RA × Kerry James Marshall Reframing History: A Narrative-First Campaign for a Modern Audience
The Curatorial Challenge: Engaging the Next Generation – The Royal Academy of Arts faced a pivotal challenge with their "Kerry James Marshall: The Histories" exhibition. Marshall's work is complex, confronting themes of Black culture and history with a depth that demands attention. However, the traditional museum trailer format—typically a slow slideshow of paintings set to classical music—was failing to connect with a younger, digital-native demographic. The RA needed to rethink their video strategy entirely. They asked In-Col Studio to break the mold and create a campaign that felt less like an advertisement and more like a cinematic documentary teaser, capable of stopping the scroll on Instagram and TikTok.
Strategic Pivot: Texture Over Showcase – Our approach was to move away from simply "displaying" the art to "contextualizing" it. We recognized that to engage a younger audience, we needed to foreground the themes central to Marshall's work, not just the canvas. We developed a "Textured Narrative" strategy. Instead of a sterile gallery view, we combined high-resolution footage of the artwork with gritty archival material and rhythmic editing. This approach situated the exhibition within the broader tapestry of Black history, making the content feel urgent, relevant, and culturally vital rather than static and historical.
Visual Translation: A Multi-Layered Edit – The execution required a delicate balance between respecting the artist's work and creating digital energy. We built a visual language that layered motion, sound, and typography to create a narrative arc within 60 seconds. By intercutting the vibrant precision of Marshall’s paintings with the raw texture of archival footage, we created a visual dialogue that highlighted the "Histories" referenced in the exhibition title. The motion design was kept tight and rhythmic, ensuring the trailer felt native to the fast-paced environments of social media while retaining the gravitas of the institution.
The Outcome – We delivered a comprehensive suite of assets, including a 60-second hero trailer and multiple dynamic social cut-downs. The campaign successfully bridged the gap between the institution and a new generation of visitors, proving that even the most complex historical narratives can be translated into compelling short-form content when the storytelling is prioritized over simple display.