12-Plus Years of Strategic Growth and Cultural Relevance for the Petersen Automotive Museum

Service: Public Relations, Event Marketing and Content Creator Marketing

What is the Petersen Automotive Museum?

Founded in 1994 by renowned magazine publisher Robert E. Petersen and his wife Margie, the Petersen Automotive Museum is one of the largest and dynamic automotive museums in the world. Spanning over 100,000 square feet of exhibit space in the heart of Los Angeles’ Museum Row, it features interactive exhibits that explore the evolution of automobiles, motorcycles and motorsports. The museum’s collection features some of the most iconic and important cars from every era, along with famous Hollywood cars featured in popular movies and TV shows. Extensive educational efforts and outreach to underserved communities are also central to its mission. While the museum documents the past, it also examines the monumental impact the automobile and car culture have on the present and future. 

The Challenge

While the Petersen Automotive Museum was well-known in automotive circles, our challenge was to broaden the museum’s appeal beyond a more “hardcore” enthusiast base. Doing so would require repositioning the museum over time from a traditional automotive museum to a dynamic global brand that explores the intersection of both modern and car culture. Successfully performing this shift was critical to the museum’s growth, educational efforts and mission. 

Our Strategy

Kahn Media has been the Petersen’s agency partner for over 12 years, supporting a strategic transformation through brand storytelling, integrated campaigns and immersive content activations. Our strategy was built around increasing reach, expanding audience diversity and positioning the Petersen at the intersection of automotive history, design, pop culture and future mobility.

Key Steps Taken

• Orchestrated the Petersen’s 2015 grand reopening, hosting 546 journalists from 231 outlets in 16 countries, securing 1.56 billion impressions and over $9.45M in ad value.
• Pivoted to virtual and hybrid content during COVID-19, launching livestreams, virtual tours and curator-led media walkthroughs.
• Established Petersen leadership as experts available for commentary on a variety of topics in the auto industry
• Helped build awareness for the museum’s events outside of exhibits, including cruise-ins, rallies and community events.
• Introduced the Petersen as a key ally for education, including free events for kids, Driver’s Day with INDYCAR driver Pato O’Ward and free admission for more than 300,000 Title 1 students and their families.
• Integrated digital storytelling and influencer media tours for major exhibits like: 
  • “Best in Low: Lowrider Icons of the Street and Show” 
  • “Inside Tesla” 
  • “Andy Warhol: Cars – Works from the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection” 
  • “Totally Awesome! Cars and Culture of the ’80s and ’90s”
  • “Hollywood Dream Machines.”
• Secured consistent placements in outlets such as LA Times, CNN, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Robb Report, MotorTrend and CNET.
• Developed media kits and managed local broadcast media relations with KTLA, Spectrum, ABC7, NBC, KCAL, Telemundo and Univision. 
• Placed nationally-televised feature stories on CBS Mornings, CBS Saturday Morning, Telemundo and Univision.
• Activated top-tier creators, including @MKBHD, @DanielMac and @larry_chen_foto to amplify campaigns.
• Delivered creative messaging around diversity with “The Negro Motorist Green Book” exhibit, design with the “The Wedge Revolution: Cars on the Cutting Edge” exhibit and motorsports culture with the “People’s Champ: The Impact of Ken Block” exhibit.

The Results

Through over a decade of collaboration, Kahn Media transformed the Petersen Automotive Museum into a modern cultural institution with global reach and lasting relevance. The museum now stands as a model for strategic communications in the museum and cultural destination sector. Highlights of our results include:

• Created a long-term partnership success with a future-ready strategy.
• Helped the museum rank the #1 automotive museum in the world by CNN and USA Today.
• Set ticket sales records during and post-pandemic.
• Generated more earned media than any museum in the U.S. in select quarters.
• Delivered over 7.1 billion media impressions in a single month (April 2025).
• Elevated the museum’s global reputation as a cultural, design and automotive authority.
• Positioned Petersen curators and executives as thought leaders in the global press.

“Our lowrider exhibit at The Petersen set records for all-time attendance, revenue and the highest per-capita store sales during a year when the entire museum set many records, including capturing the International Historic Motoring Awards “Museum of the Year” honor. All of this is thanks to a strategic media, PR and social media campaign that garnered over 1 billion impressions in less than two months, all driven by the team at Kahn Media. Hiring them nine years ago was one of the single best decisions I made as the executive director of the Petersen.”

Terry Karges

Executive Director

The Petersen Automotive Museum