“CULTURE IS BETTER THAN…”

The project “Culture is better then…” (lit. “Kultūra geriau nei…”) is aimed at contributing to the implementation of the priority direction “Creative Lithuania” of the 2014-2020 EU Fund Investment Communication Strategy (hereinafter – Communication Strategy) by addressing the dilemma of two divergently developing indicators: a decreasing indicator of the proportion of the population directly consuming culture but limitedly participating in it, and an increasing indicator of social media consumption fulfilling the need for cultural information. The 2017 study “Participation of Residents in Culture and Satisfaction with Cultural Services” conducted by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, along with the correlation of two divergent indicators, suggests that mass media increase access to culture. However, the vast choice and ephemeral observation of different cultural events on social media, television, and the Internet do not inspire or insufficiently inspire consumers to directly participate in cultural events or physically visit cultural institutions and places of cultural significance. The concept of the “Culture is Better Than…” project is based on a thorough analysis of this problem and aims to give an advantage to direct cultural consumption over social networks that satisfy the need for cultural information but do not stimulate the indicator of direct cultural consumption. Using the aforementioned social media, the project aims to encourage their users to directly participate in culture (contributing to the solution of the “Creative Lithuania” problem “Consumption of cultural services and products as a leisure activity is unpopular”), not just being content with broad accessibility, and aims to shape the image of direct cultural consumption as an inseparable part of our image, having a direct impact on our psychological and emotional health (contributing to the change of the target group’s attitudes that “consuming a cultural product is part of the image and cannot be stylish (intellectual) without consuming one’s country’s culture”). One of the most widespread means of personal image creation and formation among young people is social media (“Instagram”, “Facebook”, “Youtube”). In them, users often share their cultural experiences, post photos, video clips, and write personal reflections on cultural experiences. This activity forms their image on social media as cultured, educated, happy people. Another part of the users passively observes active cultural consumers, comments, and follows the reflections of the latter’s cultural experiences. The activities of this project are aimed at addressing passive social network users by showing them an inspiring daily life alternative – to act, experience culture for themselves, and not just click “like” or watch other’s experiences. In this way, the project will aim to reveal the added value of culture in the formation of personal image in an immersive engagement format. Guerrilla marketing content creation principles will be used to provoke the target group by comparing time spent on social networks and passive observation of other people’s cultural experiences with active participation in cultural activities. The target group of the project is Lithuanian youth of both genders aged 14-29. This target group was chosen primarily because it best appreciates the accessibility of culture. According to the 2017 study “Participation of Residents in Culture and Satisfaction with Cultural Services” published by the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture, there is a direct link that younger citizens are more likely to appreciate cultural accessibility. The project’s goal is to turn this cultural accessibility into direct cultural consumption. The size of this target group, according to the 2020 data from the Lithuanian Department of Statistics, is about 580,000 people. The project will consist of three different video clips, in which the main characters will passively observe cultural events through the three largest social networks (“Facebook”, “Instagram”, and “Youtube”). Each video clip will be specifically advertised in the social network that is portrayed in it. This will create an effect of absolute relevance and immersion (participation in the video plot), where everyone who sees the advertisement will inevitably see their current situation in it (as if they are being watched). The three advertisements will provocatively contrast the activities of the social networks themselves with an alternative in the cultural world: the “Youtube” platform will be contrasted with cinema or theater, reading the “Facebook” news feed with the library, and “Instagram” with exhibitions and museums. Such associations of cultural experiences and their inferior alternatives on social networks, as well as their promotion in those very social networks that are portrayed in the video plots, will create a compelling advertising campaign directly reaching the target audience, presenting participation in culture as valuable both for our inner growth and for the image formed on social media. This will encourage the target group to be more interested in and participate in cultural life, burst the harmful social media bubble, improve social relations, which directly affect our psychology and emotions (directly consuming culture is portrayed as happier than passively observing it on social media). During this campaign, attempts to create one’s social image online will be humorously presented (breaking stereotypes, raising an issue), and culture will be highlighted as the most valuable part of personal image (a solution is proposed).

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