What’s the challenge?

• Re-create the DIA• Drive attendance

Whose perceptions matter?

• Primarily Oakland, Wayne, and Macomb county residents

• But also– News media– Community leaders– Major donors– Other local influentials

What’s going on?• The museum will be more “visitor-centered”

– Reorganization of the galleries– New contexts for presenting the art– New interpretive devices

• Competition is for people’s leisure time• Many leisure choices are more overtly stimulating

What do people think?

DIA research tells us:• Museums are for learning

• Positives: cultural and educational engagement• Negatives: knowledge and effort to understand

are roadblocks for many

• Museums are a social experience• Positives: socialization and status• Negatives: disengagement from lack of status,

knowledge, or expected behaviors

What are you, really? "The New DIA, one of the premier art museums in the United

States, is home to more than 60,000 works that comprise a multicultural survey of human creativity from ancient times through today. Upon completion of its expansion and renovation, the DIA will deliver a more enriching visitor experience through new methods of display and interpretation that will intensify visitors' emotional bonds with art. The DIA will be a destination for individuals in southeast Michigan and beyond. It will provide engaging experiences that enable individuals to discover more about their history, world, lives, passions and heart."

What are you, really?

An experience more than a place

Translating What You Are

• The “message” must transcend the place• Focus on deeper emotions and values people

place on art • Mine that richer vein of art in everyday life• Uncover a connection that ignites interest and

motivates visits

Ethnographic Inquiry

• A cultural analysis of visual art consumption• A social and symbolic exploration of art in

everyday life• Implications for DIA communications

Ethnographic Research• Who

– Moms—age 25-44 w/kids– Traditional Target—Age 45-55

• Higher incomes, education, suburbanites, visually inclined, non-recent visitors

• Ethnically diverse group

• Methods– In-home interviews– 3 hours in length– Half included spouses– Ode to a personal piece of art– Symbolic visual exercise– Visual aesthetic in the home

Ethnographic Findings The visual arts and social values

• Stretching your mind- Minimize complacency- Be open to new ideas

“You always need to be growing . . .

to get out of your box”

- Recognize the larger world- Accept different ways of doing,

thinking, and being“I want my kids to know shades of grey”

Ethnographic Findings The visual arts and social values

• Finding sanctuary– Peace and calm are

elusive, but desired

“You have to create these moments . . because everything else is all rushing”

– Sensory experiences are centering

“Silence and beauty centers me”

Ethnographic Findings The visual arts and social values

• Creating a sense of family – Investing in relationships

“Growing together”

“Time together”

– An explicit priority voiced by all respondents

Ethnography Findings The visual arts and daily life

• Everyday• Constant motion and change• Life on “the interstate,” hinders people’s ability to

achieve important social values• Everyday strips away at the important

social values

• Getting Away• Converse to Everyday• A search for centering and perspective, regaining

what the Everyday takes away• Not about escape, about reconnecting with the

values that matter• Getting away can be physical, but it is also

embodied in people’s aesthetic experiences

Ethnographic Insight• The significance of (visual) art is uncontested by

these target audiences• Visually aesthetic experiences allow getting away to

happen often in every day life:• Pausing to look at a garden• A quiet night in the yard looking at the moon• Admiring the vista along Lake Shore Drive• Viewing a piece of art

Travel is a Metaphor• Travel is the articulated metaphor for aesthetic experience among

respondents.– Separation: You go somewhere in your head

– Transformation: You transform yourself in the process

– Re-integration: You come back to daily life a different person

The strategic goal of the campaign should be here…………………..Not necessarily here (yet)

For this audience, the journey of aesthetic experience is a form of “Getting Away”

A sense of wonder

Inspiration

Peace

Serenity

Harmony

Spirituality

Personal enrichment

Strengthening social relationships

Socialization of childrenA Journey of the Imagination(“Getting Away”)

Art

End Benefits: ‘Everyday’ is enriched

What should people think?

The New DIA is where I can stop time, even for a moment, to notice colors, a brushstroke, a shape or an idea. I go to see things differently, and to take a break from the speed and momentum of everyday life. If I have 20 minutes or all day, if I need a break or an adventure, to be recharged or quieted, if I’m by myself or with others, the DIA has something profound to offer.

What will you tell them?

The new DIA is an easy, everyday getaway.

“Easy everyday getaway”• “Come as you are” – no special knowledge

needed• An easy activity• An “everyday getaway” where you refresh,

recharge or are inspired

Strategic Goals for Advertising

• To motivate and ignite, the campaign itself has to be a journey of the imagination…

- Sets up an expectation of an imaginative journey and leaves aside (as unimportant) ‘specialist’ knowledge

- Puts the communications emphasis on what visitors get out of their experience (vs. what the DIA “offers”)

DIA Campaign

Opening Print Ad

Print Ads

Weekend Ad

Sample Billboard

Sample Rack Card

Sample Direct Mail

Sample T-shirt