National Museum of American Jewish History
Preserving history in the digital age.
Jewish American History Is American History.
The National Museum of American Jewish History (NMAJH) joined forces with Brand Knew in the summer of 2019 in their search for a partner with digital acumen and branding expertise, to help promote their forthcoming exhibition, Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Brand Knew’s creative guidance, paid media know-how, and website design and development prowess was just what NMAJH needed to spice up the Museum’s online presence across their website and social media to boost digital traffic and ticket sales.
RBG Hits Independence Mall.
Brand Knew’s efforts propelled the Notorious RBG exhibit to generate nearly as much attendance in its 4-month run as the museum saw within the entire year prior. Since our partnership, NMAJH has experienced ongoing record-breaking levels of attendance, and was on pace to double their attendance from the 2019 fiscal year in 2020 before the pandemic hit.
In addition to leading on promotion of Notorious RBG, Brand Knew was tapped to expand the NMAJH audience and brand awareness to appeal to those both in and out of the Jewish community, and establish the understanding that knowledge of Jewish American history is critical to the story of American history at large.
RBG Hits Independence Mall.
Brand Knew’s efforts propelled the Notorious RBG exhibit to generate nearly as much attendance in its 4-month run as the museum saw within the entire year prior. Since our partnership, NMAJH has experienced ongoing record-breaking levels of attendance, and was on pace to double their attendance from the 2019 fiscal year in 2020 before the pandemic hit.
In addition to leading on promotion of Notorious RBG, Brand Knew was tapped to expand the NMAJH audience and brand awareness to appeal to those both in and out of the Jewish community, and establish the understanding that knowledge of Jewish American history is critical to the story of American history at large.
NMAJH Remastered.
In order to expand the audience and awareness of NMAJH, Brand Knew started by developing digital brand guidelines, with a revamped aesthetic, that were implemented across the NMAJH social media accounts and website. An overhaul of the NMAJH website was in order, so Brand Knew executed a redesign and development of a selection of the most highly-trafficked pages from the museum’s site, to bring its online look and feel from the past to the present.
In just nine weeks, Brand Knew took an outdated website lacking intuitive navigation and current branding, and created a sleek, responsive interface with an elevated design that reflected the prestige and tone of the museum. Since its launch in September of 2019, the performance of the new nmajh.org is a considerable improvement. Year over year, page views are up by 45%, traffic from SEO is up by 32%, and traffic on the Exhibitions and Collections page is up by 2,855%. Brand Knew was sure to optimize design and development for mobile as well, which has led to a 150% increase in mobile use of the site. Further, ticket sales have increased by 73.2%, and the museum’s eCommerce conversion rate is up by 18.3%.
Virtual Jewish American Heritage Month.
Brand Knew’s efforts to support the museum’s online JAHM initiative in May of 2020 resulted in 1 million impressions across all social channels, increased brand awareness for the museum, and garnered valuable insights about the NMAJH audience. With traffic for the museum only coming in online, Brand Knew was able to gain an even better understanding of the NMAJH audience via data from Facebook Live viewing and user behavior on the website tracked through Google Analytics. Had events for this campaign been strictly in person, this invaluable data would have been lost.
Increased audience insights allowed for better audience targeting, enabling Brand Knew to augment Museum Store sales significantly with each subsequent month of the museum’s closure. This resulted in the Museum Store ultimately becoming NMAJH’s largest source of revenue during the pandemic. In the six months following the museum’s closure due to COVID-19, Brand Knew helped increase Museum Store revenue by 1,200%, generating $470,000 in sales. We drove 9,068 total transactions in this timeframe, a 2,300% increase year over year.
Virtual Jewish American Heritage Month.
Brand Knew’s efforts to support the museum’s online JAHM initiative in May of 2020 resulted in 1 million impressions across all social channels, increased brand awareness for the museum, and garnered valuable insights about the NMAJH audience. With traffic for the museum only coming in online, Brand Knew was able to gain an even better understanding of the NMAJH audience via data from Facebook Live viewing and user behavior on the website tracked through Google Analytics. Had events for this campaign been strictly in person, this invaluable data would have been lost.
Increased audience insights allowed for better audience targeting, enabling Brand Knew to augment Museum Store sales significantly with each subsequent month of the museum’s closure. This resulted in the Museum Store ultimately becoming NMAJH’s largest source of revenue during the pandemic. In the six months following the museum’s closure due to COVID-19, Brand Knew helped increase Museum Store revenue by 1,200%, generating $470,000 in sales. We drove 9,068 total transactions in this timeframe, a 2,300% increase year over year.
To Be A Museum In The Time Of COVID-19.
In March of 2020, the museum faced understandable challenges as the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to shudder its doors. With its main source of revenue in ticket sales suddenly stripped away, NMAJH turned to Brand Knew for additional support in an unforeseen, unprecedented, and uncertain time.
The “Yo Semite” T-shirt Goes Viral.
In August 2020, a golden opportunity presented itself to NMAJH when Donald Trump’s televised mispronunciation of “Yosemite” as “Yo semite” made national headlines. The Museum Store happened to already sell a “Yo Semite” T-shirt, so Brand Knew pounced on the serendipitous moment.
Working swiftly with the NMAJH team, Brand Knew capitalized on this gaffe by immediately sharing a cheeky post promoting the “Yo Semite” T-shirt across the NMAJH social channels. Through pointed organic outreach to influential figures and expert paid media tactics, these posts quickly garnered viral buzz across all platforms, spurring thousands of sales, continued conversation on social media, and nationwide news coverage for the museum.
In just 13 days, Brand Knew and NMAJH’s strategic paid and organic efforts to promote the “Yo Semite” T-shirt resulted in an overall revenue of over $350K for the Museum Store. The “Yo Semite” T-shirt sales represented $250K of that total, indicating the magnitude of the halo effect the campaign had on additional sales, donations, and exposure for the museum.
The “Yo Semite” T-shirt Goes Viral.
In August 2020, a golden opportunity presented itself to NMAJH when Donald Trump’s televised mispronunciation of “Yosemite” as “Yo semite” made national headlines. The Museum Store happened to already sell a “Yo Semite” T-shirt, so Brand Knew pounced on the serendipitous moment.
Working swiftly with the NMAJH team, Brand Knew capitalized on this gaffe by immediately sharing a cheeky post promoting the “Yo Semite” T-shirt across the NMAJH social channels. Through pointed organic outreach to influential figures and expert paid media tactics, these posts quickly garnered viral buzz across all platforms, spurring thousands of sales, continued conversation on social media, and nationwide news coverage for the museum.
In just 13 days, Brand Knew and NMAJH’s strategic paid and organic efforts to promote the “Yo Semite” T-shirt resulted in an overall revenue of over $350K for the Museum Store. The “Yo Semite” T-shirt sales represented $250K of that total, indicating the magnitude of the halo effect the campaign had on additional sales, donations, and exposure for the museum.
Brand Knew’s “Yo Semite” T-shirt promotional efforts across social media reached over 4 million people. This meteoric rise in NMAJH brand awareness drove thousands of followers to NMAJH’s Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts, building a lasting fan base on each platform.
In one week, NMAJH gained 10x the number of Facebook followers, 3x the number of Twitter followers, and 1.5x the number of Instagram followers typically gained in one month. This growth has made a meaningful and lasting impact on a greater awareness for NMAJH in a year when the museum has needed it most. Through this larger, addressable pool of new consumers and supporters for the museum, Brand Knew orchestrated monumental eCommerce growth. Year over year, the Museum Store’s revenue is up by 803% and number of transactions is up by 1,422%.
Resilience In The Past And Present.
Much has changed for NMAJH throughout the course of its working relationship with Brand Knew, particularly within the scope of the COVID-19 pandemic. But such obstacles have been leveraged to make positive strides for the museum.
The museum’s closure provided a unique opportunity to take a deeper look into its audience through digital monitoring. These insights allowed for better audience targeting that ultimately resulted in increased brand awareness, social following, and revenue. It’s fitting that a museum dedicated to telling the Jewish-American story has shown such resilience in the face of so much adversity.
