Museum Audience Insight

Iconic Museum Photos

We need your help.

Reach Advisors is in the midst of redesigning our website, and are looking for a couple of iconic museum photos to feature on it.  You know.  That picture that just screams "museum."  Preferably with an inter-generational group in it.  And an exhibit, objects . . . anything that a typical person would look at and instantly think "museum." 

If you have one or more photos that fit this description will you send them our way?  While we won't be able to use all the photos submitted, if we do use your photo we will let you know and give appropriate credit on the website.  And send you a free copy of our book, Life Stages of the Museum Visitor.

Send photos by Friday, October 16 to susie (at) reachadvisors (dot) com.

And thanks!

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.

Seeking your thoughts: Economic change and long-term shifts

We’re wondering if anyone out there might wish to share observations about how the shift in the economic environment has forced dramatically different thinking about the long-term future for their museums or the field in general.  

We’ve been asked to participate in an International Council of Museums event on this topic, and would love to hear from the field on this point.  Note that we’re not looking for topics such as having to crank back budgets in 2009.  Instead, we’re looking at the kind of fundamental rethinking that’s going on in businesses and households across America about how they’ve been forced to re-engineer hard-wired behaviors, reset their long-term expectations, or realize that reliable past patterns simply won’t hold up in the future.  

If you have any comments on this, please feel free to click on “Comments” below (or if you are reading this from your e-mail subscription to this blog, please go to our website to add a comment.  If it’s a sensitive comment that you wish to share with us, but not publicly, please feel free to email james @ reachadvisors.com.  

If this request for help generates enough interest, even if you don’t have a comment to share, let us know as we could always consider scheduling it as an upcoming Museum Conversation conference call for the field.

We realize that this is a different kind of blog post than what we typically send, but thanks for allowing us to call for input on this topic!

Another PR opportunity for museums serving kids and adults

Today, we heard from a writer for ForbesTraveler.com, hoping to connect with the nation’s (and world’s) most compelling museums for kids and adults traveling together.  

She says that while she’s been thinking of some big obvious ones, she’s particularly interested in hearing about the best regardless of location, even if obscure, since the readership travels.  

Just as a note, she’s hoping to hear from more than just children’s museums unless they are particularly strong with adults too, and the one category where she feels she already has good contact is natural history museum (although natural history museums should still feel free to pitch if they think they are super-spectacular!).   

If you happen to have a quick pitch you can pull together, just email james @ reachadvisors.com by Wednesday noon Eastern (but Tuesday is even better) with a few very quick bullet points and perhaps a photo to catch her attention (no more needed than that), and we will be sure to pass on the pitches to see which ones she’d like to contact for follow ups.   

Request for the Field: Southern Museums

A freelance travel writer has been in touch with us to identify museums that might be relevant for an upcoming column, “Two Tanks and a Map,” about gems within a day’s drive of Southern markets, particularly Atlanta, Charlotte, Birmingham, and Chattanooga regional areas. 

The column will likely run in those markets, plus some other local publications in the Southern US, and on his website.  The subject for his columns are vacations that work well with expensive gas prices and strained budgets, especially for people who still want to enjoy vacations even if it means traveling closer to home. 

While he’s looking for all sorts of categories of destinations, he sounds genuinely interested in museums.  But it sounds like stories are more likely to get published if they incorporate a variety of things at that destination (e.g., lodging, dining, outdoor recreation, festivals, cultural performances, environment, etc.) to make it more of a vacation rather than a one-stop destination. 

If interested, James will send him recommendations on Wednesday, July 9, and Monday, July 14, so feel free to email james (at) reachadvisors.com with your paragraph that might help a writer envision a story he can sell to various publications.  We don’t anticipate these will be feature stories in national publications, but still, the better ones will probably get some decent newspaper coverage, while others end up in smaller regional publications, and some of the smaller ones still end up on his website to help improve your search engine results.

Survey Testers Needed

We run a lot of surveys for our clients. Before a survey goes live, however, we test, and then test again, to make sure the survey works properly and that the questions and responses are clear. 

Periodically, we seek new testers who will give us fresh perspectives and opinions about our surveys.  Volunteering to test the occasional survey is a great way to learn more about surveys and their construction. Additionally, testers also learn about other client fields, such as master-planned communities, tourist attractions, and municipalities.

The requirements are few:

• Minimal time (testers can assume 30 minutes/survey test, and perhaps 3 - 4 tests per year)
• Curiosity
• Confidentiality

If you are interested in becoming one of our survey testers, simply let us know by e-mailing me at susie(at) reachadvisors.com and I will provide additional information. 

Thanks!

Media inquiry: New or re-opening museums

As you may know, we end up seeing a number of inquiries from journalists working on stories about museums. 

The latest one is from the editor of Group Travel Leader, looking for leads on new or expanded museums that have opened within the last six months or are scheduled to open later this year or early 2009. 

If you'd like to pitch him (by the morning of Monday, March 3 at the latest), just email james(at)reachadvisors.com and I'd be happy to pass on his contact information (and would even be happy to share quick comments on your pitch if that might help sharpen how you reach out to journalists).      

Request for the Field #4 - Communities, Audience Needs, and Juggling

Thanks to Ted Lind, Deputy Director for Education at The Newark Museum, for submitting this Request for the Field - it is certainly a challenging one.  He asks:

Many museums such as ours are actively reaching out to new audiences through community engagement. We are forming advisory groups in the communities we are touching, sometimes custom-designing special programs or events with them, and always seeking ways to involve them more in the activities of the museum.  Many of the communities we connect with have specific cultural or ethnic interests. And, as we broaden our reach, we connect with more and more communities.  It seems we are building expectations for continuous special programming with an increasing number of special interest groups and it’s becoming more difficult to “keep all of the balls in the air”.  How can we best sustain the relationships we have formed and yet continue to reach new audiences? 

We would love to have your thought!  Have you grappled with this?  How have you addressed it at your museum?  At what point do you decide that you simply cannot do more without sacrificing quality?  To respond, simply submit a comment below.  If you wish to respond privately, e-mail me at susie at reachadvisors.com.

Request for the Field #3 - Branding Museums

In yesterday's Museum Conversation on Curated Brand Experiences, we discussed retailers, and museums, that excel at creating those wonderful experiences.  Mark Albin, of the Newark Museum, wanted to know what museums are doing a great job branding themselves? 

So what do you think?  Is there a museum in your community that does a really great job at branding themselves?  What are they doing right when it comes to branding?  Click on "comments" below to share with all of us those best practices (if you prefer to submit anonymously, e-mail Susie Wilkening  at susie at reachadvisors dot com and she will compile those responses and post them with no identity attached).

Request for the Field #2: Innovation at History-Based Museums

A foundation is seeking examples of really innovative exhibits and interpretation at history-based museums.  What have you seen lately that has really struck you?  Was it a new use of technology?  Or did it involve youth in an engaging way?  Or simply a new interpretation that really resonated?   And why did you find it so remarkable?  Click on “comments” below to share your experiences (if you prefer to submit anonymously, e-mail Susie Wilkening  at susie at reachadvisors dot com and she will compile those responses and post them with no identity attached)!