shots Awards 2016: Best Use of Outdoor - Billboard

This clever and captivating campaign from Grey London strives to reconnect youngsters with the great, classical artists that are permanently on exhibition at Tate Britain. Rather than force the art onto millennials - the majority of which are disinterested by historical art, apparently - the campaign revives the stories behind the paintings and retargets them during prime time... when they're waiting for the tube. We caught up with Grey's ECD Dom Goldman to find out where he got the inspiration from.

shots Awards 2016: Best Use of Outdoor - Billboards

Gold winner: Tate Britain 500 Years of Stories

What was the brief with which Tate Britain approached you?

With the Tate Modern and other galleries being more popular, the Tate Britain's visitors have been in decline for some time. We needed to help get more people interested in this iconic gallery again.

The Tate Britain launched this campaign as a way of attracting younger generations through its doors. Why did you think billboards were the best way to reach this target audience?

The London Underground's posters are a great place to get people to consider stopping by Pimlico Station to visit the Tate Britain. The dwell times on a platform were sufficient to read a short story.

What were the biggest challenges in realising this campaign and making it accessible to youngsters?

The art hanging in The Tate is seen as dusty and boring to young people. The language of art also appears to be dull and complicated. The irony is galleries like this were once at the very heart of culture. They're barely on the fringes now and don't stand a chance against today's connected youth culture.

How did you decide which stories to feature in the campaign and how they should be displayed?

When we started to understand and appreciate the incredible stories behind the work it completely changed their context. We decided that simply showing the art with bad reproductions then telling people to come and see it, wasn't going to work. So we deliberately didn't show the art, but instead told people something interesting about the artist in a manner which the art world hadn't typically done.

The gallery has so many of these amazing stories we were spoilt for choice. So we asked The Tate for the pieces of art they were keen to talk about.