Colleagues: Apologies for the length of this posting, but I have a lot of ground to cover.
On behalf of a museum client, I've been researching ways that museums monetize their web sites ? e.g., how museum sites create or enhance revenue streams, and how museums are experimenting with new advertising technologies. I've done a fairly thorough review of the published literature and conference proceedings since 2000 (MCN, Museums & the Web, AAM, IMLS WebWise), and analyzed nearly 100 web sites of museums and other non-profits in the U.S. Given the speed with which this landscape is shifting, however ? witness Google's new "search within search" function -- I thought a public dialogue via MCN-l might be more generally useful. Following are four topics that I've been exploring. I welcome responses to the specific questions, as well as broader discussion of the policy and technical issues they raise. I. Revenue streams through museum web sites Museums appear to generate web revenue primarily through four widely adopted channels: 1) Retail: On-line museum stores selling gift merchandise, museum publications, facsimiles from museum collections, etc. 2) Membership/Development: On-line memberships; donations unrelated to merchandise; solicitation of corporate sponsorships 3) Space rental for sponsored events, location shoots, etc. 4) Licensing of items or collections for media use (e.g., publication or broadcast), production of 3rd-party merchandise, etc. Q: Are there other revenue channels that you've seen emerge among museum web sites? Q: Do museums consider their web sites a significant revenue source? How would you define "significant"? Q: Are web-generated revenues used specifically to defray web costs? or do they simplyl accrue to the overall museum "bottom line"? II. Donor/sponsor solicitation and recognition Given the extent to which museums use naming opportunities to generate revenue from physical spaces and museum programs, it's surprising that there seems to be no comparable effort to monetize web spaces. Or am I missing something ? "The John and Jane Doe Collection Search Engine", perhaps? Museums often tuck donor names or sponsor logos discreetly at the bottom of specific exhibition or event pages, but rarely do they surface at higher site levels, and almost never on the home page. (Understandable; museums are clearly reluctant to dilute their own brand.) Q: Does your museum solicit support or sponsorship for its web program ? either the entire site, certain features or subsites, or specific pages? If so, how is such sponsorship/support recognized? Q: Do you systematize or templatize donor/sponsor recognition (of any kind) on your web site? If so, how do you decide which "real estate" to devote to recognition? Do you use web design elements to distinguish levels of support/recognition ? e.g., extent or location of screen space; format (text vs. graphic); or the presence/absence of hyperlinks? Q: How are these issues negotiated between the museum's web and development staff? III. Advertising on museum web sites I've had numerous hallway conversations about this topic at conferences, but few descriptions of actual experience have found their way onto conference programs or into the professional literature. Here are some useful exceptions: -- Sebastian Chan & Jim Spadaccini, "Radical Trust: The State of the Museum Blogosphere" (Museums & the Web, 2005; http://www.archimuse.com/mw2007/papers/spadaccini/spadaccini.html) -- "Beyond Banners and Pop-Ups: Internet Advertising from Google to MSNBC" (panel sponsored by the AAM Media & Technology Committee panel, AAM 2005; audiotape) -- Diane Herman (et. al.), "What Clicked? A report on audience research and media resources" (Museums & the Web, 2004; http://www.archimuse.com/mw2004/papers/ockuly/ockuly.html) -- John Vergo (et al.), "Less Clicking, More Watching: Results from the User-Centered Design of a Multi-Institutional Web Site for Art And Culture" (Museums & the Web, 2000; http://www.archimuse.com/mw2001/papers/vergo/vergo.html) Museums appear reluctant to allow advertising on their web sites because it raises difficult issues of managing/maintaining the museum's actual or perceived brand. In part, it's an aversion to seeming too commercial, inconsistent with museums' non-profit status and educational mission. Museums justifiably want to control who advertises, where on their sites the ads would appear, and the content and appearance of every ad. To my knowledge, none of the major ad networks (e.g., DoubleClick, 24/7 Real Media) permits this level of control in "profiling" the ads that they will serve to your site. I've heard rumors of museums adding GoogleAds to their sites, but I haven't seen any actual examples ? at least, not by any registered 501(c)(3) institutions. At the same time, web ads are perceived as a threat to the museum site's "stickiness", if visitors click away to advertisers' sites. Q: Have you ever considered, or experimented with, allowing 3rd-party advertising on your museum's web site? What were your expectations, concerns, or fears? What were the results? Q: Have you ever used open-source software tools (e.g., OpenX, formerly OpenAds) to create "internal advertising" on your site ? that is, to present and manage ads for your own programs, events, or merchandise from within your own site? IV. Museum advertising on 3rd-party web sites Web ads promoting museums are increasingly common; in the lead-up to the opening of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum, ads for BCAM were served frequently on the L.A. and New York Times web sites. Given the ad networks' capabilities to target ads to specific desktops, based on demographic, ZIP code, etc. (a topic well documented in the general press), I'm curious to know whether museums are leveraging these tools effectively. Q: Has your museum ever used ad networks to publish museum ads to 3rd-party web sites? If yes, how did you choose the tools and networks you used? What did you learn from the experience? Was it cost-effective? How did you measure the results? Thank you for investing the time to read through this long message. I hope the resulting discussion will help surface some of the thinking and experience that have been lurking below the collective radar. James M. Bower PO Box 1911 Santa Monica CA 90406-1911 310-962-3457 jamesmbower at yahoo.com
