PR and marketing tips for Museums at Night 2016

Museums at Night PR & marketing tips

Rosie Clarke

Culture24

Festival PR

• National PR campaign aims to raise awareness of the festival as a whole

• The goal: to drive new audiences to the Museums at Night website

• Usually one quirky or standout event highlighted

• Regional / specialist PR – we slice and dice

• How to make your event stand out

Marketing outcomes

• Storytelling

• Leveraging event to attract positive PR for your organisation, raise awareness

• Audience development

• Sell tickets, generate income

• Give visitors great experience – WOM

• Develop skills, confidence

Target audience

• Who are they?

• Where are they, in real life and online?

• How can you reach them?

Marketing channels

• Product – event description, press release, images

• Traditional media – print & broadcast

• Online coverage, social media

• Email newsletters

• Your own printed publicity

• In person

Event description • Creative copywriting

• Why should people come? What’s unique, exciting, different? Positioning

• Collection objects / highlights / extra information about your venue

• Night time atmosphere?

• Sensory descriptions – not just sight

• Is this for people like me? Overcoming resistance

• Food and drink

• Ticket pricing

Writing a press release

• Who, What, Where, When, Why, How

• Quote curator / funder / celeb endorsement

• We can provide a personalised quote

• 2 pages max in body of email

• Great images

• Notes to Editors – standard boilerplate

• Named contact – respond quickly!

What’s your angle?

• Local media want a local angle

• Features journalists look for human interest

• Topical – link to a historical event, personality or anniversary

• Anything being revealed for the first time, unique access?

Getting a good image

• Your target audience having a good time, engaging with collections, doing the thing

• Photo call / your own photoshoot!

• Create a night-time atmosphere

• Get parents’ permission

• Print quality – over 300 dpi, A5 size, minimum 2MB

• Filename, caption – title, venue, photographer, (c), date

Sending a press release

• Find out deadlines (weekly papers usually 2 weeks ahead, broadcast 1 week)

• Contact details (print = news, listings, features editors; broadcast = producers)

• Don’t forget local blogs, forums, podcasts, newsletters

• Follow-up phonecall

Extra tips

• Set up a photocall

• Create a competition with newspaper

• Invite picture editor to send photographer on the night

• Take your own photos, visitor vox pops – can repost and reuse in future

• We always want your photos for our media image library!

Radio and podcast interviews

• Key points - soundbites

• Facts in front of you – dates, times, numbers

• Drink water

• Next step, listeners should …

• Tell us and we’ll tweet the link!

Your print publicity

• Posters

• Flyers

• Your brochures

• Download our logos and templates – new design coming soon!

Poster designs

Where to display print publicity

• Venue – café, entrance, back of toilet doors

• Community noticeboards

• Shops, cafes, libraries, churches, community centres

• TICs

• Hotel information packs

• Other arts / heritage venues

Online coverage

• Your own website / blog

• Telling stories, drawing people in, news updates, set building, styling practice

• Immediacy: type what you’d say out loud

• Guest posting e.g. LinkedIn, Medium - include call to action and link back

• I want your case studies!

http://museumsatnight.org.uk/category/case-study/

Social media

• Communicate directly, immediately

• Simple, authentic, human voice

• Track what’s being said about you, respond openly

• Connect with local community, interest groups

• What does success look like – conversation, follower numbers, ticket sales, post-visit comments and images?

Social media tracking tools

• Storify to save Tweets, republish stories

• Facebook and Twitter analytics

• Newsletter open rates, clickthroughs

• Google Analytics – time on site, sales funnel, where next?

• Take baseline measurements now!

Using Twitter

• Creating buzz, building community

• Connect with other museums, wider audiences

• Join global initiatives - #AskACurator, #MuseumSelfie

• Share local news and photos

• Respond to questions

• @MuseumsAtNight we’ll RT

• #MatN2016

Facebook

• Where are your target audience?

• Can create events, invite friends, they invite friends

• Share stories

• Track engagement – best times to post

More social media channels • YouTube – calls to action, subscribe: long-

tail content

• Vine

• Periscope

• Instagram

• Pinterest

• Flickr

Email newsletters

• Engaged, opted-in list

• Separate, targeted messages to public, teachers, Friends of museum

• Seasonal highlights, upcoming events

• Deepen relationship – perks e.g. launch invitations, competitions

• Cheap / free – Mailchimp, Aweber

• Involve your fans in your story

Growing your mailing list

• On your website – homepage, About, Contact

• In person at venue

• Signup sheet at external events

• Email signature

• Joint competitions

Word of mouth

• Good experiences recommended, bad experiences shared widely (TripAdvisor)

• Welcome and farewell in venue

• Word of mouth influencers – taxi drivers, trustees, Young Friends

• Online influencers – local bloggers, Facebook groups

Slow ticket sales? • Contact us early – 01273 623266

• Look at your event description – is it as full and exciting as possible? Is it clear who would enjoy this event?

• Walk through your user’s buying journey

• Chase up all press releases

• Event promotion tips http://museumsatnight.org.uk/marketing-pr/3-days-to-go-9-top-

event-marketing-tips/

• Ticket giveaway – radio, newsletter

On the day

• Don’t worry about number of Facebook attendees

• Tweet your preparations

• Share your wifi code at the event

• Invite visitors to tweet / instagram / film themselves on the night using hashtag #MatN2016

• Designated selfie spot!

• Visitor surveys, join mailing list

Follow-up coverage

• Share a quick run-down of your event: what happened that was quirky, new, exciting and different?

• Top line stats: visitor numbers

• Quotes from the night

• Future plans “Our next Late is on 17 June, tickets on sale now!”

• Link to others’ coverage, blog posts etc

• Share your images

– Invite visitors to tag themselves on Facebook, tweet / instagram their reviews and pics with #MatN2016

Any questions?

Thank you!