Application of marketing activities for generation z’s attraction to museums in Russia Bachelor’s thesis

Expert 8

Natalia Goncharova

Senior administrator of General Staff Building

Please, tell what Administration of General Staff does.

We work with visitors in the entrance area: answer phone calls, answer questions about work of the museum and tickets, organize assistance to persons with disabilities, coordinate excursion groups. Overall, we are responsible for information and organization.

People of what age more often come to the State Hermitage Museum?

Retired people.

Please, describe the visitors of the Hermitage generation Z (14-24 years). What kind of people are they? Is it possible to divide them into groups according to any characteristics (age / interests / character)?

The percentage of students in the total number of General Staff Building visitors is nearly 30%. In this age group students prevail. They are very smart, they like listening, read a lot and behave more mature, than usual people of the age, on which they look like. They know their rights and always ready to defend it, and demonstrate this ability. There are very few modest people among them, very often they want to share information more, than to receive it. They like to explain their point of view and protect it.

What motivates them to come to the museum?

Curiosity, need for art, possibility to go out with friends. It is important for them, that there is the opportunity to visit the museum for free.

What types of Hermitage events are most often attended by young people aged 14-24?

About their preferences I can judge by the questions, that they ask me. A lot of questions are asked about Lectorium and the Youth Center. Also, they often ask about the location of Impressionists. Sometimes they come with excursion. They like Hermitage's VR attraction. Festivals as well. When there are meetings with famous artists, the lecture halls are always full. Young people also like the format of art mediations, fight for tickets beforehand.

Is there a seasonality in the attendance of the museum and events by young people under 24?

In the summer, there is a decline in number of young visitors on nearly 20%, but from September to May there are a lot of them. If there are actively promoted exhibitions, young people come intensively. During biennale “Manifesta”, there was a huge flow of young people. They are very interested in contemporary art.

Are there any changes in attendance of museum events by young people under 24?

No, I didn't notice that.

Which promotional channels attract young people to the museum most effectively (social networks, outdoor advertising, word of mouth)?

They receive all the information from the Internet. They ask a lot about what they read in the social network profiles of the State Hermitage. For young people the most effective channel is VKontakte. Instagram is less effective, and they are almost unaware about the official website.

What do you think is most important when working with a youth audience?

To listen. Young people not always need feedback, they like to tell about their point of view, to express themselves. They do not like to read the programs or posters, they prefer to ask somebody, they like live communication

Expert 9

Ekaterina Bychkova

Methodist of the 2nd category, "Youth Center in the General Staff"

Tell us about your role in the State Hermitage Museum.

I am engaged in organizing events, developing educational programs and exhibitions. I also read lectures on the framework of the history of modern art, and conduct author's seminars.

Describe the young people who come to the Youth Center.

We have a very different audience. If we talk about age, then these are guys from the senior classes, but mostly they are students. Often come adults. They are very different, mostly young, modern, creative, self-confident young people, either facing art on a permanent basis, or those who come for the first time, just get to know it.

What motivates young people to come?

Usually these are interesting topics and non-classical approach to the story, when we have not a chronological story about the author, but, rather video shows, which it is not possible to see in the lecture halls of classic museums, for example, in the Russian Museum. They have good lectures, but they are more conservative.

Themes also play an important role. In addition, we have a more relaxed approach to the story. Also, we have a free admission. We are raising a generation for the future, we know that later we will communicate with a person who really loves a museum.

What activities does Generation Z like the most?

Lecture is the most popular format, young audience like mass events. A huge number of people go to marathons, they like the feeling of participating in the life of the museum. It is like a festival, here are like-minded people, it works, it's our own party. Now they are beginning to get used to art mediation. At first, many did not like this type of activities, did not like that they were being asked to do something. Not everyone feels comfortable in this format, this is a work for emotions. But now they began to attend art mediation steadily. We asked young people about art mediations. Schoolchildren said that they were not interested in listening to the opinion of a non-authoritative person, they did not want to listen to a classmate, and we are trying to show them that this is important. The students, in turn, were so confident in the concept of the class, and communicated well with each other. Schoolchildren were different.

The format of meetings with artists is less popular, although this phenomenon is not clear to me. Lectures can be easily repeated, and meetings with artists do not. Also, young people like film screenings, art projects, installations. DJ sets are very attractive, dancing in a museum is very inspiring for them.

Has any dynamics been observed in youth's museum attendance in recent years?

I have been working in the Hermitage for 7 years and I remember that 50 people came to the cycle of the female art several years ago. Now there are much more of these people. In September and October there are a lot of people, in May the least.

What channels of attraction do you use?

We mainly use social networks, but in general they do not work as well as we would like. Instagram doesn't work very well, we don't have professional PR and SMM in social networks. Youth Center duplicates the news in Facebook. VKontakte is used most of all, it attracts young people.

Are there any restrictions on the methods of self-promotion?

We have limitations. For example, if you put a picture, you want to write the information about the event somehow informally, the museum may not like it.

What do you think is the most important when working with a young audience?

The lack of snobbery, the ability not to give them large amounts of data, large amounts of information, but the ability to increase the interest. They need to be shown how to look broadly at art, how many interesting things there are, both in the old and the new art.

What opportunities do you see in attracting a young audience?

We have a project “15/24, they are now at the research stage of working with young people. They divided this audience into motivated and unmotivated groups. After classes in a focus group, they come to us for more difficult lectures, they become more interested. They begin to be inspired by art.

Appendix 2

The database with the list of young people who took part in the activities of the Hermitage's Youth Center for 3 years (for 2016, 2017 and 2018) and the database of student tickets issued in the Main Museum Complex and the General Staff Building from 2016 to 2019: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OtPljMWRjeGESQ3BmSExVMTExbzRc15wdR5-Lz1OX8c/edit#gid=406199307

Content analysis of the interviews with Experts from The State Hermitage Museum: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JsAUiqEo0bvYyOb781bJTAwyO_KrlQjzGoZmDgKRNfU/edit

The statistical analysis of database: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/122--bJ04sBnl95FOUFTZtzdiextwcXCM?ths=true

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