Cases
The art of making choices
Client
Stedelijk Museum Breda is the starting point for everyone who wants to discover ‘the world of Breda’. The permanent presentations on the Nassaus and the 19th century, and temporary exhibitions on heritage and visual art, offer a surprising view of history and the present day. In the freely accessible project space Next, collaboration with partners takes shape. Stedelijk Museum Breda is an accessible and versatile museum for residents and visitors of the city and the region.
Result
The results speak for themselves: interviews in professional magazines; for example, Soulmates appeared in PF Fotografie Magazine and Digi Foto Pro. But regional media and glossy magazines such as Elegance and &C also published interviews and articles. Attention in niche media and cultural platforms — time and again, each time with a different approach. But there was certainly national media attention as well: for the audio experience Wander/Wonder, we placed the focus on mindful art experiences, which resulted in national coverage: a four-page article in de Volkskrant, a publication in Psychologie Magazine, and even the section ‘the audiotour’ of the radio programme Opium on NPO Klassiek.
We also entered into a collaboration with the online art platform Kunstmeisjes. This giveaway (in which admission tickets could be won) resulted in a great deal of interaction and engagement, through which we not only increased the visibility of the exhibition, but also reached a broader, art-minded audience.
For 2024/2025, our client Stedelijk Museum Breda wants to strengthen the visibility of its exhibitions, with a clear focus on national media. Press lobbying remains the central component of the collaboration: tailor-made per exhibition, with attention to the right hook and the right journalist or editorial team.
The intention is to strategically distribute the available hours across the year, with clear peak moments around the major exhibitions (STRAAT KUNST MUSEUM, the Nassaus exhibition, and participation projects in collaboration with partners). The emphasis should be on press lobbying in order to generate free publicity. No value is attached anymore to press clippings documentation (due to costs). Instead, the focus lies on proactively generating qualitative, relevant publicity. A joint annual plan and schedule form the basis of the collaboration. Every quarter, we align on progress, current affairs, and priorities.
Insights and strategy
The cultural sector is rich in stories, but poor in media space. In a landscape full of museums and exhibitions, it is a challenge for a relatively small city museum like Stedelijk Museum Breda to gain national attention. And yet it succeeded, by thinking like a journalist, not like a marketer.
Our starting point: you don’t have to tell everything, you have to tell the right story. For each exhibition, we look for the larger societal or personal story behind the subject or a work of art. In doing so, we critically assess relevance, timing, and which person within the editorial team or journalism best fits this specific theme. The strategy is built on smartly planned peak moments, a flexibly deployable annual budget, and an intensive collaboration with the museum team. For each exhibition, we deploy a tailor-made press lobby, aimed at that one journalist or that one platform where the story truly comes into its own.
In addition, we make use of the strength of collaborations: with media partners, other cultural institutions, education, and content-driven influencers such as De Kunstmeisjes. Every medium requires a different angle — and time and again we come up with ways to fit into that without losing ourselves. The result? PR driven by content, not routine.
The case
For Stedelijk Museum Breda, we developed a PR approach centered on content, journalistic relevance, and creative thinking within limited means. The goal: to generate national media attention for exhibitions and public projects, without a large marketing budget.
The collaboration began with a tight annual planning, in which we determined peak moments around the most important exhibitions: the photography exhibition Soulmates, an exhibition about carnival, the exhibition STRAAT KUNST MUSEUM, and projects around the Nassaus of Breda, as well as the latest exhibition Willem – The Price of Freedom(about William of Orange, in collaboration with Museum Prinsenhof Delft). For each moment, we worked on a unique angle, aligned with current affairs and the right journalist.
We rarely communicate solely about the announcement of an exhibition itself, but instead look for the bigger story: an unexpected perspective, a societal connection, or a personal angle from makers or those involved. For example, for the photography exhibition Soulmates we focused, among other things, on professional photography media, and for the exhibition STRAAT KUNST MUSEUM we focused, among other things, on a specific artwork by Toscanabanana about street intimidation of young women. For the children’s treasure hunt and activities in the exhibition The Nassaus of Breda, we conducted a press lobby with “mama glossies” about ways to fill the school holidays.
The execution consists of targeted press lobbying, where possible supplemented with press releases and previews, collaboration with content-driven influencers, and carefully selected media contacts. We also work closely with other museums and cultural institutions to increase both audience reach and media impact.
We prove that you don’t have to be a large museum to tell big stories. With creativity, journalistic insight, and a sharp strategy, Stedelijk Museum Breda manages time and again to gain national attention. This case shows what is possible when you bring PR back to its essence: the right story, at the right moment, in the right place.
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