Digital Storytellers aims to promote cultural heritage by transforming representatives of generations X,Y, and Z into ambasadors that engage their audience.
The European Year of Cultural Heritage was a chance to highlight the contemporary value of heritage. Up to June 2018, Romania addressed the issue targeting experts and history enthousiasts. None of this left a mark on the general public. It became crucial to bring forth the celebration in order to start a wide conversation about national heritage and engage the general public. The National Institute of Heritage (NIH) reached out to Zaga Brand to lay out a budget-free communication project highlighting the Institute’s activity and its relevance in this day and age to a general public.
The campaign focused on changing the attitude of people aged 18-35 towards heritage, the age group that is most active and involved in recommending and backing up ideals. The heritage issue seemed irrelevant to them, and their input was needed for consistent results. Using the most recent studies to determine the dynamics of different social channels, the team decided to focus on Instagram, due to its visual component, stories engagement rate, overall reach and the ability to receive quick feedback.
The campaign also consisted of events dedicated to Instagrammers, expeditions to the heritage elements or sights, Instagram competitions, media interventions, all of those generating content in the digital medium.
Resources needed
6000 euro per initial phase (6 months)
Evidence of success
The project has significant visibility and online impact. It has developed its own online community and has won several awards.
Starting with a subject ”stuck” in niched communities, sometimes hard to understand by a young audience, the project sparked curiosity, interest and involvement in a somewhat inaccessible field until now, but relevant to the identity of next generations. Two and a half months after the campaign started, it had reached over 7 million people and engaged over 400.000 us
Difficulties encountered
The main challenge was to translate a perceived elitist subject from the academic language to Millennial dialect, keeping it relevant for younger audiences. But staying within a €6,000 budget from possible partners and the agency’s own income.
Potential for learning or transfer
This good practice is an inspiring example of raising awareness of heritage issues to new audiences. It is easy to transfer in any other region, as long as one of the partners understands how to target the wished audience. Especially the events dedicated to Instagrammers could help bring in the vital public support to save and develop certain monuments.
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Tags: Art, Buildings, Communication, Cultural, Digital, Heritage, Tourism, Youth
