The Ephemeral Museum 153In practically no time, Lisbon’s Ephemeral Museum had way more visitors
than any museum in the area, and soon afterwards two new ephemeral gal-
leries were opened in Lisbon.
The concept generated media coverage from around the globe and was
written about in hundreds of articles across a wide variety of media, including
several leading tourism guides.
Building on the success of this campaign Pampero is now working to open
similar street art galleries in Italy, Spain, France and the UK.
Lessons
The best digital campaigns often involve simple ideas, elegantly executed.
The Ephemeral Museum is a prime example of that. The team took one of the
brand’s key values – to support upcoming alternative artists – and combined
it with current events (the local authority’s plan to ‘clean up’ street art in the
Bairro Alto district of Lisbon), packaging it in a way that would engage an
online audience. By replicating the audio guide experience found in contem-
porary museums the world over, it made the street art of Lisbon accessible to
a mass audience.
In a complicated world, web users identify with simple, well-executed ideas
that can add value without adding to the complexity of their already hectic
lives.
Marketers, don’t let the size of your budget dissuade you from exploring a big
idea. This campaign sounds expensive – museums, street art, civic issues,
downloadable stuff and so on. The key to this campaign was Leo Burnett’s
decision to focus on the catalyst – as Seth Godin would call them, ‘the sneez-
ers’, those unbearably cool and prophetic types who seem to lead where
others follow. These sneezers can often be more savvy about marketing per
se and sufficiently sceptical about the usual attempts by marketers to ingrati-
tate themselves towards what is ‘hot’ and what is not.