Ogilvy Sydney gets Sydney to engage with Mind Changing Art

Mind Changing Art. That’s not what the MCA of Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art stands for. But it might be for you. For Ogilvy Sydney, it stands for Magnificent Creative Activation, the campaign that it has created for the museum to engage art lovers and drawing new audiences.

The new What’s your MCA campaign temporarily hands over custodianship of its famous acronym to the public, urging them to express what the Museum means to them in three words, using its initials as inspiration.

Perhaps it’s My Creative Addiction? Many Creative Awakenings? Merrily Celebrating Artists? Or My Culture Antidote?

“The MCA has long drawn some of the globe’s most outstanding artists, but is also a place that generates its own creative inspiration among those that visit,” explained Ogilvy Sydney’s executive creative director, Derek Green.

“We wanted to harness this inspiration and not only develop a way for audiences to express what the MCA means to them, but use this creativity publicly. The result is the ultimate in user-generated creativity, a campaign that reinforces the MCA’s importance within the art world while giving a voice to many people who love and support it.”

The campaign has kicked off with on-site activations at the Museum, where gallery visitors and participants of popular programs such as MCA ArtBar and the Contemporary Kids school holidays program, will be encouraged to come up with their own MCA acronyms.

The public can then create and submit their own MCA acronyms online. From there, they’ll be able to share their creations on social channels using #WhatsyourMCA and order their own personalised MCA t-shirts.

Some of the best acronyms will then take over the MCA building at nightfall, projected onto the Circular Quay façade for all passers-by to see in a unique OOH display.

Ogilvy partnered with specialist creative coding studio, Code on Canvas, to create the interactive activation and the projections on the side of the MCA building.

MCA director, Elizabeth Ann Macgregor OBE, noted, “Contemporary art is not a one-way street: when people look at, or experience an artwork, their opinions, what they bring to it, matters just as much as what the institution tells them. This campaign is a wonderful way for us to let our audiences know that we’re actually wanting to have a conversation.”