The Palace Museum in Digital Age
What's your impression about history museums? Many people may say that history museums are far away from their life as they know a little about the stories behind the exhibits. However, last year, the special event launched by The Palace Museum of China may change your impression about history museums. Now, please follow me and let's start our journey of exploring the Chinese history and The Palace Museum.
To celebrate the 600th birthday of The Forbidden City, The Palace Museum decided to hold a special exhibition. At the same time, they also prepared a campaign for the exhibition-a reality show named National Treasure. With the help of China Central Television, The Palace Museum launched a weekly reality show on CCTV3. In each episode of the reality show, they introduced three historical relics and the story of them to the audience. After watching the reality show, the audience could select the relics they want to see during the special exhibition.
The reality show turned out to be a great success. On Weibo, more than 400 thousand people followed the official account of National Treasure. 4.9M people followed the official account of The Palace Museum. On Bilibili, a famous video sharing website in China, millions of people watch the show online. Many people said that the reality show sparked their enthusiasm Chinese history. They would like to go to the museum and learn more about the story behind the relics.
What can we learn from the campaign?
1. Embracing the groundswell will bring you new ideas
In Li and Bernoff's book Groundswell, the authors mentioned that product development is hard and companies should bring your customers into the development and innovation processes (p.182). When companies bring their customers into this loop, they will tell the company what they need and contribute their new ideas to the development of new products. Some of the ideas may able to inspire the company to develop a great new product. In the case of The Palace Museum, after the release of the reality show, many people said that these relics were so beautiful and the museum should make some souvenirs for them. In this way, after visiting the museum, visitors can buy exquisite gifts for their families and friends. The Palace Museum did accept the suggestions. They promised that they would release some new souvenirs after the special exhibition. By embracing the groundswell, The Palace Museum learned more about the consumers' preference and taste.
2. You need to have a vision and a plan
In the Book Groundswell, the authors mentioned that when companies using groundswell thinking, they need to have a vision and a plan (p.220). It means that companies should not only focus on the benefits they can get for now but also need to think about the future. In the case of The Palace Museum, launching the reality show is their first step to attract more customers. To catch up with the groundswell and digital age, they also launched an app. When visitors step into The Palace Museum, by using the app they can follow the map, listen to the digital tour guide, and get more information about the exhibits. The whole plan is called: "Digital Palace Museum. The Curator Shan Jixiang hopes that by combining the museum and digital technology, more and more people will be able to have fun in visiting history museums. And this is their plan to survive in the digital era.
3. Social applications should serve the relationship between customers and companies.
In the book Groundswell, the authors mentioned that social applications and other technologies should serve the relationship between customers and companies (p.252). Although social applications have become a key part of marketing, companies should not forget that the core point of groundswell is the relationship. Companies should not be obsessed with technologies too much. In the case of The Palace Museum, they launched the app not only to do the marketing but also to create a better visiting experience for the visitors. The app serves as a bridge to connect the museum and the visitors.
I think The Palace Museum is a great example of how traditional industry can take advantage of the groundswell and make transformations in the digital era.
To celebrate the 600th birthday of The Forbidden City, The Palace Museum decided to hold a special exhibition. At the same time, they also prepared a campaign for the exhibition-a reality show named National Treasure. With the help of China Central Television, The Palace Museum launched a weekly reality show on CCTV3. In each episode of the reality show, they introduced three historical relics and the story of them to the audience. After watching the reality show, the audience could select the relics they want to see during the special exhibition.
The reality show turned out to be a great success. On Weibo, more than 400 thousand people followed the official account of National Treasure. 4.9M people followed the official account of The Palace Museum. On Bilibili, a famous video sharing website in China, millions of people watch the show online. Many people said that the reality show sparked their enthusiasm Chinese history. They would like to go to the museum and learn more about the story behind the relics.
What can we learn from the campaign?
1. Embracing the groundswell will bring you new ideas
In Li and Bernoff's book Groundswell, the authors mentioned that product development is hard and companies should bring your customers into the development and innovation processes (p.182). When companies bring their customers into this loop, they will tell the company what they need and contribute their new ideas to the development of new products. Some of the ideas may able to inspire the company to develop a great new product. In the case of The Palace Museum, after the release of the reality show, many people said that these relics were so beautiful and the museum should make some souvenirs for them. In this way, after visiting the museum, visitors can buy exquisite gifts for their families and friends. The Palace Museum did accept the suggestions. They promised that they would release some new souvenirs after the special exhibition. By embracing the groundswell, The Palace Museum learned more about the consumers' preference and taste.
In the Book Groundswell, the authors mentioned that when companies using groundswell thinking, they need to have a vision and a plan (p.220). It means that companies should not only focus on the benefits they can get for now but also need to think about the future. In the case of The Palace Museum, launching the reality show is their first step to attract more customers. To catch up with the groundswell and digital age, they also launched an app. When visitors step into The Palace Museum, by using the app they can follow the map, listen to the digital tour guide, and get more information about the exhibits. The whole plan is called: "Digital Palace Museum. The Curator Shan Jixiang hopes that by combining the museum and digital technology, more and more people will be able to have fun in visiting history museums. And this is their plan to survive in the digital era.
3. Social applications should serve the relationship between customers and companies.
In the book Groundswell, the authors mentioned that social applications and other technologies should serve the relationship between customers and companies (p.252). Although social applications have become a key part of marketing, companies should not forget that the core point of groundswell is the relationship. Companies should not be obsessed with technologies too much. In the case of The Palace Museum, they launched the app not only to do the marketing but also to create a better visiting experience for the visitors. The app serves as a bridge to connect the museum and the visitors.
I think The Palace Museum is a great example of how traditional industry can take advantage of the groundswell and make transformations in the digital era.
Hey Danni,
ReplyDeleteI've also paid much attention to The Palace Museum and its campaigns, because of some of them were purely amazing, and they changed my thinking of how to use cutting-edge technologies to make obsolete things cool again. I also love the style of many souvenirs sold by its online gift shop on Taobao. Really impressive art and design.
Yep, they have many interesting and beautiful gifts on the online shop!
DeleteThat's a great campaign to fit traditional cultural things in digital age, I enjoy it too. But I feel kind of sad about it because if they use this approach nobody even cares about this traditional treasures.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that some people only care about the famous actors not the traditional treasures, but I believe that there are people who really love traditional culture and they can learn something from the reality show.
Delete