Museum Audience Insight

Request for the Field: Successful Marketing to Latinos

We are working with Amy McDonald, the chair of PRAM, on a session proposal for the 2010 AAM Annual Meeting on marketing to Latino audiences.  The session will include an overview by Reach Advisors of the demographics and why the Latino market is quickly becoming critical for the future of many museums.  It will also feature a presentation from a Latino ad agency, including a case study and guidelines on best practices.

We are looking for museums that are successfully marketing to this audience. 

Have you had success reaching this audience?  If so, would you be willing to participate on this panel next May in Los Angeles?  Do you have a case study that you can share?  Can you provide “lessons learned” from your experience?  Or do you know of someone who excels at reaching Latino audiences?  If so, please contact us with your ideas!

Amy can be reached at amy (dot) mcdonald (at) yale (dot) edu, and James can be reached at james (at) reachadvisors (dot) com.

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Musée de l’Orangerie: Wow!

Two weeks ago, James was in Paris to present at the International Council of Museums meeting.  From Paris, he e-mailed me about an amazing experience at a local museum.  He was so blown away, and because we all seek to blow away our visitors, I thought his reaction was worth sharing:

The Musée de l’Orangerie is remarkable.  In part for the contents inside, but more for how the emotions it stirs inside.
 
First, it was about the collection.  Masterful.
 
Second, it was about curating.  Drawing me in with the masters, then introducing me to a modern artist I've never heard of, Didier Paquignon, but I loved.  He really caught the light and emotion that I see in France (even though I think most of his work was done in Spain).
 
Pretty quickly I was impressed with the museum.  But it also helped that a few museum folks were sharing their personal impressions that helped me learn more about art, which I admit to not knowing as much about as I would like. 
 
And then...there was Monet's Les Nympheas.  It's the first time I've ever really felt art.  Felt it was speaking to me.  Not like seeing art, or thinking about art, but felt that every single neuron was firing as soon as I turned the corner into that room.  As if there was a hand that tangibly reached out to welcome me into a different world.  It was respite and retreat in a way I've never experienced in a museum.  The realization of everything I always hope museums could do but have never found to come together so perfectly as I experienced in that one moment.  Music, marble benches, perfect diffused lighting.  And the art...stunning.  Now I understand why Monet's individual water lilies paintings fetch tends of millions of dollars, and why it's so wonderful that museums can keep the best of those for public enjoyment. 
 
Granted, someone pointed out that the room is typically packed with tourists, while we had the space all to ourselves.  And granted, they closed six years to get this right and have the support of a country that understands investment in culture.  But I'm not someone who can sit still very well, yet I could just saunter around that room in a simultaneously blissful and stimulated state and notice endless details while transporting myself to a different state without even trying. 
 
For me, it ranks as a top 10 wow experience, not quite even with, but on the same list as my wedding day, the days my kids were born.  Just plain and simple, a moving experience. 
 
I hope that everyone can get to experience something sort of like that in a museum at some point in their lives.

 
Pretty amazing, isn’t it!  We all want our museums to provide these kinds of “wow” experiences every day.  And many museums do, from mini-wows to these mind-blowing wows. 
 
We would love to see if there is a pattern to “wow” experiences at museums.  Have you ever had one museum, one object, one exhibit blow you away?  What was it?  Why do you think you were affected the way you were?  And was there anything about the physical environment that helped make it such a moving moment? 
 
Share your experiences by clicking on “comments” below to share.  (If you are reading this from your e-mail subscription to the blog, please go to our blog's website to add a comment.)  Please include the name of your museum as well!

Life Stages of the Museum Visitor - AAM Webinar and Book!

We are delighted to have worked closely with AAM in the publication of our new book Life Stages of the Museum Visitor, available from the AAM Bookstore, and in our upcoming AAM webinar on the same subject:

AAM Webinar!
Understanding Life Stages of the Museum Visitor
June 24, 2009
2-3:30 pm (Eastern)
In collaboration with the AAM Committee on Education (EdCom), the AAM Committee on Audience Research and Evaluation (CARE) and The AAM Press

Led by:
James Chung, President, Reach Advisors
Susie Wilkening, Senior Consultant and Curator of Museum Audiences, Reach Advisors

Why are seven-year-olds especially important to museums?  What are Museum Advocates, and how do they differ from Core Visitors to museums?  And what is going on with ultra-wired Generation Y and museums?  Delve into these questions and more as Susie Wilkening and James Chung share their research from over 30,000 Core Visitors to museums, just published in their new book from the AAM Press, Life Stages of the Museum Visitor:  Building Engagement Over a LIfetime.  This webinar will help you understand your museum's audiences, their needs, and how to better meet their expectations.

To register, go to:  http://www.aam-us.org/getinvolved/learn/understandingmuseumaudience.cfm
$25 AAM Member
$189 Non-member

To purchase a copy of the book go to:  http://iweb.aam-us.org/Purchase/ProductDetail.aspx?Product_code=I255

Kindle is My Paper, Too (Along with Facebook)

I cancelled my Boston Globe this morning.  Me, the newspaper junkie. 

In the past 15 months rates have doubled.  It is now well over $600/year to subscribe.  To a paper that has, in the same time period, shrunk in size. 

 

I decided it wasn’t worth it.  Especially when I can subscribe via my Kindle for only $120/year.  It was a no-brainer.  I will now be a Kindle subscriber to the Globe. 

 

A few weeks ago I posted that Facebook was my paper, and even in the past few weeks that function has, for me, increased.  I get news from NPR in my FB news feed.  And at least once a week I hear from organizations that are local to me, such as Historic New England or the Thomas Crane Public Library, reminding me about upcoming programs. 

 

And I projected that, in the next few years, all of us would have to get used to newspapers disappearing . . . especially metro dailies. 

 

Reactions were, shall we say, visceral.  Some wrote in that newspapers had become irrelevant to them because they were already old news by the time they arrived.  I agree as many times when I read the Globe I find stories that I read the day before online.

 

Others bemoaned the loss of quality news.  Where would they get it, if not from the paper? 

 

First and foremost, we should keep in mind that most newspapers have never had news as their primary business.  The majority of their revenues come from advertising, putting them in the business of print advertising more than anything else.  That revenue model has collapsed, and with smaller revenues they are unable to keep up the quality of the newsroom.  (Note:  If I felt the quality of the news in the Globe was worth $12.25/week, I would gladly pay it.  The quality is not there.) 

 

But the loss of daily metro newspapers does not necessarily mean the loss of quality news.  NPR is stronger than ever, providing quality news from the US and around the world in three formats:  live radio; audio streaming/podcasts; and online articles.  Some periodicals are providing juicy, stellar reporting, such as The Economist, The Atlantic, and now Newsweek, which revamped itself only a few weeks ago, improving their journalism many times over.  Wire services, such as AP and Reuters, have boots on the ground all over the world.  And I doubt I am the only person geeking out by watching PBS’s News Hour.

 

Additionally, hyper-local papers, such as my Quincy Sun, are still doing fairly well, providing quality community news that is important to me. 

 

So quality journalism is still going strong, but there is a gap I wonder about.  Metro and state news (including museum coverage).  In Boston, we have relied on the Globe to uncover corruption and scandal, lately centering around state politics.  Our excellent NPR station covers this as well, but not to the same depth. 

 

What will happen if (and I project, when) the Globe stops printing?  Who will fill the gap?  Some papers have ceased printing and gone to an online-only model, focusing on metro and state news.  Other cities that still have dailies have seen competition from very small, often nonprofit, websites that focus on investigative journalism.   These trends will likely increase, and likely increase reporting on arts and culture along the way as arts and culture reporting draws readers.  I don’t rule out the possibility of high-quality metro weeklies either.  But we are seeing new mediums for metro news that are starting to fill these needs.

 

Like many others, I don’t relish the idea of sipping my morning cup of tea over my laptop.  That is not how I want to start my morning.  Which is why, for now, I like my Kindle, and why I am switching my Globe subscription to it.  I already get the Wall Street Journal via Kindle, and have found the navigation experience to be similar to that of the actual paper.  I still flip through and scan every article (skipping the “boring” sections, just like if I had a hard copy).  Maybe handheld readers will take the place of paper copies, and provide subscription revenue, for news outlets.  Maybe something else will happen. 

 

So I am not worried about the death of quality journalism.  There is a need and a demand for it.  But newspapers?  Looks like I am joining most of my 30-something peers and doing without.

What do you think?  Is there anything you disagree with?  Or do you see these trends playing out as well in your community?  Click on “comments” below to share.  (If you are reading this from your e-mail subscription to the blog, please go to our blog's website to add a comment.)  Please include the name of your museum as well!

-Susie