Block Marketing Introduction - L.Bosch

The

Block Marketing & Communications Board of Advisors - Spring 2023

Lindsay Bosch, Associate Director, Marketing, Communications and Digital Strategy

Education

About Me!

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Northwestern, SoC '04 SAIC, MA Art History & Theory University of Pennsylvania, Executive Program in Arts & Culture Strategy Northwestern, Medill, Integrated Marketing & Communications, ‘22

Career

Art Institute of Chicago ABC-Clio Educational Publishing American Library Association Video Data Bank The Block! - Since January 2016

Our expanded Marketing & Communication Team

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Emmanuel Ramos-Barajas, Communications Coordinator Stephanie Kulke, Fine Arts Editor, Office of Global Marketing & Communication Campus Communicators Group (ARD, Student Affairs Provost Office) Northwestern Global Marketing Video, Photo, Media Relations Contracted Support Entirety of Block staff!

Together, our job is to activate our unique identity.

Fuel

• Drive attendance in person and online

• Expand audiences, deepen engagement

• Elevate resources which help us connect and communicate our work

Share

• Build reputation locally and nationally

• Drive awareness of our program and impact

• Elevate out work, and that of our students, faculty and partners

Strengthen

• Create and distribute platforms for our work

• Expand capacity to reach audiences through documentation and dissemination

• Align with Northwestern goals and messaging

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.”

The Block’s integrated marketing, communications, and content strategy seeks to “fuel, strengthen, and share The Block’s particular model of a campus art museum

How we get there…

• Website

• Videos (Promo & Edu.)

• Media & Influencers

• News & Reviews

• Interviews

• Press Events Earned Media Owned Content Paid Promotions

• Social Mentions

• Partnerships

• Word-of-Mouth

• Presentations

• Student Ambassadors

Shared Stories

• Blog Stories

• Teaching Material & Resources

• Email Strategy

• Publications & Print

• Digital Advertising

• Social Media Ads

• Print Ads (Art & culture)

• Local Chicago

• Out of Home

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Keeping our audiences at the center

NU Students

The Block Museum communicates to multiple, overlapping audiences.

Peer Universities

Artists & Scholars

We keep these segments in mind when we think about where and what museum messages we are sending

Academic Art Museums

NU Faculty and Staff

Chicago/ Evanston cultural community

Art world

NU Alumni

Meeting audiences where they are…

Considering Who is our audience? What is our objective?

Our Communications do not only drive attendance but offer a way to experience & engage The Block’s work itself.

Channel Objective

Website Inform Audiences and Visitors – Aggregate all offerings

“Stories” Blog Advance Content Pillars

Newsletter Inform loyal audience, invite participation

NU Now/ Press Releases

Audience

People who have decided to visit museum, or interact

Content

Jumping off point for information about the museum – “front door” to other content

Content-affiliated audiences

Loyal audience, ”members”

Reputational Growth External Press, University Stakeholders

Facebook Invite participation, disseminate our stories

Twitter

Disseminate our stories, participate in peer conversations

Instagram Engagement with audiences and influencers

‘general audience’ skewing local

‘general audience’ skewing influencers & press

Video, Audio, PDF, Articles on all content pillars

Mix of News, Event Invitations and content.

High level stories about museum leadership

Links of interest from our peers, photos, blog links

Short text with links –conversation with other institutions

Showcase Block Professional Reputation

‘general audience’ skewing student & art world

Other museums and education sector professionals

Great images of collection and engagement, snappy text

Block institutional news, “thought leadership”

Special Project Apps

Grow specialized knowledge in content area

Students and teachers

Project specific information

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Unified Brand Identity

• Deeply integrated with Northwestern

• Agile creation of material

• Increased awareness of museum identity

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Audience Growth

Through consistency and creativity, we have built a powerful outreach engine to distribute the content we create in-house. We are seeing exponential growth in the longform blog stories and video content we create. In 2016 we operated only email & FB reaching 4K on each platform. Today we reach more than 50K weekly.

Current Online Audiences

• Email – 28,000

• Facebook - 18,622

• Instagram – 3,779

• Twitter – 1,990 followers

• Blog - 600 weekly

• Video – 500 weekly

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Deeper Storytelling

One of our historical challenges has been consistency of brand message – clear storytelling across the arc of exhibitions. Our exhibition program is part of a more complex story. Our content and communications leverage all of our assets

• Collection - 6,000 works, recently digitized

• Exhibition Program – Rich history of exhibitions

• Staff –30 professionals with expertise

• Cinema – Renowned media arts program

• Students –Docents, Inters, Fellows past & present

• Publications –expand scholarship, engage in

reflection

• Campus Partnerships – Robust network across NU