The Brief

Tim Burton the Exhibition was arriving in Melbourne. This personal exhibition shows Burton's creative vision and process from his earliest work to the spectacular Alice in Wonderland. The Australian Centre for the Moving Image, (ACMI) wanted to publicise the exhibition’s arrival to Melbourne. With only a modest budget, ACMI needed it’s advertising to work hard. The exhibition covers a broad range of works that would appeal beyond just Tim Burton fans. We specifically wanted to target families, as the exhibition opened during school holidays.

Creative Execution

The gothic carriage drew inspiration from Burton’s macabre and odd sense of humour in films such as Sleepy Hollow. Not only did the carriage create a visual spectacle around Melbourne, it also gave people a taste of what to expect from the Tim Burton exhibition. The target attendance numbers were ambitious 160,000 visitors in 110 days. This figure had been set by last year’s Pixar exhibition, which held the record for highest number of visitors in ACMI’s history.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

With a captive audience of parents and children milling around the CBD looking to be entertained, we decided to offer free carriage rides to the exhibition, direct from the city centre, driven by a headless horseman.

Results

The outdoor stunt generated huge attention amongst local press and media. Opening week visitor numbers swelled to 23,150, making it ACMI’s most successful opening week of all time; in one day alone more than 4227 people came through the doors, again setting a new attendance record (previous 3603). In a 5-week period total visitor numbers were 109,000, compared to the target number of the Pixar exhibition in the same 5-week period of 62,000. Having already exceeded it’s midway forecasts and with 66 days left, Tim Burton the Exhibition looks set to be the most successful in ACMI’s history.