A Brand Narrative for the Disseny Hub & Museu del Disseny de Barcelona by

Turning brands into media

Before, companies were very focused on the news which were available to them. Nowadays, through brand journalism, companies can be the source of news, focusing on building stories and another type of content that highlights value from different perspectives. Leaving the traditional marketing tactics behind, we chose brand journalism as the strategic approach to turn the brand into media. This meant creating content, promoting the services and activities of these institutions through different digital supports, and also strengthening and amplifying the audiences.

The innovation economy in Barcelona

The Disseny Hub & Museu del Disseny de Barcelona are cultural and public institutions of Barcelona. The Disseny Hub is an open, innovative and experimental municipal space, physically and conceptually dedicated to being the engine and driver of knowledge, creativity and innovation economy in Barcelona. It’s also a multifunctional and multidisciplinary centre that acts to position the city’s emerging design sector as a benchmark in Europe and the rest of the world. On the other hand, Museu del Disseny de Barcelona is a centre of Barcelona‘s Institute of Culture, working to promote better understanding and good use of the design world and acting as both a museum and laboratory.

From the beginning, we proposed a strategy derived from brand journalism and creating content for vertical communities around 4 main areas of focus: graphic design, product design, fashion design and architecture — gaining more visibility and building a new visual imagery for both institutions within the creative industry in Barcelona and worldwide.

A new visual imagery across social channels

Our digital strategy started from renovating and potentializing the visual content that they already have but also, refreshing the look of their websites through several photographic shootings, adding new content and sections which could better show the richness of the institutions. In addition, we wanted to give visibility not only to the events and different exhibitions but generating a solid base of information that could add value to the audience-centered approach.

A comprehensive editorial strategy

Besides the community management, we suggested a new angle for the institution, a push beyond the practice itself and further into the field of relevance and influence. To do so, we created an editorial foundation, bringing together covering contents and developing new segments such as Q&A’s, videos, takeovers, live streamings and events coverage. For instance, we created a section called ‘In Conversation With’, which involves a series of in-depth interviews about how culture, society and design interact with renowned global experts across the creative fields. Among the designers and thinkers we have interviewed for the series are Curro Claret, Marta Peirano, Malika Favre, Gilles Lipovetsky, David Carson, Valerie Steele, Amelie Klein and Pep Ávila. Every interview is accompanied of a commissioned digital painting made by Inés Maestre.

A touchpoint for making alliances

Simultaneously, we wanted to implement new techniques within the photographic aesthetics and overall graphic treatment, proposing new motion graphics and illustrations with their own visual codes. Generating a discourse beyond the physical limits of the space and creating a digital language that allows people to recognise the organisations as a strategic reference within the design world besides the physical boundaries and also, generate a touchpoint for making alliances with other renowned figures and organisations of the national and international scene such as the Vitra Museum, Fundació Miró and Picasso Museum, among others.

Meaningful content in a meaningful moment

To guarantee a flow in publication instead of overloading the audience with information, we curate valuable content through the social platforms we manage (Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter) plus the website and blog. Through different graphic adaptations and formats, we carefully spread in the right moment, for an audience who is more prepared to interact with it. By designing several synchronised actions, we give greater proliferation to the exclusive content generated, and more strongly, we created brand awareness, traffic and engagement. 

An audience-centered approach

For the audience segmentation, we based on geographic data, demographics, interests, platform and web connections. Adapting the right audience to the organic content we need to active, creating audience connections between the Disseny Hub & Museu del Disseny de Barcelona. Additionally, engaging audiences that were already targeted by using the right platforms for specific content.

Having an audience-centered approach means putting the audience as the main point, making deep audience research, understanding their consumption habits and creating liquid content that will be relevant for the different type of viewers.