We launched VAMONDE Insights with a single purpose: to initiate a conversation about how our cities and cultural institutions play a relevant role in the future of cultural discovery.
Our world is always changing. So too is how we travel and experience culture. We believe change can be a good thing….when accompanied by new thinking, tools, and technology.
VAMONDE Insights will explore how cultural discovery and travel is changing and present real examples of how leading organizations are “future proofing” their operating model.
A bit about us: our insights are based on our experiences learning from cultural, city, and travel organizations. We’re rooted in more than 15 years of academic research at Harvard, MIT and Illinois Tech. We came together to build VAMONDE: a different kind of travel tech company with a new model. We invest in research and development in our software and offer much of our work for free to cultural organizations while providing premium customers a deep set of analytics on their visitors. Our future is aligned to providing organizations like yours the tools and data you need to be successful in a world that is always changing.
We’re starting off 2018 in VAMONDE Insights by introducing four macro-shifts that impact every city big and small and every cultural organization old and new. We believe these are the table stakes that will separate the leaders from the laggards in the future of cultural discovery.
“In-Place Learning” will disrupt the traditional museum model
Today, technology has made it easier, cheaper, and more exciting to learn just about anything, anywhere. Where we once had to physically visit institutions, like museums and libraries, today we can view most collections digitally.
Museums that continue to thrive will be leaders of “in-place learning” that facilitate education in the actual places events happened. Think about it; would you prefer to learn about Ernest Hemingway’s childhood in a textbook? Or by standing on the stoop of his Chicago home and listening to his early works as read by the American Writers Museum?
In-place learning not only has the power to intensify learning experiences, it allows institutions to extend their reach far beyond their museum walls and to be the respective voice of authority within the surrounding community. Museums who are not having a boardroom level discussion as to “is our physical museum relevant in a digital future?” will be quickly left behind.
Case Study: American Writers Museum — coming soon — how AWM is creatively using technology in its museum and outside of it to make its museum as big as the city.
‘Narrowcasting’ will unlock new relationships and revenue opportunities.
Traditionally, communications have been crafted as “broadcasts” or messages designed for the broadest number of people. Before the rise of digital and smart technology, the “printed brochure and physical signage” approach was highly successful. However, today this is as boring as plain yogurt. Plus, broadcasting means you have to make sure that the message resonates with everyone who is receiving it, thereby reducing your ability to customize it.
Visitors are different today. If organizations are doing a good job at understanding their visitor (see intimacy point above), then technology can be employed to help visitors to self-select and dive in to the topics that interest them most. Cultural organizations remain the authority on their given topic. However, if the information is difficult to find and consume, people will look elsewhere.
Institutions and even cities should be thinking about how they can use digital channels to communicate to narrower bands of potential visitors to appeal to their background, interests, or aspirations.
Case Study: Read this article on how The Art Institute of Chicago created niche digital campaigns that leveraged dozens of major retailers to activate the city for its largest exhibition of 2017.
Marketing winners will be those who know their visitors, not just count them.
My wife and I recently took an amazing fall road-trip vacation that went from Chicago to New York City (by air) then we rented a car for the drive up the coast to Newport, RI, Provincetown MA, Concord NH, and Burlington VT. To cap it off, before flying home we flew down to outside of Washington DC for a night in the Shenandoah Valley. We did this all in 12 days and for less than $5K. It is incredible how convenient and efficient travel has become. The result of all of this, for good and bad, is a massive increase in the numbers of travelers today. There are so many travelers that in 29 states tourism is the first, second, or third largest employer.
Over the last 50 or so years, cities and cultural organizations have evolved from 1-on-1 tours to group tours, to self-guided tours. Technology has given visitors the ability to move beyond a spectator role and begin participating in their own experiences. Generations who have grown up with this ability are only interested in increasingly personal experiences. Cultural organizations aren’t just responsible for knowing the artifacts in their building; they have to know the people who come to visit.
Forward-looking organizations are reframing their marketing KPI’s from visitor impressions to visitor intimacy, a metric on the strength of relationship. These organizations are using data to inform their marketing to thoughtfully target outreach, deliver value (not an impression), and earn the right to build a relationship with them. Oh, and if you’re targeting millennials, read this paragraph again.
Case Study: Downtown Brooklyn Partnership — coming soon — learn how DBP used the power of cultural storytelling to not only guide its visitors over from Manhattan to Brooklyn, but also to use data to know more about who these visitors are, where they go, and how to help them stay longer.
Co-opetition to unlock unfair competitive advantages among peers.
Without fail, if you Google “Top things to do in [your city]” the search results look something like what happens in Boston. #1 and #2 are City DMO or Trip Advisor; then you’ll see an abyss of travel booking companies, review and rating sites, or blogs. The very first cultural institution that shows up at #186 is the Freedom Trail Foundation, and this is a broken link! No one is going to look 18 pages down for this. I repeat, no one. City and cultural institutions are getting their digital butts kicked.
That’s because, from a digital and SEO perspective, cities, and cultural institutions lack the resources and skills to effectively compete with travel companies and review sites. The kicker? These institutions have the best content in town; they just can’t be heard anymore.
In order for cultural and city institutions to win, they need to change the game and only invite their counterpart organizations to play in it. This requires creating a shared platform for every cultural and city institution to publish their story on and to collaboratively market. If done right, city and cultural organizations can create a unified platform that gives a voice to the cities best stories delivered by its most trusted institutions.
Case Study: Choose Chicago — coming soon we’ll share how Chicago’s DMO is creating a unique digital platform for cultural discovery. And they didn’t invite any of the big tour, ratings, review, or travel blog companies.
If you made it this far, thank you. I’d love the opportunity to share more with you. Be sure to subscribe below to our Vamonde Insights newsletter. We’ll be publishing a deeper dive into each of these four macro-shifts in the next several weeks and throughout the year. If you have comments, please leave them below or email me directly at Nick@Vamonde.com.
