Introduction

Located in the heart of San Diego in Balboa Park, Mingei International Museum celebrates human creativity through folk art, craft and design. Since its opening in 1978, the museum strives to further the understanding of art of the people from all eras and cultures of the world.

Our Objectives

In fall of 2021, Mingei reopened its doors to the public after a major renovation. This marked a pivotal moment in Mingei’s history — re-establishing the museum’s relationship with the community through new spaces and accessible programming. Mingei was also the presenter of San Diego Design Week (SDDW), an annual five-day celebration of design.

Mixte worked with Mingei to promote the reopening and SDDW, and position the museum as a multifaceted space that different creatives, families and all community members can enjoy.

Here’s how we did it:

  • Developed reopening key messages and content plan
  • Created blog posts, social media posts and emails
  • Launched paid video ads on Facebook and Instagram
  • Partnered with Southern California-based influencers to spread the word on social media
  • Created promotional assets and distributed them widely — spreading the word through network of existing partners, flyers at coffee shops and coworking spaces and key community groups

The Outcome

Mingei hosted a successful reopening exactly three years after closing for its construction project. The artistic and local San Diego communities were welcomed into Mingei’s transformed space with free admission the first weekend. 

Over the course of the opening we:

  • Reached over 26,000 users on both Facebook and Instagram platforms by targeting our core audiences through paid social media ads using a small advertising budget that resulted in high engagement 
  • Spread the word through custom graphics and flyers shared in community spaces throughout San Diego, from beautiful Balboa Park to hip coffee shops
  • Kept social media ablaze with the community’s love for Mingei via partnered influencer content and user engagement through direct messaging, tagged posts, replies and retweets.

Eventually, this led to another partnership. In fall of 2022, Mingei and Mixte reunited. Together, we supported SDDW for a second year. We also developed key strategic communications pieces for the museum. This project ended with a new set of primary audience personas and a series of creative campaigns to engage those audiences in new and interesting ways.