What makes them tick? : an exploratory study on promotional communication for museums.

Abstract

Museums worldwide are increasingly implementing promotional communication efforts in order to motivate audiences to visit. In Singapore, the government statutory board overseeing museums, the National Heritage Board, has launched several public communication campaigns aimed at encouraging people to visit museums. These communication campaigns use a promotional mix including both traditional and social media. However, young adults in Singapore are uninterested in visiting museums or attending museum-organised activities despite the increased use of social media to engage them. Guided by the AIDA Hierarchy-of-Effects model, this study seeks to understand young adults’ perception of museums and museum promotional communication channels, based on communication channels used during the I Love Museums campaign helmed by the National Heritage Board. By conducting a series of focus groups with young adults aged 18-29, an understanding of how traditional and social media are perceived to play different roles in the promotion of museums in Singapore to young adults was gained. Most significantly, the element of sharing information with others is vital in motivating young adults to visit museums, was identified. Based on research findings, strategic recommendations for promoting museums based on the AIDA model are presented. This study paves the way for further research in this area to be conducted, and is also of great value to communication practitioners in the arts and culture sector.