Summer the Sea Museum
Australian National Maritime Museum
Museums & Galleries
Summer at the Sea Museum reimagined the museum as a surreal beachscape inspired by The Beach exhibition. Featuring oversized summer icons integrated into the museum architecture, the campaign drove record ticket sales, record revenue and the most-viewed video in the museum’s history.
Working with an external creative agency, we developed a hyperreal visual world that blended the museum’s architecture with oversized summer elements. A giant beach ball appeared to fall through the roof, a towering sandcastle rose from the forecourt, and a life ring wrapped around the lighthouse.
The creative was designed to be unexpected and visually arresting, ensuring cut-through in a competitive Sydney summer market. It connected directly to The Beach exhibition while broadening appeal to family audiences during the school holidays.
Influencer activation played a critical role. Partnering with Sticki, we targeted family creators with strong trust-based followings.
One Sydney Mum generated more than 12,000 direct message enquiries alone, a powerful indicator of word-of-mouth impact and genuine audience intent.
Paid media supported the conversion layer across Meta, YouTube and Google Search.
Messaging shifted toward urgency as the programme progressed, maximising momentum during peak holiday weeks.
The result was the highest-selling summer programme in the museum’s history, exceeding revenue targets by more than $80,000.
Video was central to the campaign. Our hero promo captured the surreal scale of the creative concept and the energy of a summer day at the museum. The video achieved over 1.3 million views — more than one million higher than any previous video on the museum’s channel — dramatically expanding reach and brand visibility.
Beyond performance metrics, the campaign successfully repositioned the museum during summer as playful, vibrant and family-focused, strengthening long-term audience perception and repeat visitation potential.