Visitors are used to seeing art from the Peabody Essex Museum’s collection hanging on the walls of its main building on Essex Street, but lately, it has been making an appearance across Greater Boston’s billboards and train stations (not to mention the corners of your computer screen). Derek O’Brien, the museum’s Chief Marketing Officer and head of its many advertising, marketing and content creation efforts, sat down with us to talk about PEM’s newest advertising campaign and how it differs from previous ones.
Q: What’s the role of marketing at an art museum?
Derek: You'll sometimes hear people say, "Oh, no, I'm not a museum person." But when PEM has one of our concerts or another creative event here, I hear so many people say, "Oh, wow. This isn't at all what I expected."
In art museums especially, I think that there is a perception that you need a certain education or background knowledge before you visit. You don't really have that same barrier with, say, music. You hear something, you like it, and nobody questions it.
Part of the role of marketing and communications at a museum is expanding the perception of what a museum experience can be. It's a way to take all of the amazing programs that our colleagues are creating here, and then showcase that to the public in an accessible way — to show the breadth of what the museum has to offer.
Q: Why was this the right moment for a new brand campaign?
Derek: We knew, coming out of the pandemic, that visitor behavior had changed. People's definition of a cultural experience has changed. That umbrella has opened up quite a bit. In market research about the choices potential visitors are making, you see aquariums, parks, zoos, museums, all pooled together. Those definitions drastically change from individual to individual.
I think that people are just spreading the love across various institutions. Repeat visitation has taken a bit of a hit. Research is showing that more people are now going to museums, but they are going to fewer places. For example, before the pandemic, maybe 10 people would visit four museums a year. Now, 20 people are visiting museums, but they're only visiting one per year. The frequency of visitation is going down, but the overall number of people is going up.
That led to PEM embarking on a market research project to figure out what motivates somebody to go to a museum. We wanted to figure out how to tailor our messages to those individuals to attract a more diverse audience than we've seen historically. The only qualifying question was "have you visited a museum at least once in the past three years?" because we wanted a diverse group of candidates to participate. It was across age, ethnicity, household income, orientation — a wide range of demographics. We saw that people's motivation for visiting or not visiting was the same regardless of their demographic information.
We keyed in on behaviors instead, which was interesting, because I had seen most institutions focus on demographic information for their personas, and came up with Learner Lee, Artsy Alex and Social Sam. Learner Lee is represented across a wide range of demographics, but what makes them all similar is their ideal museum experience: They are coming here to learn something new.
Lee's high point for the experience was after they left the museum. Being able to relay the information that they got from their visit — that’s their high. They're more likely to stop at the gift shop, get a memento of their visit, where Artsy Alex is coming just to get inspired by the art. It's not about who painted this, or why, or what medium was used. Their experience high point is very much being in the gallery and seeing all of the pieces. (Social Sam, the research revealed, was motivated by new experiences and events.)
As a part of our recent five-year strategic plan, we knew that attracting a new audience was going to be a priority for a multitude of reasons. We had done a lot of work on the DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility) side and knew that we wanted the museum to be more accessible. We also knew that we still had lower attendance than we did pre‑pandemic.
We needed to find a way to reach a new audience. Following all the research, it seemed like the perfect time to reintroduce PEM as a brand.
![Behind the scenes of the photoshoot for PEM’s new brand campaign.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/pem-org/general/Blog_TurningHeads_1600_2.jpg)
Q: What made you and PEM choose HATCH as a brand and design partner?
Derek: It had been nearly 20 years since PEM had done a brand campaign. We were heavily reliant on advertising individual traveling exhibitions to promote the museum and get the word out. But a brand campaign differs in that it is promoting PEM, the entire experience. What is it like to be a visitor? What is it that PEM has to offer that you're not going to get at other museums? When we were going through the agency selection process, we were seeking somebody who would be a partner. We really wanted an agency that would come in and be a part of the PEM culture and work closely with our teams so whatever campaign we ended up launching felt authentic.
We've also made a real effort to diversify our vendors here at the museum. We've taken a hard look at accessibility and DEIA not only in how we hire a diverse museum staff, but also, how do we diversify our leadership team? How do we diversify our vendors?
HATCH is a woman‑owned business. They are very plugged into the arts and culture scene and community. CEO Jen Harrington is incredibly involved with Raw Art Works in Lynn. She really understands the art and culture space. Those were all very important pieces for us.
Q: On the HATCH side, what made you choose PEM?
Hatch CEO Jen Harrington: PEM has a long, rich history that gives it a lot of existing brand equity and fascinating brand DNA. We love working with brands like PEM that want to build on the equity that makes them so special so they can connect with new audiences and deepen engagement with the people who already know and love them.
As a team, we’re also passionate about art, culture and museums. One of our creative directors on this project and I were both art history majors. And at HATCH we are believers in and supporters of organizations that educate and provide opportunities for the next generation of artists. So, we were big fans of PEM long before we were partners — and we’re superfans now.
We were so inspired by PEM at every step of the way, from digging deep into the museum’s history and philosophy to inform the brand strategy, to creating the brand campaign in close collaboration with Derek and the design, editorial and digital media teams. It was exhilarating sharing our ideas with PEM’s leadership team and curators — these are folks with world-class expertise in art, design and culture, so we knew we had to bring our A-game!
PEM is very purposeful about the way that it wants to interact with visitors. Exhibits, events and collections are curated to activate your brain, charge your senses and change your mindset. That focus on shared humanity guided our integrated team — PEM and HATCH — to insights and ideas that we’re very excited to share with the community.
Derek: One of the things we kept circling back to with HATCH was this idea of being a human‑centered organization. We're coming out of the pandemic where people have been isolated for years. We’ve got AI. We've got “fake news.” People are just craving human interaction in a way that they haven't in a very long time. Those truths created the perfect opportunity to come up with this “escape the algorithm” campaign that launched in early July.
![An ad from PEM’s new campaign on view in the Salem train station.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/pem-org/general/Blog_Turningheads_1600_3.jpg)
An ad from PEM’s new campaign on view in the Salem train station.
Q: What does that tagline mean, “escape the algorithm”?
Derek: The idea of “escape the algorithm” was a way to let people know that this is an institution that prioritizes human interaction. It's a place to go and get that one‑on‑one experience that you were looking for, that human touch that might have been missing. It was a way to highlight PEM as a place that you can go to learn about other humans. That's why I love one of the other taglines that we have right now, “curated for humans, by humans.” It really resonated with us, and we thought it was something that would resonate with the audience that we're trying to bring in.
An ad from PEM’s new campaign on view in the Salem train station.
Younger visitors are more aware of what an algorithm is, and that when they're going through their social media feed, they’re constantly getting this echo chamber of, "Oh, here's something else you might be interested in." The algorithm just wants us to keep our heads down, to keep clicking, to keep scrolling. Whereas the beauty of a cultural organization or a museum is that we're presenting different viewpoints.
It might not be something that you agree with. It's challenging your current perceptions. It might not be something that you would have normally sought out, but because you were here, you learned something new.
It makes people more empathetic. That really goes back to the idea of being human‑centered: having empathy towards other cultures, educating people on other cultures. The algorithm is the opposite — it's just giving you more and more of what you're already interested in to keep you engaged with what you're already doing.
I know my past creative director self would have thought, "Wow. How are we going to illustrate this?" That's where I fell in love with the execution that PEM and HATCH came up with to illustrate a very complex point in a very short, bite‑sized piece of information.
Q : How should museums be balancing in-person and digital experiences?
At a conference I recently attended, there was a presentation looking at what motivates the Generation Z age group to visit, and what they’re looking for in museum experience. One quote that really stuck with me was, "Old people think young people want a digital experience at a museum."
Which I thought was really interesting because for so long, the conversation was “how can we increase our digital presence? How can we allow people to engage with us digitally?” My entire background was in digital marketing and advertising — I had always promoted digital experiences.
Now that we can, we should start promoting the in‑person experiences. Our research here at PEM showed that 66% of millennials and 74% of Gen Z visitors prioritize in‑person experiences over digital ones. Digital and virtual experiences are great, but let's not forget that these are objects that were created by human beings.
![O’Brien (left) looks on during a photoshoot for the new brand campaign.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/pem-org/general/Blog_TurningHeads_1600_4.jpg)
Q: Tell me a little bit more about your background.
Derek: I was a fine arts major in college. It was probably my sophomore year. I had what I like to think of as my early life crisis, where I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up.
I had pretty much decided at that point that I did not want to be a fine artist to support myself, but I didn't know what else I wanted to do. I ended up leaving school, joining the Army, deploying and doing a 10‑year run as a military police officer.
Then when I came back, I finished my degree in fine arts, but I had a focus on design. Coming out of college, I went into advertising, and spent my career in agencies, focused heavily on digital marketing. About seven or eight years ago, I decided to leave advertising. I had been doing a lot of pro bono work for nonprofits, which I just absolutely fell in love with, and I decided that I would love to do it full‑time. I started looking for nonprofits that had internal marketing or advertising departments and found the opening at PEM. I was a Salem resident at the time, loved the organization, and I’ve been working here ever since.
I don't think I've ever worked someplace that has kept me this engaged over this long of a period of time, where you are constantly learning something new. I think I'm definitely a Learner Lee!
Q: Speaking of Salem residents, what do you hope PEM’s closest neighbors will take away from the new campaign and the museum’s most recent efforts?
Derek: We have a line on our What's Going On publication: Your city, your museum. I have heard so many times from Salem residents, "Oh, it's great that we have a resource like PEM right in our backyard." It's very rare to see an institution of this size outside of a major metropolitan area. It's an incredible resource for the public. A key aspect of our strategic plan is continuing to forge a very strong relationship between the museum and Salem.
There's a good friend of mine who has been a lifelong Salem resident. He had been visiting the museum for a very long time, but since admission is free for Salem residents, he didn't sign up for a membership or anything like that. He always just came for free with his family.
When the It’s Alive! exhibition was coming up, he really wanted to see it — he’s a huge Metallica fan. (Kirk Hammett, the band’s guitarist, loaned art from his personal collection of horror movie posters for the exhibition). We were doing a meet and greet with Kirk Hammett as a part of the public programming. He ended up signing up for a membership in order to get advanced ticketing opportunities to come meet Kirk.
Going through that process, he got to know the museum much more intimately than he had in the past. Coming in, interacting with the staff — it really changed his relationship with the museum. He’s been a member ever since.
We're incredibly fortunate to have the support that we do. When we’re talking about the impact that the institution has on Salem residents, it's the same for me and my family. My daughters call this “their museum.” They love coming here — “Dad, can we go to your museum?" They come, and they know everybody here. They love it. I'm completely hooked. I love this organization.
Derek O'Brien joined PEM in 2016, after serving as Associate Creative Director for the global marketing agency DigitasLBi. With a deep knowledge of digital marketing, design and communications, he oversees the museum's design, editorial and digital media teams, including advertising, editorial, communications, web design and photography projects. With over 15 years of full-service advertising experience, O’Brien has a track record of creating award-winning campaigns for Bank of America, Lenovo, Keurig, Reebok, National Grid and many other organizations. Prior to his professional career, O’Brien studied at University of Massachusetts, Lowell, where he received his B.A. in Fine Arts. He is also a veteran who served in the Army National Guard from 1999 to 2008, and was on active duty from 2001 to 2004, which included deployment to Iraq. In recent years, O’Brien has volunteered with Home Base, a nonprofit dedicated to helping post-9/11 service members, veterans and their families heal from the Invisible Wounds of War. He also actively serves on the Board of Directors for Destination Salem.
Jen Harrington is the founder and CEO of HATCH The Agency. Since 2009, she and her agency have been helping brands big and small and across all categories find their voice and drive their business forward. Prior to HATCH, she was a managing partner at Trinity Communications, where she led client services and managed relationships with world-class brands like Fidelity, Liberty Mutual and John Hancock. Harrington has been recognized as one of Boston’s ‘40 under 40’ by the Boston Business Journal and was awarded the Greater Boston Chamber’s Pinnacle Leadership Award for Entrepreneurship in 2021. She sits on several nonprofit and foundation boards that focus on fair access to public arts education, including Raw Arts Works’ Board of Directors.
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