Antenna Audio has used the web in a different way with a new multimedia guide for the Van Gogh's Letters: The Artist Speaks exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

The aim was to bring letters written by Van Gogh to thousands of visitors as well as a global audience through multi-platform delivery. The letters can be accessed at the museum using Antenna's XP-vision handheld multimedia guide, allowing visitors to view the fragile documents up close, but they're also available to fans around the world through a blog and an iPhone application.

The Yours, Vincent blog saw a new letter from the artist released daily, allowing visitors to follow the artist's thought processes. The iPhone application, using Antenna's Pentimento iTouch technology, lets users download a multimedia experience recreating the exhibition, allowing the visitor to interact with works.

"With Pentimento and the Yours, Vincent blog, we've created a powerful means for the Van Gogh Museum to reach out and interact with audiences all over the world and a strong marketing and promotional tool," said Antenna's Christopher Bazley, vice president, account management, for Europe, the Middle East and Asia. "The buzz around these features has been added to by embracing the power of social networking sites: both Twitter and Facebook have been used to create robust communities of followers."

Antenna is using a similar multi-platform concept in Milan, Italy for the Edward Hopper exhibition at Palazzo Reale. Following a model Antenna premier in London and York for the National Gallery's Grand Tour, reproductions of Hopper works have been hung around Milan, with conventional museum labels and a number to dial to access an audio track.

This time, the image of the painting, along with the track, can be texted to friends. "We're not only engaging local people, but encouraging them to take part in the dialogue about Hopper's work and its meaning all across the city, as well as augmenting exciting viral marketing in promoting the exhibition," Bazley added.