If You’re Into It, It’s in the V&A

Read the campaign story

In 2024, the V&A and adam&eveDDB presented the museum through the interests visitors already had. D&AD describes a campaign spanning collection objects, outdoor and digital media, and activations made for enthusiasts. Instead of asking everyone to acquire a general interest in design, the work found particular routes into the institution. The creative promise was broad, but the evidence for it was deliberately specific.

Hope&Glory’s February account documents a complementary publicity idea: recruiting Superfan Advisors with expertise in subjects including Taylor Swift, Crocs and Pokémon cards. These roles invited knowledge to move towards the museum rather than only away from its curators. The agency reports extensive coverage, but that is publicity evidence, not a controlled measure of additional visits. This study treats the campaign and its recruitment activation as one family.

Editorial interpretation: a large catalogue can make an institution difficult to explain. A list of everything feels less personal than one surprising connection to a familiar passion. The strategic task is therefore not to simplify the collection until it loses its variety. It is to give that variety several understandable entrances. Each entrance must still lead somewhere real, otherwise an apparently inclusive invitation becomes a frustrating search for the promised object or experience.

Editorial interpretation: recruiting enthusiasts also changes the social relationship. Someone who assumes a museum has nothing to learn from them can encounter an invitation to contribute expertise. That can reduce perceived distance without pretending that specialist curatorial knowledge is unnecessary. The useful tension is reciprocal authority: the institution provides context, while communities provide detailed lived knowledge of their interests. A brand attempting this should define how contributions will be credited, used and acknowledged before publicity begins.

Build entrances, not a catalogue summary

Choose a few communities whose interests genuinely intersect with your offer. Write one invitation for each and connect it to a precise destination, such as a collection trail, class or product explanation. Ask community members whether the connection feels illuminating or opportunistic. Avoid measuring success only through clicks on the most famous interest. A smaller group reaching a relevant experience may be more valuable than a large audience discovering that its promised connection is superficial.

Make participation consequential

An advisory invitation should describe the work, selection process and influence participants can realistically have. Do not use an impressive title to solicit unpaid material with no clear purpose. Publish a simple account of what was learned and what changed. This closes the loop between recruitment and institutional behaviour. It also produces a more credible second story than another announcement about how many people applied, while allowing contributors to decide whether they want public recognition.

Measure the route after recognition

Separate campaign recognition from planning a visit and actually arriving. Use distinct landing routes for interest groups, then examine voluntary visitor feedback alongside attendance patterns. A person might enjoy an advertisement without wanting the museum experience. Conversely, a first-time visitor may need practical reassurance about access, opening times or cost more than additional creative persuasion. Research the drop-off between relevance and action before spending more on awareness.

A small test for another brief

Pilot three interest-led invitations for a small cultural collection or educational programme. Treat this as a learning exercise rather than a forecast of the V&A campaign’s results.

Compare qualified exploration, visit planning and completed participation by route. Interview a few people about whether the invitation accurately represented the experience.

Pause an invitation if its promised connection cannot be delivered, or if contributors cannot understand how their expertise will be used.

• Ask knowledgeable community members to validate each connection and agree credit or compensation.
• Create a short, accessible destination for each invitation with an actual next step.
• Run comparable placements and collect optional feedback from both visitors and people who abandon the journey.