Case Study: Żywiec Museum of Humour

Case Study:

Żywiec Museum of Humour

Imagine a perfect museum project. What should it be like – this time from a point of view of an ordinary * consumer?

The project should:

• touch the emotions, e.g. funny for the Recipient,

• be easily accessible,

• stimulate the interest of the media,

• be creative and attractive, ‘different than the others’,

• be ‘lively’ (interactive and dynamic),

• be well grounded in visual aspects and the ideas,

• be universal – comprehensible and interesting for people of various circles,

• receive high evaluation by the recipients (target), opinion-makers (the media), professionals (industry).

• be efficient – which is expressed in quality evaluations, numbers, statistics, etc.

Based on the Advertising Age research. *Ordinary consumer – average respondent of the public opinion surveys.

It is difficult to invent and organise such an ideal project.

But we have an example which is close to perfection ;-)

The Żywiec Museum of Humour – the best museum project in the … event marketing category in Poland and worldwide.

That is the opinion of the jury – the experts in … the marketing. Złota Strzała award in Poland, The Globe Award abroad. Also prize in the

Złote Spinacze PR competition.

The Museum, which from the beginning to the end was different than other museums …

Żywiec Museum of Humour

• 300 m2 of roofed exposition space.

• 600 m2 of exposition space outside.

• Summer cinema, internet cafe, bar.

• Interactive installations – ‘bicycle’, ‘barometer’, ‘peep-show’, ‘periscope’.

• Commando- special happening group.

• …but…

Everything is mobile!

• Eight trucks can transport the Museum with the office wherever you want.

• In addition, the Museum is active in the full scope of the notion of ‘humour’:

• The Museum organises press conferences.• National Competitions of collecting exhibits.• It has its own vortal in the Internet.• Originates and co-organises festivals,

reviews, etc.

Most popular exhibition.

„Szuflandia” – the city of the dwarfs from famous

polish comedy „Kingsajz” (1983). One of 23 points

of vies – key wholes.

What is the Museum?

• More than 5,500 exhibits from all possible fields related to humour (mainly from the recent 200 years).

• The largest collection in Poland of such famous shows as old cabarets or comedies (Rejs, Miś, Seksmisja, etc.).

• Strange collections – popart, kitsch, subcultures...

• The only mobile museum in this part of Europe.

• The exhibition with the most advanced concept in Poland (interactive exhibitions, reconstructions of real spaces, multimedia, separate creative sessions for each subject …).

• Find more at www.muzeumhumoru.onet.pl on the ‘Visit the Museum’, ‘Exhibitions’ and other sites …

• Probably the most popular and most media-attracting museum in Poland for many years (media coverage higher than that of the Zachęta Gallery!).

One of many locations – Gliwice. The Museum visited also Gdańsk and Kraków (twice in each city), Wrocław, Warsaw

and Zakopane, and organised smaller exhibitions in Katowice and Chorzów. There is already a queue of eight cities …

Collections of the Museum:• Humour in the cartoons. Communism time versus the new wave of the

90’s.• Peep-show with all funniest Polish old advertisements.• The best Polish comedies of all times: Rejs, Miś, Hydrozagadka,

Dziewczyny do Wzięcia, Wniebowzięci, Sami Swoi, Vabank, Jak rozpętałem II W.Ś.

• The Best of Polish Press Agency – photos of 1993 – 2003.• Gallery of satiric drawings, including works or Marek Raczkowski.• The Humour of Lvov and the 20’s in the Polish sense of humour.• Seksmisja (the most famous comedy of the Polish 80’s). • Mountain Humour – Strange Panorama of the Tatra Mountains.• Precinct of Stupid Militiamen (Militia services from the communist times

were the main object of jokes and the manner for emotional revenge of the Poles).

• Puppets from MdM (strange objects, errors, etc. from the popular Polish television entertainment programme, MdM).

• Shops and their back offices (social reality from the time of Marshall Law compared with the mid-90’s with a food shop as an example).

• Healthcare Clinic – humour related to health.• Kingsajz and Szuflandia – the scenography of the famous comedy.• Internet Gafe and many others …

…in our museum – outside – stage events…

…inside – press conference…

Tournee 2002

/ 2003.Gdańsk x 2

Gliwice

Warszawa

Kraków x 2

Zakopane

Wro

cław

Interactive installations – e.g. famous in

Pl. training bike from the movie „Sexmission”.

What does the Patron receive from the Museum?

• Mass, direct, interactive and emotional ‘live’ contact with the well defined target.

• Extensive and maximum positive context – the association: Żywiec – good humour at a high level.

• The project is independent, cost effective and comprehensive with respect to marketing (PR, tasting, consumption, promotion, event, sponsoring, etc.).

• Practical advantage – the Museum almost does not involve the Group’s human resources! We have good marketing team in museum.

• Huge, natural effect on the media.

• Perfect platform for the contact with the town authorities and the local community in Żywiec.

• Free-of-charge use of the potential of very expensive communication lines (e.g. the films of Juliusz Machulski – Plus GSM, RMF FM and other companies pay large amounts for the right to use them).

Best photos from history of Polish Press Agency

Structure of the project:

Żywieckie Muzeum Humoru – the brand, the project

Mobile museum Museum – head office

Muzeum on line

Exhibition

Competitions

PUB

PR/form

Concerts/cabarets

Special events

Press conferences/media relations

Sumemr cinema

Main Archives

Regional reports

All-year-round activities

Editing team

ONET - service

Competitions

Research - own and from IQS & Quant

The beginning:• Public project ‘Museum of Strange Marketing’.• We find the SPONSOR – biggest polish beer brand.• Brief of the Żywiec company – project pursuing the ‘beer is fun’ mission. • Response of ESKADRA: ‘Żywiec Museum of Humour’. • Public opinion survey in Poland – analysis – the idea of an exhibition whose

mission includes:1. Saving, listing and archiving of the NATIONAL OUTPUT OF HUMOUR ON THE HIGH LEVEL and the thorough record of social phenomena relating to sense of humour over past years.2. Efficient exhibition and promotion of these values, i.e. accessible, comprehensible, interesting, creative, surprising, etc.

• Effect: comprehensive, REAL hit in terms of a museum project, media interest, attendance, emotions.

• Marketing value for the Patron: the word Żywiec in Poland first of all is associated with beer. The use of the name (upon the consent of the city of Żywiec), establishment of the permanent office in the town, creating the Museum which refers to the brand and creating the system in which the Museum remains independent with respect to the content, and the Brand retains the ability to use the marketing aspect of the project in the capacity of the Patron; all these activities produced a perpetuum mobile.

• In practice Żywiec covers less than 50% of the project costs in relation to its results and holds its OWN HIT, which successfully competes with major attractions of culture, entertainment, media or mass events.

First two years of the Museum:

• Learning of extremely complex logistics.• Accustoming and familiarising of the Patron, the Town, the Media, etc.• PASSION, PASSION, PASSION … and maximum of CONSISTENCY!• Effects: unrivalled success in each filed.• We created a being which effortlessly coped with all expected dangers and

incorporated itself to the public conscience – the Museum is widely known – and its events are widely discussed (Latający Miś, Blondynka, etc.).

• The Museum has the ability to independently organise events, publications, happenings.

• The Museum actively joins other (non-museum) projects in the field of sense of humour.

• We gained the trust of mass media, of the greatest satiric authors, authors of the distinguished films and other pieces (cooperation, consent to use their output in the exhibition), finally – support and enthusiasm of masses.

• We have kept the project in the planned shape, sticking to the planned target (well-educated, with higher income, of various age), high content quality with the attractive visual and creative aspects retained.

• An incredible additional advantage of the Museum – INDEPENDENCY. The Museum involves ONLY the time of its ten-person staff.

Success statistics – valuable directs contacts and interactions:

• More than 190,000 visitors (ticket buyers) in the Museum

(results after eight months) – all in a 300 m2.!!

• www sites: 170,000 visitors within the first three months.

• Top numbers (persons/day): Gdańsk - 3,900, Kraków -

3,690, Wrocław - 2,600.

• ‘Collect with us’ competition – over 1,000 new exhibits.

• Pedestrians by the Museum – over 1,300,000, in the

situation of full Museum noticeability and branding (the

Museum is always located in the very centres of big cities).

Mass effects:• Several million people passed by the Museum / saw the

Museum without visiting it.

• Many million contacts were recorded thanks to a mass,

efficient and COST EFFECTIVE PR campaign.

• The total number of over 30 high quality TV productions.

• Hundreds of radio, press and internet materials, including

covers of magazines and journals as well as special inserts

in Gazeta Wyborcza daily, Polityka weekly, etc. (more than

400 issues in total).

• Barters and free-of-charge support – POLSAT (TV), RMF

FM (radio) …

• Festival of Good Humour in Gdańsk and other mass

events.

Media Patrons Board

Natural, free-of-charge cooperation:• Cities – free-of-charge location.• Media – group of partners unavailable

for other BTL projects: Gazeta Wyborcza daily, Polityka weekly, RMF FM (radio), POLSAT (TV), Onet (Internet portal). Involvement of each organisation is serious. For example, Onet financed the production of the www.muzeumhumoru.onet.pl vortal.

• Artists – free-of-charge consents of Stanisław Bareja, Juliusz Machulski, Marek Piwowski, Janusz Kondratiuk and others.

• People – hundreds of new exhibits.• Briefly: for what others pay large money

we pay nothing.• Compare: Tyskie Feasts cost much

more, must be supported with the ATL campaign, everything is paid in cash, arouse no interest of media, and have lower number of visitors. There is no comparison in any aspect.

Highest grade granted by Polityka in the ‘Poster’ column comparing the

countrywide events …

Practically each person declaring the knowledge of the Museum knows that the Museum is related to the Żywiec brand. Confirming it by a serious research would be worthwhile.

The Museum and opinions of experts

• Our Stars are very happy & they wants „more” • General opinion shared in the industry says that the

Museum is the leading Polish BTL project (the opinion of the advertisement industry); advantages of such opinions include, for example, money

• The interest of the ‘other side’ – Officials, Offices, Museums, Cities, etc.

• Grades in the industry competitions – the biggest successes in the history of the Żywiec brand: Złota Strzała, The Globe Award, final of Złote Spinacze, etc.

• Opinions of media partners of the Museum – express declarations of will for further cooperation and its development.

Meaning of the media success:• Business is business. The Museum represents the net profit: estimated

value of press releases only in 2003 exceeded PLN 1,250,000. • Value of the TV coverage in 2003 exceeded PLN 780,000.• Without counting comparable values from the previous year, radio

coverage, and other marketing values generated by the Museum, it may be certainly stated that this is the best investment of the Patron with respect to creating a good brand publicity.

• Approximately 50% of all publications (other than the stock exchange reports, etc.) about the Żywiec brand are the materials on the Żywiec Museum of Humour. Other subjects covered by media are mostly negative or brief (stock exchange notes, affairs including athletes sponsoring, the Habsburgs suit, etc.). The Museum is the only product of this class in the brand’s portfolio with no equivalent. The quality of this kind of PR is higher than that of sponsoring music or sport stars.

• The Museum is doing very well without any financial support from the EU, self-government budget or the Ministry (only the resources of the Museum and the Patron).

• These estimates do not take into account the values generated in addition to the media (which are at least at the same level), do not include the fact that the positive material in the media is worth more than the analogous ATL advertisement, it is also difficult to count the interactions of the highest value, etc.

Virtual Museum. Our vortal in the best place in Polish net – for free

How? Benefits, benefits.

170,000 users of the Museum internet service within the first three months is a sign that the project is worth developing.

It is an important, young and modern part of the target.

Onet is the strongest Polish internet portal. It is a chance for generating an internet superproject.

Latest results: Oct 5 – Nov 16 = 78,000 users. Stable number of 10,000 persons per week.

Research projects:

every-year research „Polish

Humour” with IQS&Quant Innstitute.

8 small projects a year.

What next with the www siteand how?

• Development of elements attracting the internet surfers –

humour in the media, permanent competitions, perhaps

investments – e.g. purchase of the licence for cartoons

and popular materials (Raczkowski, Garfield, etc.).

• Linking, transmissions, loyalty schemes and programmes

extending the range (e.g. good greeting e-cards).

What can be improved?

• More media projects (e.g. theme events – the Museum organises the April Fools’ Day, the traditional Polish game of making jokes on

April 1).

• Wider use of the invitations for the Museum (smaller exhibitions in cities, the tour throughout the year, a tour abroad, etc.).

• TRANSLATION of the Museum for the EU tourists.

• Museum Publications – Polish Press Agency (an album), ZNAK publishing house (a book), Gazeta Wyborcza (CD).

• Better mobility of the Museum – quick, inexpensive special happening group (a bus with a theme mini-exhibition).

• Integration of the humorous actions – cooperation with all cabarets, festivals, etc.

In the Museum, the ‘new’ meets the ‘old’: elegant humour of the 20’s and the popular modern cartoon

– favoured by the precious target of 18 – 26.

PR strategy:

• Our target group: 18 – 45, premium.• Filters: exhibits (subjects), media

|patrons (premium), „gates” (tickets, exercises for smart people).

• More & more events with specific feeling.• The STARS – famous polish satiric artists,

not too much popular ;-)• THE MEDIA ANCHORS: flying bear, happening,

street activities, „the blondie contest” etc.• Jolly press releases, funny press conferences,

always 100 & more good photos, scenes to make a TV relation, sounds for radios etc.

Necessary changes:

• New attractions for the media.

• New exhibitions inside (minimum 50% to be changed).

• We go international – national humour exhibitions (British humour as the first).

• Tour in USA / Brasil (large Polish centres).

• Active actions (happenings) around the Museum.

• In the cinema – real theme festivals.

• Serious stars in live shows in the Museum and on the stage – programme for the whole holiday season. Ambitious – the best Polish cabarets and the best Artists on special meetings.

• We import stars from abroad: 2004 – John Cleese and the Monthy Python group.

• The above means maintaining the existing budget projections and investing in the programme.

Thank you