MoMA in Berlin

From Manhattan to Potsdamer Platz: between 20 February and 19 September 2004, the New York Museum of Modern Art was a guest at Berlin’s New National Gallery (“Neue Nationalgalerie”). An exhibition of such high quality can expect to attract around 300,000 to 400,000 art lovers – too few to finance the investment required for the MoMA stay. In cooperation with Berlin corporate identity agency MetaDesign AG, Johanssen + Kretschmer assumed responsibility for the development of a communications concept that was to turn a well-visited exhibition into Germany’s killer attraction of 2004.

Over a number of phases, the communications concept positioned “Das MoMA in Berlin” as a unique, major event in Europe. MoMA unleashed a power of attraction that was irresistible, while “MoMA – me too!” was to go on to become the credo of 2004.

In early January 2004, the mysterious “MoMA” made all of Berlin curious with its attention-grabbing “Das MoMA ist der Star!” poster. The eye-catching concept from MetaDesign caused debate on the German art and cultural scene and was widely copied.

By the beginning of July 2004, two months before the exhibition was due to end, 700,000 visitors had already streamed through the art show. By the end, that figure had risen to 1.1 million. Two thirds of the visitors came from outside Berlin. MoMA had become the undisputed star of the summer of 2004.

Click here to find out more (German PDF download).