We worked with V&A Dundee on an insight-informed audience development strategy using audience segmentation. The aim being to increase visitation at and engagement with the museum as well as informing a refresh of the Scottish Design Galleries to coincide with the museum’s 10th birthday.
To do this we wanted to really get to understand wider market perceptions and their needs – and how V&A Dundee is, or could, be relevant to their lives. V&A Dundee needs to tell their story in a way that connects with and motivates hat different priority audiences tro get involved.
Since no museum can target “everyone”, our first step was to identify where growth can come from (among existing and new audiences, immediate and longer term). We undertook a deep dive of existing data with V&A Dundee’s partners Scotinform; consulted members of the community, and undertook a quantitative Scotland-wide population study. This enabled us to develop a set of segments – or Mindsets – understanding the different key drivers for different audiences. We then invited new visitors from these priority groups in for a visit, and in-depth focus groups to really get under the skin of what each needed to feel relevance – including marketing, visit experience, exhibitions and interpretation.
We involved everyone from all teams across the organisation from the very beginning to understand their needs and bring them on the journey. We spent time with the curatorial team sharing back specific implications from our testing for the upcoming Scottish Design Gallery refresh. And we’ve shared the Mindsets and nuanced understanding of them – workshopping with teams, the ways everyone can use this in their day-to-day work.
Ultimately this has provided a common language and buy-in, so they can collaboratively address audience needs – from crafting the first invitation to delivering a relevant and rewarding experience.
We’re now undertaking a Retail deep dive using focus groups to understand how V&A Dundee can get the best out of its retail offer.
