Museum Audience Insight

One Man's Crusade: Stephen Colbert's quest to save the Generation Y male from himself

The Generation Y male, in his late teens or twenties, is a fascinating mixture of technical prowess and media savvyness.  He is also, well, having circles run around him by the Generation Y female.

Now before we go any further, yes, there are Generation Y males who are incredibly smart, well-educated, who read, go to museums, give back to their community, and who are creative geniuses.  They do exist (and if you are a Generation Y male reading this, we bet you are one of them). 

BUT we are talking in generalizations here, and, in general, this generation of young men has seen their female peers succeed, and intellectually grow, at dizzying rates.

Consider:

• Today, women in their 20s are nearly 50% more likely to have a college degree than men in their 20s.
• In most major metropolitan areas, the gender gap has reversed, and women in their 20s outearn men in their 20s . . . the gap's grown to as much as $1.20 for every $1.00 a young man earns (and we bet this has increased as the recession has disproportionately hit young men who work in finance and real estate/construction).
• Additionally, in our research women in their 20s are nearly twice as likely to read and/or visit museums in their leisure time.  They are also three times more likely to participate in art activities, twice as likely to be what we call "Creative Consumers," and are nearly 50% more likely to give money to causes they care about (in contrast, men are 2.5 times more likely than women to say they "don't change my life for causes"). 

Enter Stephen Colbert, the star of The Colbert Report.  We have blogged about him before, and we bet this will not be the last time we focus in on this media juggernaut.  The Colbert Report is an incredibly popular show, particularly with young men.  And Stephen Colbert is engaging them, and making them care, about things that, well, we want people to care about.  Such as:
    

• Museums.  In his efforts to have his portrait considered a "National Treasure" and part of the Smithsonian's collections, he doubled visitation at the National Portrait Gallery during the period his portrait was on display.  Undoubtedly a huge number of those visitors were young men.  (By the way . . . his efforts ended up being successful as his portrait is now part of the permanent collection of the National Museum of American History.)
• Science.  When NASA announced a competition to name the newest wing of the space station, Stephen Colbert encouraged viewers to write in "Colbert" as their entry. "Colbert" garnered four times more votes than any other entry.  OK, so NASA declined to actually name the space station wing after Colbert . . . . but they did name the treadmill installed in the space station the "Colbert." 
• Politics.  He talks about politics all the time on the show.  It is news satire.  But he also took action . . . by attempting to get on the Presidential ballot for the South Carolina primaries.  He didn't get on the ballot, but not by lack of signatures.  And viewers learned more about the election process along the way.
• Iraq.  He cares passionately about the soldiers in Iraq (though his real position on the war itself is unclear).  He doesn't want us to forget that young men and women are making big sacrifices there.  To help increase morale, he spent a week in Iraq this June, filming his show (and he got a crew cut to match his camouflage suit).  Soldiers loved it.  And it was yet another way of keeping Iraq front and center in our lives.
• Philanthropy.  Through his show he has encouraged viewers to donate to worthy causes.  In 2008 his viewers donated over $250,000 to donorschoose.org.  Just last month he announced the support of Colbert Nation for US Speedskating, which had just lost their biggest sponsor.  He encouraged viewers to financially support our speedskating team . . . and they donated over $40,000 in just the first 24 hours.  And you know he will keep encouraging them to do so.  (Additionally, we bet you that viewers, regardless of whether they donated or not, will be much more engaged in the speedskating events during the Winter Olympics.  They'll care because Stephen Colbert made them care through his support and coverage.)

So why does this matter to museums?  Stephen Colbert is reaching out to what is probably the toughest, most jaded audience segment out there, young men.  He is forcing them to care, and they are responding.  And isn't that something that museums strive to do? 

Why do you think Stephen Colbert succeeds at reaching young men?  His humor?  His ability to poke fun at himself?    And what do you think museums can learn from The Colbert Report?  Simply click on “comments” below to share your thoughts (and if you are reading this from your e-mail subscription, go to our blog to comment).

'Curating' in a new world?

Interesting article on the cover of this week’s SundayStyles section of the New York Times on how the “curating…has become a fashionable code word among the aesthetically minded, who seem to pass it onto any activity that involves culling and selecting.”   The article mentions ‘curators’ who run sneaker stores, flea market swap meets, consignment shops, music websites….  It’s such a sought-after moniker that the article mentions that serving as a guest curator of a design blog, craft fair or department store has become an honor.

It’s easy to write this off as a fad, but in the past few years that we’ve been talking about the concept of the public embracing the role of ‘curating’ their worlds outside the museum sphere, there are a few points that have been fun to kick around:

The obvious driver behind this is the continued acceleration of the internet.  Sure, some of us of a certain age may have made mix tapes in our younger years, but it’s a rather different ballgame when the depth and breadth of creative inputs are far greater than ever before, as is the potential to build a sizable following.  Simultaneously, in a digital world where we’re bombarded with inputs, there’s a real role that these new ‘curators’ fulfill.   Given that we don’t see the internet slowing down anytime soon, this shift clearly fits in our model for fundamental trends likely to continue rather than short-lived fads likely to fade away.

But perhaps a bigger driver behind this shift is that there’s a generation under 30 years old that’s simply far more likely to be wired this way.  That might mean they assume that the curators in their lives are their peers or strangers online…or they think of themselves as curators for their peers…or they view their digital time as a means to curate their own lives.  In part, it’s a logical extension of how young adults have always tried to separate themselves from prior generations.   But our museum audience research and our broader consumer research is pointing towards an entirely new level of generational separation.  The segment within this generation that we call “Extremely Creative Consumers” is a real force, dramatically reshaping the definition of creativity for themselves and those around them.   We’re pretty certain that this shift will end up as one of the defining characteristics of this generation of young adults, even as they progress through later life stages.  The folks at the AAM's Center for the Future of Museums have cleverly coined this as part of the "MyCulture" trend, and we view this as a real force that we're going to see play out for decades to come.

So here are a few interesting questions to ponder:

First:  Does the use (or overuse) of the word "curator" help or hurt museums?  We would argue it might be negative for museums that simply ignore this trend.  Likewise, acknowledging this trend could really help open up the eyes of the public about the role and value of the curating that museums do...but that might take some 'curating' of the work of curators to help audiences see more of how the curating work of museums really matters.

Second:  As more of the public (at least among younger audiences) redefine the role of curating in their lives, does this mean that museums will have to redefine that role as well?  While it’s highly unlikely that this trend gets to the point where we’ll see people mounting their own Calder or dinosaur exhibits from home, is there a way to help passionate amateurs engage more with museums?  We’ve seen some museums start to engage community groups to help curate exhibits or even ‘crowdsource’ some of the key decisions for an exhibit.  Will we see museums enlist amateur 'curators' to assist with online efforts?  Or will we see curators become a far more prominent public face of museums, where a younger audience that is increasingly migrating to a new type of curator can cultivate their passions someplace unexpected...like a museum?  (Any examples out there of where rethinking the role of curating is having positive -- or negative -- impact?)

Third:  We’ve seen in many fields how these shifts have decimated the role of the 'expert.'  The relevance of the editors at Britannica and the World Book has been completely blown to bits by the Wikipedians.  In many markets, for many subjects, the power of the newspaper editor has been usurped by bloggers.  One of the differentiating factors here is that museums deal with more than digitizable bits; there’s also a physical component that’s rather important to many out there. But it’s undeniable that we’re in the midst of a fundamental shift in public attitudes and expectations of the role of the ‘expert’ and their relevance in the lives of the audiences they serve.

A bit frightening…but also sort of exciting to think about ways museums can serve an audience that is increasingly hungry for curated work that enriches their lives.

As always, we look forward to the conversation…  Simply click on “comments” below (and if you are reading this from your e-mail subscription, go to our blog to comment).