Tate Britain’s art exhibition, Life Between Islands, explored the relationship between the Caribbean and Britain in art from the 1950s to today. Criss-crossing the Atlantic Ocean, it reconsidered British art history in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries from a Caribbean perspective.

For its launch, Tate Britain wanted to encourage London’s Caribbean-British community to consider visiting Tate Britain for the very first time.

But how could Tate, who’d never previously showcased and celebrated Caribbean-British art in the UK, reach this audience?

They needed to find a way to authentically reach and speak to the Caribbean-British community in the spaces and places where they live.

Our research showed that both younger and older Caribbean-British audiences are looking for personal connections and stories. Wider cultural references and nostalgia from their youth are important to older audiences, whilst younger audiences are interested in the documentation of their social history.

We collected the stories from the community – these were from big names from the exhibition like Steve McQueen, Grace Wales Bonner, and Ingrid Pollard, as well as community leaders – and displayed them in the spaces and places they really happened. This meant booking billboards where possible, but also working with local communities to create our own media opportunities - from partnerships with businesses to unexpected and non-traditional media placements too.

Overall Tate shared 41 Caribbean-British stories in communities around London. They appeared on billboards and fly-posters, at the record stores and the food spots, the book stores and community hubs that helped to forge Caribbean-British culture in the city.

Because we shared the stories in their actual locations, sometimes that meant we could use existing media like 48 sheets and 6 sheets, other times we had to invent it with fly-posters, floor vinyls, and takeovers of local community stores. By appearing where the stories happened, we appeared where the community really was and that meant it really landed with our new audience.

The campaign ran for 2 weeks.

Overall the campaign generated 1,841,000 impressions on social media and was picked up by the local and national press. Most importantly, over 50% of traffic was new to Tate.