TOP TEAM
“WE HAD 6,000 VISITORS IN OUR FIRST HOUR. WHEN WE OPENED THE DOORS PEOPLE ACTUALLY RAN IN” (Left) The new entrance has opened up a whole new fl oor to visitors; (right) Mask of Ravanna in the Performance and Lives gallery
Heritage Lottery Fund and the museum itself raised more than £13.6m (14.9m, $19.4m) from individuals and charitable trusts. People understood the vision and ambition of what we were trying to achieve and wanted to support it.
What’s the next stage of the masterplan? We’re planning a further eight exhibition galleries, so there’s more fund raising to do. We have one of the most important sci- ence and technology collections in Europe, so four of the galleries will showcase this with interactives. The other four will display European art and design. We’ve got many treasures that haven’t seen the light of day for decades.
Why should people visit the National Museum Scotland? It’s a major museum that’s just as good as the best internationally across the world. We can offer the
experience of an amaz- ing building, incredible stories of Scots going off across the world and a host of experiences for all visitors, from children looking for interaction and engagement to adults want- ing to see and experience some wonderful objects.
Extrmely rare artefacts at the museum include this mid-19th century Native American chief’s outfi t
30
CATHERINE HOLDEN Director of marketing and development
What’s the marketing strategy? Firstly, to promote awareness of the project and increase footfall. We also wanted to engage broader audiences and develop perception of our brand. People were con- fused about our offer. They didn’t realised we had a lot of contemporary content.
What were the challenges?
We needed to move up a level from good to great and help people understand the diversity of our collections. Our slogan is see the world under one roof. In our cam- paign we chose unexpected juxtapositions across the collection. We picked out quirky examples that work together visually and verbally. For example, one visual tops and tails an insect and some armour and the tag line reads ‘from beatles to battles’. Another challenge is the
range of our collections. With so much to talk about, where do you start? But this means we can appeal to a big, populist audi- ence or select areas of interest.
What partnerships have you done? Our city partnerships show that we’re a fun, stimulating part of city life, not an isolated experience. These include 20m-high graphics in the centre of Edinburgh, ban-
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ners down the main street and posters in and on the buses and at the airport. We also worked with hotels and tour guides, VisitScotland, the AA and Trainline. My favourite partnership was with the
high street shop House of Fraser. The main window featured a huge dinosaur model wrapped in brown paper. Every day a little more was unwrapped until the dinosaur was revealed on opening day.
How many visitors have you had? On 24th November we went past our one million mark. That’s a million in four months, which is amazing as that was our target for the whole year. We had 6,000 visitors in our fi rst hour, which was an indi- cation – the street outside was packed for the opening ceremony. When we opened the doors people actually ran in. In total, 22,000 people visited on the fi rst day.
What feedback have you received? In visitor research on our opening week- end, almost nine out of 10 people said the museum exceeded their expectations. There are 220 reviews on TripAdviser, our Twitter followers have doubled and Facebook friends increased 20-fold. We’re also getting recognition with
awards. The architect Gareth Hoskins won the RIAS Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award 2011 and our director Gordon Rintoul was named Top Scot in the Glenfi ddich Spirit of Scotland Awards. In the past, the Top Scot has gone to house- hold names such as Harry Potter author JK Rowling and tennis player Andy Murray, but Gordon won it his year. He’s much too modest to mention it, but he was very moved and it shows what a depth of feel- ing there is for the museum.
AM 1 2012 ©cybertrek 2012
PHOTO: ROB MCDOUGALL
PHOTO: ANDREW LEE
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