The average person sees about 3000 images everyday. That's a lot to compete with for their attention. So the best strategy is for your messaging to be clear and consistent. Your marketing should build on itself, not start from scratch every time.
Having a clear and consistent exhibit brand will:
Create a clear story for your audience to engage with
Consistently promote your museum in a professional way
Help spark interest by visually describing the tone and content of your exhibit
Save you time! In all of your marketing pieces, you will never need to start from a blank page to create a new promotional graphic.
The Pitfalls of Not Creating an Exhibit Brand
Branding each and every exhibit or event takes work, though. For some, it can seem unnecessary or not worth the extra, up-front time. But what does it look like to skip to this step in the process?
Every new graphic will have to start from the beginning to communicate to your audience. This will lose potential visitors and members!
Your promotional material will look scattered and unprofessional
Your audience will be confused about what is going on at your museum
You'll spend hours creating each graphic piece from scratch with no direction
With no plan in place, you're losing out on compounding interest in your audience. Remember, people are sorting through 3000+ images and messages a day. So make it easy on them! Show similar visuals to create a pattern they will recognize and respond to.
Examples of Exhibit Marketing
Below is a series of graphics created to promote a fictional exhibit. One set was put together with various graphic elements and styles, while the other was created with a clear brand in mind.
<insert 3 images>
All of these graphics tell a story of an exhibit opening, being on view, and having programming associated with it. There's nothing really wrong about the design here, but it doesn't fit together.
A person scrolling through their phone may mistake each of these for different exhibits or events, even though each one has the same museum logo. They may be confused or more likely, missing information that they would otherwise be interested in.
<insert 3 images>
These graphics tell the same story as the ones above. The difference is that a basic branding methodology was used to create them as a set.
They tell the same visual story and would be immediately recognizable for someone viewing them among a social media feed or digital landscape.
Even considering print media: It may be a week or more between your ads are seen in a newspaper. You want to show your audience something they will recognize and remember.
<insert Always Sunny meme>
Want to avoid those headaches and put your marketing in hyperdrive? Keep reading for help on how to brand your museum's exhibit.
Remember - it's all connected!
How to Build a Basic Exhibit Brand >