Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination

Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination was a major new exhibition which opened at the Science Museum in October 2022. Blurring the lines between exhibition and experience, it took visitors on an unforgettable voyage through space, exploring the future through the science of today. Showing the intricate relationship between science and science fiction, it revealed the power of human imagination.

The Brief

After developing an exciting teaser video – with the Science Museum’s most successful launch results to date – Influence Digital were tasked to develop a full scope digital advertising campaign. The goal? To drive ticket sales for their biggest and most ambitious exhibition yet, Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination.

Objectives

Increase awareness of the ‘Science Fiction’ exhibition whilst driving sales and revenue.

Develop a powerful visual identity to stun, excite and stand out from the crowd – appealing to the head and heart of the key audience.

Target Audience:

• Trend Awares
• Science Fiction, Science and Technology and Space Fans
• Mums and Dads

Our Response

By carrying out extensive audience research, we identified key audience clusters and tent pole moments, tailoring the media buying approach to platforms we knew held a high share of our target audience. We developed a full-funnel, multi-channel paid campaign to raise awareness, consideration and drive ticket sales for the Science Fiction exhibition across Meta, Google, YouTube, TikTok and Blis. Our strategy involved tailoring the creatives and copy to each platform and audience, ensuring maximum impact within each unique environment. We aimed to speak to viewers in a way that resonated and captured their interest.

Through weekly reporting and developing a detailed mid-campaign report, we were able to successfully utilise our insights and learnings, optimising towards the best performing audiences, messaging and creatives throughout the campaign to drive the most cost-effective ticket sales.

Creative

Based on insights from our research into our key audiences, we developed a creative identity, including a futuristic portal that served as a stand-out visual identity for the exhibition throughout the campaign. We launched digitally and OOH with a suite of visually exciting assets, causing intrigue and driving interest in the exhibition in all manner of settings. Our versatile portal was adapted for digital and OOH, featured on a huge billboard, and our hero video was adapted for Sky VOD and cinema, showcased before box office hits such as Black Panther and Avatar.

We continuously updated our video and static creatives throughout the campaign based on learnings, tailoring the messaging towards each audience’s interests and capitalising on key tent pole moments, such as ComicCon and school holidays. We incorporated ‘word-of-mouth’ marketing into the social creatives, sharing stars, quotes and reviews from both publications and visitors – sharing real-life positivity and experiences to promote ticket purchases.

The Results

• 34.5M Impressions
• 22.3K Purchases
• 7.09M Video Views
• 29% Website Traffic

We ran a successful year-long campaign for the Science Museum’s biggest exhibition to date, raising awareness and driving cost-effective ticket sales both digitally and OOH with our effective creative approach and paid media strategy. Managing both the paid and the creative for the campaign led to an efficient and harmonious campaign. We worked as an extension of the Science Museum’s team, delivering a constantly optimised campaign that drove over 22K ticket purchases.

About Influence Digital

Influence Digital is an award-winning digital and social media marketing agency based in Central London.