Roland Berger Strategy Consultants supports Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum in its aim of attracting 1.5 million visitors from 2013

• The international strategy consultancy is developing a new visitor strategy for the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam
• After reopening in 2013, the museum aims to get its target groups more involved and attract 1.5 million art lovers each year
• Students provide innovative ideas: the best ideas will be refined in workshops and combined into a strategy
• Students can contribute their ideas via the "Battle of Concepts" website up to January 29, 2012

After more than ten years of renovations, the Rijksmuseum will reopen in 2013. The museum hopes to attract 1.5 million visitors each year from then on. To achieve this ambitious target, the Rijksmuseum aims to get its target groups more heavily involved. Roland Berger Strategy Consultants will be helping the museum to develop a new visitor strategy. In the joint project, Roland Berger will apply an innovative concept: first, students come up with innovative ideas for attracting more visitors, using the crowdsourcing platform Battle of Concepts. The best ideas will then be refined in workshops and combined to form a strategic proposal.

"Due to the lengthy building work and the limited possibilities for temporary exhibitions, we have become less visible to the Dutch public," explains Wim Pijbes, director of the Rijksmuseum. "The reopening is the ideal opportunity for us to reposition the museum." The aim of the strategy is to boost the number of visitors to the museum, which hosts major Dutch artworks from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, from 900,000 at present to at least 1.5 million per year.

Novel approach for generating innovative ideas

To develop a suitable visitor strategy for the museum, Roland Berger is employing an innovative threefold approach. First, students will be asked to come up with an innovative concept for how the Rijksmuseum can create a broad group of loyal visitors, using the Battle of Concepts platform. The winning concepts will then be specified in detail for each target group during a student workshop. The third and final step involves Roland Berger combining all the input and going into more depth to produce a comprehensive strategic proposal.

"This project uses an innovative way of generating ideas," says Alexander Belderok, Partner at Roland Berger in Amsterdam. "In the fairly conservative museum sector, this strategy involves a fascinating element: the brainstorming sessions with students could lead to surprising results."

The students' creative powers should do a lot to boost the annual number of visitors. "Our goals are certainly ambitious, but not unrealistic," says museum director Wim Pijbes. "We think we can achieve very good results through our collaboration with Roland Berger. In addition, the idea of getting students actively involved is in line with the history of our museum. We have always enjoyed being a source of inspiration for students." The Rijksmuseum's collection includes famous works of art by Jan Steen, Frans Hals, Vermeer and Rembrandt.

Students can submit their ideas by January 29, 2012 at www.battleofconcepts.nl