destination of choice.
With an outdated perception and foot traffic dwindling, the ROM was at an inflection point. To evolve and redefine its role as a contemporary cultural force in its community, it needed to connect audiences to the pressing topics of our time - placing the Museum at the centre of important cultural conversations.
No Fixed Address’s objective was to drive relevancy of the ROM among Ontario residents, expanding beyond the current age groups interested in the museum and connecting with a new, younger demographic. With the physical museum closed and limited budgets, their challenge was to drive awareness and engagement with the museum even though you couldn’t step inside its doors.
While the pandemic has dramatically altered our lives and reshaped the way we think about the world around us, it was a universally unifying experience yet to be measured. The team was presented with the interesting opportunity of capturing history as it unfolds in real time and offering people the chance to share their stories and experiences in a way that brings the impact of the pandemic into a clearer focus. Among those impacted, kids and teens have experienced drastic shifts in their day-to-day by this pandemic, and historically have been able to provide unfiltered perspectives of the realities of living through different moments in time.
To insert the ROM into the epicentre of culture, NFA would create a first-of-its-kind crowd-sourced exhibition; however, with much of history told through the lens of adults, this exhibition would take a look at one of the most impacted and honest groups: kids and teens.
The team’s ultimate goal was to create a physical exhibition that was a true representation of the totality of experience for the younger generation. But to do this, they needed to capture the attention and hearts of kids and teens and their parents to submit, shaping the direction and the content of the exhibition.
To kick this off, they launched the submission phase, calling on kids and teens to submit their own #MyPandemicStory for the chance to be featured in an upcoming exhibition at the ROM. The initiative invited young Ontarians, between the ages of four to 18, to share their stories, experiences and perspectives on life during the pandemic through original creative works of art in a medium of their choice. Entrants could submit their works by uploading to the ROM website, including their work and description or through social media by tagging #MyPandemicStory.
To drive awareness, they created compelling video and imagery outlining their call to action. These assets were used to catapult the initiative, telling their story through earned media. Understanding the existing news cycle focused heavily on the COVID-19 pandemic, they used this to their benefit, tapping into the existing conversation while presenting a more interesting and positive news story: allowing children to shape history at Canada’s most visited museum. Throughout the two and a half month submission phase, they continued to evolve the story, capturing more attention by leveraging multiple spokespeople to bring the story to life from ROM curators to entrants.
To encourage entries through social media, they created ads on TikTok and Instagram and leveraged high profile influencers targeting parents and teens to encourage submissions, creating a steady drumbeat of conversation throughout the campaign. Additionally, working with the ROM’s Education team, they also developed a submission guide for parents and teachers, positioning this as an art assignment to do with kids.
Everytime they secured a new hit through the duration of the submission window, the museum saw an influx of entries.
In the two and a half month submission phase, the initiative generated nearly 90 million impressions across traditional and social channels with every major outlet in Ontario covering the news including Toronto Star, Global Morning, CP24 Breakfast, 680 News channel and more.
Over 2,750 submissions were received from all across Ontario, varying in age ranges, emotions and artistic expression. During the campaign engagement with the ROM was at an all time high, increasing website traffic by 17%, of which, 91% were new users - proving they broadened the reach of the institution. Further to this, the #MyPandemicStory page was the most visited page on the ROM site.
The groundswell of awareness was so powerful an anonymous donor stepped forward, interested in sponsoring the exhibition, a massive win for a partially government funded institution that has been closed for nearly 12 months. The team is now looking ahead to the launch of the #MyPandemicStory exhibition launching in the fall of 2021.
With an outdated perception and foot traffic dwindling, the ROM was at an inflection point. To evolve and redefine its role as a contemporary cultural force in its community, it needed to connect audiences to the pressing topics of our time - placing the Museum at the centre of important cultural conversations.
No Fixed Address’s objective was to drive relevancy of the ROM among Ontario residents, expanding beyond the current age groups interested in the museum and connecting with a new, younger demographic. With the physical museum closed and limited budgets, their challenge was to drive awareness and engagement with the museum even though you couldn’t step inside its doors.
While the pandemic has dramatically altered our lives and reshaped the way we think about the world around us, it was a universally unifying experience yet to be measured. The team was presented with the interesting opportunity of capturing history as it unfolds in real time and offering people the chance to share their stories and experiences in a way that brings the impact of the pandemic into a clearer focus. Among those impacted, kids and teens have experienced drastic shifts in their day-to-day by this pandemic, and historically have been able to provide unfiltered perspectives of the realities of living through different moments in time.
To insert the ROM into the epicentre of culture, NFA would create a first-of-its-kind crowd-sourced exhibition; however, with much of history told through the lens of adults, this exhibition would take a look at one of the most impacted and honest groups: kids and teens.
The team’s ultimate goal was to create a physical exhibition that was a true representation of the totality of experience for the younger generation. But to do this, they needed to capture the attention and hearts of kids and teens and their parents to submit, shaping the direction and the content of the exhibition.
To kick this off, they launched the submission phase, calling on kids and teens to submit their own #MyPandemicStory for the chance to be featured in an upcoming exhibition at the ROM. The initiative invited young Ontarians, between the ages of four to 18, to share their stories, experiences and perspectives on life during the pandemic through original creative works of art in a medium of their choice. Entrants could submit their works by uploading to the ROM website, including their work and description or through social media by tagging #MyPandemicStory.
To drive awareness, they created compelling video and imagery outlining their call to action. These assets were used to catapult the initiative, telling their story through earned media. Understanding the existing news cycle focused heavily on the COVID-19 pandemic, they used this to their benefit, tapping into the existing conversation while presenting a more interesting and positive news story: allowing children to shape history at Canada’s most visited museum. Throughout the two and a half month submission phase, they continued to evolve the story, capturing more attention by leveraging multiple spokespeople to bring the story to life from ROM curators to entrants.
To encourage entries through social media, they created ads on TikTok and Instagram and leveraged high profile influencers targeting parents and teens to encourage submissions, creating a steady drumbeat of conversation throughout the campaign. Additionally, working with the ROM’s Education team, they also developed a submission guide for parents and teachers, positioning this as an art assignment to do with kids.
Everytime they secured a new hit through the duration of the submission window, the museum saw an influx of entries.
In the two and a half month submission phase, the initiative generated nearly 90 million impressions across traditional and social channels with every major outlet in Ontario covering the news including Toronto Star, Global Morning, CP24 Breakfast, 680 News channel and more.
Over 2,750 submissions were received from all across Ontario, varying in age ranges, emotions and artistic expression. During the campaign engagement with the ROM was at an all time high, increasing website traffic by 17%, of which, 91% were new users - proving they broadened the reach of the institution. Further to this, the #MyPandemicStory page was the most visited page on the ROM site.
The groundswell of awareness was so powerful an anonymous donor stepped forward, interested in sponsoring the exhibition, a massive win for a partially government funded institution that has been closed for nearly 12 months. The team is now looking ahead to the launch of the #MyPandemicStory exhibition launching in the fall of 2021.