Cultural institutions must think more like media organizations.
We live in a distracted society: busy, cluttered lives weighed-down by too many choices. Caught in the middle are museums. They are interesting and respected, but are seen to be non-essential organizations; not the influencers they would like to be. In recent years museums have been challenged with engaging and retaining the attention of people who can easily be distracted with a smartphone. Making choices so they appear relevant was never so difficult. How do you transform perceptions about what you do?
Over the past year, the Art Gallery of Ontario has experimented with a pilot project intended to “boldly declare that art is for everyone.” Believing that time-stressed people want to be able to pop-in-and-out of exhibitions, they have decided to make visits easy and affordable: young people under-25 can visit for free; the rest of us can get a full year of unlimited access for only $35. Opening the AGO’s doors wide appears to be working: Stephan Jost, the Gallery’s CEO, told CBC Radio’s Metro Morning program that, as of November 26, 2019, more than 100,000 people have signed-up.
The AGO may hold half the answer.
Clearly it’s a great way of getting more people in the door; a great start. The problem is that it perpetuates the idea that success should be measured according to the number of visitors walking through the turnstiles. It’s the usual way of doing things, and their traditional business model handcuffs museum imaginations about what else might be done. Transformation won’t happen as long as the sector persists in believing it doesn’t need to engage audiences beyond a museum’s four walls.
Museums grouse about being undervalued. They could be important – even transcendent – institutions if there was more emphasis and innovation about telling stories to a wider audience. But if they remain satisfied to be local venues, they will never alter the public view of museums as short-term culture-based commodities.
What will the AGO do with its new bounty? 70% of these new members are in the under-25 age category (free) so we aren’t taking about a spike in revenue. But that doesn’t matter; this maneuver isn’t about money. Typically, people visit a museum then leave, silently and anonymously. The payoff from having 550 people joining every day is that they are giving the AGO their contact information. As Jost says, “with the annual pass we can communicate” and new visitors can’t remain anonymous. The AGO now has well over 100,000 new email addresses and mobile phone numbers enabling them to stay connected to their new friends between visits, and to develop communities of interest around their work.
Hopefully this isn’t just about advertising and the AGO will begin producing engaging new content to circulate to its new members. They could give people something to talk about in-between-visits that shape the conversation about art and, in the process, extend their brand. These are, after all, places of ideas. There’s no question about their relevance: museums exist to give people the knowledge of how our world developed and empower them to look forward into the unknown with a sense of self-determination so, together, we can build a better world; a worthy mission.
From a place to visit, to a place in the mind.
Can they be influencers? Transform your organization first by changing how it thinks about itself – your purpose – then tell the stories that support that purpose. The chutzpah museums need involves challenging audience thinking: To think like a media organization, to tell stories with a purpose, and to make themselves the focal point for discussion.
With 1,350 employees and $540 million in annual revenue, “Patagonia” is known as one of the world’s most successful outdoor apparel brands. Yet its founder and chairman, Yvon Chouinard, doesn’t describe his company as a clothing manufacturer. For many years he promised Patagonia would “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.” Over time he felt that wasn’t clear enough so he changed its mission statement to better-reflect the higher purpose guiding its work. To express his essential belief in environmental activism, the mission statement now says simply, “Patagonia is in business to save our home planet.” It is a direct, clear, urgent, and blunt statement signalling to everyone inside the company and out that the world faces a climate crisis, and that reality is fundamental to every aspect of the company and every job at Patagonia.
To engage people in its mission, Patagonia has been investing in storytelling; not your run-of-the-mill web posts, mind you. Chouinard has decided to tell people about Patagonia’s sense of higher purpose through a series of short films and, most recently, through its documentary Artifishal. The films express what is important to the company: says Chouinard,
We recognize that people make decisions based on emotion, and the best way to elicit emotion is through film. It’s not through books or catalogues or speeches. So we’re in the film business. We’re working on 10 films at a time these days. Some of them don’t make a cent. But that’s not the purpose.”
“We’re in the film business.” An interesting statement from a profit-driven clothing manufacturer. Yet this is a mission-driven organization where transforming how people think is its real purpose. And its documentary films are helping people find meaning. Some of those people may become customers, but that will only further Patagonia’s advocacy.
What is your real purpose as museums, and how might you best fulfill it? Organizations have to find new ways to breakthrough and inject greater meaning into what they do. Becoming influencers, becoming essential, isn’t an unrealistic goal. Patagonia is turning unwritten rules on their head to transform how people think about the environment. Consider the transformative effect of your leadership.
Don’t keep it a secret. Communicate with purpose.
Note: This article initially appeared as part of Argyle Brand Counsel+Design’s Leadership BrandingTM series
Retool Lab is a collaborative focused on helping cultural, entertainment and public institutions regroup, reshape, and retool their strategy to recover from the economic impact of the current crisis, and to use these insights as a springboard to thrive far into the future. You can contact us at info@retoollab.com or at www.retoollab.com