Tips on PR and marketing for venues coordinating events as part of the Museums at Night festival, by Rosie Clarke from Culture24.

1. Museums at Night
PR & marketing tips
Rosie Clarke
Culture24

2. Festival PR
• National PR campaign aims to raise
awareness of the festival as a whole
• The goal: to drive new audiences to the
Museums at Night website
• Usually one quirky or standout event
highlighted
• Regional / specialist PR – we slice and dice
• How to make your event stand out

4. Marketing outcomes
• Storytelling
• Leveraging event to attract positive PR for
your organisation, raise awareness
• Audience development
• Sell tickets, generate income
• Give visitors great experience – WOM
• Develop skills, confidence

5. Target audience
• Who are they?
• Where are they, in real life and online?
• How can you reach them?

6. Marketing channels
• Product – event description, press release,
images
• Traditional media – print & broadcast
• Online coverage, social media
• Email newsletters
• Your own printed publicity
• In person

7. Event description
• Creative copywriting
• Why should people come? What’s unique,
exciting, different? Positioning
• Collection objects / highlights / extra information
about your venue
• Night time atmosphere?
• Sensory descriptions – not just sight
• Is this for people like me? Overcoming resistance
• Food and drink
• Ticket pricing

9. Writing a press release
• Who, What, Where, When, Why, How
• Quote curator / funder / celeb
endorsement
• We can provide a personalised quote
• 2 pages max in body of email
• Great images
• Notes to Editors – standard boilerplate
• Named contact – respond quickly!

10. What’s your angle?
• Local media want a local angle
• Features journalists look for human
interest
• Topical – link to a historical event,
personality or anniversary
• Anything being revealed for the first time,
unique access?

12. Getting a good image
• Your target audience having a good time,
engaging with collections, doing the thing
• Photo call / your own photoshoot!
• Create a night-time atmosphere
• Get parents’ permission
• Print quality – over 300 dpi, A5 size,
minimum 2MB
• Filename, caption – title, venue,
photographer, (c), date

13. Sending a press release
• Find out deadlines (weekly papers usually 2
weeks ahead, broadcast 1 week)
• Contact details (print = news, listings,
features editors; broadcast = producers)
• Don’t forget local blogs, forums, podcasts,
newsletters
• Follow-up phonecall

14. Extra tips
• Set up a photocall
• Create a competition with newspaper
• Invite picture editor to send photographer
on the night
• Take your own photos, visitor vox pops –
can repost and reuse in future
• We always want your photos for our media
image library!

15. Radio and podcast interviews
• Key points - soundbites
• Facts in front of you – dates, times,
numbers
• Drink water
• Next step, listeners should …
• Tell us and we’ll tweet the link!

16. Your print publicity
• Posters
• Flyers
• Your brochures
• Download our logos and templates – new
design coming soon!

17. Poster designs

19. Where to display print publicity
• Venue – café, entrance, back of toilet doors
• Community noticeboards
• Shops, cafes, libraries, churches,
community centres
• TICs
• Hotel information packs
• Other arts / heritage venues

20. Online coverage
• Your own website / blog
• Telling stories, drawing people in, news
updates, set building, styling practice
• Immediacy: type what you’d say out loud
• Guest posting e.g. LinkedIn, Medium -
include call to action and link back
• I want your case studies!
http://museumsatnight.org.uk/category/case-study/

22. Social media
• Communicate directly, immediately
• Simple, authentic, human voice
• Track what’s being said about you, respond
openly
• Connect with local community, interest
groups
• What does success look like – conversation,
follower numbers, ticket sales, post-visit
comments and images?

23. Social media tracking tools
• Storify to save Tweets, republish stories
• Facebook and Twitter analytics
• Newsletter open rates, clickthroughs
• Google Analytics – time on site, sales
funnel, where next?
• Take baseline measurements now!

24. Using Twitter
• Creating buzz, building community
• Connect with other museums, wider
audiences
• Join global initiatives - #AskACurator,
#MuseumSelfie
• Share local news and photos
• Respond to questions
• @MuseumsAtNight we’ll RT
• #MatN2016

26. Facebook
• Where are your target audience?
• Can create events, invite friends, they
invite friends
• Share stories
• Track engagement – best times to post

27. More social media channels
• YouTube – calls to action, subscribe: long-
tail content
• Vine
• Periscope
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• Flickr

28. Email newsletters
• Engaged, opted-in list
• Separate, targeted messages to public,
teachers, Friends of museum
• Seasonal highlights, upcoming events
• Deepen relationship – perks e.g. launch
invitations, competitions
• Cheap / free – Mailchimp, Aweber
• Involve your fans in your story

29. Growing your mailing list
• On your website – homepage, About,
Contact
• In person at venue
• Signup sheet at external events
• Email signature
• Joint competitions

31. Word of mouth
• Good experiences recommended, bad
experiences shared widely (TripAdvisor)
• Welcome and farewell in venue
• Word of mouth influencers – taxi drivers,
trustees, Young Friends
• Online influencers – local bloggers,
Facebook groups

32. Slow ticket sales?
• Contact us early – 01273 623266
• Look at your event description – is it as full
and exciting as possible? Is it clear who
would enjoy this event?
• Walk through your user’s buying journey
• Chase up all press releases
• Event promotion tips
http://museumsatnight.org.uk/marketing-pr/3-days-to-go-9-top-
event-marketing-tips/
• Ticket giveaway – radio, newsletter

33. On the day
• Don’t worry about number of Facebook
attendees
• Tweet your preparations
• Share your wifi code at the event
• Invite visitors to tweet / instagram / film
themselves on the night using hashtag
#MatN2016
• Designated selfie spot!
• Visitor surveys, join mailing list

35. Follow-up coverage
• Share a quick run-down of your event: what
happened that was quirky, new, exciting and
different?
• Top line stats: visitor numbers
• Quotes from the night
• Future plans “Our next Late is on 17 June, tickets
on sale now!”
• Link to others’ coverage, blog posts etc
• Share your images
– Invite visitors to tag themselves on Facebook, tweet /
instagram their reviews and pics with #MatN2016

36. Any questions?
Thank you!