Case Study: Grounds For Sculpture 

          

 

Introduction Grounds For Sculpture , a 42-acre sculpture park, museum, and arboretum located on the site of the former New Jersey State Fairgrounds, has implemented a 4-screen digital video wall that runs on the Mvix digital signage platform.  Installed in the lobby, the video wall welcomes guests, displays pricing to speed up ticket purchasing and promotes upcoming events.  

  

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The video wall is managed by the Guest Services and Marketing teams and content is created and scheduled collaboratively between the two groups. The Manager of Digital Media & Technology contributes media content and manages the IT portion of the signage solution.  

| Grounds For Sculpture   Grounds For Sculpture has been a premier cultural destination of New Jersey since 1992.   Grounds For Sculpture is located on the former New Jersey State Fairgrounds and includes three of its major historic buildings that have been restored for a variety of purposes.   The sculpture park was founded by artist and philanthropist Seward Johnson. His vision was to create a space for artists to converge for exhibits and performances. Today, the nonprofit presents and conserves an exceptional collection of contemporary sculpture. With over 2 million annual guests, Grounds for Sculpture offers outstanding year-round programming for all ages as well as seasonally rotating exhibitions in six indoor galleries to over.   The space is also used for concerts, classes, and private parties. With 3 restaurants on location and The Gazebo, Grounds For Sculpture opens the park for picnics, ice cream and catering.  

| The Challenge  The Marketing and Guest Services teams at Grounds For Sculpture struggled to effectively promote upcoming events to on-site visitors and speed up ticket purchasing.   Before implementing digital signage, the Marketing team at Grounds For Sculpture had few means to advertise upcoming events i.e. brochures that sat at the Visitor Center lobby desk and their website.   The team was investing lots of time and money in developing and printing brochures, but they weren’t getting much flexibility in changing their message between updates.   What they needed was a way to communicate with their audiences in real time, to quickly bridge the gap between the online and on-site experience.    The Marketing team also wanted a solution that would allow them to stay modern. Because a lot of the art is based in contemporary pop culture, the solution had to match the artistic ambiance in elegance and style.   

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The content displayed on the screens would need to be of the best quality and representative of the art that guests came to see.  The Guest Services staff also had their specific set of needs. They would often spend lots of time explaining ticket options to visitors and this slowed down the ticket purchasing process.   Because the staff was the sole source of information for visitors, it was not uncommon that they were repeating the same information for every single visitor.   To avoid this, they needed a “silent salesman” who would give guests all the information they needed, so that they were ready to purchase by the time they reached the front of the line.   The two teams worked closely with the Manager of Digital Media & Technology, Keith Pyatt, to find a digital signage solution for their challenges. The solution needed to be eye-catching yet easy to understand, in order to improve the on-site experience and first impression of the grounds.   

  

        

 

| The Solution  

Grounds For Sculpture installed a 4-screen video wall in the front lobby, powered by the Mvix digital signage software.  The Mvix solution offered a robust platform for the Marketing and Guest Services teams to manage the displays and upload content directly from the main office.   The platform also provided advanced scheduling so the pricing and promotions could be customized and targeted for different days of the week, different exhibits and performances or different audiences.  Because the Mvix platform is cloud-based, the Manager of Digital Media & Technology can monitor the content and video wall infrastructure from anywhere.  “Guest Services had a large messaging need and we sought a solution that would help us maintain our brand guidelines and welcome guests,” said Keith. “After 5 minutes into the Mvix software demo, we knew instantly it was the right fit. We wanted to stop [the consultant] and tell him ‘Yes! We’re Sold!’”   

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The video wall content takes full advantage of the four horizontal 4K displays. Beautiful full-color aerial shots of the sculpture park stretch across the screens. This transitions into videos of performers and slides with pricing information for guests.  

  

       

  

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| The Results  Grounds For Sculpture staff has noticed an increased interest in upcoming events, while simultaneously speeding up ticketing.  The Marketing and Guest Services teams are getting substantial benefits from the new video wall.  Perceived wait times have reduces significantly, while ticket purchasing is faster. Guests are getting all of the information they need from the video wall and are ready to purchase by the time they reach the front of the line.   Overall, the ticketing process had become more efficient and marketing messages are more sticky, with high retention rates  

  The need for paper brochures has also been eliminated, which has saved costs and freed up the Marketing team to dedicate their efforts to other marketing activities. Essentially, the digital signs replaced existing marketing collateral.  Keith, an experienced videographer in his own right, often contributes his own 30-second video promos to the content mix to captivate audiences with shots of the park. He finds that videos of past performances and shots panning over various art installations are very attractive to guests.  

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“Undoubtedly we get compliments about the display all the time,” he said, “and we work hard to make it finessed and beautiful.”  The video wall powered by Mvix has given Grounds for Culture the perfect communications solution. It has empowered Grounds For Sculpture to expand the impact of their messaging and captivate visitors in a way they had not been able to before.   

         

                           

866.310.4923 www.mvixdigitalsignage.com  

 

 

About the Companies  

About Mvix At Mvix, our love for technology drives who we are and what we do. For over a decade, we have been a leading provider of content-rich digital signage software solutions that connect brands with people.   To date, our platform, XhibitSignage , powers over 50,000 active screens for clients including Virginia Tech, NASA, Sodexo, Discovery Channel, Nike and the University of Washington in a variety of applications that include employee communication, wayfinding, emergency messaging and customer communications.  

  

About Grounds For Sculpture Grounds For Sculpture has been one of the premier cultural destinations of New Jersey since 1992.   Founded by artist and philanthropist Seward Johnson, the nonprofit presents and conserves an exceptional collection of contemporary sculpture, offers outstanding year-round programming for all ages, and provides seasonally rotating exhibitions in six indoor galleries to over 2 million guests annually.   For more information, visit http://www.groundsforsculpture.org  

866.310.4923 www.mvixdigitalsignage.com