Temp o r ar y c apit al 2022 contents

WEAKNESSES:

 

— Weak bonds between local culture or-

ganisations and the public. the cultur-

al institutions lack interest from the 

younger audience, underdeveloped 

traditions of inclusive participation of 

the audience, community based arts 

and culture productions, centralised 

culture.

 

— underdeveloped community culture 

and civic participation, difficulties mo-

bilising citizens to interact and con-

tribute to cultural actions.

 

— underused innovativeness and the 

potential of academic and creative in-

dustry fields.

 

— young people leaving the City, lack of 

qualified young professionals and dif-

ficulties in attracting them to work in 

Kaunas. ageing of culture professionals.

 

— Cultural and community infrastructure 

requires reconstructions.

 

— Weak popularity of the City among the 

local and international tourists.

 

— Weak volunteering traditions.

 

— underdeveloped traditions of private 

sponsorship and relations between 

cultural and business sectors.

 

— insufficient partnership among cultur-

al and educational institutions.

 

— bad publicity and pessimism about 

the ECoC after the first project Vilnius 

2009.

The major risks have been grouped and are 

included in the following Risk Matrix.

Q46

our programme slogan is made-up of two 

keywords, that reflect the core definition of 

Kaunas’ identity. they talk about the most 

important shift that the City faces in the 

next decade.

Kaunas 2022. Contemporary Capital.

KaUNas 2022. Šiuolaikinė sostinė.

the slogan clearly reveals and indicates 

the transition from “temporary” to “contem-

porary”. a small difference of three added 

Could your artistic programme be summed up by a slogan?

Management:

Marketing and 

communication

letters is actually a giant leap in the im-

age of the City (in Lithuanian also: Laikinoji 

-> Šiuolaikinė). Kaunas, which for the past 

eighty years has been pointlessly labeled 

and mocked as a “temporary Capital”, re-

invents itself as a contemporary city in the 

context of Europe. this is the point at which 

European Capital of Culture meets, inspires 

and helps Kaunas to find a new self-identity. 

all of the artistic programme in its es-

sence is a translation of the concept and 

slogan into action. the programme is cut-

ting edge, contemporary, oriented towards 

European values and constructed to leave 

a long-lasting productive legacy.

in English “contemporary” might be asso-

ciated with contemporary art and evoke 

the opposite to inclusiveness and open-

ness. however, in Lithuanian the word just 

means “something that is happening in the 

present” – we use it every day and nobody 

is afraid of it.

Risk

Probability Body responsible for 

control of the risk 

Contingency/Risk management

Financial: failure to secure 

planned budget, irrespon-

sible use of project budget 

allocated to the partners

Medium

general director, 

supervisory Council, 

Monitoring team

 

— detailed budget structure is in place approved by the City 

and district Municipalities.

 

— Detailed and transparent financial planning and public ac-

countability. 

 

— financial monitoring and evaluation scheme and supervi-

sory board.

 

— Clear partnership terms and responsibilities and high ac-

countability of project partners to the ECoC body.

Political: Loss of political/

administrative support

Low

Kaunas City and 

district Mayors, 

general director

voted Council support from the Kaunas district Municipality and 

Kaunas City Municipality. ECoC included in the main strategic plans 

of Kaunas City Municipality and supported by main political par-

ties and movements. the support of ECoC programme has been 

expressed by the Culture Minister of Lr. recommendations of all 

aforementioned political bodies have been taken into account 

forming main administrative, managerial, financial decisions.

Bad publicity: negative me-

dia attention, effect on City’s 

self-confidence  in  case  of 

failure to secure the title

high

Kaunas 2022 team, 

Communication 

Manager

 

— Communicating clearly the aims and priorities of Kaunas 

2022 programme to the public. 

 

— high publicity and transparency through active public com-

munication, encouraging locals to actively get involved in 

planning and contributing to the programme.

Managerial:

unexpected changes (resig-

nations, long-term leaves, 

personal problems, etc.) in 

the managerial staff, lack of 

qualified  young  profession-

als to recruit

Medium

general director, 

administration  

department

 

— Managerial structure foresees a team of experts for each 

member of management.

 

—

the tempo academy (2017–2021) will incorporate profes-

sionals in the organisation of the ECoC year.

 

— involving students and youth in voluntary programme. 

 

— youth-friendly environment by fostering young initiatives 

through open calls.

 

— attracting qualified professionals from other regions.

Cultural Connectivity

insufficient involvement and 

collaboration of local culture 

operators in the programme, 

weak volunteering and ac-

tive participation traditions 

Medium

artistic director,

tempo academy, 

Curatorial team, 

general director

 

— involving culture operators in programming of Kaunas 2022 

at an early stage (over 85 local organisations are already 

involved).

 

— network building for collaborative projects, marketing and 

communication actions, focussing on community involve-

ment projects and stakeholders’ research.

 

— active involvement of local operators encouraged through 

additional funding from Kaunas 2022 budget to create new 

ideas and projects for the programme.

 

— setting up a volunteer centre for mobilising citizen groups 

for volunteer activities.

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Q47

What is the city‘s intended marketing and communication strat-

egy for the European Capital of Culture year?

Marketing and 

communication

our marketing and communication strat-

egy is built around a roadmap made of 

three essential elements: 

the place we are,

the place we want to be, and 

how to get there. 

What we are: a temporary capital. 

no city in Lithuania has more stereotypes 

about itself than Kaunas does. and most of 

them are highly critical and non-productive. 

What we want to be: a Contemporary Capital. 

We can create a destination for parallel 

trends like a young look and feel of the City 

and a growing line-up of arts and science 

activities mixed with a blend of community 

arts and traditional crafts and knowledge – 

and encourage people who live here.

How to get there: by waking up the City. 

the Mythical beast has a key role in our 

programme as well as in our marketing 

and communication plan.

a number of advertisement teams have al-

ready  confirmed  their  intent  to  work  with 

Kaunas, including rio olympic games visual 

identity authors from sao paolo and some of 

the best local and national agencies.

STAGES, TARGET AUDIENCES, CHANNELS 

AND PARTNERS

Like our programme, our communication 

strategy goes through four stages. 

ignition (2017–2018), agitation (2019–

2020), Explosion (2021–2022), Legacy 

(2023 and beyond). Each of them will fo-

cus on a specific target group and activi-

ties but a lot of it will criss-cross different 

stages and different audiences.

IGNITION 2017–2018

this early phase is key in the transition 

from the bidding to the preparation phase 

so that momentum is created and main-

tained. new target groups will include 

e.g.: the abundant communities of sport 

and basketball fans, senior citizens, peo-

ple who live in remote areas, residents of 

dorm-towns  and  sleepy  seniūnijos,  busi-

ness companies and their employees, chil-

dren, youth and families, and public serv-

ants. “translating” the messages of our 

programme into individually tailored lan-

guage will help us reach out to a local and 

regional audience and achieve some of the 

targets set in our audience development 

strategy: to move from beer and basketball 

to museums and Modernism; to move off 

the couch and into creativity; to “culturise” 

the curriculum; to put a smile back on the 

face of Kaunas culture.

Focus target group: local communities

one of the biggest challenges is to create 

a new identity for Kaunas’ “sleeping dis-

tricts”, industrial areas and their aging in-

habitants, for example through the 

fluxus 

Labs.  Waking up Kaunas starts with new 

points of action in the most unexpected 

locations by involving citizens into the 

making of 

the beast and the playful activi-

ties for young and old. 

Channels and partners (examples)

Sports.  Kaunas  Žalgiris  club  is  the  no.  1 

team in the no. 1 sports in Lithuania – bas-

ketball. We are negotiating with our local 

basketball, football and other sport clubs to 

contribute to each other’s marketing cam-

paigns. We have already invited our major 

basketball leaders to participate in Kaunas 

2022 ambassadors’ network. Kaunas 2022 

logo on the T-shirts of Kaunas Žalgiris bas-

ketball team can communicate our project 

locally, nationally and internationally. 

Designing Happiness. the “hedonometre” 

that will be designed and produced will 

be accompanied by marketing activities so 

that it will become in itself a means of com-

munication through which local citizens as 

well as visitors can share their moods.

Urban marketing. We will use the City 

space for marketing campaigns. for ex-

ample,  prints  from  the  M.  K.  Čiurlionis 

national Museum of art collection will 

be displayed in unexpected spaces of the 

City promoting Kaunas 2022 programme 

and the 

travelling Museum programme; 

we will also commission murals and work 

with local street artists; traces left around 

the City by 

the beast will awaken the cu-

riosity of the local population and media.

 

Through the looking glass. With the help 

of our partners in the artistic programme 

we are planning on inviting bloggers and 

vloggers from all over Europe for short-

term residencies an outside perspective.

RAAAAWWWWRRRR. dealing with the My-

thical beast of Kaunas artistic and commu-

nication actions go hand in hand. 

Public Relations. We have built-up partner-

ships with newspaper publishers, televi-

sion, the cultural press and online portals 

and will continue involving the local press 

for support and communication. We already 

agreed on a partnership with one of the ma-

jor Lithuanian online news portals 15min.lt. 

in the agitation and Explosion phases we 

will reach out to international media.

Digital presence is planned to give a deeper 

look at the analogue reality by audio, video, 

augmented reality, bluetooth and location 

services based apps. digital technology can 

add the dimension of time to spaces in the 

City. the digital is an ongoing and growing 

activity that has already started with our 

launch of a social media campaign which 

reached over 450,000 people. We have set 

up a bilingual website www.kaunas2022.eu 

and we are going to further extend its func-

tionality. single projects that start(ed) in 

2016/2017 like 

fluxus Labs, Kaunas Chal-

lenge (with the Centuryans), the collabora-

tive fiction methods and physical form cre-

ation of 

the Mythical beast of Kaunas will 

need digital platforms, coding, apps and so-

cial media channels for their internal and 

external communication, and virtual exhibi-

tions for citizen votings.

Key festivals and exhibitions. through our 

connections with Kaunas biennial, Kaunas 

photo, Kaunas jazz, aura dance and other 

festivals we have good contact points to 

reach the local and national audience as 

well as a basis for a network of local, na-

tional and international media.

Points of information. Our  official  Kaunas 

2022 information point will be a new struc-

ture located centrally (preferably in a Mod-

ernist building) to promote local cultural 

events and City tourism. it will also host a 

café where our intercultural learning 

Café 

du Monde events will take place, and a mar-

ketplace of opportunities to get actively in-

volved in Kaunas 2022 programme. 

AGITATION 2019–2020

at this second stage we will continue with 

communication on the local level at full 

output but will also focus increasingly on 

the national and international level.

Focus target group: Lithuanians in the en-

tire country

We intend Kaunas Contemporary Capi-

tal to become a celebration for the whole 

country. Kaunas is mostly associated with 

a mono-national, deeply Lithuanian narra-

tive: it’s the most Lithuanian city, the “heart 

of Lithuania” – perhaps understandable 

since our country has been unable to live 

its national identity for so long. We need 

strong storytelling practices (e.g. in the pro-

gramme platform 

Memory Office) to return 

the erased multicultural history to Kaunas 

identity. jewish heritage is one example 

worth reviving, celebrating and using the 

Modernist architecture is another, as well as 

creating “new celebrities”, like Emma gold-

man or Emmanuel Levinas for a communi-

cation of multicultural and multinational 

pride throughout the country. 

Channels and partners (examples)

National Television. We are negotiating 

an agreement for a long-term partnership 

with the Lithuanian national radio and 

television (Lrt) in terms of regular col-

laboration with Culture Lrt channel for 

coverage and broadcasting. also national 

tv has agreements with many European 

tv stations (such as dW and other) for 

exchange of cultural programmes, which 

would also be used for dissemination of 

the cultural programme Europe-wide. 

Municipality. We plan to set up a destination 

marketing campaign together with the Mu-

nicipality’s international relations division 

and put project advertising in public and in-

ternational transport as well as on highways. 

Current international partnerships of Kaunas 

City Municipality include the hanseatic net-

work, more than 20 twin cities, and the un-

EsCo Creative City network. 

Businesses. We will mobilise local logistic 

companies and arrange that branded ban-

ners promoting Kaunas 2022 programme 

are used on their trucks travelling across 

Europe and beyond. 

Digital presence. the agitation phase will 

include programme taking place in the 

digital realm like the fun interactive per-

formance platform with scenes from 

the 

Mythical beast. a digital game will be pro-

duced featuring 

the Mythical beast and 

fellow characters. a smartphone app “Cul-

tural awakening” will give notifications for 

cultural events online and offline.

EXPLOSION 2021–2022

finally the ECoC action takes place and 

we introduce the City where culture never 

sleeps. Communication includes the level 

of European and international audiences 

next to continued efforts towards local 

and national audiences and participants.

Focus target group: Europeans and inter-

national audience

the hardest part is getting people to trav-

el to Kaunas from outside the country. the 

most visited places by foreign tourists are 

vilnius and the Curonian spit on the coast. 

rarely visitors stop for more than a few 

hours in Kaunas but with tailor-made tour-

ism packages for an overnight stay with 

cultural events and special Kaunas 2022 

guided tours we intend to attract new au-

diences to Kaunas.

Most visitors to Kaunas come from rus-

sia, germany, poland, Latvia, Estonia, be-

larus, finland, united Kingdom, italy and 

france. the second level target markets in 

the tourism strategy include norway, swe-

den, the netherlands and denmark – this 

means that through our activities with the 

tourism boards we can already reach a sig-

nificant number of countries and potential 

visitors in Europe. some of the attractions 

for an international audience have been 

detailed in Q10 – here are the channels 

with which we will convey them.

Tourism fairs like the vakantiebeurs in 

utrecht, itb in berlin, WtM London, salon 

du tourisme in paris and Matka in helsinki 

will be platforms to approach tourism op-

erators from all over Europe and overseas 

(as visitors from israel and japan are be-

coming increasingly important). 

Airport. Airlines. Airviews. We will invite 

pilots, stewards, bus and taxi drivers to be 

aware of the programme and help guests 

navigate the cultural programme. 

flying Europe balloon in a shape of a char-

acter of 

the Mythical beast designed by 

patricia piccinini, gliding over the skies of 

European cities in 2021 and over Lithuania 

and Kaunas in 2022 is envisaged to attract 

international attention to Kaunas 2022 pro-

gramme. Land art piece (related to 

the My-

thical beast of Kaunas) will meet everyone 

landing at Kaunas international airport. 

Diaspora.  We are working with our part-

ners like the Lithuanian Confederation of 

industrialists, global Lithuanian Leaders, 

rotary Clubs and other networks to invite 

them as Kaunas 2022 ambassadors. Every 

fan of Kaunas at home or abroad can get 

a variety of instruments which will enable 

participation and promotion. 

Merchandising.  the new cultural legend 

around 

the Mythical beast of Kaunas will 

include a set of unique community-created 

characters which will be used for conven-

tional and innovative merchandising. for 

example a digital “kiosk” will allow every-

one to customise their favourite character 

from the new legend and buy a personal 

3d printed model.

Digital presence. Web, apps and social. We 

will develop a 

mobile application in sever-

al languages which will inform its users of 

Kaunas 2022 programme, allow purchas-

ing tickets, providing an interactive map 

of Kaunas, connect into the “hedonometre” 

for evaluation, link with online sources of 

heritage and history information and will 

allow indulging in a series of games relat-

ed to fun facts about Kaunas and its multi-

faceted identity.

Communication and marketing tools will 

include a digital technology based project 

pixel tunnels to Europe (2021–2022) – 

a two ended “screen” tunnel installed in 

open and closed public spaces in different 

cities in Europe which will broadcast spe-

cial events (concerts, talks, flash mobs, the-

atre and dance performances) from Kaunas 

and Esch-sur-alzette in 2021 and 2022 to 

public audiences in previous or upcoming 

ECoC cities. 

the project will work as a marketing tool 

and help to announce the artistic pro-

gramme in many cities across Europe. 

Kaunas Digital Games. We are commission-

ing 

computer games and virtual tour-games 

the stories of which will be incorporated in-

to digitised Kaunas environments: 

(1) 

the Mythical beast and the fortress 

system (legend says they are connected by 

underground tunnels), (2) Modernist build-

ings with their hidden stories, secret clos-

ets, roof terraces and spy rooms, but also 

storytelling tours and augmented reality 

content e.g. in the 

digital diplomacy pro-

ject and (3) an augmented reality game 

(next generation pokemon) e.g. using 

M. K. Čiurlionis paintings to virtually aug-

ment the environment or old photographs 

to superpose streets for virtual time travel. 

additionally, some of the games/pro-

grammes and documentaries will be 

adapted to 

VR (virtual reality) products, 

allowing 

digital tourists to experience 

Kaunas uniqueness from any place of the 

world. 

LEGACY (2023 and beyond)

the communication will continue be-

yond 2022 to ensure that the evaluation 

and monitoring results are distributed in 

a  meaningful  and  useful  way  to  benefit 

future cultural and social activities. the 

hedonometre will continue to receive and 

send until the next generation is launched 

or until it indicates perpetual happiness of 

Kaunasians :-). some of the projects, espe-

cially the 

tempo academy of Culture, the 

community platform 

We, the people as 

well as 

Emerging  Kaunas are created as 

long-term development tools and do not 

have a “sell-by-date”. Communication and 

marketing will continue through the creat-

ed tools as well as newly developed ones. 

the Mythical beast is there to stay and set-

tles into becoming the long-known symbol 

and guardian of the City. Merchandising, 

guided tours to 

the beast sightings and 

the unbroken interest in Modernist herit-

age is communicated by the citizens them-

selves as well as permanently integrated 

in the communication of the Municipality 

and the local and national tourism boards.

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