Museumkaart
Music and sound design for a campaign asking people to renew their Museum Card during the pandemic, a reminder of what would be waiting when doors finally opened again.
- Client
- Museumkaart
- Sector
- Cultural sector
- What we did
- Music production, sound design and audio mix
- What it achieved
- 85,000 cardholders turned unused card time into a donation, together over €1 million for 400+ museums
Selling access to something people couldn't use
Try asking people to renew a museum card when every museum in the country is shut. Not easy! The campaign didn't pretend the closures weren't happening. It just reminded people what they love about museums, and that it would all still be there.
Music as a bridge to something just out of reach
The score sits in that in-between feeling. You're looking forward to going back, and you remember why you went in the first place. Hopeful, yes, but not naive. And the music shouldn't do the crying for you. The message needed room.
Hopeful without being cheerful
Musical production
Original music, half memory and half looking ahead. Warm enough to feel like an invitation and quiet enough to let the message through.
Sound design
Small atmospheric touches that suggest a museum without showing what viewers couldn't visit: the echo of a gallery, the quiet between rooms.
Audio mix
One final mix for TV and online. Same sound wherever you saw it.
What does a campaign asking for patience sound like?
It was an awkward brief. You're asking people to pay for something they can't use yet. Make the music too cheerful and it's tone deaf. Too sad and it sounds like a goodbye.
What worked was somewhere in the middle. Warm, with air in it. No big arrangements, just acoustic instruments where you can hear the fingers hit the strings. And we kept the tempo slower than you'd expect from an ad, on purpose.
What's missing matters too. There's no big build-up and no drums pushing you along. It actually ends quieter than it starts.
Selling a closed door
Museums were asking for help they couldn't pay back right away. The audio made that feel like an invitation, not a favour. In the end 85,000 cardholders turned their unused card time into more than €1 million for 400+ museums.
This project is one of seven Studio ZK made for the cultural sector. What we do for museums and heritage organisations →