SIKKA 2013
Xische's Digital Division is the social media agency for the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority since 2010. Established to support and showcase UAE-based artistic talent, SIKKA is an annual showcase that offers a platform to budding UAE artists to display their creative vision. SIKKA first began as a fair for visual artists in 2011. This year, however, +70 artists across 14 multidisciplinary initiatives presented projects, workshops, panel discussions, live music and entertainment, film screenings, performances and a children’s educational programme, in addition to guided and self-led tours.
THE CHALLENGE
Xische took charge of Dubai Culture’s social media at the start of the new year. The SIKKA Art Fair in March was the most significant event in the art and culture calendar of the city to consider. Diving head first into managing DC’s online presence, in order to rapidly learn what kind of content worked best and when, became pertinent.
In event coverage, communication is straight-forward. Pre-event build-up creates hype, while live updates and final recaps build engagement. The case here was otherwise. As the first initiative of its kind, SIKKA already had the hype. With many events, activities and workshops taking place simultaneously, live-reporting would not be as simple a task as we envisioned.
The test here was to come up with the best possible method to not only feed off the awareness about this event and use it to amp up engagement, but also to highlight the reach of DC’s presence across its social media platforms. The result?
THE SOLUTION
The Social Hub at SIKKA was the tangible end-result of a strategy that sought to implement and execute a social media strategy that integrated all of Dubai Culture’s communication channels and evokes a strong involvement of community members. This built upon the very idea of the SIKKA Art fair itself: one that integrates the aspirations of the community with the artists’ ambitions.
Located conveniently at the center of Al Fahidi, the Social Hub became our HQ during Sikka and it was from here we live blogged, posted, and tweeted. Art fair attendees were particularly drawn to it to try out the InstaPrinter, a result of our collaboration with the event photography team of Urban Love. One special guest in particular was HH Sheikh Majid Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who dropped by on Opening Night to learn more about the hub.
Support Tactics To streamline all event communication, Xische’s design & development team collaborated to build a unique Facebook tab dedicated to the on-goings of SIKKA. This tab included not only an artist database and a 10-day schedule of events, but it also incorporated Twitter and Instagram feeds for the hashtag #SIKKA13, as well as DC’s YouTube playlist. The concept behind this design further enhanced the very idea that powered our solution: integration.
All information was communicated via custom-made templates, created in-house by our design team. To enhance engagement, Xische’s social media team ran competitions that amalgamated the social media presence of Dubai Culture. Rather than staying safe with Facebook and twitter, we put the spotlight on Instagram and Foursquare.
Bottom Line SIKKA has come to be the ultimate platform for Emirati and UAE-based artists to work and engage with their international counterparts; it is the highlight of Art Week in Dubai, and presents a rich cultural roster of events. Chuffed is what we were at Xische to be able to contribute towards its success!
