Title	THE 10 MILLIONTH VISITOR OF THE RIJKSMUSEUM
Brand	RIJKSMUSEUM
Product/Service	MUSEUM
Category	F02. Low Budget / High Impact Campaign
Entrant	XSAGA Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Idea Creation	XSAGA Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Production	XSAGA Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS

Name	Company	Position
Patrick Roubroeks	XSAGA	Founder / Creative Director

The Campaign

When you ask people in Holland and the rest of the world about the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, everybody will say “The Night Watch”! So, the following creative idea arose: Let’s create an extraordinary experience with this painting as a unique backdrop for a special occasion. We waited for the 10 millionth visitor and invited him to sleep next to the world-famous painting of Rembrandt van Rijn, to experience his own “Night Watch”. To assure the effectiveness of the creative idea, we needed a strong candidate and an impeccable preproduction! This once in a lifetime promotion moment had to activate the claim of the museum being “a surprising place to visit.”

The Brief

€ 1650 Two cameramen including equipment + € 900 Extra costs for the evening + night € 450 Sound engineer including equipment € 1800 Régie including preparation € 1500 Film editing for one day € 125 Travel and parking costs € 2000 Creation and concept € 1650 Project manager € 800 Project assistant + € 800 Extra costs for the evening + night € 250 Unexpected costs € 1167.50 Producers fee € 583.75 Overhead costs Total: €13676.25

Campaign Success

The “operation” was prepared with extreme precision. Every conceivable scenario was discussed in advance. The entire technical crew was on standby for two days, to be able to take action at the right moment. On "D Day", all of the museum staff gathered to discuss the production schedule before the museum opened. At 2:04 p.m. the unsuspecting visitor entered the museum. The doors swung open, after which more than a hundred employees welcomed the guest with a resounding applause. Totally bewildered, the guest walked to the museum’s Director who congratulated him. In a pre-recorded video, the Dutch Prime Minister explained his unique opportunity: a night underneath The Night Watch. From that moment on “our winner” was in the lead and the cameras could only follow until he turned down the light and started dreaming next to The Night Watch….

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

The event was featured in a wide range of national media, with 41 articles and an appearance in the leading and prime time Dutch talk show RTL Late Night. Internationally, it was the subject of 36 articles, from in the New York Times to The Huffington Post, The Observer and Le Parisien. And in 7 days 31.007.482 social followers were reached! With more than 31.000.000 touch points for approximately 14.000 euro (the cost per single contact was less than 0.00045 eurocent) we can state that this promotion event had a very high impact with a low budget.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

By welcoming the 10 millionth visitor after the reopening just four years ago, the Rijksmuseum wanted to claim the momentum, realise massive media impact and generate unique content for the brand. We created and produced a “V.I.P. pop-up event” for one person only! The 10 millionth visitor was given the opportunity to sleep underneath “The Night Watch”. It truly became a promotional activation, resulting in a picture and a low-cost film edit from this one extremely lucky visitor that went viral. A low budget event, led to high impact and humongous (social) media touch points!

Everything within this simple and very cost-effective idea was carefully pre-produced, except for the main figure of the film. This one was a lucky shot, because the surprise had to be real! The photos and video were distributed within several hours after “the occasion”, in order to truly drop this unique news and surprise the larger audience. The event, based on a simple and very cost-effective idea, with an impeccable execution, had to result in an event that marked the momentum, created humongous impact, as well as relevant content for the (Rijksmuseum) brand. All content was distributed within the owned media channels of the Rijksmuseum. Therefore, was the operation very cost-effective.