Stedelijk Museum Annual Report 2012

sponsored) campaign was also waged at Amsterdam Central Station, Schiphol
Amsterdam International Airport, and on video screens on the Leidseplein and
Rembrandtplein. Amsterdam Marketing generously provided a portion of the media
that were used.
Benefactors to the Stedelijk also joined our efforts to promote the opening of the
Stedelijk. Admission discounts were offered to the employees of the Ahold
supermarket chain, and the Museumplein branch of Albert Heijn was home to
generous in-store publicity. The Rabobank placed sizable, specially-framed posters
around Museumplein congratulating the museum on its reopening.
A large-scale marketing campaign was launched in partnership with Amsterdam’s
newspaper het Parool. As a gesture to the city and the people of Amsterdam, who
had waited so long for the reopening, the newspaper offered readers a free
entrance ticket to the Stedelijk in the week after the opening. More than 9,000
people took advantage of this special offer. In the process, they were also
subscribed to the digital newsletter, which presents het Parool readers with further
opportunities to develop their relationship with the museum.
MIKE KELLEY
Communication activities surrounding the exhibition MIKE KELLEY involved placing
posters throughout the city, running advertisements in newspapers, and posting
online banners. The museum also published a special Kelley supplement issued by
national newspaper NRC Handelsblad, made possible by funding from the Turing
Foundation. The supplement was distributed nationwide with the December 13
issue of NRC; an edition of 7,500 copies was presented, free of charge, to visitors
to the exhibition.
New Graphic Identity
In 2012, the Stedelijk invited design firm Mevis & Van Deursen to develop its new
graphic identity. The design duo, which had previously created the signature
graphics for Temporary Stedelijk, is internationally renowned as one of the most
inventive and acclaimed design agencies in the Netherlands. The new branding is
applied to the museum’s logo, publications, newsletter, stationery, and posters,
among other visual devices.
The Stedelijk Museum commissioned Mevis & Van Deursen to create a signature
style that epitomizes the Stedelijk Museum’s DNA and reflects the aspirations and
core characteristics of the institution: open, distinct, fresh, and original—in keeping
with the Stedelijk’s modernist graphic design heritage. A striking element is the new
logo, constituted by the words STEDELIJK MUSEUM AMSTERDAM forming a
curvaceous “S” shape.
Press
Throughout 2012, the Stedelijk Museum Press Office was dedicated almost entirely
to preparing national and international media for the grand reopening.
In April, director Ann Goldstein and architect Mels Crouwel, flanked by Alexander
Ribbink, chair of the Supervisory Board, held an extremely well-attended press
conference in New York. It was organized in collaboration with the American public
relations agency Ruder Finn, which advised the museum on its national and
international communication strategy around the reopening.
Prior to the reopening, the Press Office issued a stream of press releases that
resulted in front-page news on numerous occasions. The Open House days held on
May 25 and 26, when we unveiled Damask, the monumental textile by design firm
Inside Outside hanging in the entrance hall, were well-attended by members of the
press and the general public alike. During the summer months, the Press Office
issued releases about behind-the-scenes preparations in the lead-up to the
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