New Orleans Museum of Art

The Case

Following Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans in 2005, the nation of France offered to help rebuild New Orleans’ infrastructure, with special emphasis on the city’s cultural institutions. As part of the country’s commitment, France provided an exhibition of French masterpieces at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) entitled Femme, femme, femme: Paintings of Women in French Society from Daumier to Picasso from the Museums of France.  Though the exhibition was being offered as a free gift from France, NOMA needed assistance in marketing the exhibition. 


The Strategy

 In this six month timeline, the Deveney Communication team developed three key strategies:

  1. Work with tourism leaders to orchestrate press events announcing the exhibition
  2. Conduct proactive media and community relations to promote the exhibition
  3. Establish partnerships before and during the exhibition.

 

The Results

Deveney Communication garnered more than $7 million in targeted placements (103 to 1 return on investment) and 48 million impressions in media coverage for the entire campaign, including coverage from the Associated Press, Agence France Presse, The New York Times, Southern Accents, Regis and Kelly, and PRWeek. Editorial board meetings led to significant feature-length coverage and publication covers throughout the city in publications such as Gambit Weekly, New Orleans Magazine, Where Magazine and the Times-Picayune.

 The opening press preview was a triumphant success with 100 percent of invited dignitaries accepting the invitation.  Deveney Communication worked with the local hospitality and tourism industry to create joint promotions, including several free advertising opportunities and restaurant. The exhibition also helped develop strategic partnerships that will continue to benefit the museum as it moves forward with other landmark exhibitions.

Museum attendance increased 500 percent from 5,000 visitors a month to 25,000 visitors a month, surpassing the museum’s goal of 12,500 visitors a month by 200 percent. The total attendance numbers of 80,431visitors throughout the three-month exhibition surpassed internal museum goals of 50,000 visitors by 60 percent. The increased traffic also led to some $400,000 in sales at the museum gift shop, increasing revenue for the entire museum.

NOMA received 2,211 new membership applications during the three months of the Femme exhibition, bringing NOMA’s total memberships to 7,354. This total is 70 percent higher than the NOMA’s membership total of 5,173, despite a population that had dwindled to two-thirds its size following Hurricane Katrina. This increase in memberships represented a jump of two percentage points from pre-Katrina to post-Katrina levels. A membership mailing that the museum distributed during Femme drew 600 additional memberships or 200 percent of the typical response rate for mailing of its type and size during other exhibitions.