Advertising To Help Revive London’s Art Scene

It may not seem like the first Canadian city one mentions when considering local art, but London is perhaps the creative capital of Ontario, but unfortunately most folks don’t know it. Painter Scott Kish, a London native, moved to Toronto six years ago in order to network with other artists to support his work. Conversely, painter Jason McLean did the reverse: he moved back to London from Toronto and found his move helped his arts career.

While there are lots of working artists and plenty of art in London, ON, one big problem is the sore lack of advertising about the local scene. The Museum London once put out brochure printings and quarterly newsletters, but found the initiative too costly, so it has cut the number of newsletters produced and reverted to social media platforms to advertise in the city. While effective, social media can have its limitations, and cannot attract all audiences.

There are so many social media sites and far too much art to market. Another effective marketing strategy of the arts scene in London that involves the services of local printers are the presentation of banner printings of local artists on stores around busy London neighbourhoods. In addition to digital media, which has been successful, banner printings can both help showcase the works of local London artists and encourage patrons to visit the artists’ exhibit, and also advertise the services of local businesses that showcase them.

Ongoing studies in London continue to investigate how to effectively promote the local creative cultural scene.