Museums hire Instagram influencers to promote art

Instagram, influencers at service of fine art. At the National Library of France, the retrospective "Tolkien, voyage to Middle-earth", devoted to the work of the writer, is in full swing. After a rather classic communication at the launch of the event, in October 2019, the museum has just started a second, more original phase to revive interest. It is played on Instagram. At the helm, Camille Jouneaux, thirty-four, better known as @ la.minute.culture on Instagram.

Since mid-December, his account has posted a story about Tolkien on the front page. In a clever mix of visuals, texts, and emojis, she traces the writer's work from the elements taken from the catalog, the press kit, or the interviews of the curators. "I am very proud to work with a recognized institution like the BNF, which has an intelligent vision of working with influencers. I can allow myself things that the BNF could not say about its account," says Camille Jouneaux. Her story works well: each day, the influencer spends two to three hours interacting with her community (45,000 subscribers) about Tolkien. In addition to the Instagram stories , Camille Jouneaux also produces white-label content for the various social networks of the BNF, with her freelance editor's cap.
Stories, a very suitable function
On the BNF side, we also welcome this "could not be more natural" collaboration , according to Claire Séguret, head of Internet and social media coordination in the communications department. "This is our first large-scale collaboration with content ordering. We had spotted the stories of @ la.minute.culture for a while and the universe of Tolkien seemed relevant to us to test an offbeat tone. Camille succeeds very well in this mixture between appropriation of scientific content and bridges with pop culture. She knows Instagram codes, she knows how to find the right emoji and put humor in the right place, it hits the bull's eye! "

For Camille Jouneaux, this is her third collaboration, after that with the Réunion des musées nationaux for the exhibition "Alphonse Mucha," then with the Fondation Carmignac for the exhibition "La source." Launched in February 2019 as a personal project, his @ la.minute culture account quickly became the showcase for his freelance activity. Before creating content for the cultural sector, the influencer worked ten years in a social media agency, including three on the Google Art and Culture device , which allowed her to understand the challenges of museums on the digital in the world. Passionate about art and self-taught, she completes her knowledge with evening courses in art history at the Louvre Museum. Meanwhile, Instagram ramp up and copy the story functionality to Snapchat.

"At the beginning, I had a slightly reactive approach to stories , I didn't see the point of posting something that disappeared after 24 hours. And I finally understood the great storytelling potential of this writing. " His account grows, and the demands are increasing. "For a museum, collaborating with an influencer means speaking to a qualified audience and appropriating more quirky ways of communicating," she analyzes. If the amount of his collaborations will remain secret, Camille Jouneaux indicates to earn more of his life with his freelance activities. "It allows me to choose my collaborations and produce quality content. I prefer that this remains punctual and clearly indicate that these are paid collaborations. "

Meanwhile, the Jacquemart-André Museum has requested Morgane Ortin, the influenceuse originally Account @amours_solitaires. Followed on Instagram by 663,000 subscribers, this account collects declarations of love 2.0. A daring partnership to enhance the museum's exhibition "Caravaggio in Rome, friends & enemies," by imagining the love messages that correspond to each painting. "It seemed interesting to us to take a different look at his painting, at odds with what we imagine of him. Instagram can be a real playground for expressing yourself less conventionally and approaching our visitors differently," says the team of community managers from Culturespaces, in charge of the museum's press relations. The result, a story - always visible because pinned to the front page of the account -, in which we find the iconic paintings of Caravaggio, embellished with romantic SMS bubbles that the characters could have sent to each other at the time.
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