Marketing and media
Due to the great diversity of exhibitions in the past twenty-three years, the Kunsthal has built up considerable expertise in communicating its programme to a broad public. The Kunsthal has an extensive network of press contacts and public groups. The quality of the content of an exhibition directs the marketing strategy. Unique collections, top items on loan and special travelling exhibitions are of great importance to attract a broad public. Forms of collaboration with diverse partners to position an exhibition more strongly and to take advantage of new possibilities also play an important role in the marketing of a major exhibition.
Media outreach and free publicity
The Kunsthal received a lot of coverage in 2016, in the national and especially in the international media. The Peter Lindbergh exhibition in particular and the richly illustrated book from TASCHEN publishing house received unparalleled media attention, in print, online and on radio and television. Camera crews from Germany, England, France and Spain attended the press preview of the exhibition for an interview with Peter Lindbergh.
Dutch media such as RTL Boulevard, RTL Nieuws, AvroTros Koffietijd, RTV Rijnmond and OPEN Rotterdam also devoted a lot of attention to Lindbergh. Numerous interviews and articles appeared in newspapers, magazines, news and lifestyle media in countries such as France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Italy and Greece and further afield in the USA, China, Brazil and Chile. Media outlets included El País, The Guardian, New York Style Magazine, The Telegraph, Artforum, i-D Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Numeró and PHOTO MAGAZINE.
Other major exhibitions such as ‘Philippe Halsmans’, ‘The Museum of Everything’, ‘Botero. Celebrate Life!’ and ‘Making Africa’ were also featured in the national and international media, from Mexico and Rumania to the United States and the Antilles. Smaller exhibitions such as Chris Roodbeens court drawings and ‘Beelder… van J.A. Deelder’ were written up in substantive articles in de Telegraaf, AD, NRC Handelsblad and Trouw.
Various articles about Emily Ansenk appeared in the written press in 2016: in the ‘Favourite works of art by’ feature in the May issue of SPOOR Magazine (circulation: 1.2 million) on the occasion of ‘The Museum of Everything’, in the ‘Women of the Year’ December issue of Harper’s Bazaar with complete styling and exclusive photo shoot in the Kunsthal, and in Elsevier in the framework of top women in the Netherlands. Media partners Kunstschrift and Vogue both published a special edition in 2016 in connection with a Kunsthal exhibition. Kunstschrift issued a special about outsider art and Vogue produced a special October issue with Lara Stone on the cover, photographed by Peter Lindbergh, which included extensive coverage of Lindbergh’s photo shoot in the harbour.
In total the Kunsthal reached about four million people nationally and eight million people internationally through the (print and online) media.
Public actions
Alongside the surge in free publicity that the Kunsthal managed to generate with visibility in the city, various regional and national public actions and arrangements were developed with a variety of partners. In 2016 we deliberately opted to have only a few meticulously selected and carefully worded public actions, to retain the average entrance fee. More than 1,500 visitors came to the Kunsthal via public actions in Rotterdam with Blijdorp Zoo, Euromast, Nationale-Nederlanden, Museumpark Ticket, Ooievaarspas reduction card, Rotterdam Welcome Card and others. National actions with the BankGiro Lottery, SPOOR Magazine, Holland Pass and others accounted for more than 1,600 visitors. The BankGiro Lottery VIP Card is a recently introduced loyalty card for participants in the BankGiro Lottery. This resulted in a further 2,248 visitors to the Kunsthal in 2016.