How you tell the lessons of your story profoundly impacts whether your culture is successfully understood and appreciated. Demythologizing the past explains identity but we had been written out of history.
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Organizations obsess over marketing approaches intent on generating brand awareness and driving sales. This does little to create brand loyalty. There are better and more affordable ways to demonstrate brand depth and become the focal point of vital public conversations.
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The closing of the Vancouver Aquarium was a preventable tragedy. A decade ago, under different leadership, the Aquarium tried breaking away from being just a tourist attraction, by hatching ambitious plans to promote its reputation as a world leader in oceanographic research, and to be an umbrella organization for other environmental organizations wanting support and leadership.
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Many cultural institutions expect to play a major role as a focus of reflection and debate, but do little to achieve that goal. How should they reimagine themselves and define what they need to do in order to be relevant?
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We know the region as a playground for winter-weary visitors. People are used to jumping on flights that quickly transport them to a blanket of tropical humidity; one of life’s singular pleasures. But nothing will be the same again after COVID. It’s time for a new debate over place and tourism branding in the Caribbean.
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Perhaps we don’t think of the police as having a brand, but they do; perhaps individual police departments themselves don’t realize they too have a brand. If they do, they’ve been negligent about it: many of them have been content simply to ride the coat-tails of the famous the LAPD motto “To Protect and to Serve,” which was created in 1955 and subsequently adopted around North America.
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These days we are learning what we haven’t previously accepted: that the story of Canada is deeply flawed. Acknowledging the darker chapters of our history, and being acutely aware of our individual and collective wrongs, is a necessary part of creating a better society.
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COVID-19 “has brought the future forward” says a new report by RBC Wealth Management. Read our take on “Eight ways COVID-19 will transform the economy and disrupt every business,” by senior vice president, John Stackhouse.
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Do museums rely too heavily on their physical premises to deliver on their institutional mission? Must they not begin to create a true hybrid model that reflects the exigencies of the 21st century instead?
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Stop behaving like a museum. Find your real purpose, mobilize content, and maintain contact with your community like never before.
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Cultural organizations are focusing on the tactical aspects of reopening, but we are a long way from being out of the woods with this virus. Are they considering longer term strategic issues as well?
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Can museums and countless other cultural venues think innovatively and alter their model to stay relevant and solvent in times of crisis? Finding an answer to this question is long overdue, and figuring out how to keep the public engaged in these tough times has never been more important. But they need to devise new ways to extract value from their unique content. Some models are already out there, if they bother to look.
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No more visitors, no more revenue. It’s as simple as that. What’s a museum to do in this unprecedented time? The prediction is that museums will start augmenting their online presence, but what will they say? This should be a time to do more than remind people museums simply exist. Is it enough to offer online tours?
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The coronavirus outbreak should make museums and other cultural institutions stop and ask themselves: can our tried-and-true business model and our assumptions about our public value render us vulnerable to the disruptions a global pandemic may inflict? Relying on visitorship for your survival may no longer be a satisfactory approach. You’re storytellers. How do you get your story out and keep people engaged if they stop coming?
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Think like a media organization and tell stories with a purpose. That will not only get more people in the door, shaping the conversation will make you an indispensable organization.
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How are you building trust in the power of your purpose? Storytelling is not a marginal activity, and your ability to produce a steady supply of fresh and compelling stories is more critical than ever.
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