The Montreal Holocaust Museum announced last February the construction of a brand new museum in Montreal. This is a 90 million dollar investment to which the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec, the City of Montreal, the Azrieli Foundation, and several private donors are contributing.
The announcement of the construction of a new, larger, more interactive and more modern museum addressed the growing interest of the public and the demands of the educational community for the history of the Holocaust, its relation to other genocides, human rights, the fight against racism, and anti-Semitism.
The new facility will feature larger permanent and temporary exhibition spaces, a youth space, a room dedicated to interactive testimonies, state-of-the-art classrooms, a 150-seat auditorium, a commemorative space, and a memorial garden. The Montreal Holocaust Museum called on NATIONAL to communicate the news in the media in Quebec and Canada, and to raise public awareness of the importance of preventing racism and anti-Semitism.
Working with its various partners, NATIONAL coordinated an extensive nationwide media operation that included organizing a photo op at the current museum with executives from the Museum and the Minister responsible for the fight against racism, Benoit Charette, as well as issuing a press release and positioning interviews with Museum spokespeople. NATIONAL developed key messages and provided media training to all spokespeople to ensure clarity and effectiveness in their delivery.
In anticipation of the announcement day, the media relations team at our Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa offices gave exclusive coverage to a French-language news agency as well as a leading English-language media group, which allowed us to get strong national coverage on the morning of the announcement in both French and English-language media. NATIONAL then coordinated several interview requests over the next few days.
The media operation propelled the news to the headlines of 45 national media, in addition to being picked up by several international media. The overall media coverage generated a total of 316 mentions and reached a total of over 100 million impressions, with a 100% positive or neutral tone. The project is currently underway and the new museum is expected to welcome its first visitors in 2025!