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![Michelle
Wong
Late-‐Night
Event
Experiences
and
Repeat
Visits
18
Figure
1.
Visual
representation
of
Eric
Kuhn’s
hierarchy
of
desires,
in
the
style
of
Maslow’s
hierarchy
of
needs.
Late-‐night
events
have
become
increasingly
popular
because
they
offer
visitors
the
opportunity
to
experience
the
enlightenment
that
Kuhn
talks
about.32
There
is
no
other
leisure
activity
that
can
offer
the
same
experience
as
a
late-‐night
event
at
a
museum.
As
Robert
Hulse
puts
it,
“[the]
easy
access
of
modern
encapsulation
of
TV,
film
and
entertainment
leaves
some
people
wanting
something
immediate
and
unusual
and
less
sanitized
and
packaged.”33
As
stated
before,
consumers
have
a
wide
array
of
leisure
choices,
but
they
are
inundated
with
similar
activities
with
few
options
for
something
significantly
different.
When
going
out
to
the
pub
or
the
nightclub,
you
know
what
to
expect,
but
when
going
to
a
museum
at
night,
the
museum
presents
itself
in
a
completely
different
light.
Expectations
of
going
to
a
museum
will
be
discussed
further
in
32
Neil
Kotler
and
Phillip
Kotler,
“Can
Museums
Be
All
Things
to
All
People?
Missions,
Goals,
and
Marketing’s
Role,”
in
Museum
Marketing
&
Management,
eds.
Richard
Sandell
et
al.
(London:
Routledge,
2007),
321.
33
Hulse,
Personal
Correspondence,
21
Jun
2013.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/9541671b-0695-4237-b4da-3183a96c1709-151103001653-lva1-app6891/85/Michelle-Wong-MA-Dissertation-2013-18-320.jpg)
![Michelle
Wong
Late-‐Night
Event
Experiences
and
Repeat
Visits
19
Chapter
Two,
when
looking
at
how
these
expectations
contribute
to
the
overall
visitor
experience.
“They
[Museums
at
night]
have
an
exclusive
feel
to
them,
giving
adults
a
venue
away
from
family
life
that
is
grown
up
but
not
too
serious-‐
and
crucially
an
alternative
to
the
pub.”34
This
is
one
of
the
advantages
that
museums
have
over
a
typical
night
out
that
involves
food,
drinks
and
possibly
dancing.
Museums
can
easily
take
the
characteristic
elements
of
pubs
and
nightclubs
and
put
them
inside
the
museum
as
part
of
a
late-‐night
event.
To
their
detriment,
and
the
museum’s
fortune,
other
entertainment
options
are
incapable
of
recreating
collections
of
interesting
objects
as
vast
as
museum
collections,
making
this
experience
particularly
unique.
It
is
these
collections
of
rare,
authentic
objects
and
the
interpretation,
that
offer
a
rich,
multi-‐dimensional
sensory
experience
that
only
museums
can
provide.35
With
research
showing
that
different
types
of
visitors
focus
on
different
kinds
of
experiences
and
that
most
museum
visitors
are
looking
for
a
range
of
experiences,36
late-‐night
events
make
for
the
perfect
occasion
to
satisfy
multiple
desires.
An
issue
that
museums
often
face
is
finding
a
balance
between
presenting
the
permanent
exhibitions
to
tourists
and
out-‐of-‐towners
against
providing
new
programming
that
appeals
to
frequent
visitors.37
It
is
argued
here
that
late-‐night
events
can
be
a
middle
ground.
Not
only
will
tourists
be
given
the
opportunity
to
see
the
permanent
exhibitions,
but
they
will
also
be
presented
with
the
chance
to
experience
a
night
out
in
a
new
city.
Meanwhile,
those
that
34
Rebecca
Jacobs,
Activities
and
Events
Officer,
William
Morris
Gallery,
Personal
Correspondence,
2
Jul
2013.
35
Kotler
and
Kotler,
Museum
Strategy
&
Marketing,
361.
36
Ibid,
34.
37
Ibid,
360.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/9541671b-0695-4237-b4da-3183a96c1709-151103001653-lva1-app6891/85/Michelle-Wong-MA-Dissertation-2013-19-320.jpg)
![Michelle
Wong
Late-‐Night
Event
Experiences
and
Repeat
Visits
20
frequent
the
museum
will
be
exposed
to
the
collections
in
a
new
and
hopefully
interesting
way,
while
also
exploring
the
museum
in
a
more
social
context,
for
example
with
food
and
drink
in
hand.
Another
characteristic
of
late-‐night
events
that
makes
them
so
appealing
to
the
public
is
that
they
are
malleable
in
the
sense
that
visitors
can
make
it
into
the
kind
of
evening
they
want
it
to
be.
In
2001,
a
study
was
undertaken
that
discussed
five
types
of
“out-‐of-‐home”
activities
that
people
liked
to
engage
in:
1)
Big
night
out,
2)
Specific
hooks,
3)
After
work,
4)
Catching
up,
and
5)
Family
day
out.38
No
matter
the
type
of
late-‐night
event,
whether
it
is
intended
for
adults
only
or
if
it
is
for
all
ages,
they
can
be
categorized
as
all
of
these
types
of
activities.
If
you
are
looking
for
a
big
night
out,
they
can
provide
you
with
food,
drinks
and
dancing,
with
the
potential
of
meeting
new
people.
Late-‐night
events
are
often
themed,
according
to
the
exhibitions
and
collections
being
shown,
so
they
provide
that
“specific
hook”
needed
to
justify
going
out.
Whether
you
are
going
out
after
work
with
colleagues
or
catching
up
with
friends
or
family,
late-‐
night
events
provide
an
ideal
social
atmosphere
that
allows
you
to
relax
and
chat
while
also
engaging
in
interesting
experiences.
The
museum
will
often
offer
a
number
of
interactive
activities,
but
it
also
allows
for
visitors
to
walk
around
the
museum
at
their
own
pace,
enabling
visitors
to
wind
down
after
a
long
day
at
work.
The
museum
at
night
provides
a
social
scene
but
without
the
extremely
loud
music
and
overcrowded
space
that
one
often
finds
at
a
pub
or
a
nightclub.
As
Rebecca
Jacobs,
Activities
and
Events
Officer
for
the
William
Morris
Gallery,
puts
it,
“[Late-‐night
events]
tap
into
the
hunger
for
places
to
meet
others,
date
38
Curry
and
Stanier,
Report
from
the
AMA
Conference
2002.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/9541671b-0695-4237-b4da-3183a96c1709-151103001653-lva1-app6891/85/Michelle-Wong-MA-Dissertation-2013-20-320.jpg)
![Michelle
Wong
Late-‐Night
Event
Experiences
and
Repeat
Visits
29
intimidating,
elitist
and
stuffy,66
proving
that
museums
need
to
make
an
effort
to
make
themselves
a
more
inviting
space
to
enter.
While
these
contexts
directly
influence
how
a
museum
visitor
experiences
the
museum,
there
are
other
factors
that
also
contribute
to
the
overall
experience.
The
museum
experience
must
be
considered
in
totality,
from
the
moment
someone
thinks
about
visiting
the
museum
to
the
recollection
of
the
experience
possibly
years
later.67
The
first
impressions
are
equally
as
important
as
the
final
impressions
and
this
pre-‐visit
often
begins
with
the
online
experience.
As
such,
Nina
Simon
argues,
“the
ability
to
successfully
set
a
powerful
and
useful
expectation
for
museum
experiences
is
MORE
[sic]
valuable
than
the
ability
to
extend
said
experience.”68
An
easy
way
for
a
museum
to
make
a
good
first
impression,
according
to
Simon,
is
to
ensure
that
the
museum’s
website
is
effective
and
easy
to
use.69
The
link
to
the
museum’s
late-‐night
programming
should
be
easy
to
find
because,
as
stated
in
Chapter
One,
leisure
time
is
a
precious
commodity
and
thus
if
the
event
details
are
difficult
to
find,
a
potential
visitor
would
be
discouraged
from
attending,
based
on
the
fact
that
they
could
not
find
the
relevant
information.
For
example,
when
comparing
the
websites
for
the
Victoria
&
Albert
Museum
and
the
Tate,
the
V&A
has
made
the
information
for
their
Friday
Lates
easily
accessible
from
the
main
page,
while
it
is
much
more
time
consuming
and
complicated
to
find
information
about
Late
at
66
Kotler
and
Kotler,
Museum
Strategy
and
Marketing,
100.
67
Falk
and
Dierking,
The
Museum
Experience
Revisited,
23.
68
Nina
Simon,
“Setting
Expectation:
The
Power
of
the
Pre-‐Visit,”
Museum
2.0,
accessed
17
Jun
2013,
museumtwo.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/setting-‐expectations-‐power-‐of-‐pre-‐visit.html,
8
Jan
2008.
69
Ibid.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/9541671b-0695-4237-b4da-3183a96c1709-151103001653-lva1-app6891/85/Michelle-Wong-MA-Dissertation-2013-29-320.jpg)
Michelle Wong - MA Dissertation 2013
- 1. Please, Come Again! How Visitor Experiences at Late-‐Night Events Encourage Repeat Visits By Michelle Wong Masters Dissertation University of Leicester School of Museum Studies 2013
- 2. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 2 Abstract. Late-‐night events have become increasingly popular with cultural and heritage institutions of all sizes. It is a new phenomenon and despite being useful for attracting new audiences, there is still very little research about their potential to contribute to an institution’s broader goals and objectives. As attracting repeat visitors is a big issue for museums today, the purpose of this dissertation therefore is to look at how late-‐night events can encourage repeat visits to the museum. The environment of a late-‐night event is ideal for informal, social learning and thus fulfills the museum’s educational purpose. The unique visitor experiences of late-‐night events yield memorable moments that help to change the perception of the museum. In turn, this encourages visitors to attend more of these events. Science Museum Lates and the Brunel Museum’s Midnight Apothecary events exemplify how institutions of all sizes are capable of capitalizing on the potential of late-‐night events. This research contributes to the small body of literature about late-‐night events by looking at these new offerings within the museum sector in a broader context in which they can help institutions reach set goals and objectives. Word Count. 13,861 words
- 3. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 3 Table of Contents List of Figures ...................................................................................................................... 4 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... 5 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 6 Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 8 Dissertation Summary .............................................................................................................. 9 Chapter One: History of Late-‐Night Events and Their Rise in Popularity .... 13 The Importance of Audience Research ............................................................................... 13 Late-‐Night Events as a New Offering ................................................................................... 15 Fulfilling the Museum’s Purpose .......................................................................................... 21 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 25 Chapter Two: Visitor Experiences at Late-‐Night Events .................................... 27 Understanding the Visitor Experience ................................................................................ 27 How Visitor Experiences Influence Potential Repeat Visitors ...................................... 31 Expectations ............................................................................................................................................ 32 Social Media ............................................................................................................................................. 34 Satisfaction .............................................................................................................................................. 39 The Effects of Late-‐Night Events ........................................................................................... 42 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 44 Chapter Three: Late-‐Night Events of Every Size ................................................... 45 Lates at the Science Museum ................................................................................................. 45 Midnight Apothecary at the Brunel Museum .................................................................... 53 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 60 Future Research and Limitations .............................................................................. 61 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 63 Appendix ............................................................................................................................ 66 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 68
- 4. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 4 List of Figures Figure 1. Visual representation of Eric Kuhn’s hierarchy of desires, in the style of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. ................................................................................. 18 Figure 2. Cycle of expectations and satisfaction. ............................................................... 31 Figure 3. Science Museum tweet from the “An evening dedicated to surgery” Lates .................................................................................................................................. 36 Figure 4. Cockroach tour at the “Science of Comedy” Lates, 26 Jun 2013. ............. 49 Figure 5. Drinks menu at the Midnight Apothecary’s first birthday celebration, as part of Museums At Night 2013. ........................................................................... 54 Figure 6. The atmosphere at Midnight Apothecary. ......................................................... 57
- 5. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 5 Acknowledgements I would like to thank all of the tutors at the School of Museum Studies for providing an incredible learning environment throughout the year, and a special thanks to both Paul Martin and Richard Sandell for their guidance during my studies. My thanks are also extended to Catherine Braithwaite, who sparked not only my interest in late-‐night events, but in museum marketing in general. I am extremely grateful for the various museum professionals who took the time to answer my emails regarding their late-‐night events, in particular Anthony Richards at the Science Museum and Robert Hulse at the Brunel Museum. Without their contributions, my research would have lacked the evidence needed to substantiate my arguments. To my fellow classmates and dear friends, without you, I would never have survived the long hours spent at the library. Thank you for maintaining my sanity. Last, but definitely not least, I would like to thank my family. To my parents, Donald and Maisie, whose unending support I could not do without, and to my younger brother Christopher, who had the pleasure of spending hours proofreading my work. Without you guys, I would not be where I am today.
- 6. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 6 Introduction “In the daytime, then, when we enter a museum, we anticipate finding something to marvel at. We want to see magical and strange objects, to hear tales from different worlds and different times. We already enter a place of wonders, which shifts into a stranger landscape yet when the lights go off, and night falls.” 1 -‐ Jenny Walklate As Jenny Walklate states in the above quote, museums are places of wonder, offering the opportunity to step outside of one’s daily routine and step into a world that is completely different from the norm. Now imagine this strange world at night, with the lights off, the air full of mystery and music, a drink in your hand, surrounded by friends. This is the environment that a late-‐ night event visitor encounters when they visit a museum at night. Late-‐night events at museums2 have become increasingly popular with both museum professionals and the public. For museum professionals, they are a proven means of attracting new audiences that would not normally visit the museum,3 and for the public, late-‐night events take a place that is usually very sterile and seemingly unwelcoming and turn it into a social venue for people who are looking for an enjoyable night out. Whilst late-‐night events are excellent for attracting new audiences to museums,4 there is very little information or 1 Jenny Walklate, “Guest post: Jenny Walklate describes the experience of a museum at night,” Museums at Night Blog, accessed 3 Jun 2013, http://museumsatnight.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/guest-‐post-‐jenny-‐walklate-‐describes-‐the-‐ experience-‐of-‐a-‐museum-‐at-‐night/, 16 Feb 2010. 2 For the purposes of this dissertation, I mean to encompass and include all different types of cultural and heritage institutions when referring solely to museum. 3 Rebecca Atkinson, “Why Hold Late-‐Night Events?” Museum Practice, accessed 3 Jun 2013, http://www.museumsassociation.org/museum-‐practice/late-‐night-‐events/14122012-‐why-‐ hold-‐late-‐night-‐events, 14 Dec 2012. 4 Ibid.
- 7. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 7 literature about how these events support institutional goals. My dissertation will attempt to address this issue by looking at how the visitor experience at late-‐night events can help museums gain repeat visitors. Museums are increasingly struggling to get visitors through their doors more than once, and with the added pressure from outside bodies, mainly those funding the museum, to get higher visitor numbers,5 this has become a major concern for many institutions. A way in which many museums, particularly smaller institutions, are able to attract repeat visitors is by varying their programmes.6 The adoption of late-‐night events has been a welcome addition to museum programming and, emerging at a point in time where museums have started to lose their appeal to the majority of the public,7 these events are an ideal way for museums to show themselves in a different, more exciting and appealing light. In terms of capturing repeat visitors, the visitor experience plays a crucial part in the decision-‐making process of the public when deciding whether or not to return to a museum. Since there is a gap in academic literature surrounding the impact that the visitor experience can have on repeat visitors, I am interested in looking at how museums can encourage increased numbers of repeat visits by focusing on their visitor experiences, and crucially how late-‐ night events can enhance those experiences. Whilst late-‐night events may take high levels of staff time and effort to put together, this paper will argue that the potential results are worth the resources being put into them. 5 Fiona McLean, Marketing the Museum (London: Routledge, 1997), 37. 6 Robert Hulse, Director, Brunel Museum, Personal Correspondence, 21 Jun 2013. 7 Nina Simon, The Participatory Museum, accessed 14 Jul 2013, http://www.participatorymuseum.org/preface/.
- 8. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 8 Methodology The primary methodology for this paper is literature review. While researching for this dissertation, I found a wide range of academic texts relating to museum audiences and the visitor experience. They are popular topics within the museum studies oeuvre and a number of authors have written on the subject8. The problem that I encountered was with locating academic texts regarding late-‐night events. Because this phenomenon is relatively new, there is very little research available. Currently, the main body of research regarding late-‐night events is a series of online articles by Rebecca Atkinson on the Museums Association website.9 While it is a small resource, the information provided in these articles is important in developing a better understanding of late-‐night events. The purpose of this dissertation is to provide a foundation of research which will enable museum professionals to grasp the full potential of late-‐night events, and how they can be used to attract repeat visitors. To supplement these secondary resources, I personally attended a variety of different museum late-‐nights and will use my critical observations in my case study analyses. I also successfully contacted various managers and museum 8 McLean, Marketing the Museum. Marilyn Hood, “Staying Away: Why people choose not to visit museums,” in Reinventing the Museum: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on the Paradigm Shift (2004). John H. Falk and Lynn D. Dierking, Learning From Museums (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2000). John H. Falk and Lynn D. Dierking, The Museum Experience (Washington: Whalesback Books, 1992). John H. Falk and Lynn D. Dierking, The Museum Experience Revisited (Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, inc., 2013). Sue Runyard and Ylva French, Marketing & Public Relations Handbook: For Museums, Galleries & Heritage Attractions (London: The Stationery Office, 1999). Neil and Philip Kotler, Museum Strategy & Marketing (San Fransisco: Jossey-‐Bass, 1998). 9 “Late-‐night events,” Museum Practice, accessed 18 Jul 2013, http://www.museumsassociation.org/museum-‐practice/late-‐night-‐events.
- 9. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 9 directors10 who have provided supporting information for both my theoretical research and my personal observations. Dissertation Summary In the first chapter of the dissertation, it is important to acknowledge the importance of audience research and how this information influences the decisions a museum makes about the nature of the programmes it will present to the public. Marilyn Hood’s research has proven invaluable when segmenting the general public and analyzing why some people may not visit museums. Even though this research was undertaken in 1980, it continues to be referred to in more contemporary texts. The age of this research has necessitated a broad approach to gathering information through literature, and several authors have been able to contribute to Hood’s work. While the work of John Falk and Lynn Dierking looks at the visitor experience and learning within the museum, they have addressed the topic of who is and is not visiting the museum and what contributes to their decision-‐making processes. These processes are very important when discussing how to encourage visitors to return to a museum. Neil Kotler and Philip Kotler have done some important work in regards to what museums can do to better address the needs of their audiences, both existing and potential. They look at different marketing strategies that take the unique selling points of museums and make various suggestions as to how 10 Robert Hulse, Director of the Brunel Museum; Rebecca Jacobs, Activities and Events Officer at the William Morris Gallery; Amanda Rice, Audience Insight Manager at the Royal Ontario Museum; and Anthony Richards, Head of Learning Operations at the Science Museum.
- 10. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 10 museums can attract new audiences, while still appealing to their existing audiences. I will apply their theoretical knowledge to late-‐night events and discuss how these events substantiate their research. The next section in Chapter One involves discussing how late-‐night events fulfill the needs and purpose of museums. Ruth Rentschler is important to acknowledge when examining the shift that has taken place regarding the overall purpose of museums. Supporting this, a number of other authors11 have argued how the main focus of museums is now on the public and the museum’s audience rather than solely on its collections.12 This move towards a more visitor-‐centric museum experience has meant that learning has remained a core purpose of the museum and I will go into detail about how late-‐night events contribute to a visitor’s learning within the museum. My arguments will be supported primarily by the works of Eilean Hooper-‐Greenhill and Falk and Dierking. These texts discuss how ‘museum education’ is now understood as ‘museum learning,’ which focuses more on learning processes and how to facilitate visitor learning.13 Various aspects of a museum’s late-‐night event can contribute to visitors’ learning in the museum and it is therefore important for museums to recognize this and to capitalize on the learning outcome potential. 11 Ruth Rentschler, “Museum Marketing, Understanding Different Types of Audiences,” in Museum Management and Marketing, eds. Richard Sandell, et al. (London: Routledge, 2007). Runyard & French, Marketing & Public Relations Handbook. ICOM, “Museum definition,” accessed 2 Jun 2013, icom.museum/the-‐vision/museum-‐definition/. McLean, Marketing the Museum. Falk and Dierking, Learning From Museums. Stephen Weil, “The Museum and the Public” in Museums and Their Communities, ed. Sheila Watson (New York: Routledge, 2007). 12 Rentschler, “Museum Marketing,” 349. 13 Eilean Hooper-‐Greenhill, Museums and Education: Purpose, Pedagogy, Performance (London and New York: Routledge, 2007), 4.
- 11. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 11 Chapter Two will focus specifically on the visitor experience of a late-‐ night event. Falk and Dierking are the most important authors to reference when discussing the visitor experience, as their research is the most up to date and influential. They previously published works back in the 1990s and early 2000s, but in early 2013, they published The Museum Experience Revisited, which reanalyzes their previous work, giving greater contemporary information. Their main argument still remains that there are many aspects of a museum visit that museums do not always consider when accessing their visitor experience; the visitor experience involves everything from the decision-‐making process to the pre-‐visit preparations, to the actual visit, to the post-‐visit experience. Museums may not be able to control all of these aspects, but they can surely influence them, in their attempt to create an overall more positive experience. Once this dissertation has established what the visitor experience is, and what contributes to it, it will look in-‐depth at the specific visitor experience of late-‐night events and how they affect the decision-‐making process when choosing to return to a museum. Museum professionals need to be aware of the endless cycle that is the visitor experience. The cycle begins with the expectations that visitors develop prior to coming to the museum and then, based on those expectations, a level of satisfaction is achieved. Word of mouth propels both aspects of the cycle and as a result, museums need to be highly aware of social media, as it has increased the impact that word of mouth can have on potential visitors. I will look at each of these elements in detail in Chapter Two before analyzing specific elements of a late-‐night event that would improve a visitor experience, and thus, encourage repeat visits.
- 12. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 12 In Chapter Three, I will analyze the Lates at the Science Museum due to them being the first institution to more fully explore and develop the idea of nighttime events at museums.14 In an interview with Anthony Richards, the Head of Learning Operations and a key figure in the creation of the Lates, he indicated a number of components that make for successful late-‐night events that attract new and repeat audiences for any size museum. I will then look at the Brunel Museum’s Midnight Apothecary programme and how it differs from the Lates, but is equally successful in attracting repeat visitors. I had the pleasure of attending both the Science of Comedy Lates in June 2013 and the Midnight Apothecary’s first birthday celebration during the Museums At Night festival in May 2013. I thoroughly enjoyed both events, and they have provided me with my own visitor experience and also critical personal observations that support my argument of how both museums create positive visitor experiences that help compel visitors to return to the museum. In the concluding section of my dissertation, I will address the limitations encountered when researching this subject and how future research could have a significant impact on the better understanding of late-‐night events and what they are capable of achieving. Because these types of events are still relatively new and increasing in popularity, it is important to continue researching their various aspects and their inevitable influence in how the public now uses museums. 14 Anthony Richards, Head of Learning Operations, Science Museum, interview by Michelle Wong, personal interview (London: 9 Jul 2013).
- 13. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 13 Chapter One: History of Late-‐Night Events and Their Rise in Popularity This first chapter will discuss the overall importance of audience research within museums, and how late-‐night events are a new offering resulting from this information. Without the information gained from audience research, museum managers may not have recognized the need to broaden their offerings to include late-‐night events. Such occurrences may not seem like they have a place within the museum, as it could be argued that the socializing aspect of the events may seem like it is taking the attention off of the collections and the educational purposes that museums have at their core, but with increasing amounts of research on learning, specifically within the museum environment, museums are acknowledging the fact that social learning is highly effective and are thus embracing the potential that late-‐night events hold. The Importance of Audience Research Audience research is important in studying new museum practices, like late-‐night events, because it is through this type of research that a museum is able to understand what its audiences are looking for. As has been previously discussed, there has been a shift towards focusing on the public rather than solely on the collections. This has made it necessary for museums to know exactly who are their public, both visitors and non-‐visitors alike, in order for them to effectively serve the public.15 Despite being published in 1983, Marilyn Hood’s article “Staying Away: Why people choose not to visit museums,” is still 15 McLean, Marketing the Museum, 90.
- 14. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 14 proving to be relevant and continues to be referenced in literature today,16 providing a basis to understanding museum audiences. Her research at the Toledo Art Museum found that the public can be segmented into three distinct audience groups, based on what leisure aspects they value the most: the frequent visitors, the occasional visitors and the non-‐participants.17 The frequent visitors, that visited museums more than three times a year, valued most having the opportunity to learn, having a challenge of new experiences and doing something worthwhile.18 The non-‐participants valued the three aspects that the frequent visitors valued the least: being with people (social interaction), actively participating and feeling comfortable and at ease with their surroundings.19 As expected, the last distinct audience segment, the occasional visitors, valued similar aspects as both frequent visitors and non-‐participants.20 Based on her research, museums are able to form a foundation for their understanding as to why some people do not visit the museum. Two decades later, Falk and Dierking have found evidence that furthers Hood’s research, showing that more than half of the public now values learning and doing something challenging and worthwhile in their leisure time, not just the small minority of frequent museum visitors.21 This is important because it reflects the change over the years in the public’s desires and how they see their leisure time. People now want more out of their leisure time and museums need to adapt accordingly. Late-‐night events have been employed by museums as a means of addressing these changes. Psychological access is one of the main arguments for 16 Falk and Dierking, Learning From Museums, 73 17 Ibid, 151. 18 Ibid, 153. 19 Ibid, 153. 20 Ibid, 154. 21 Ibid, 73.
- 15. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 15 why some of the public does not feel comfortable visiting a museum.22 With proper development, late-‐night events can help to overcome this sense of disenfranchisement and alienation. In past years, in addition to the psychological barriers, race and income have been sufficient reasons for why people were not visiting museums, but Falk and Dierking now argue that these are no longer reasons enough, and that it is more about how leisure time is perceived, and how it should be spent.23 How the public perceives museums will be addressed in detail in Chapter Two, but it is important to note now that museums have the ability to influence the public’s perceptions. Museums should not be intimidated by the fact that members of the public value different leisure aspects; they should instead use this to their advantage and should offer a larger variety of activities by looking at their collections and exhibitions from different perspectives24 to help develop a broader range of programmes. Especially with the information museums learn through audience research, the new and/or improved programmes should be better tailored to the needs and desires of the different audience segments.25 Late-‐Night Events as a New Offering Museums have developed late-‐night events as a new offering in their attempt to address the growing needs and desires of the public. These events 22 McLean, Marketing the Museum, 75. 23 Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience Revisited, 52. 24 Hood, Staying Away, 155. 25 Kotler and Kotler, Museum Strategy and Marketing, 100.
- 16. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 16 open museums during hours in which they are usually closed. People, who usually cannot visit the museum during regular opening hours, now have the chance to see the museum. During these events, museums will often provide the opportunity to purchase food and drinks, while offering a variety of activities, many of which relate to current exhibitions. Museums aim to present themselves in a different light and in doing so, they provide a unique and inspiring atmosphere that visitors cannot find elsewhere. It is important to look at the circumstances through which late-‐night events started being offered by museums because they emerged out of competitive necessity. Museums no longer compete solely with other cultural and heritage organizations, but they now face the challenge of competing with large commercial enterprises like shopping centres and the cinema, for a decreasing amount of the public’s leisure time.26 With an increase in working hours,27 leisure time has become a precious resource and people are now being more careful as to how their free time is spent.28 When there is only a limited amount of free time, people want to make sure that they are doing something that they find satisfying and enjoyable. Late-‐night events were developed in hopes of providing just that. 26 McLean, Marketing the Museum, 71. 27 “Stress Levels Increase as UK Employees Work More Hours, According to Towers Watson Study,” HR Review, accessed 17 Jul 2013, http://www.hrreview.co.uk/hr-‐news/health-‐ safety/stress-‐levels-‐increase-‐as-‐uk-‐employees-‐work-‐more-‐hours-‐according-‐to-‐towers-‐watson-‐ study/39039, 21 Sep 2012. 28 Andrew Curry and Robert Stanier, “Report from the AMA Conference 2002, Changing Worlds,” Culture Hive, accessed 26 Jun 2013, culturehive.co.uk/wp-‐content/uploads/2012/11/Report_-‐ _Changing_Worlds_-‐_Andrew_Curry,_Robert_Stanier_-‐_2002.pdf.
- 17. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 17 In today’s world of “absolute abundance in entertainment,”29 consumers have an unlimited number of leisure choices to choose from, but museums have the ability to offer something, which commercial ventures cannot. Andrew Curry and Robert Stanier call this the “disappointing gap,” the gap between the increased spending on leisure and the decreased level of happiness that the commercial world cannot fill because they are not willing to release their control over the consumers.30 When a consumer goes to the cinema, they have a controlled response to the film that they are going to see because the film company has structured it to extract a certain response. When visitors go into museums, the responses are uncontrolled and thus unique to each individual. Eric Kuhn makes the argument that it is these uncontrolled responses that give the arts the upper hand against the commercial world. In a Maslow-‐esque analysis (Figure 1), he argues that, with the increasing maturity of customers and cities, desires move from food to retail through to leisure then culture. Lastly, desires move onward to enlightenment, which can only be achieved through uncontrolled audience responses.31 29 Mike Masnick, “The Sky Is Rising: The Entertainment Industry Is Large & Growing,” techdirt, accessed 27 Jun 2013, www.techdirt.com/articles/20120129/17272817580/sky-‐is-‐rising-‐ entertainment-‐industry-‐is-‐large-‐growing-‐not-‐shrinking.shtml, 20 Jan 2012. 30 Curry and Stanier, Report from the AMA Conference 2002. 31 Ibid.
- 18. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 18 Figure 1. Visual representation of Eric Kuhn’s hierarchy of desires, in the style of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Late-‐night events have become increasingly popular because they offer visitors the opportunity to experience the enlightenment that Kuhn talks about.32 There is no other leisure activity that can offer the same experience as a late-‐night event at a museum. As Robert Hulse puts it, “[the] easy access of modern encapsulation of TV, film and entertainment leaves some people wanting something immediate and unusual and less sanitized and packaged.”33 As stated before, consumers have a wide array of leisure choices, but they are inundated with similar activities with few options for something significantly different. When going out to the pub or the nightclub, you know what to expect, but when going to a museum at night, the museum presents itself in a completely different light. Expectations of going to a museum will be discussed further in 32 Neil Kotler and Phillip Kotler, “Can Museums Be All Things to All People? Missions, Goals, and Marketing’s Role,” in Museum Marketing & Management, eds. Richard Sandell et al. (London: Routledge, 2007), 321. 33 Hulse, Personal Correspondence, 21 Jun 2013.
- 19. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 19 Chapter Two, when looking at how these expectations contribute to the overall visitor experience. “They [Museums at night] have an exclusive feel to them, giving adults a venue away from family life that is grown up but not too serious-‐ and crucially an alternative to the pub.”34 This is one of the advantages that museums have over a typical night out that involves food, drinks and possibly dancing. Museums can easily take the characteristic elements of pubs and nightclubs and put them inside the museum as part of a late-‐night event. To their detriment, and the museum’s fortune, other entertainment options are incapable of recreating collections of interesting objects as vast as museum collections, making this experience particularly unique. It is these collections of rare, authentic objects and the interpretation, that offer a rich, multi-‐dimensional sensory experience that only museums can provide.35 With research showing that different types of visitors focus on different kinds of experiences and that most museum visitors are looking for a range of experiences,36 late-‐night events make for the perfect occasion to satisfy multiple desires. An issue that museums often face is finding a balance between presenting the permanent exhibitions to tourists and out-‐of-‐towners against providing new programming that appeals to frequent visitors.37 It is argued here that late-‐night events can be a middle ground. Not only will tourists be given the opportunity to see the permanent exhibitions, but they will also be presented with the chance to experience a night out in a new city. Meanwhile, those that 34 Rebecca Jacobs, Activities and Events Officer, William Morris Gallery, Personal Correspondence, 2 Jul 2013. 35 Kotler and Kotler, Museum Strategy & Marketing, 361. 36 Ibid, 34. 37 Ibid, 360.
- 20. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 20 frequent the museum will be exposed to the collections in a new and hopefully interesting way, while also exploring the museum in a more social context, for example with food and drink in hand. Another characteristic of late-‐night events that makes them so appealing to the public is that they are malleable in the sense that visitors can make it into the kind of evening they want it to be. In 2001, a study was undertaken that discussed five types of “out-‐of-‐home” activities that people liked to engage in: 1) Big night out, 2) Specific hooks, 3) After work, 4) Catching up, and 5) Family day out.38 No matter the type of late-‐night event, whether it is intended for adults only or if it is for all ages, they can be categorized as all of these types of activities. If you are looking for a big night out, they can provide you with food, drinks and dancing, with the potential of meeting new people. Late-‐night events are often themed, according to the exhibitions and collections being shown, so they provide that “specific hook” needed to justify going out. Whether you are going out after work with colleagues or catching up with friends or family, late-‐ night events provide an ideal social atmosphere that allows you to relax and chat while also engaging in interesting experiences. The museum will often offer a number of interactive activities, but it also allows for visitors to walk around the museum at their own pace, enabling visitors to wind down after a long day at work. The museum at night provides a social scene but without the extremely loud music and overcrowded space that one often finds at a pub or a nightclub. As Rebecca Jacobs, Activities and Events Officer for the William Morris Gallery, puts it, “[Late-‐night events] tap into the hunger for places to meet others, date 38 Curry and Stanier, Report from the AMA Conference 2002.
- 21. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 21 venues and places to hang out with friends that are not focused on the drinking culture.”39 Late-‐night visitors are not choosing the museums because of its stereotype for being a place to learn, but they are picking the museums because they are offering something different and exciting. Late-‐night events give visitors, especially those that cannot visit the museum during its regular opening hours, the opportunity to step out of their normal lives and into a whole different world. As has been argued, “visitors do not expect intellectual thrills from attending a museum. They are, rather, hoping for surprise and excitement as they escape temporarily the predictable confines of existence.”40 After a day at work, visitors who choose to attend a late-‐night event at a museum want to do something fun that will take their minds off of the everyday and mundane. While the social experiences may be what late-‐night visitors are seeking, that does not mean that educational experiences are non-‐existent. As the Victoria & Albert’s Damien Whitmore, director of programming said, “The museum becomes a playground,” where visitors can have fun while learning at the same time.41 Fulfilling the Museum’s Purpose One of the main selling points of late-‐night events, and the primary way in which they fulfill museums’ educational purposes is that they are perfect environments to encourage informal, social learning. While visitors may be 39 Jacobs, Personal Correspondence, 2 Jul 2013. 40 Kotler and Kotler, Museum Strategy & Marketing, 174. 41 Atkinson, Why Hold Late-‐Night Events.
- 22. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 22 attending the event for the social aspects, learning is not always purposeful and sometimes we learn without meaning to.42 This informal type of learning can happen in various ways, whether it is someone in the group pointing out an interesting fact that they have come across or an activity that makes learning a part of the game. People often visit museum late-‐night events in social groups and these types of groups are the primary learning environment for humans.43 When walking around the museum, a venue full of strange and obscure objects, if something attracts the interest of someone in the group and it is then that the group will likely stop and learn about that object. Also, if there are a lot of interactive stations, friends will be interested in seeing what games each other are playing, thus contributing to each other’s informal learning. Based on my personal observations at late-‐night events at various London institutions, it would be very difficult to not learn something new while at a late-‐night event and the evaluations of the Science Museum Lates have even shown that visitors see learning as an integral part of the fun, leading to the term ‘geek chic.’44 The popularity of late-‐night events can be attributed to the fact that, in the twenty-‐first century, leisure experiences are increasingly about self-‐ actualization and free-‐choice learning,45 which lends itself to the informal type of learning mentioned above. At the museum, no one is forced to learn anything, but instead, visitors are given the opportunity to learn about various things at 42 Hooper-‐Greenhill, Museums and Education, 9. 43 Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience, 110. Also Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience Revisited, 45. 44 Rebecca Atkinson, “Evaluating Science Museum Lates,” in Museum Practice, accessed 3 Jun 2013, http://www.museumsassociation.org/museum-‐practice/late-‐night-‐events/14112012-‐ evaluating-‐late-‐night-‐events, 14 Dec 2012. 45 Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience Revisited, 44.
- 23. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 23 their discretion. Jacobs supports this argument by stating that late-‐night events have become increasingly popular with the public because they appeal to those “who are looking for something more than just a visit but less than a ‘learning experience.’”46 Late-‐night events create situations where visitors can engage in informal conversations with curators or experts and as a result people are learning through engaging and stimulating conversations rather than lectures. These interactions are important for learning because it is through language that thoughts can be developed and articulated.47 Rather than linear interactions with a screen or text panel, the visitor is able to have a complex conversation that is directed based on their curiosity and interests. Curiosity at late-‐night events is a common element because people, while talking with an expert, may want more detail about certain topics, or they might see a large group of people gathered around something and become curious about what is the focus of this attention. A cycle is then created where curiosity evolves to facilitate learning and learning, in exchange, occurs in order to satisfy this curiosity.48 The visitors at late-‐night events satisfy their curiosity by reading text panels, participating in various activities or speaking with a member of staff, which encourages more curiosity and thus starts the cycle again. While late-‐night events provide an evocative and enabling atmosphere for informal learning, the enjoyable setting of the event also enhances the effectiveness of this learning.49 46 Jacobs, Personal Correspondence, 2 Jul 2013. 47 Hooper-‐Greenhill, Museums and Education, 36. 48 Falk and Dierking, Learning From Museums, 115. 49 Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience, 110. Also Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience Revisited, 45.
- 24. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 24 The idea of combining enjoyment and learning is not a new idea. Charles Willson, an American museum pioneer, first presented the term ‘edutainment’ in the 1780s, to describe an attractive and entertaining presentation and design that can facilitate education goals.50 This relationship between entertainment and education has matured since Willson’s time and the two are now being recognized as working hand in hand with one another.51 As pointed out previously, visitors at Science Museum Lates have proven that learning is an integral part of the fun they have at late-‐night events. In recent studies, researchers have found that the dichotomy between enjoyment and education does not exist like some may believe and that most museum visitors see their visits as both fun and educational.52 Because enjoyment and education are now regarded simultaneously, it is easy to see how the term ‘edutainment’ has been disregarded by “most useful current books on museums and education.”53 Authors no longer see the need to distinguish education from enjoyment because they recognize the fact that education can be enjoyable. In fact, entertainment in the museum is used as a method of education because they now believe that learning is best achieved in enjoyable circumstances.54 When developing late-‐night events, museums must make sure that their educational offerings are not overshadowed by the entertainment aspects of the evening. If this happens, over time, visitors will no longer differentiate late-‐night events at museums from any other leisure activity. Essentially, late-‐night events 50 Kotler and Ktoler, Can Museums Be All Things to All People, 325. 51 Hooper-‐Greenhill, Museums and Education, 33. 52 Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience Revisited, 44. 53 Hooper-‐Greenhill, Museums and Education, 33. 54 Eilean Hooper-‐Greenhill, Museums and Their Visitors (London and New York: Routledge, 1994), 140.
- 25. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 25 will lose their unique selling point and this has the potential to upset some people. An example of a museum losing their educational focus is the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., in 1998 when the museum made significant enlargements to its Discovery Centre, redesigned its gift shop, expanded its restaurant and built a new 3D IMAX theatre to satisfy the entertainment desires of its public, who then argued the funds should have been used to refurbish the 50-‐year old displays.55 Museums need to recognize the line between themselves and large entertainment conglomerates, which primarily lies within their overall purpose. Late-‐night events may seem like they lean towards the entertainment end of the spectrum, but many museums make a concerted effort to bring the collections into their events.56 As Whitmore argues, the collection is always at the heart of the events and “the idea is to bring it alive for young audiences, to inspire creativity and to really get them to engage.”57 Conclusion This chapter has looked at how late-‐night events are new museum offerings that have been developed in response to audience research, how they came to be so popular with the public and why museums can justify having them as part of their programming. Audience research is important to discover the public’s needs and desires and whether or not these are being satisfied. It provides the supporting information for decisions made by museum managers 55 Kotler and Kotler, Can Museums Be All Things to All People, 326. 56 Hulse, Personal Correspondence, 21 Jun 2013. Also Jacobs, Personal Correspondence, 2 Jul 2013. 57 Atkinson, Why Hold Late-‐Night Events.
- 26. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 26 and without it, managers may not have come up with the idea of late-‐night events to try and attract a new, younger crowd into the museum. This chapter also explored the competitive environment within which late-‐night events emerged and how they offer a unique experience compared to any other leisure activity on the market. The fact that it is completely unique from anything else makes it more appealing to those looking for a way to spend their limited leisure time. Not only do late-‐night events successfully draw in new audiences, but they also reinforce the museum’s overall purpose to educate visitors. Social learning has been found to be one of the most effective means of learning,58 and so by bringing the entertainment aspects of a night out, like food, drinks and dancing, to the museum, a highly social learning space is created. The next chapter will now discuss the visitor experience of late-‐night events and how these experiences can encourage repeat visits to the museum. 58 Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience, 110. Also Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience Revisited, 45.
- 27. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 27 Chapter Two: Visitor Experiences at Late-‐Night Events Chapter Two will look at the various aspects that make up a visitor experience and how they contribute to whether or not someone makes a repeat visit to the museum. Based on this information, late-‐night events can be tailored by museums in their attempt to create positive experiences. Even before the turn of the century, Kotler and Kotler acknowledged the importance of the visitor experience and how it would determine whether visitors would return and recommend the museum to others.59 Expectations and satisfaction are both propelled by the word of mouth from visitors and they will be discussed in detail as they have significant impact on influencing decisions to return to a museum. This will be analyzed through the scope of late-‐night events and the unique experiences they provide audiences. Understanding the Visitor Experience Using Falk and Dierking’s “Interactive Experience Model” to analyze late-‐ night events will provide a solid grounding for understanding the visitor experience. This framework looks at the visitor experience within the visitor’s personal, social and physical contexts60 and thus gives insight into how visitor’s experience museums. These experiences are completely unique to each visitor, but for the sake of further understanding, it is necessary to find commonalities 59 Kotler and Kotler, Museum Strategy and Marketing, 43. 60 Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience, 2-‐3.
- 28. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 28 among them. The Interactive Experience Model is one way of achieving this.61 The personal context of a visitor’s experience consists of their previous experiences and knowledge that then influence their expectations.62 Every visitor is provided the opportunity to learn a wide variety of things in the museum, but their experience is unique to themselves based on their previous knowledge. The same information may be interpreted differently among the same social group based on personal beliefs and previous knowledge about the subject matter. The social context in which visitors come to museums is important when considering the people who come with the visitor and how many other people are at the museum can influence the overall visitor experience.63 A visitor may have a completely different experience when they are going to the museum with friends than when they come with their family. The role they play within their social group varies depending on whom they are with and consequentially influences the type of experience they have.64 Lastly, the physical context influences a visitor’s experience because aspects such as the architecture and the “feel” of the building can affect the visitor’s behavior and influence their memory of the experience.65 When the visitor enters the museum, more often than not, they are surrounded by silence. This can be unsettling for some visitors and this unease then sets a precedent for any future visits. In fact, many members of the public who do not come to museums see them as 61 Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience, 1. Also Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience Revisited, 29. 62 Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience, 2. Also Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience Revisited, 27. 63 Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience, 3. Also Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience Revisited, 27. 64 Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience Revisited, 149. 65 Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience, 3. Also Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience Revisited, 28.
- 29. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 29 intimidating, elitist and stuffy,66 proving that museums need to make an effort to make themselves a more inviting space to enter. While these contexts directly influence how a museum visitor experiences the museum, there are other factors that also contribute to the overall experience. The museum experience must be considered in totality, from the moment someone thinks about visiting the museum to the recollection of the experience possibly years later.67 The first impressions are equally as important as the final impressions and this pre-‐visit often begins with the online experience. As such, Nina Simon argues, “the ability to successfully set a powerful and useful expectation for museum experiences is MORE [sic] valuable than the ability to extend said experience.”68 An easy way for a museum to make a good first impression, according to Simon, is to ensure that the museum’s website is effective and easy to use.69 The link to the museum’s late-‐night programming should be easy to find because, as stated in Chapter One, leisure time is a precious commodity and thus if the event details are difficult to find, a potential visitor would be discouraged from attending, based on the fact that they could not find the relevant information. For example, when comparing the websites for the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Tate, the V&A has made the information for their Friday Lates easily accessible from the main page, while it is much more time consuming and complicated to find information about Late at 66 Kotler and Kotler, Museum Strategy and Marketing, 100. 67 Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience Revisited, 23. 68 Nina Simon, “Setting Expectation: The Power of the Pre-‐Visit,” Museum 2.0, accessed 17 Jun 2013, museumtwo.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/setting-‐expectations-‐power-‐of-‐pre-‐visit.html, 8 Jan 2008. 69 Ibid.
- 30. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 30 Tate events.70 As a result of this, it may be easier, and more likely, for a visitor to attend a Friday Late at the V&A because the information is available to them without the hassle of looking through various pages of the website. Getting to the museum for a late-‐night event, specifically the space between the transit station or car park to the front door, is another aspect of the visitor experience that needs to be addressed. This is valuable space that can be used to the museum’s benefit since a visitor’s sense of orientation ultimately influences their experience.71 Signage to begin orientating visitors along their walk from the underground station, or the car park will go a long way in creating a sense of comfort. This can include signs showing the way to the entrance, signs with the prices of food and drinks or signs with what activities are available that night. These signs will also serve as a promotional tool, as it will inform passers-‐ by of an event that they may not have known about. An example of a museum that could have taken better advantage of this potential is the William Morris Gallery. The gallery participated in Museums At Night 2013 by holding “Vintage Bop & Beats,” a 1960s themed event to coincide with the “David Bailey’s East End Faces” exhibition. In my own visiting experience, I found that in walking up to the building, I would not have guessed that there was anything going on inside because there was no indication that there was a free event taking place. The museum is still in the developing stages of their late-‐night programming,72 and so this is a small aspect of the museum experience that is important but easily amendable. 70 Victoria & Albert Museum, “Homepage,” accessed 6 Jul 2013, www.vam.ac.uk. Also Tate, “Homepage,” accessed 6 Jul 2013, www.tate.org.uk. 71 Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience Revisited, 179. 72 Jacobs, Personal Correspondence, 2 Jul 2013.
- 31. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 31 How Visitor Experiences Influence Potential Repeat Visitors Attention to detail must be paid to ensure positive visitor experiences because they will in large part determine whether visitors will return or recommend the museum to others.73 When it comes to late-‐night events, the two key aspects of the visitor experience that prove to be influential to this decision are the expectations one brings to the museum and the level of satisfaction upon their departure. These two things create a cycle (Figure 2), in which word of mouth propels both spectrums. As the cycle suggests, expectations are formed primarily through reviews and information that a potential visitor has learned through word of mouth. It is through this same means that the level of satisfaction of a visitor is expressed, which inevitably influences the expectations of other potential visitors. Figure 2. Cycle of expectations and satisfaction. 73 Kotler and Kotler, Museum Strategy & Marketing, 43. Expectations Word of Mouth Satisfaction Word of Mouth
- 32. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 32 Expectations “When you set an expectation, you frame an experience.”74 Here, Simon clearly explains the relationship between the visitor experience and the expectations coming into the museum. Depending on the expectations they have, visitors come to the museum with a preconceived positive or negative notion as to how their visit is going to unfurl. If a visitor comes into a late-‐night event expecting it to be fun and exciting, they are starting their museum experience in a positive way. While this may be a good thing, it also adds pressure on the museum to deliver since studies show that expectations for leisure activities are growing.75 It is easy to understand that, if a person picks a museum’s late-‐night event over a typical night at the pub, they will expect more out of the museum experience than that of the pub. Because it is a seen as a unique experience, the expectations for late-‐night events may consequentially grow even more. Museums need to pay attention to its visitors’ expectations particularly because if those expectations are not met, especially the basic ones, it results in a loss of trust.76 This sense of trust is founded on the belief that expectations would be met and the person would not be disappointed. If the expectations are not met, that experience will leave a lasting impression and will affect whether or not that same activity will be done again. Museums should try to influence their visitor expectations because this would allow for more realistic expectations, in turn helping them to keep track of what their visitors are expecting. Word of mouth is the most influential 74 Simon, Setting Expectation. 75 Curry and Stanier, Report from the AMA Conference 2002. 76 Curry and Stanier, Report from the AMA Conference 2002.
- 33. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 33 medium of encouraging people to visit museums,77 and so it has a lot of influence over what kind of expectations are developed. As such, it is very important for museums to be aware of what people are saying about their organization. Word of mouth cannot be completely controlled by museums and it is for this reason that it is highly valued by the public. This kind of second-‐hand information can be seen as more reliable, solely because it is not coming from the body trying to sell it. If two friends are talking about what they did the previous weekend and one tells the other about their positive trip to a museum’s late-‐night event, this kind of conversational suggestion may well constitute the museum’s single most effective source of publicity and public relations.78 Reviews for museum late-‐ night events, especially on different social media websites, are likewise believed to be objective and more credible because they are not coming directly from the museum itself.79 Despite this, the information that museums do put on various social media websites is important because it sets the very basic foundation for visitors’ expectations. Back in 1988, Roper Roll determined that people primarily turned to friends when seeking information that they end up acting upon and now, with the high accessibility of the Internet, this has only increased.80 With the use of social media websites especially, people are able to share their thoughts and opinions with essentially anyone who has access to the Internet. These will then be seen as objective, and will consequently shape visitor expectations. As a 77 Kotler and Kotler, Museum Strategy & Marketing, 117. 78 Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience Revisited, 87. 79 Ibid, 86. Also Andy Sernovit, “The Rising Importance of Word of Mouth,” accessed 17 Jun 2013, www.damniwish.com/the-‐rising-‐impo/. Also Kotler and Kotler, Museum Strategy & Marketing, 117. 80 Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience Revisited, 86.
- 34. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 34 result, museums must be active in monitoring the various sources of social media for word of mouth surrounding their organization. Since social media can be so influential to the museum’s well being, its significance has not been lost on them. Museum workers are recognizing the potential of social media and how it can be used to their advantage. Social Media When museums use social media to their benefit, it is not only a source of free promotion, but it is also a means of monitoring the word of mouth that is shaping visitors’ expectations. The content put on social media websites, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Flickr, could be interpreted differently than the content on the museum website if more informal tone is being used. This will make the museum seem friendlier, and as a result potential visitors will use such information as the foundation for their expectations. With regards to Facebook, museums can create event pages for any of their upcoming late-‐night events and because it is in a familiar format for many people, the event details will be easily found and processed. This promotes the event at no cost to the museum, and it gives the viewer a sense of what they can expect from their visiting experience. Based on the information provided on such pages, a potential visitor will begin to formulate their pre-‐visit expectations. By listing the activities available at the event, the viewer can see what offerings the museum has and, if they decide to attend, their expectations will be the result of what they read and see online. Because of this, museums need to make sure these pages are as appealing as possible.
- 35. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 35 Another popular means of social media that museums like to use to influence visitor expectations is Twitter. The 140-‐character limit in a tweet forces museums to drop the academic tone and instead adopt that of the masses. One of Twitter’s distinctive features is the hashtag,81 which makes finding tweets relevant to a museum much easier while also connecting people through one another’s experiences.82 When a hashtag is searched, all of the tweets with it appear and the user is then able to see who else is talking about the same thing as them. For the Royal Ontario Museum’s Friday Night Live events, they use the hashtag #FNLROM and throughout the event, tweets with that hashtag get broadcast onto the walls.83 This engages the visitors by having them share their experiences with other visitors and also their followers84 that did not attend and as a result, shape their expectations should they decide to attend a Friday Night Live. With the help of third-‐party services, like TweetBeep, and hashtags, museums can also be alerted to a user mentioning their name or hashtag. This makes it easy for museums to stay aware of the word of mouth that is spreading about their organization. A large number of late-‐night events at museums have also created their own hashtags for visitors to use,85 allowing both the museum and the broader public to see who is attending their events. Based on tweets about the event, others may decide that it is something they want to try in the future and will then form their expectations around these tweets. 81 A hashtag is when the # symbol is placed before key words or topics, enabling the tweet to be categorized accordingly. 82 Elizabeth P. Stewart, “Twitter and Your Organization,” in Twitter for Museums: Strategies and Tactics for Success: A Collection of Essays (Edinburgh: MuseumsEtc, 2010), 50. 83 Cindy C., “Friday Night Live at the ROM,” The Urban Craze, accessed 24 Jun 2013, theurbancraze.com/hot-‐spots/venues/friday-‐night-‐live-‐at-‐the-‐rom/#.UciDST534tc, 12 Nov 2012. 84 A follower is a person who has selected to receive all of one user’s tweets. 85 The Tate uses the hashtag #LateAtTate, the National Gallery uses #FridayLates, the Science Museum uses #smLates, the Art Gallery of Ontario uses #AGO1st and the Royal Ontario Museum uses #ROMFNL.
- 36. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 36 Figure 3. Science Museum tweet from the “An evening dedicated to surgery” Lates As such, while Twitter is helping to promote events, it is simultaneously building expectations for potential future late-‐night visitors. For example, the “Mend a Broken Heart” event at the Science Museum in February 2013 recreated a full-‐size operating theatre for audiences to watch as a top heart surgeon talked them through an operation through an interactive Q&A session.86 The museum had a member of staff live tweeting while one of the sessions was taking place 86 “Mend a Broken Heart at the Science Museum’s February Lates with MasterCard,” Science Museum, accessed 7 Jul 2013, www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/about_us/press_and_media/press_releases/2013/02/February%2 0Lates.aspx, 10 Feb 2013.
- 37. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 37 and included a photo of the audience watching (Figure 3).87 There are a number of things this one tweet is doing. First, it is sharing with all of the Science Museum’s twitter followers what is going on at that moment in the museum. Twitter happens in real time and so it is more reactive than other online sources. A study states that real time information is more useful to people88 and in this case, someone who might be looking for something to do on that particular night may see this photo and decide that they should go to the Science Museum. This photo can also build expectations for future late-‐night visitors by showing potential visitors what kind of activities are available and how they differ from what is normally offered during the day. Instagram is another increasingly popular source of social media for the target audiences of late-‐night events and can be used to orientate visitors and influence their expectations prior to a visit. Instagram89 allows users to take photos, apply a variety of different filters and post these edited images with accompanying hashtags associated with the photo. After a mere 28 months after its creation early 2006, Instagram hit an 100 million mark for the number of active users, with the last ten million users joining within the span of a month.90 As it keeps growing, a large number of museums have followed suit. Like Twitter, Instagram requires very little time commitment and has the potential to orientate visitors before they enter the building. At the end of November 2012, 87 Science Museum (@ScienceMuseum), Twitter post, accessed 7 Jul 2013, https://twitter.com/sciencemuseum/status/306850194694221825/photo/1, 27 Feb 2013. 88 Laurence Hill, “What to Tweet About,” in Twitter for Museums: Strategies and Tactics for Success: A Collection of Essays, edited by Dana Allen-‐Greil, (Edinburgh: MuseumsEtc., 2010), 99. 89 Instagram, accessed 13 Jul 2013, http://instagram.com/. 90 Daniel Bates, “Instagram hits 100 million users, with 10 million joining the retro photo sharing service in the last MONTH,” Daily Mail Online, accessed 13 Jul 2013, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-‐2285331/Instagram-‐hits-‐100m-‐users-‐-‐reveals-‐ 10m-‐joined-‐retro-‐photo-‐service-‐MONTH.html, 27 Feb 2013.
- 38. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 38 the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto, Canada was one of the museums that successfully incorporated Instagram into their audience engagement by hosting Instagram tours. During these tours, the museum invited visitors to take photos of the different galleries and share them by using the hashtag “#instaROM.”91 This shows potential visitors what is inside the museum and thus what they can come to expect upon their arrival. Since then, the hashtag has become an umbrella hashtag to incorporate any photos taken at the ROM, allowing users to experience the museum from a variety of different angles and as a result, sparking their interest in visiting. Another social media website currently very popular with museums for sharing photos is Flickr, and this is primarily because it creates a sense of community among users, which contributes to positive visitor experiences and the spreading of positive word of mouth. Flickr seeks to make sharing photos as easy as possible with as many people as the user would like.92 This is an appealing service for museums because it is cheap, easy to use and there is a large and active community of users.93 Museums can create groups for their late-‐ night events, where they can upload photos to show potential visitors what goes on in the museum at night. Users are encouraged to join the Flickr group and to upload their own photos of events they have attended. Engaging the public in this way creates a positive relationship between the visitor and the museum and a sense of community among users, which contributes to a positive visitor 91 Ryan Dodge, “#instaROM,” ROM Blogs, accessed 13 Jul 2013, www.rom.on.ca/en/blog/instarom, 15 Nov 2012. 92 “About Flickr,” Flickr, accessed 8 Jul 2013, www.flickr.com/about/. 93 Jim Richardson, “Five Ways in Which Museums Are Using Flickr,” MuseumNext, accessed 8 Jul 2013, www.museumnext.org/2010/blog/five-‐ways-‐in-‐which-‐museums-‐are-‐using-‐flickr, 22 Dec 2009.
- 39. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 39 experience. An example of this is The National Museums of Scotland’s “RBS Museum Lates” group with 38 members (as of 8 July 2013). In total, these members have uploaded 1,013 photos and comment on each other’s photos on a somewhat regular basis.94 It is clear that these users enjoy attending the late-‐ night events and as a result, they become advocates through their use of Flickr. It is through their satisfying experiences at late-‐night events that result in their positive word of mouth, which then helps to shape other potential visitors’ expectations. Satisfaction A visitor’s level of satisfaction has the ability to translate into positive word of mouth, but visitors may not make this connection if their experience ends the moment they leave the museum. Because of this, museums need to encourage the recollection and rehearsal of these positive experiences. A study by David Anderson and Hiroyuki Shimizu that looked at visitors’ memories of the 1970 World Expo in Japan found that memories with a sense of fulfillment would be more likely to be rehearsed through reflection or conversation later in life, thus making them more vivid.95 If this is the case, the visitors that leave a late-‐night event feeling content with their level of satisfaction, they will be more likely to tell people around them, meanwhile making the memories more vivid and exciting in their own minds. This not only reinforces their own positive experience, thus making a return visit an appealing idea, but it also encourages 94 The National Museums of Scotland, “RBS Museum Lates,” Flickr, accessed 8 Jul 2013, www.flickr.com/groups/rbsmuseumlates/. 95 Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience Revisited, 203.
- 40. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 40 others to attend a late-‐night event as well. It could be this positive review of an event that pushes a person who has previously been to the museum during the day to visit again during the evening. If memories become more vivid through increased recollection, it is important for museums to keep late-‐night visitors engaged after they have left the museum because this could possibly increase the amount of word of mouth that these visitors then spread. To do this, museums are taking to social media, particularly those discussed earlier in this chapter, in their attempt to prolong these visitor experiences.96 On their Facebook page, museums can easily post photos that they took on the night of an event and ask for people to tag themselves97 in them. This will result in visitors looking through all of the photos, trying to find themselves, which will help them relive the event. Once they tag themselves in photos, these photos will also show up on their timeline98, where all of their friends can see them. Through this process, the museum is able to strengthen the memories of the event in the visitor’s mind while also reaching other potential visitors. With Twitter, museums will often ask for visitors to post photos that they took with a hashtag associated with the late-‐night event. This again engages the visitor’s memory of the event and it also exposes others to the photo and to the experience of the event. Through Twitter, one tweet has the potential of reaching an exponential number of people. As Laurence Hill explains, if one of the museum’s engaged followers has one hundred followers, each of 96 Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience Revisited, 286. 97 One of the features of Facebook allows users to “tag” photos, which essentially means associating a photo to their profile account. Once a photo is tagged, it will show up on their main account page. 98 A Facebook timeline is the page of a user’s account that shows their status updates and photos of them.
- 41. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 41 whom have their own one hundred followers, who also have one hundred followers, that results in a potential audience of one million.99 Another way in which museums prolong the museum experience is through Flickr competitions. After an event, museums will ask their visitors to upload their photos to a Flickr group, which will then be judged by members of the museum’s staff. Especially with the Museums at Night photo competition, the winning photos received a large amount of publicity, which was beneficial for not only the festival and museums, but also the visitor, whose name was posted with their photo.100 These competitions engage visitors in the same way in which Facebook or Twitter might, but with the added incentive of getting widespread recognition for their photographic skills. The cycle between expectations and satisfaction in Figure 2 starts again when visitors engage with museums after they leave the museum and share their experiences with others. Unless a visitor attends a late-‐night event with no previous knowledge about what it is and what it includes, visitors will always have some level of expectation when stepping into the museum. Based on those expectations, they will leave the museum with a level of satisfaction, which will influence the type of word of mouth they share with the people around them. These new potential visitors then base their expectations on what they have heard from those who have attend past events, thus restarting the cycle. Museums need to see expectations and overall satisfaction as highly dependent 99 Hill, What to Tweet About, 93. 100 Culture24, “Announcing the Museums at Night 2010 photo competition winners,” Museums at Night Blog, accessed 8 Jul 2013, museumsatnight.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/announcing-‐the-‐ museums-‐at-‐night-‐2010-‐photo-‐competition-‐winners/25 Aug 2010.
- 42. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 42 of each other and recognize the large impact that word of mouth has on both of these. The Effects of Late-‐Night Events The visitor experience within the context of a late-‐night event enhances the museum’s attempt in gaining repeat visitors because the social nature of the occurrences makes them more memorable, and thus making it appealing to return to the museum. Research has shown that the social aspect of a normal museum visit is rarely, if ever, forgotten and that sometimes it is all a visitor remembers about the visit.101 Museums can use this to their advantage when holding late-‐night events because their visitors, who automatically form long-‐ term memories of events and places without knowing it,102 will then associate a visit to the museum with a fulfilling evening combined with the characteristics of a pub or nightclub. The informal atmosphere of the museum in the evening allows for easy socializing among visitors, putting them at ease while also making the event memorable. After their experience at the late-‐night event and with proper encouragement from the museum, visitors will recount their experiences at the museum and as Anderson and Shimizu argue,103 these memories will become more vivid and will make other late-‐night events very appealing. 101 Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experiences, 54. Also Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience Revisited, 149. 102 Falk and Dierking, Learning From Museums, 65. 103 Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience Revisited, 203.
- 43. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 43 Along with creating long lasting memories, late-‐night events are highly effective in changing the perception of museums among the public, which helps to encourage repeat visits. Institutions, which have in the past seemed elitist and formal to sections of the public now become more social with a new purpose and are presented in a completely different light,104 making them much more inviting. This preconceived idea about the nature of museums was identified as one of the reasons why some people were not visiting the museum, but late-‐night events offer a drastically different atmosphere that can appeal to these people. For some members of the public, many museums, especially big national museums like the Natural History Museum, the Tate and the V&A, may seem as though they are always crowded with school groups and children. This perception is challenged by late-‐night events, which are usually 18+ only. This makes the museum much more inviting for those who want to enjoy the museum but without the noisy children. Museum visitors play an increasingly influential role in shaping the perception of museums because the word of mouth they spread not only affects expectations and levels of satisfaction, but it also changes the museum’s perception. When they talk about the event on any social media website, they are effectively shaping the perception of the museum for those in their social group.105 Late-‐night events give museums the opportunity to take on contemporary, and sometimes controversial, themes that they would not be able to do during regular opening hours. By doing so, they are becoming relevant for 104 Rosie Clarke, “Shaping 24: Interview with Rosie Clarke, Campaigns Officer at Culture 24,” accessed on 14 Apr 2013, www.shaping24.eu/en/conference/marketing-‐seminar-‐speakers/-‐ interview-‐rosie-‐clarke. 105 Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience Revisited, 65.
- 44. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 44 their target audiences and the visitors are recognizing this and are spreading the word to others through various social media outlets. What potential visitors hear and read online not only helps to form their expectations, but it also influences how they perceive the museum. The V&A reports that, as a result of their late-‐night events, they are now seen as contemporary, alive and sexy.106 This exemplifies how late-‐night events can change how the public perceives a museum and thus make it relevant again. Conclusion In this chapter, the contexts in which a visitor experiences the museum has been explored and discussed, and how it needs to be understood in its entirety to better understand why this experience can influence whether or not a visitor returns to the museum. A visitor experience is also based largely upon expectations that a visitor has before entering the museum and the level of satisfaction they have when they leave. Word of mouth is a propelling component for both of these and as a result, creates a cycle between the two. Expectations, based on word of mouth, influence the visitor’s level of satisfaction, which results in the word of mouth that inevitably influences others’ expectations and thus restarts the cycle. Lastly, we looked at how visitor experiences at late-‐night events in particular can help to encourage visitors to return to the museum, whether it is during regular opening hours or for another late-‐night event. 106 Atkinson, Why Hold Late-‐Night Events.
- 45. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 45 Chapter Three: Late-‐Night Events of Every Size The Science Museum was the first museum in the United Kingdom to attempt late-‐night events, in scale and in scope, like the public knows them now.107 This chapter will therefore look at the Lates programme, and how it influenced the rest of the museum community. As late-‐night offerings have developed, an increasing number of museums began to acknowledge their potential benefits and, as a result, an increasing number of late-‐night events are being held. While not all museums can afford to throw large events like the Science Museum, smaller institutions are also able to take the idea and objectives of late-‐night events and make them equally as successful. The Brunel Museum’s Midnight Apothecary events will be examined as such. These two case studies will show that museums of all sizes are capable of offering unique evening experiences that work towards fulfilling institutional goals and objectives. Lates at the Science Museum Through audience research, the Science Museum found that they were highly successful in attracting families and school groups, but that the adult segments, particularly young adults and professionals, were not attending the museum.108 As a result, Anthony Richards, Head of Learning Operations and supervisor for the Lates team, pitched the idea of holding an adults-‐only event 107 Richards, Personal Interview, 9 Jul 2013. 108 Ibid.
- 46. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 46 that would utilize the new Launchpad, an area built to help educate children through interactive games, in an adult-‐friendly manner.109 Many residents in London now have past experiences with the Science Museum from their childhood, but as they grow older, they see it as a place no longer for them, but instead for children. As a result, the Lates were developed in an attempt to “reacquaint them with an old friend,” and in late-‐2008, the Science Museum held their first Lates event.110 Now curated by an uncensored team of five people, all in their mid-‐20s, Lates take on contemporary, exciting and sometimes very controversial themes that allow the museum to show the public that they are not just for families and school groups.111 Experiencing one of these events is completely different from attending the museum during their regular opening hours. For one, the events are always 18+ only, meaning visitors are left assured that children will not be present and they can expect the content to be much more adult-‐themed.112 Because of this, Lates have proven to be extremely successful in bringing their targeted young adults and professionals into the museum, often for the first time in their adult lives.113 The Lates team, who are responsible for selecting the major themes for events, have no overseeing committee and therefore they are able to take on mature, contemporary and controversial themes that the museum otherwise would not be able to associate itself with. Consequently, the museum is slowly changing how the public perceives the museum. by demonstrating how they are 109 Richards, Personal Interview, 9 Jul 2013. 110 Ibid. 111 Ibid. 112 Ibid. 113 Atkinson, Evaluating Science Museum Lates.
- 47. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 47 relevant to their lives. Another way in which the Science Museum shows its relevancy is by being very conscious of the nature of late-‐night events and how quickly these type of events change, and so the museum is constantly experimenting with new activities to stay ahead of other events, both within and outside of the museum field.114 One way that they keep improving and innovating is by refusing to accept or settle for an event format.115 A new format, combined with a controversial theme, was employed by the museum for the Sexual Health night, held in September 2010. While they still held the standard activities, like the cockroach tours, speed dating and the pub quiz, the event also included an activity that required visitors to try and collect five wristbands with the five most common sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) on them. This was a highly interactive format and aimed to get the whole audience to participate in an activity together.116 As the museum tries out new formats, late-‐night visitors remain interested in attending more events because there are new activities to experience. While Lates are highly social events, they still fulfill the Science Museum’s educational mission to make sense of the science that shapes our lives117 by demonstrating that museums do not have to compromise their purpose in order to offer late-‐night events to the public. They simply take a different perspective.118 For the Sexual Health night, the underlying purpose of the 114 Richards, Personal Interview, 9 Jul 2013. 115 Ibid. 116 Ibid. 117 Science Museum, “Science Museum Group Annual Reports & Accounts 2011-‐2012,” accessed 16 Jul 2013, http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/about_us/smg/~/~/media/9A2AC1D349674D1CAAA0D3 AC75D6E201.ashx. 118 Hood, Staying Away, 155.
- 48. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 48 activity with the wristbands was educational. Richards says that STDs were an increasingly problematic issue among young adults at the time, and so the museum developed this activity to help educate them about those issues.119 Lates also provide, more generally, access to collections and interpretation, one-‐ to-‐one sessions with curators and experts, live participation and facilitated learning through many of the activities being held. Overall, Lates make science friendly and accessible while bringing up contemporary issues and showing science as part of society, thus fulfilling the museum’s purpose.120 Lates encourage learning by also offer a unique learning environment where enjoyment is an integral part of the learning process, allowing visitors to experience deeper levels of learning and remember more.121 As a result, the term ‘geek chic’ was coined to describe the type of experience one has at Lates.122 Richards warns museums to be careful not to go too far down the entertainment route and points out how all the activities held at Lates are related both to the theme of the night and to science in general.123 This is a perfect example of how museums use entertainment as a method of education, which Hooper-‐Greenhill argues is the best circumstance in which to learn.124 Being creative with the vehicle through which the museum presents its information is an important factor that can have a significant impact on the visitor experience and likely encourages visitors to return. Lecture series do not always attract people who are not interested in science and so the Science 119 Richards, Personal Interview, 9 Jul 2013. 120 Ibid. 121 Hooper-‐Greenhill, Museums and Education, 36. 122 Atkinson, Evaluating Science Museum Lates. 123 Richards, Personal Interview, 9 Jul 2013. 124 Hooper-‐Greenhill, Museums and Their Visitors, 140.
- 49. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 49 Museum has developed a wide variety of activities apart from lectures.125 One of the most creative offerings is the cockroach tours that are offered at every Lates event. Participants tour the whole museum, learning about the different effects that global warming has on cockroaches, but they are also dressed in cockroach costumes and are guided around by a “head cockroach” (Figure 4). Not only are visitors learning about a modern and important issue, but they are also given a very memorable moment because it is very rare for them to dress up like a cockroach. Consequently, many visitors were observed taking photos with each other in their costumes and because they went around the whole museum, it also attracted other visitors’ attention, who could then participate in a tour later in the evening. This contributes to the visitor’s overall enjoyment of the evening, which will influence whether or not they return for another Lates, and if the photos are put online through social media, they will also inevitably affect the expectations of potential visitors. Figure 4. Cockroach tour at the “Science of Comedy” Lates, 26 Jun 2013. 125 Richards, Personal Interview, 9 Jul 2013.
- 50. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 50 The Science Museum is fully aware of the crucial role that social media plays in terms of framing visitor experiences before they arrive at the museum because they have witnessed its impact. For the first Lates, the museum did a small amount of marketing, but since then, they have not engaged further in this because of the high impact of social media.126 This is supplemented by the knowledge gained from their Lates evaluations that social media is how the majority of their visitors hear of the late-‐night events.127 With the targeted audiences, the exposure to tweets on Twitter is enormous128 and with the use of the hashtag #smLates, the public is able to construct their views and expectations for Lates fairly easily. To appeal to the more visual people, the Science Museum’s Instagram account consists primarily of photos of different Lates,129 which also helps to shape expectations surrounding the late-‐night events. Through activities like the cockroach tours, serious subjects are tackled in a non-‐patronizing way, which helps to create an open and welcoming environment that visitors feel comfortable within.130 Richards considers it extremely important not to patronize late-‐night visitors and so Lates approach issues in a serious but fun way.131 Again, this is where coming up with creative vehicles for information becomes crucial because if visitors are enjoying themselves, they will feel more comfortable in their surroundings and thus will 126 Richards, Personal Interview, 9 Jul 2013. 127 Anthony Richards, Personal Correspondence, 15 Jul 2013. 128 Richards, Personal Interview, 9 Jul 2013. 129 Science Museum, “sciencemuseum,” Instagram, accessed 13 Jul 2013, http://instagram.com/sciencemuseum. 130 Atkinson, Evaluating Science Museum Lates. 131 Richards, Personal Interview, 9 Jul 2013.
- 51. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 51 have a better museum experience. To help with creating this comfortable and social environment, the Science Museum has their DJ already playing music when visitors are entering the building.132 One of the reasons why some people do not visit museums is because they feel uncomfortable in the silence that surrounds them,133 but by having the music playing already, it can put them at ease. Another way in which the museum helps to put visitors at ease is by orientating them before they enter the museum. Knowing that the public queues to get in, the museum has used this to their advantage and helps orientate visitors during this time. Closer to when the doors open, an employee hands out guides for the night’s event which includes a map, a list of the different activities and the times they run and a list of important information, like where the toilets are situated. This helps to improve the visitor experience because it allows visitors to orientate themselves and plan out their evening prior to entering the building, whilst also giving them something to do while waiting in the queue. This also ensures that visitors do not feel as if their time is wasted once entering the building, trying to figure out which activities to do and how to get there. A great way that the Science Museum prolongs the museum experience of their visitors is by having a photo booth available to visitors throughout the evening. It was the first activity that visitors encountered if walking the length of the museum, which, it was observed, the majority of visitors did do upon entering, and it was clear what it was meant to be. The photo booth provides a fun activity for visitors to participate in, but it also gives the museum content for their various social media outlets. By posting these photos on Twitter, it shows 132 Richards, Personal Interview, 9 Jul 2013. 133 Kotler and Kotler, Museum Strategy and Marketing, 100.
- 52. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 52 potential visitors the kind of activities that take place during Lates. On Facebook, a photo album can be created by the museum and in order to keep visitors engaged after their visit, they can be asked to tag themselves in the photos. This not only shares the photo with all of their Facebook friends, but it also makes the memory of the event more vivid in the visitor’s mind, as described in Chapter Two. Memorable moments at late-‐night events encourage visitors to return to the museum because they are long-‐lasting134 and if they are looking for a leisure activity to do, they will always remember late-‐night events as being a good option. Some of the most popular activities at Lates, like the pub quiz and speed dating, came into fruition after looking at what popular activities existed already in London and the decision to run them in the museum.135 The popularity of these activities has garnered them a regular group of attendees and the Science Museum now has a reputation as a place for singles because of the speed dating.136 Lates at the Science Museum have not only changed the public’s perception of the museum, but also the perception of what a late-‐night event is within the museum community.137 According to Richards, before the Lates were developed, evening events at museums consisted of wine, cheese and jazz music. He recognized the unrealized potential of the night and created what is now the standard for what a late-‐night event should be like. As a result of the Science 134 Falk and Dierking, Learning From Museums, 65. 135 Richards, Personal Interview, 9 Jul 2013. 136 Atkinson, Evaluating Science Museum Lates. 137 Richards, Personal Interview, 9 Jul 2013.
- 53. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 53 Museum’s success, a number of museums have replicated the style of the organization’s Lates, as demonstrated in the late-‐night offerings of all of the museums along Exhibition Road, where the Science Museum is located. This does not bother Richards. In fact, he thinks all museums, no matter their size, are capable of holding successful late-‐night events. He argues that it is simply about getting the tone of the event right, because a smaller institution will inevitably have a different “feel” than that of a larger museum.138 Midnight Apothecary at the Brunel Museum Midnight Apothecary held at the Brunel Museum, a small transport museum in Rotherhithe that gets on average 25,000 visitors annually,139 is a good case study to exemplify how smaller institutions can hold successful late-‐ night events. It was developed as a new offering in an attempt to attract new audiences for the museum’s Saturday evening event for the Museums At Night 2012.140 Since then, it was named “hottest popup cocktail bar in town” in 2012,141 is held twice every weekend in the summer season and has successfully attracted a new, 21-‐45 year old audience that have become repeat visitors.142 The event offers the opportunity for visitors to enjoy special cocktails (Figure 5) that include flowers and herbs from the museum’s garden in which they can sit 138 Richards, Personal Interview, 9 Jul 2013. 139 Robert Hulse, Director, Brunel Museum, Personal Correspondence, 11 Jul 2013. 140 Lottie Muir, “Guest Post: Lottie Muir describes the Brunel Museum’s Midnight Apothecary pop-‐up cocktail bar,” Museums at Night Blog, accessed 21 Jun 2013, http://museumsatnight.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/midnight-‐apothecary-‐brunel-‐museum-‐ lottie-‐muir/, 15 Mar 2013. 141 “Midnight Apothecary,” The Brunel Museum, accessed 14 Jul 2013, http://www.brunel-‐ museum.org.uk/events/midnight-‐apothecary/. 142 Muir, Guest Post.
- 54. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 54 and enjoy the sunset over the Thames River. This unique setting may be enticing in itself, but for those that do not want to go to the pub for a drink, Midnight Apothecary is the only other option in Rotherhithe.143 Like the Lates at the Science Museum, the Brunel Museum is therefore also presenting the event as an alternative night out. Figure 5. Drinks menu at the Midnight Apothecary’s first birthday celebration, as part of Museums At Night 2013. Despite their broad similarities, the visitor experience at Midnight Apothecary differs greatly from that of Lates at the Science Museum, but it is equally as positive and encouraging for the visitor to return to the museum. The 143 Hulse, Personal Correspondence, 21 Jun 2013.
- 55. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 55 Brunel Museum’s main webpage makes it very easy for potential visitors to find information about Midnight Apothecary. As Simon argues, this is an important part of a museum experience because this is how it begins.144 The museum also has very active Facebook and Twitter accounts that both promote Midnight Apothecary. In this case, social media proves to be a very useful resource as it is free and has direct links to the younger audiences that the museum is targeting. On Facebook, in addition to promoting the events on their main page, the museum also creates individual events for each week, which is especially good for when they decide to have a theme. For example, for the month of July in 2013, Midnight Apothecary helped to celebrate Canada Day, American Independence Day and French Bastille Day by having Canadian, American and French-‐inspired cocktails respectively.145 Through their use of social media, the Brunel Museum is aware of their visitors’ experiences and as a result, knows that there are very positive and complimentary comments being spread about the event.146 As a result of their visitors being between the ages of 21-‐45,147 the museum does very little marketing for Midnight Apothecary because their audience does it for them through the use of social media, reviews and photos.148 By doing so, visitors are shaping the expectations of the potential visitors and are strengthening their own memories of the event at the same time, thus making a return visit appealing to themselves. While the manager in charge of their Twitter account is quick to re-‐tweet or favourite any tweet with the 144 Simon, Setting Expectation. 145 “Midnight Apothecary,” The Brunel Museum. 146 Hulse, Personal Correspondence, 21 Jun 2013. 147 Ibid. 148 Ibid.
- 56. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 56 hashtag #midnightapothecary,149 the museum is still missing out on an equally influential source of social media: Instagram. The Brunel Museum has not yet joined the growing number of museums with Instagram accounts and it might be something they should consider doing because many of their visitors are influencing potential visitors’ expectations through the photos they post on the photo sharing application. Instead of being able to include the museum’s account, visitors are using the hashtag #brunelmuseum,150 in addition to #midnightapothecary,151 for their photos from the event. While the museum does a good job monitoring word of mouth that spreads through Facebook and Twitter, the amount of time commitment required for Instagram is very low and as such, is another easy medium of social media that could provide insight into the public’s perception of the museum and Midnight Apothecary events. While Midnight Apothecary does not offer the same number of activities as Lates, the museum instead focuses on its venue and uses it to effectively create a backdrop that is essential to the unique experience that is Midnight Apothecary. Because the museum venue is much smaller than the Science Museum, the number of visitors that it can accommodate is much smaller, but this makes it feel more intimate and exclusive. The size of the venue also helps in attracting visitors that may not like visiting museums because it is not a large and intimidating building, but is rather unassuming and welcoming. This alone 149 Twitter users are given the option to “re-‐tweet” or “favourite” tweets made by other users. To re-‐tweet is to re-‐post what another has already tweeted, verbatim, to all of your follwers and to favourite a tweet is to show your enjoyment of what another user has tweeted. 150 “#brunelmuseum,” Pingram, accessed 13 Jul 2013, http://www.pingram.me/tag/brunelmuseum. 151 “#midnightapothecary,” Pingram, accessed 13 Jul 2013, http://www.pingram.me/tag/?q=midnightapothecary.
- 57. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 57 can put a visitor at ease, which then sets the pace for the rest of their experience with the museum. In their attempt to make the garden even more enjoyable for visitors, staff members decorate it with brightly coloured birds, fairy lights, deck chairs, flares in the flowers and bushes, and a fire pit where you can roast marshmallows later in the evening.152 This atmosphere, combined with the complicated cocktails and the fact that it is an 18+ event, creates a very sophisticated venue that is highly appealing to targeted young professionals (Figure 6). Figure 6. The atmosphere at Midnight Apothecary. One of the very appealing aspects of Midnight Apothecary which can be seen to encourage visitors to return is the fact that it is so versatile. In regards to 152 Muir, Guest Post.
- 58. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 58 the study mentioned in Chapter One that found five types of “out-‐of-‐home” activities that people liked to engage in, Midnight Apothecary can be seen as all of these activities, except for the family day out. Because it begins at 17.30 on Saturday evenings, it is the ideal place to go for after casual drinks with friends or co-‐workers, but because it ends at 22.30, it still offers visitors the opportunity to continue their evening at another venue, without worrying that places might be closed. Friends and family can come to Midnight Apothecary to catch up in the knowledge that it is a nice social venue and that they will not have to deal with the loud music and large crowds that can be found at pubs or nightclubs. Lastly, it provides a specific hook by appealing to naturalists, gardeners and anyone else who would enjoy a beautiful outdoor venue. The specialty cocktails, with their herb-‐ and flower-‐infused liquors appeal to not just those interested in mixology, but also those simply interested in gardening. Midnight Apothecary, as demonstrated, can satisfy a wide variety of needs when it comes to accommodating a leisure night out for the museum’s targeted audience and because of this, it is an appealing event that visitors return to, as proven by the museum’s research.153 To offer an educational component to the evening, tours of the Thames Tunnel154 are given throughout the evening for those who are interested in participating. This optional tour offers free-‐choice learning to visitors as it provides the opportunity for visitors to continue enjoying their cocktail with 153 Muir, Guest Post. 154 The Thames Tunnel was first opened in 1843 and is described by the museum on their website as the “Eighth Wonder of the World” of the time. It was the first major project to prove that tunnels could be built underwater and provides a connection between Rotherhithe and Wapping.
- 59. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 59 their friends, participate in the tour or decide to participate in a later tour. As a registered charity, Midnight Apothecary also fulfills clause three of the Brunel Museum’s registration that requires the museum ‘to provide a recreational facility for local residents and for the public at large at Rotherhithe and, subject thereto, to generally enhance the surrounding conservation area.’155 While the rooftop garden was originally designed for the enjoyment of visitors, local volunteers and school groups,156 Midnight Apothecary now shares that enjoyment with a new broader audience. While the Science Museum is active in engaging their visitors after they have left the museum, the Brunel Museum does nothing apart from leafleting them if they provide an address or an email address.157 Dependent on if they have the resources to do so, it would be fairly easy for the museum to prolong the visitor experience, and thus solidify their visit as a lasting memory, by using the photo booth idea of the Science Museum. With the garden overlooking the Thames and the event occurring around sunset, this would provide a beautiful backdrop to the photos and the flowers from the garden can be easily used as props. The museum could then post these photos on Facebook and allow visitors to tag themselves, consequentially sharing the photos with their friends and shaping expectations for future Midnight Apothecary events. 155 Hulse, Personal Correspondence, 21 Jun 2013. 156 Muir, Guest Post. 157 Hulse, Personal Correspondence, 21 Jun 2013.
- 60. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 60 Conclusion These two case studies provide evidence for how museums, both large and small, are capable of creating positive visitor experiences at late-‐night events that help to encourage visitors to come back to the museum. The Science Museum has successfully developed their Lates, which now renews their relationship with visitors who previously thought the museum was solely for children and families. Through informal learning, popular activities and the use of controversial themes, Lates have become one of the most well known museum late-‐night events in London with a large group of regular attendees. At the Brunel Museum, they were able to use their resources to their full potential and as a result, have developed the regular Midnight Apothecary programming. Midnight Apothecary is capable of satisfying a variety of desires, dependent on those of the individual visitors. It provides an overall unique environment where one can enjoy nature and the outdoors on the rooftop garden while sipping on a specialty cocktail with herbs and flowers from the garden in it.
- 61. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 61 Future Research and Limitations While the research of this dissertation argued for the idea that visitor experiences at late-‐night events can help to encourage repeat visits, there is still an opportunity for more research to better understand the phenomenon. In regards to the social learning processes among groups, which is the primary type of learning at late-‐night events, a severe limitation is the fact that most literature and research which has been undertaken so far within this area focuses itself on families rather than adult-‐only groups.158 Further investigation into how adults interact among themselves in social settings, like late-‐night events, will provide insight into their learning processes and will thus help museums to develop new activities that are tailored to these processes. This will not only help to provide enjoyable experiences for the visitors, encouraging them to return, but it will also satisfy the museum’s aim to educate their audiences. Another limitation was the lack of academic sources regarding late-‐night events due to their recent increase in popularity. The only source available is a series of online journal articles by Rebecca Atkinson, and while they look at various aspects of late-‐night events, they lack a depth that can only be provided by substance from various visitor studies and their results. This dissertation has formed a framework for the continuation of this research. Atkinson acknowledges the benefits of holding late-‐night events, including their potential 158 Falk and Dierking, Learning From Museums, 98.
- 62. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 62 to change perceptions and to become relevant to young people,159 but she fails to explain how. The activities and the opportunity of attending the museum out of regular hours are no doubt a major incentive for visitors, but these must be looked at in a broader context. This will help museums to improve their late-‐ night events and it will also show them how these events have the potential to make a significant contribution to their larger institutional goals and objectives. By fully understanding their potential, museums can utilize late-‐night events to create a community of regular attendees, who previously may not have visited the museum otherwise. To further the research of this dissertation, qualitative audience research needs to be done in order to form an understanding of why late-‐night visitors return to the museum. Right now, the Science Museum performs quantitative evaluations at all of their Lates through the use of visitor surveys (Appendix) to find out how often visitors come to Lates and what their favourite aspect of the event is, but to get the information necessary for a more in depth understanding of late-‐night events, museums need to undertake more thorough research. Qualitative research can be done through focus groups made up of late-‐night visitors to better comprehend the specifics surrounding their visit to a late-‐night event and their overall visitor experience and how this may influence their decision to return to the museum. With this knowledge, museums will be able to see what kind of components of the visitor experience make a repeat visit appealing and thus will be able to tailor their offerings to encourage visitors to return to the museum. 159 Atkinson, Why Hold Late-‐Night Events.
- 63. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 63 Conclusion The goal of this dissertation was to bring to light the effect a visitor’s experience at a late-‐night event could have in the decision to return to a museum. While the museum community already acknowledges the capabilities of late-‐ night events to attract new audiences, many museums have yet to recognize the full potential of these events. This paper first indicated how audience research is important in the development of new offerings, like late-‐night events. Based on their research, museums are now more aware that their audiences, both potential and existing, are looking for fulfilling social experiences to fill their limited leisure time. Late-‐night events have provided an alternative option for an evening out on the town that satisfies not only social needs, but also the desire for a range of experiences. These events can successfully compete with larger entertainment conglomerates while staying true to the museum’s core educational purpose. Informal learning within social groups has been proven to be the primary learning environment for humans,160 and late-‐night events provide an ideal venue for this type of learning. Understanding how late-‐night events fit within larger organizational missions and how they came into existence is important because it proves how enjoyment is not mutually exclusive of education. From there, the dissertation is able to analyze late-‐night events in a more substantial manner by looking at the visitor experience at these events and how they encourage visitors to return to the museum by offering a different, more memorable experience than that of a 160 Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience, 110. Also Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience Revisited, 45.
- 64. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 64 day-‐visit. It is important to acknowledge the totality of the museum experience and how second-‐hand information that is spread through various means of social media is crucial in influencing visitors’ experiences of late-‐night events. Based on what they hear and read beforehand, visitors form expectations, which are then the basis for their level of satisfaction and overall experience at the end of the evening. To aid in creating a pleasant experience while in the museum, a wide variety of activities are offered with the potential of becoming memorable moments of the evening, which will be remembered for a long time. Having these enjoyable memories at the museum encourages visitors to return to the museum because they know it is a fulfilling experience and that their leisure time will not be wasted on attending. In order to understand how late-‐night programmes can successfully benefit museums of all sizes, detailed case studies were conducted for Lates at the Science Museum and Midnight Apothecary at the Brunel Museum. These case studies contributed to the overall dissertation by showing how positive visitor experiences can be achieved, regardless of the size of the museum. A large museum like the Science Museum is able to offer a large number of activities throughout the evening to allow for a variety of experiences, which satisfy visitors’ expectations. The popularity of a number of the activities, like the cockroach tours, speed dating and the pub quiz, have garnered the museum a crowd of regular attendees. Smaller museums, like the Brunel Museum, may not have the same resources to fund an evening like Lates, but they capitalize on their assets, which for them is their rooftop garden. They use this to their advantage by creating a completely unique social venue the members of their
- 65. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 65 neighbourhood and community can come and enjoy specialty cocktails and each other’s company. Not only does this fulfill a requirement of their registration as a charity, but it also provides an alternative to a typical night at the pub and can satisfy a variety of leisure needs. This dissertation was the first piece of research to look at the visitor experience of late-‐night events and how they can help increase the number of repeat visitors. My research elaborates on the argument that visitor experiences play a large determining factor in whether visitors will return to the museum.161 In today’s world of decreasing leisure time and an increasing number of leisure options, people are becoming more selective with their time and as late-‐night events continue to be offered, museums need to realize that these events can do better than attract new audiences as a one-‐off. They have an untapped potential to turn those new audiences into repeat visitors. 161 Kotler and Kotler, Museum Strategy & Marketing, 43.
- 66. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 66 Appendix
- 67. Michelle Wong Late-‐Night Event Experiences and Repeat Visits 67
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