Client: Crossroad - The Price of Choice
Campaign: Peace Is Not Given
Objective: Build awareness and drive audiences to exhibitions at Manchester and Liverpool cathedrals
Result: 40 pieces of tier one coverage, more than 213,000 people reached through paid social and over 20,000 landing page views
The Brief
How do you turn a thought-provoking contemporary art exhibition into a cultural moment capable of reaching audiences beyond the traditional art world?
Internationally acclaimed Bulgarian artist Dian Kostov was bringing two connected exhibitions to the North West: Crossroad – The Price of Choice: Peace Is Not Given at Manchester Cathedral and A Mother’s Warmth at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral.
Through immersive installations, documentary photography and icon-inspired artworks, the exhibitions explored conflict, peace, personal responsibility and human resilience.
While Kostov’s work had already been exhibited internationally, awareness of the artist and the exhibitions remained limited in the UK.
Hendrix Rose PR was appointed to deliver a three-month campaign focused on establishing the exhibitions within the North West’s cultural calendar, securing regional media visibility and using targeted social advertising to drive potential visitors to the website.
The Objective
We set out to:
- Position the exhibitions as must-see cultural experiences in Manchester and Liverpool
- Introduce Dian Kostov and his work to UK audiences
- Secure high-quality coverage across regional, arts, culture, tourism and what’s-on media
- Communicate the exhibitions’ central message that peace cannot be taken for granted
- Reach culturally engaged audiences across Greater Manchester and Liverpool
- Drive relevant traffic to the exhibition website
The Insight
At the heart of the exhibition was a universal but urgent message: peace is shaped by the choices we make, both individually and collectively.
The Manchester exhibition brought together 72 documentary photographs taken in Ukraine and 80 original artworks, alongside powerful installations including a cross created from charred beams salvaged from a church destroyed near Kyiv.
The Peace Globe, illuminated by candles representing active armed conflicts around the world, provided another striking visual expression of the exhibition’s message.
These elements gave us a compelling story that extended beyond the arts pages. The exhibition connected culture with subjects including war, faith, psychology, humanity and the choices people make in response to conflict.
Our task was to translate these complex themes into an accessible regional story that would encourage people to experience the work for themselves.
The Strategy and Activation
We developed a focused campaign spanning earned and paid media, with activity tailored to the distinct audiences in Manchester and Liverpool.
We invited press and influencers to attend the exhibition for a preview and our launch press release positioned the exhibitions as major new cultural experiences transforming two of the North West’s most recognisable landmarks.
The story combined:
- The visual scale and immersive nature of the exhibitions
- Dian Kostov’s international background and artistic approach
- The significance of exhibiting at Manchester Cathedral and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral
- The human stories behind the artworks and artefacts
- The timely central message that peace is not guaranteed
- Clear visitor information to help convert awareness into attendance
We targeted regional news titles, cultural publications, tourism platforms and what’s-on guides, securing visibility at the points where local residents and visitors discover new experiences.
This earned-media activity was supported by a month-long Meta advertising campaign targeting audiences across Manchester and Liverpool.
Separate creative and geographic ad sets allowed us to monitor which locations, formats, placements and age groups delivered the strongest response. A remarketing campaign was also introduced to re-engage people who had previously interacted with the adverts, watched campaign videos or visited the website.
The Results
The integrated campaign delivered:
- 40 pieces of media coverage
- 19 pieces containing a backlink
- Coverage with a combined potential audience of more than 60 million
- An average Domain Authority of 67 across measured coverage
- 492,477 paid-social impressions
- 12,727 link clicks
- 20,636 landing page views
Coverage appeared across influential regional, cultural and visitor platforms including:
- MSN
- Liverpool Echo
- Visit Manchester
- Visit Liverpool
- Manchester’s Finest
- Secret Manchester
- About Manchester
- Manchester Magazine
- Culture Liverpool
- Liverpool World
The main paid-social campaign reached 213,676 people across Manchester and Liverpool.
Instagram Reels and Facebook Feed generated more than half of the main campaign’s landing page views, while Facebook In-stream Video proved the most cost-efficient placement.
The 65+ audience delivered the highest click-through rate, demonstrating particularly strong interest in the exhibitions’ themes.
The remarketing activity achieved a 5.03% click-through rate, successfully re-engaging people who had already shown an interest in the campaign.
What We Learned
Regional relevance drives discovery - Positioning the exhibitions as significant cultural moments for Manchester and Liverpool helped make an international artist’s work immediately relevant to local audiences.
Powerful visuals create an effective entry point - The scale of the installations and the stories behind the Peace Globe, Ukrainian photographs and salvaged artefacts helped communicate complex themes in an accessible way.
Earned and paid media work effectively together - Press coverage built credibility and cultural relevance, while targeted advertising significantly extended the campaign’s reach and drove measurable website traffic.
The Impact
The campaign introduced Dian Kostov’s work to audiences across the North West and established the exhibitions as part of the summer cultural programmes in both Manchester and Liverpool.
By combining the credibility of regional media coverage with the scale and precision of paid social advertising, we brought a powerful message about peace, resilience and personal responsibility to hundreds of thousands of people.
The result was more than simple awareness. The campaign generated sustained footfall during the exhibition, encouraged more than 20,600 visits to the website and helped audiences discover two extraordinary cultural experiences within two of the region’s most iconic buildings.
What the Client Said
“Working with Gemma and the Hendrix Rose team was a genuine pleasure. From the beginning, they approached our exhibitions with great care, professionalism and commitment. Gemma was always responsive, well organised and ready to help, while communication was consistently clear, efficient and enjoyable.
“Their work played an important role in promoting the exhibitions. Thanks to Gemma’s efforts, we reached a wide range of media outlets and secured valuable press coverage, helping us present the project to a much broader audience.
“We sincerely thank Gemma and the entire Hendrix Rose team for their dedication and support. We would be delighted to work with them again and wholeheartedly recommend Hendrix Rose PR to anyone looking for a reliable and committed PR partner.”
Dian Kostov, artist and creator of The Price of Choice