The River & Rowing Museum
Kallaway was tasked with broadening the appeal of the RRM and raising visitor numbers to the venue, which houses 20,000 items relating to the sport of rowing, the river Thames and the town of Henley on Thames. With input from its Directors, Trustees and Curators, we developed a national and international media relations programme that took this internationally important sporting museum to new audiences across the UK but also in target territories around the world. We positioned this David Chipperfield designed museum as the starting point not only for understanding the Olympic sport of rowing but also the nation’s most famous river and surrounding, quintessentially English, countryside. To increase visits from schools and the museum’s visibility in the education sector we ran a focused education programme that raised the profile of museum’s education offering and its leadership on museum-based learning, and learning outside the classroom. Visitor numbers grew year-on-year to over 120,000 people per annum – a 150% growth over the campaign. Highlights from the campaign include being listed in The Times as one of the top 50 museums in the world, features in most UK newspapers and visits from over 500 international media.
