Spring Marketing Ideas for Museums and Attractions 2024

There’s something in the air. Can you feel it?

Spring is the time of year when people want to get out and do things. They’ve been cooped up all winter, and now it’s time to have an adventure and see the sights – or more accurately, the sites.

Museums and attractions have so much to offer people antsy with spring fever and ready to experience something new. But how to ensure people choose your venue or experience? Introducing some new spring marketing ideas that will help you create a competitive strategy for your events, marketing, and promotions. Here are a few of the best spring marketing ideas we’ve seen from museums and attractions, and how you can interpret them in your own way.

1. Lean into springtime storytelling

Summer background with open book and bokeh. Photo by Sensay on Shutterstock

A Tiqets Remarkable Venue Award 2023 winner for Most Innovative Venue, La Cité de l’Histoire, located under the Grande Arche in Paris, takes visitors on a trip back in time to experience the rich history of France firsthand. The stunning modern building houses a technology-driven immersion into French historical events, from the salons of the 17th century to the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Live actors guide visitors from scene to scene, with dramatic dialogue happening in real time, enabling visitors to be “spectators of the history of humanity.” A stroll through the Corridor of Time invites visitors to learn about 400 key dates in world history spanning 12 centuries, with a cinematic show called 360° Ellipse immersing visitors into the life of a historic character within a giant arena.

What this means for you:

Storytelling is always a powerful way to reach audiences at all times of the year, but in this season of renewal, perhaps you’ll feel inspired to launch a new story. The narrative approach particularly suits museums, which typically have a rich story to tell – one that weaves together societies over time and across cultures.

A few tactical tips:

Take the time to put into words what sort of story your museum or attraction offers. This can inform the way you market and talk about the experience.

Connect your story to a target audience. Who would be most interested in what you have to say?

How will you say it? Is your story fun and quirky, like that of Little BIG City Berlin? Or somber and reflective, like the Anne Frank House or the 9/11 Memorial & Museum? Read about how all three of these museums use storytelling.

Let all these things inform your creativity — but don’t hold back your imagination as you forge forward into new storytelling ventures.

Keep in mind that good stories naturally inspire user-generated content (UCG) – an industry term for visitors posting to social media about your museum or venue. People love to take selfies, snapshots, and videos of interesting experiences they have while traveling, and the more compelling the experience you offer, the higher the likelihood they’ll post about it. When a visitor posts to TikTok, a whole new audience might find out about you. Along with that exposure, you get the automatic credibility of the poster’s personal recommendation.

2. Launch spring-specific campaigns

Keukenhof during the tulip season. Photo by SCStock on Shutterstock

In the Netherlands, Keukenhof Gardens is the epitome of spring. During tulip season, the botanical gardens are resplendent with around 7 million flower bulbs in a rainbow of colors.

But tulip season only constitutes a few months out of the entire year, so to make sure visitors know exactly when to buy tickets — and to maximize the number of visitors who do — the marketing team at Keukenhof has to be strategic year-round.

To stay on the radar of global anthophiles (a fancy term for people who love flowers!), social media is, of course, a must-do. But which platforms? And how?

Keukenhof Gardens has more than 120K followers on Instagram, where the social media marketing team posts updates, news, and memories all year long, from fresh bulbs planted in autumn to full bloom in spring. And on TikTok, the venue has built a presence with short panoramic videos set to upbeat music. At the tail end of winter, when the floral display is imminent, posting picks up on all of the venue’s social media accounts.

Keukenhof uses Instagram to connect with its customers. Photo from Visit Keukenhof.

What this means for you:

Regardless of whether your museum or attraction seeks visitors year-round or only for a short season, a steady cadence of social media posting keeps you on the radar of fickle, forgetful tourists. Engaging with your audience throughout the year means that when it’s their time to travel, they’ll think of you.

3. Celebrate spring-specific holidays

Springtime in Hungary – famous for Easter celebrations via Shutterstock.

Not everyone celebrates Easter or Passover, but these occasions still present opportunities for museums to host special events, parties, and celebrations. But there are also a few occasions celebrated in spring that are virtually agnostic. For museums and attractions, they provide excellent promotional inspiration.

Mother’s Day

There are many ways to celebrate moms besides flowers and brunch, and even more ways your museum can get on the radar of those looking for ideas. It might be as simple as free entry for mothers on this day in May, or the organization of a more formal event that celebrates moms.

Here’s one example to inspire you: The Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia hosts an annual Mother’s Day Weekend that doesn’t just celebrate moms, but reveres the trailblazing women and mothers who played critical roles in the Revolutionary War. For instance, the Forten family of Philadelphia was critical in founding the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. Charlotte Vandine Forten and her daughters were at the forefront of that movement.

In 2023, the museum’s Mother’s Day program also included:

Talks on the women who traveled alongside their husbands during the Revolutionary War, as well as how voting rights for women evolved in the US

A Mother’s Day card-making activity based on the German paper-cutting craft of scherenschnitte

Mother’s Day gift suggestions from the museum’s gift shop

This fully rounded Mother’s Day experience both celebrates and entertains moms.

Learn about the vital roles of women during the Revolutionary War with Museum of the American Revolution

To get the word out about the bevy of celebratory options, the Museum of the American Revolution’s Mother’s Day marketing efforts included a comprehensive web portal devoted to the occasion.

Spring Equinox

In late March, the sun crosses the equator line, rendering day and night equidistant around the world. Since ancient times, Spring (Vernal) Equinox has been honored with ceremonies, such as planting seeds and storytelling. And since Spring Equinox has long been considered a symbol of growth, rebirth, and new beginnings, this is a great time to launch a fresh new marketing campaign!

Spring break

People with children are looking for things to do during this week, and your museum or attraction provides a fantastic option. Family-friendly events, discounts for kids and students, camps, and workshops are all ways your museum can attract both local families and those traveling to your region over spring break.

What this means for you:

Latch onto a spring celebration and let your creativity reign. It starts with the museum exhibition idea, but your marketing does the heavy lifting. For help executing your spring marketing strategy, check out these resources:

Read more about how to create elevated online marketing campaigns on your website and beyond.

Find out how to take advantage of specific generational travel trends and appeal to targeted audiences with your events and marketing.

3. Create spring-themed installations

See (and smell) the flowers exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Photo from National Gallery of Art

Sometimes, spring marketing ideas rely on photogenic exhibits that naturally draw in visitors with iconic imagery. Large installations that take their cue from nature are some of the most eye-catching and photo-worthy things you see at museums this season. Here are three examples:

At the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, spring brings floral abundance to the West Building Rotunda, first with the museum’s famous Ames-Haskell Azalea Collection in March, then with white Easter lilies. Located at the axis of the imposing National Gallery, the rotunda is itself a breathtaking space, with its double circle of Italian marble columns surrounding the fountain, which is topped with a small-scale bronze replica of the sculpture Mercury. The springtime flowers bring a breath of fresh air to the Rotunda.

At Mifuneyama Rakuen Park on the Japanese island of Kyushu, the installation Megaliths in the Bath House Ruins took over an abandoned bathhouse in 2019. This nature-inspired large-scale installation consisted of multiple “megaliths” acting as canvases for projected artwork rendered in continuous real-time by computer programming. As visitors interacted, the artwork would shift and change.

Photo from My Modern Met

The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art featured the opposite aesthetic with the work of Olafur Eliasson, whose 2017 installation Riverbed was referred to by the artist as an “invasion.” Visitors were invited to walk across the muddy indoor landscape made of rocks and water — not unlike a stroll in spring, in some parts of the world.

What this means for you:

Think about designing exhibits so marvelous, noteworthy, and original that people will flock to your museum out of curiosity and transmit the pictures they take there back to their own social circles, in turn inviting more curious art and experience seekers.

Awakening spring marketing ideas

These are just a few of the ways your museum or attraction can make a tactical effort to get strategic with each season. Spring may be the season of “marketing awakening” for your venue, but don’t let up in summer, fall, or winter!

Download the e-book Museum Marketing: A Go-to Guide to Maximizing Visitors All Year Round to get more inspiration and ideas for every season.