How Do You Say \'Abstract Expressionism\' in German?

By STUART ELLIOTT

A media agency has brought together two clients, an airline and a museum, for an unusual campaign.

The agency is Mindshare, part of the GroupM unit of WPP, and the clients are Lufthansa, the German airline,  and the Museum of Modern Art. At the heart of the campaign is an agreement for the museum to provide video content to the airline as the airline becomes a corporate member of the museum.

The campaign is scheduled to begin on Saturday as a 30-minute program, composed of video content supplied by the museum, that will play on the culture channel of the in-flight entertainment systems on Lufthansa planes. The videos will be narrated by David Rockefeller Jr., who is a trustee of the museum.

A 60-second video about MoMA will also be shown on Lufthansa flights, serving as an invitation to passengers to visit the museum while they are visiting New York City.

The campaign is coming at no cost to either the museum or the airline. MoMA provides the videos and the membership and Lufthansa provides an outlet where the videos can be watched. (Lufthansa will offer the benefits of the membership to its employees and the best customers among its frequent fliers.)

The campaign is indicative of efforts by media agencies to come up with new and different ideas for clients beyond traditional ad buys. These days, it seems, for a campaign to get noticed, the media part has to be as creative as the creative part.

The genesis of the campaign was asking a question on behalf of MoMA, “How do you reach international travelers before they get to New York?” said Mariya Kemper, a group planning director at Mindshare who works on both the Lufthansa and museum accounts at the agency.

“We're always thinking about different things MoMA can do to get that bigger international audience, with a finite budget,” she added.

In developing a medi a plan for Lufthansa, hitting on “passion points of customers,” Ms. Kemper said, one of the areas identified was culture and the arts.

That led to the museum, and to a thought that “if we can match these two clients we can try to create value for both brands,” she added.

Nicola Lange, director for marketing and customer relations for the Americas at Lufthansa, said the airline had tried “to set up a partnership with MoMA before.”

“We know from our customer demographics that they are very interested in art,” she added.

Ms. Lange praised Mindshare for putting “a lot of hard work into finding the right people who should be talking to each other.”

Kim Mitchell, chief communications officer at the museum, said that about 60 percent of the estimated 3 million visitors to MoMA each year are from overseas.

“We're always looking for ways to reach the international traveler,” Ms. Mitchell said.

The museum plans to refre sh the video content for the 30-minute program four times a year, she added.

Ms. Mitchell and Ms. Lange said the museum, and the airline, plan to evaluate the campaign as it proceeds during the coming year.