Snapshot
The Learning Experiences Program unites four of the University of Melbourne’s cultural venues — Science Gallery Melbourne, Buxton Contemporary, the Old Quad, and the Potter Museum of Art — under a single vision: to engage students with curriculum-aligned, hands-on experiences that inspire curiosity and critical thinking.
Arthur St Digital developed and delivered a Marketing & Communications Strategy to drive bookings, build awareness with teachers, and ensure a successful re-opening of the Potter Museum of Art and its landmark exhibition 65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art.
Disciplines
Marketing & Communications Strategy
Brand Strategy & Design
Paid Media (Google Search, Meta, LinkedIn)
Organic Social Strategy & Content Calendar
Email Automation & Segmentation
Staff Training & Mentoring
The Challenge
Fragmented Brand Experience: Each venue had separate marketing approaches, leading to a lack of a cohesive Learning Experiences brand identity.
Low Awareness & Rebuilding Trust: After extended closures, venues like the Potter Museum needed a renewed campaign to re-engage schools and educators.
Primary School Audience Expansion: The re-opening of the Potter Museum brought the opportunity and requirement to attract over 3,000 new students to its first major exhibition in eight years.
Teacher-Centric Messaging: Marketing efforts had to speak directly to time-poor educators with a strong curriculum-alignment message and simple booking journeys.
The Solution
Strategic Thinking
Arthur St positioned Learning Experiences as a collective brand, making it easier for teachers to discover multiple venues and plan a full-day, curriculum-aligned excursion across science, art, and culture.
Execution
Brand Alignment – Design language to showcase the array of venues under one cohesive brand.
Always-On Digital Marketing: Built a scalable campaign framework with Google Search, Meta, and LinkedIn ads targeting educators and curriculum planners.
Potter Museum Launch Campaign: Designed a funnel-based campaign for the 65,000 Years exhibition using Google Search, Meta Traffic & Conversion ads, organic reels (artist interviews, POV tours), and segmented eDMs to school databases.
Content & Collateral: Produced downloadable excursion calendars, business-case PDFs for principals, and venue highlight videos to support teachers’ decision-making.
Email & Automation: Designed segmented welcome journeys and competitions to grow and enrich the subscriber database.
Capability Building: Delivered four touchpoints of mentoring with University of Melbourne staff to embed best-practice marketing skills and reporting dashboards.
The Result
The new strategy gave the University of Melbourne Learning Experiences team a measurable, campaign-ready marketing engine, shifting activity from one-off promotions to sustained, always-on performance across digital, email and paid channels.
Paid campaigns delivered strong reach to new teacher audiences attracting over 2,000 new teachers to the learning experiences landing page, encouraging teachers to explore upcoming exhibitions across the range of venues.
The campaigns along with existing marketing connection achieved the ambitious 3,000+ student engagement target within the first year of reopening.
“This strategy brought the venues together under one voice, making it easier for educators to find, plan and book our learning experiences. It’s a huge step forward in making Melbourne University’s cultural assets accessible to more secondary students and teachers.”
Bridgette Van Leuven, Head of Learning Experiences, University of Melbourne