The Museum of Modern Art in New York is using mobile to activate a traditional advertising campaign that is at the center of its summer membership drive.

MoMA?s media planning and buying agency of record, Mindshare, tapped its sister agency Joule, part of Group M, to power the multichannel campaign. It consists of print ad buys in various New York-based newspapers and magazines, out-of-home/outdoor posters on bus shelters and telephone kiosks and coffee sleeves at independent coffee shops around the city, all carrying an SMS call to action.

?This is a campaign that began internally in the museum with the objective to generate leads and conversion for membership,? said Kim Mitchell, chief communications officer at MoMA, New York. ?Initially it attempted to convert museum visitors into members, and this is the external component of the campaign.

?We?re testing print and out-of-home advertising, and the reason we added mobile as a component is to active print and outdoor and offer another channel for consumers to communicate with us and see if the convenience of mobile is something of value to them,? she said.

MoMA goes mobile
MoMA?s multichannel campaign featuring mobile runs throughout June and July.

In addition to the outdoor posters and the coffee sleeves, the MoMA membership campaign features print ads in weekly magazines and daily newspapers such as the New York Observer.

Also, MoMA's retail store inside the midtown Manhattan museum on 53rd St., the museum café and its sister institution MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, Queens, all have on-site signage with the mobile call to action.

The tagline of the membership drive is ?Belong to something engrossing, gripping, captivating and cool.?

In addition to current and upcoming events and exhibitions, the ads and posters carry the following list of the benefits of a one-year membership:

?Twelve months of free admission at MoMA and MoMA PS1, 66 unparalleled exhibitions, 1,500 free film screenings, 4 preview days for every major exhibition, $5 guest tickets for friends, 10 percent off great design at the MoMA Stores all year, and 20 percent off your first visit and Member Shopping Days, 10 percent off in the MoMA cafes and much more.?

All of the ad creative associated with the campaign carries some variation of the following call to action:

?Text [the keyword] MoMA5 to [the short code] 30241 to receive a valuable offer. Membership starts at $75.?

Here is an example of the ad creative:

Consumers who text in are asked to reply with their email address to get the MoMA membership offer.

Those who do so receive the following email:

Hello from The Museum of Modern Art!

Thank you for your interest in MoMA membership. Please follow the link below and choose between two special offers when you purchase a membership to the Museum-two free extra months of membership or a free MoMA tote bag.

http://www.moma.org/support/membership/belong/offer/EASMS?keyword=moma5

Belong to something exceptional. MoMA Membership starts at just $75 and offers a year full of superb benefits, including unlimited free adminsion to MoMA and MoMA PS1, $5 guest tickets on each visit, members-only previews of major exhibitions, discounts at the MoMA Stores resturants and much more! Join today and receive your selected membership offer.

We hope to see you in the galleries soon!
Sincerely,
Meagan Johnson, director of membership

MoMA?s target demographic for the campaign is tech-savvy young professionals, roughly ages 25-40, who are based in New York.

?That is a part of our overall target market for generating interest in the museum, and we felt that mobile?in particular for this target market and this message?was an ideal fit,? Ms. Mitchell said.

?We know that more than 50 percent of our visitors use smartphones, so we have a solid base on which to build the campaign because we knew there was a comfort level with mobile,? she said. ?We definitely see it as a test, though.?