Marketing on a Shoestring

I read a very interesting case study about the Tate Britain in London. As some may know, the Tate Britain, which more so focused on a variety of art, is affiliated with the Tate Modern, which is more focused on modern art (Tate, 2010). The Tate Britain was in the process of re-branding when the Tate Modern was opening and unfortunately lost much of its audience to the other museum. Furthermore, it was not attracting as young of a crowd as it would have liked to (Gompertz, 2004). To publicize an event which was aimed more so towards youth, the Tate Britain designated a £150 for leaflets to be handed out by volunteers in busy and populated areas, small cards to be distributed to businesses, universities and cafes, and also had the money to place a small ad in TimeOut (Gompertz, 2004). Through this, the Tate Britain increased its attendance by 3000 over the next two years, which included 80% of people who had never been to the museum before (Gompertz, 2004). This story was remarkable to me. Here, we have Tate Britain, a well known London based museum who designated what can very well be a small amount of money and the results speak for themselves! Lauderdale House has numeours volunteers which can contribute to this type of publicity. This can be a new marketing strategy for the House, one that is simple but goes beyond mailings and a website. By carrying out this small campaign, the organization can also track its attendance, and if the figures show improvement, the strategy can be implemented to coincide with major events at the House. This form of simple publicity might be just what the House needs to increase visibility and attendance. Thank you, Tate Britain, for the tip!

Gompertz. W., 2004. Developing audiences at Tate: Projects that have developed new audiences at Tate. [Online] Available at: http://www.a-m-a.org.uk/casestudy.asp?id=55 [Accessed 22 April 2010].

Tate Britain, 2010. Tate Britain. [Online] Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/ (Accessed 12 April 2010)

Tate Modern, 2010. Tate Modern. [Online] Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/ (Accessed 12 April 2010).