Since the COVID-19 pandemic forced museums, zoos, and cultural attractions to close their doors, many have admirably turned their attention to new digital content projects, virtual public programs, and online events to help keep audiences engaged. Now, after two months of closures, many organizations are also beginning to monetize these digital initiatives through entrance fees, “pay what you wish” models, and other methods. Even as organizations open their doors (or plan to open their doors) to visitors once again, many are finding that the reduced capacity and restrictions on physical events and summer camps are placing greater importance on generating revenue through digital engagement initiatives.
On May 13, 2020, over 3,300 museum professionals joined Brendan Ciecko (CEO and Founder @ Cuseum), Michelle Mileham (Director of Education @ Tracy Aviary), Christian Ramirez (Public Programs Manager @ Phoenix Art Museum) & Laura Houston (Director of Education @ Elmwood Park Zoo) as they explored various ways to monetize virtual programming and digital offerings. This webinar explored ways to monetize traditional programming that has been shifted to digital platforms, as well as creative ideas that have generated new revenue streams. This discussion also addressed some of the challenges related to reopening that cultural organizations are continuing to face.
Watch the video recording here.
Read the full transcript below:
Brendan Ciecko:
Hello, everyone, my name is Brendan Ciecko and I'm the founder and CEO of Cuseum. First off, I want to say thank you to everyone who is joining us today as well as say thank you to our amazing panelists and our amazing three healthy giraffes that are joining us today. I hope that you're staying safe and healthy during these unprecedented and uncertain times. If you're joining us for the first time, welcome. For those of you who have tuned into any of our past webinars, welcome back, it's great to see you again. Last week, a record number of people tuned in for our conversation on best practices and strategies for reopening your museum, your zoo, your aquarium, your cultural attraction.
This was in wake of a growing number of states and counties that have started to ease the restrictions and allow museums to slowly open their doors. We covered a lot of ground, but there were still so many questions that we were hoping to get to. This week, we'll be continuing our discussion on strategies for reopening but also introduce a very hot topic we've been wanting to address for awhile, now. How have museums, zoos, aquariums, and other types of cultural attractions been generating revenue through their digital offering? What does that look like today? What are the outcomes and what might it look like as we move towards opening? We know there's no silver bullet, here, and this is truly the million-dollar question on many people's minds right now. And we look forward to exploring this topic and hope it's helpful and inspiring to your pursuits at your home organizations.
Today's topic is experimenting with new digital revenue streams on the road to reopening. Without any further ado, please allow me to introduce our special guests. Joining us, we have Christian Ramirez. Since 2018, Christian Ramirez has been the public programs manager at the Phoenix Art Museum. She recently programmed a series of sold out lectures around Teotihuacan: City of Water, City of Fire which included Phoenix Art Museum's first Spanish language lecture. Ramirez participated in the 2018 Mass Action Convening meeting with museum practitioners to discuss, develop, and implement diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion plans for their institutions. She is currently working with Museum Workers Speak on museum workers' relief fund which is open to any U.S. museum workers laid off, furloughed, or have had their life severely impacted by COVID-19 pandemic. Thank you so much for joining us today, Christian. Excellent.
Also joining us, we have Laura Houston. Laura Houston is the director of education at Elmwood Park Zoo located in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Laura is a graduate of Rutgers University where she received her bachelor's and master's in English. Over the course of 16 years, Laura held various roles at the Philadelphia Zoo, eventually becoming the director of education. While at the Philadelphia Zoo, Laura developed and managed several award-winning programs including the conservation-based Unless Contest and engagement program ZooCREW. During her career, Laura has earned multiple awards including Employee of the Year at the Philadelphia Zoo and has been selected to present at the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Conference multiple times. In 2018, Laura brought her enthusiasm for teaching children in wildlife about a conservation to the Elmwood Park Zoo, and to add to that, it seems like she's bringing her enthusiasm and passion for introducing the webinar community and the museum community to giraffes at her zoo. Thank you so much [laughs] for joining us, Laura.
Laura Houston:
Thank you.
Brendan Ciecko:
Yeah, thank you. Give us a couple of quick words for those of us who are just joining now, about those giraffes at your zoo. This is a pretty unprecedented moment on the webinar.
Laura Houston:
They're much better to look at than I am. Getting a look at some of our giraffe boys there. Our giraffes have been awesome members of our team recently.
Brendan Ciecko:
This is again, a complete surprise. Thank you for that. Also joining us we have Michelle Mileham. Michelle is the director of education at Tracy Aviary and Botanical Gardens in Salt Lake City, the largest and oldest of two free-standing, aviaries in the United States. Prior to moving to Utah, she concluded her PhD at Oregon State University in environmental sciences and education with a specific focus on museum education. She contributed a chapter on museum leadership in management for the book, The Care and Keeping of Museum Professionals published last year. In her spare time, Michelle loves to cook, hike, knit, read, and listen to podcasts. She's also an avid Twitter user and museum advocate. Thank you so much for joining us, Michelle.
Michelle Mileham:
I'm happy to be here.
Brendan Ciecko:
Excellent. Now that I see the Elmwood Park Zoo’s video feed is back on, here's the giraffe cam that we were talking about a couple of moments ago. This is an amazing little surprise for us. Before we jump into the questions, here's a fun moment of zen and I think it directly relates to some of the things we're going to be talking about today enticing the public remotely to engage with some digital opportunities.
Let's jump into the questions. Let's talk about digital revenue streams in the larger picture of reopening your organizations. We're hearing from many folks that cultural organizations that while museums, zoos, and aquariums may reopen in the coming weeks and months at a reduced capacity, events and programs might stay virtual or have virtual options going into the future due to COVID-19 and social distancing restrictions.
Can you talk a little bit about your general plans for reopening and continued role of digital content programs in this context? Michelle, do you want to start us off there?
Michelle Mileham:
Yes. I'd be happy to. Here in Utah, we actually had our restrictions lifted starting May 1st. Right now, Tracy Aviary is open to the public the limited capacity. We base that on how long a general visit takes. We have found that it's shorter, now. We aren't doing a lot of programming because we do still have restrictions about group gatherings and sizes. No tours, none of our special bird programs that we typically do this time of year, but our grounds are open for everyone to walk around. The one exception is our indoor exhibits do remain closed at this time, which is a pretty small footprint of our eight acres, but that is where we are right now.
Brendan Ciecko:
Great, thank you. Christian, how about you? Can you speak a little bit about your reopening plans at the Phoenix Art Museum and the role that digital content has played in this context?
Christian Ramirez:
Sure. We're still closed right now. We don't have a set reopening date at the moment. But we're definitely working through what those phases will look like. It's similar to what most organizations seem to be doing, of having smaller capacity, doing a ticketed entry time block situation, and then no public programs in the traditional sense until we're able to have larger groups of people. I think the current number, I think it's 10, is what the max of a gathering can be in Arizona right now. The governor just announced that yesterday. That's definitely going to change how we do things, and it's going to end up being, I'm thinking a lot of the combination of very small in-person activities that can be recorded and then shared through a live stream or after the fact as well.
Brendan Ciecko:
Excellent. Thank you. Laura, the Elmwood Park Zoo appears to be one of the first cultural organizations to have started monetizing digital content experiences through your Animal Cameo initiative. Can you talk through this idea, how it materialized and what results you've seen in terms of engagement and revenue generation?
Laura Houston:
Absolutely. I'm going to keep it on the giraffe because they're a little more interesting. About a month ago, it was about April 20th, we came up with the idea of having cameos in meetings, or birthday parties, or things along those ideas. Actually, it came from, we were talking with our volunteers and how much they missed the animals, and we know everybody's Zooming for happy hours and things like that. We said, "Well, could we Zoom in and people see the animals?" So it was an opportunity for us to keep people connected to the zoo and keep our education going while still having the opportunity to raise some revenue. Since we started April 20th, we now have done, or have booked at least 150 programs raising a nice little chunk of revenue for us while the zoo is not getting any other revenue. And it's keeping us relevant.
Brendan Ciecko:
That's incredible. Thank you for sharing that and thanks for sharing the giraffes as we speak. You're generating revenue that otherwise would not have been realized through offering experiences I would assume similar to what we're seeing right now, where I might be anywhere in the world and now I have access to a real live animal under the care and protection of a zoo. That's pretty remarkable. How did that idea come about? Did it come from the zookeepers? Did it come from the leadership? Did it come from education?
Laura Houston:
It came from education but also we're a great team, here. It was one of the things we sort of all said, "Wow, this would be cool, this would be awesome." We joke that we took all of about five minutes to plan this and launch it. It was pretty close to that. We launched it pretty quickly because we've got a great support staff here that are able to let us try something like this and let us launch.
Brendan Ciecko:
Excellent, thank you. Some folks at home are curious how much have you been charging for the session with one of your zookeepers and, and the animal?
Laura Houston:
We do charge $150 for 15 minutes with the giraffes. Our porcupines are only $100, our donkeys and goats for $100. We started with a limited number of animals that were available. Then if we have a special request, we do the best to accommodate that. But about $150 is 15 minutes. Normally, we'll have somebody up feeding them to help entice them to be part of the cameo. It's a shared responsibility with the education and keepers. Our vet staff has jumped in to film. It's been shared across the board.
Brendan Ciecko:
Excellent. That's exciting and thanks for sharing that with us. Michelle, when we spoke about your work at Tracy Aviary, you noted that you've been testing various pricing models for digital content and programming and found that some have been unexpectedly successful. Can you talk through your process, here, and what pricing models are working for you?
Michelle Mileham:
Yes. When we first closed everything down and went to virtual resources only, everything was free. We were publishing things on our website and activities for people to download and do at home, videos, and definitely using social media for special behind the scenes footage with the animals in our care, and some special keeper talks, and tours, and things like that. As we saw this lasting longer, we thought about what future programs would look like. We had several staff interested in doing virtual paint alongs, doing painting as you're watching someone and you're all painting the same thing in your own style. With that, we met and discussed whether or not we wanted it to be a paid program, and we decided yes.
We were initially going to do a $5 donation to participate. As conversations kept going, we ultimately decided to not just do a set fee and do a “pay what you can” model. While $5 isn't really a high fee, we still felt like there were people who wouldn't pay that to participate in a virtual program. We ultimately just made it a donation-based opportunity and had people pay anywhere from $1 to over $50 to participate in that paint along from their own home. With looking at how many people registered and how much we made over the course of those three events, the tickets ended up being closer to about $14.50. When we looked at the average donation per person. It was higher than we had initially thought we would charge. It was nice to see what that average worked out to be to help us guide future programming. Now through the month of May we're doing adult lecture series, keeping older people who are home and may just want some socialization, engaged through some specific lectures on fun topics and doing that same pay as you go model.
Brendan Ciecko:
Excellent. Christian, we'd love to hear from you on this as well. You've started pricing virtual public programs at the Phoenix Art Museum. I'd love to hear a little bit more about that.
Christian Ramirez:
Yeah. We have been trying out a pay what you wish model as well, which is mimicking what we do at the museum during our voluntary donation times that happen every Wednesday from 3:00 until the museum closes and then on the first Friday of the month, just trying to mimic that same idea of we know that this is a really hard time for a lot of people. We're just trying to provide access. Giving them the opportunity to experience some semblance of normalcy for a moment. The pay what you wish model's been working pretty well so far. We've only had a few programs so far. But we are thinking about maybe transitioning it to it being more like a member benefit so that there still be something for the public in general. But to have those more intimate kind of conversations, anything that would involve like curator or a docent, potentially, that would be more of a member benefit, so then we have a buy-in to be able to increase our membership. We also have a sustaining membership model that we'll be released soon. This was supposed to happen prior to COVID and now it's a little bit of a pause. Maybe being able to roll out those two things together so that it's less than "$10 to attend." but more of a "It's $5.00 a month to be a member and on top of admission to the museum once we reopen you'll have that. We also can provide a suite of virtual programs that are accessible that way."
Brendan Ciecko:
That's great. I also liked hearing the membership perspective of shifting more towards a recurring monthly positioning of it versus it being this annual commitment. I've seen a few museums do that, really looking forward to seeing how that plays out in Phoenix. We have a question that came in from Karleen Gardner at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She says, "I'm curious about what the panelists' experiences are as well as what the data says about charging a specific price for a program versus asking for donations. What yields more revenue?" Do any of you want to jump on that, from what your data has shown you so far?
Michelle Mileham:
I can say a little something.
Brendan Ciecko:
Sure.
Michelle Mileham:
We haven't done a lot so far that has had a specific pay structure. But as we're moving into summer, we're rethinking our summer camps, obviously, with large groups of kids getting together, not the wisest choice. We're moving those all virtual and that is going to be our first time that we're going to say and list a specific price for that opportunity. That decision was based on what we ultimately priced those as was based on feedback that we got from current registrants compared to what they would pay for a regular camp experience, what would they be willing to pay if we did it all virtual? A lot said, "Between a quarter and a half of the cost." If we based it on that survey result of just what people are willing to pay, and we offer scholarships for our summer camps in general, but with this new structure, we are going to offer a scholarship in the form of pay what you can format. So still trying to keep it accessible that way.
Brendan Ciecko:
Excellent. Well, it's great to hear that you're reviewing survey information in an iterative process. Side note, does anybody remember when the band Radiohead put out that album, I think it was called In Rainbows, and let fans pay what they want. This was a landmark use of the pay what you want model in the music industry as well as the world of digital content. I pulled up some numbers just as I started seeing more and more questions come up that 62% of people opted to download that album for free. But 38% who downloaded the album paid something and the average payment was $6.00. This was regarded as their most commercially successful album release.
Back in 2010 there was a research study conducted that looked at the impact of what happens when charitable giving is involved, if you're a nonprofit, if you are mission-based like a museum, a zoo, aquarium, like the majority of you on the call today, the study involved the purchase of souvenir photos at a roller coaster ride at an attraction and the people who were told that half the money would be going to charity paid five times the amount compared to those who were told nothing. Those are obviously slightly different examples, but there is data out there. The results are going to vary from organization offering to offering, but I just wanted to mention there is a lot written about the history and psychology of pay what you want. Check that out if you're considering that model. I think, like Michelle said, you want to consistently have a conversation with your audience to see what the propensity to buy or their sensitivity around pricing looks like.
As museums and cultural organizations are starting to realize that traffic from tourism, vulnerable populations and other groups may be stagnant for quite some time, even during the reopening, they may be planning to keep up with their digital engagement offerings, especially for those who cannot come in person. However, these organizations are concerned that putting a price tag, and I feel like we've been talking a lot about this over the past couple of webinars, putting a price tag on digital offerings could alienate audiences or even pose a new barrier. Do you have any thoughts on ensuring content stays accessible while starting to bring in revenue for your digital content? I'd love to hear from Laura, just based on the fact that you're balancing both sides. You likely have a lot of content that's available freely and openly, but you're also charging for these specialty experiences with your animals.
Laura Houston:
That's exactly right. For example, we do Zoo School Live every Monday through Friday at 11:00. It's a free program on Facebook. We're doing Nature Play in your backyard every weekend which is free content. For us it was a balance. It was being able to create the opportunities that people could still be engaged with our animals and still be engaged with our mission and our messaging.
At the same time, for somebody who wanted something a little bit more personal, who wanted something a bit more specific that we did have the balance of the paid. For us, it's been a fine line of a balance. It is also some of the same teams doing exactly the same work. It's been a balance of making sure that we set aside time to still do the free programming, but at the same time can get some revenues. Definitely a balance. We've had a great rapport from our Zoo School Live free programing. We have a great response to it. At the same time, we do have people that are doing the paid. We're finding a lot of our paid content is people donating to schools so that they can have distance learning, or companies that are doing it as a morale thing for their own employees. We feel pretty safe on the revenue that we have an opportunity for both.
Brendan Ciecko:
Excellent. Christian, can you share a little bit about how your museum is looking at that balance between free and monetized?
Christian Ramirez:
Sure. Going off of what was just said regarding, mostly for school tours, thinking about that model and what does that look like, and our outreach talks to senior centers, it's really mimicking what we already do, right? Is that for Title I schools, we have a program in which they're able to come to the museum for free. Maybe it's a similar kind of model that we'll then readjust for schools that are able to pay whatever fee will be, that we will be able to do that. But then for those that don't have that kind of access, be able to balance those two together. It's working through those models to figure out what makes the most sense and still provides enough access for folks, too.
Brendan Ciecko:
Thank you. Michelle, how are you looking at striking that balance?
Michelle Mileham:
Yeah. Right now for us, we're really focusing on partners. That's definitely something we didn't want to fizzle with our closure. We have a great partnership with both our city and county libraries and are actually working with them to get some of our free content delivered through the platforms that they're using so we can actually have a specific Tracy Aviary channel. Our city library is just going to start using BiblioBoard. They'll be pushing all of our resources out through there so that it's reaching an audience that may not think of coming to the aviary or certainly wouldn't have the ability to when, even though we are open, we've really just been keeping those partnerships going to try and reach as many folks in our community as we can.
Brendan Ciecko:
Excellent. And I love the emphasis on the partnership component. I think that can't be emphasized enough given the distribution it offers as well as the really critical support. I'm glad to hear that's something that you have in play at your organization. And it might seem like a futuristic or a semi-futuristic scene from The Jetsons, but over the past few weeks we've seen some organizations turn to telepresence robots. Hastings Contemporary in England made headlines with its debut of its robot tours and then the Van Abbe Museum in the Netherlands announced that for 13 euros, you can control a robot and guide it through the museum yourself from anywhere in the world.
Do any of you have any thoughts on how revenue generating pay per view remote tours like this might play out in the future, how it might play a role? Over at the Elmwood Park Zoo they're using real live people, but we're starting to see, especially with museums, a couple experimenting. I'd love to hear some thoughts on this. Laura, do you have any thoughts on this? You guys have actual people providing the pay per view revenue generating tours but are you looking at other things that make it more scalable? Or do you take the cost on, to make it more accessible?
Laura Houston:
We hadn't looked at robot tours, but now I'm going to. For us it's been more, trying to find things that we could do prerecord for people or trying to find things that we could do en masse. For example a couple weeks ago, we did a Giraffeathon. We were able to host a telethon, if you will, live on Facebook where people could make donations and have the giraffe fed virtually. We're looking at things like that that can reach multiple audiences, and we could reach several thousand people with that Giraffeathon at one time.
Brendan Ciecko:
You're reaching several thousand people right now with your Giraffe, that's pretty amazing.
Laura Houston:
We're looking more on things that we can offer to sometimes broader audiences. A few people have mentioned, partnering. We've done the same thing. We have at least six libraries that we're partnering with digital programming so that we can expand the offering that way.
Brendan Ciecko:
Excellent. Thank you. Michelle and Christian, are your organizations, again, it's a fairly futuristic prospect, but, when the Smithsonian got a robot named, I think it was Pepper, or Piper, or Pepper, and now we're starting to see these forms of remote access robots, do you think there'll be a place in your organization? I don't know if it's next week, next year, next decade, but for the sake of accessibility and knowing that we are entering this new era of social distancing, do you think that more organizations will start seeing things like that as a great amenity to their audience?
Christian Ramirez:
I can speak a little bit to that. We haven't talked about a robot specifically. I think it would be funny just to see one cruising around. But we have discussed the possibility of, since when we reopen, that there won't be a daily tour anymore, at least in person. What could that look like via Zoom if we had docent standby at like strategic places and you could call in? Is that something that people might be interested in? Would that still serve some communication with another human in-gallery but just through your phone? It's more of looking at some other options of maybe being able to utilize our website that has recently been redesigned that is much more capable of handling those kinds of technologies. If we had the QR code that could lead to an audio description of something, more in that realm of linking to what we've already been doing instead of trying to create this whole new platform and experience.
Brendan Ciecko:
Excellent. I think that's really important to think about. What do you already have that you can easily tap into with minimal time, minimal decisions, minimal, monetary investments? It sounds like you're taking a pretty sensible financially responsible approach to that. That's all good to hear. Michelle how about you? How is your organization looking at some of those new forms of tapping into technology whether it be robots or not, hopefully it's not drones. Because I know that you guys have birds. It can't be a drone over there. But very curious how you're looking at this equation.
Michelle Mileham:
Yeah, we definitely have to have special permission for drone footage on our grounds. Yeah, it's interesting, I hadn't really thought of it in the role in our zoo. I'm curious, just to throw it out there, too, about animal care and welfare, obviously, that's our top priority, what are some of the boundaries with robots being controlled from somewhere else, perusing our grounds and what that means for the animals. I think it's certainly an interesting road to take. A lot of zoos and museums have also been thinking about virtual reality experiences and I think that's definitely a good, futuristic way to go for zoos of embedding yourself in this habitat, and I'm looking at this giraffe yard now, and thinking about that in more of a virtual reality setting would definitely be appeasing to people. I think there's a lot of futuristic possibilities and I don't know where it'll lead us at the aviary. It's not something we've really discussed yet.
Brendan Ciecko:
Interesting. Yeah, it's fascinating to think about the role that virtual reality, augmented reality, these new immersive tools, the role that they'll play now but also in the future. I don't know if there's a black and white answer to that, but there's definitely a lot of organizations looking at what can be done easily, quickly, and effectively. We have a really interesting question from Susan McLaughlin at the South Carolina Aquarium, in Charleston, South Carolina. Have your institutions seen a high demand for online and virtual programs? If so, what sources? Are you seeing most requests from schools, corporations, families, et cetera? Michelle, you were talking about partnerships. I'd love to hear from all three of you. Michelle, if you could dive a little bit deeper into the distribution of where the requests are coming from, that would be really helpful.
Michelle Mileham:
Certainly. I think at the start we had a lot from our members and our regular followers as we were opening up possibilities and marketing things, that certainly goes to people who are already in our sphere of influence, hearing about it. As this continues to grow and develop, our closure has led us to be able to create a whole new suite of programs that probably wouldn't have been possible for us if operations continued as normal. We actually created a distance learning program, that's what has come out of our time away from our offices. That's a whole new way to engage school groups, and family groups, and community groups. Really, anyone in our own community and beyond, right? That's the best thing about distance learning is you can join in from anywhere around the world. We're really excited about that possibility.
Right now, we've had a lot of demand from schools as they couldn't do tours and field trips this spring. We rolled out some programming for them and to support teachers through the rest of the school year. And now, a lot more with scouts, which I think are an often overlooked group of keeping kids in scout programs engaged and working towards their own accomplishments. More recently schools for next fall and spring have already been reaching out to us thinking about what that will look like for them. I'd say that's been the basis. It definitely started with people in the know with aviary moving more towards community groups as we've offered new things.
Brendan Ciecko:
Thank you. Christian, how about you? What are some of the sources you're seeing, these requests come from? Schools, corporations, local universities, local groups, families. Where's there the biggest opportunity, or biggest success for Phoenix Art Museum?
Christian Ramirez:
It's really similar to Michelle. A lot of it came from schools. Right out the gate it was really, we were putting all of our efforts into trying to create content to be able to support distance learning and provide resources for parents that now suddenly are teachers as well, to be able to have some moments of calm, hopefully. That expanded into the first big initiative that's still continuing is our virtual visits, which is a weekly e-mail that goes out, to members and to those specific groups as well. That's where a huge push of it really came from out the gate was just trying to provide resources for those kinds of folks. In terms of the virtual programs, I think the big part there was that we just had a lot of things on deck for the spring and that all had to be paused. Hopefully trying to do them in the fall when we reopen, but still a bunch of question marks on that front.
We did our first virtual First Friday which is our pay what you wish time, during the museum where it's open and it's free. And, there's a suite of performances or musicians playing, different things will happen at the museum. We readapted the one in May that was in partnership with the Arizona State University. It was a bunch of new media performances by a graduating class. It was easier to adapt that kind of work for this virtual plane. It's something that I've been thinking a lot about. Instead of just experiencing things that are like a talking head, but maybe things that were created specifically for the virtual space and how to combine those two together.
Brendan Ciecko:
Great. Laura, let's talk a little bit more about where people are coming from for your virtual and digital content, whether it be animal cameo, or otherwise. I want to understand, and I think it'll be valuable for everyone here to get a bigger picture of, "Okay, I'm preparing to spend $100 for 15 minutes." Which I think is more expensive than a Harvard-educated lawyer. That's $400 an hour or something. I could be totally off, there. Hopefully someone will correct me via e-mail. But the people that are saying, "Okay, $100, 15 minutes." Is this a birthday present for a kid? And let's even think about the average income and how that sits. Are people who are making these purchases your average Joe or Jane? Or are these deep pocketed donors or corporations? I'd love to hear what the persona of the individual or group that is engaging in this paid content.
Laura Houston:
For our cameos, for the most part, it is corporations or alumni groups at universities. But that type of group that is doing the cameos with a mixture, there are some sprinkled in birthdays. For example, we had a girl who was turning 16 and she loved bison. Absolutely, adored bison. It's her favorite animal. As a surprise her Dad set up an opportunity to do a cameo with one of our bison. We have had a handful. We've had a baby shower, we've had of course birthday parties. For the cameos, a lot of the audience is corporations. We do offer a distance learning for schools which is only $50. We do have a lower price point for where we're getting distance learning for schools. And then of course our free content has been really largely families and the community.
Brendan Ciecko:
Excellent. It sounds like if there ever was a time to get cozy and friendly with your local corporations, now is the time. It seems to be benefiting Elmwood Park. By the way, we've probably seen 15 minutes worth of giraffe time here. 15 minutes, if we take that times 150 times 3,000. I hope I don't get a bill from the Elmwood Park Zoo. But, no, that's really quite interesting knowing that, even as a surprise for friends, family, and otherwise, this is a really unique experience. I think that a lot of us, we're just looking for unique offerings, things that people haven't seen before, things that give them a little bit of relaxation and a moment away from the hectic everyday life that we're living. That's really interesting. Christian, let's Zoom in a little on public programs, here, since you're an expert in that area. What are some ways that programs are changing in light of Coronavirus restrictions while still driving revenue? We've heard about some ranging from virtual events, micro events, Zooms, live streams, and otherwise. We'd love to hear from you about what you're planning and how you're planning to bring in some revenue through new forms of programming.
Christian Ramirez:
I've been thinking a lot about that, especially for the fall, since we do have an annual artists talk that usually happens in October. Trying to readapt that format of potentially the auditorium that we normally use will have a different capacity in the fall compared to our normal attempts to try to sell out, we're now doing the opposite of trying to create a little bit more intimate of an experience with that artist to be able to do the talk specifically with members of the affiliate group that's presenting it. Those would be potentially the people that would be able to be physically in the space since it's a smaller group. And then maybe tiering it out from there. Then it would be a live stream just for members. After the fact it could be a recording that's been shared with the public. Just trying to potentially tier out those things to drive membership and also just create a little bit more intimate of an experience is the way I'm thinking about it and hopefully will work, but we'll see.
Brendan Ciecko:
Great. It's interesting, even to hear that you're thinking that many seasons away, you're thinking about what the fall season looks like and doing everything that you can plan accordingly. Let's talk a little bit more about summer camps and school trips. This is a really relevant topic right now as summer's among us. Many cultural organizations rely on summer camps and field trips as a source of revenue, as we know, yet with the restrictions on the size of gatherings, in person summer camps may not be viable for this summer. We've already heard from folks that now is normally the time when they're starting to book field trips for the fall. However, schools are starting to hold back and some are asking for digital options as all of you have mentioned previously.
How are you handling the summer camp and field trip challenge of the now? And is there a way to turn these programs virtual while still generating revenue? Michelle, do you want to jump in on that one?
Michelle Mileham:
Yeah. Like I mentioned, our closure allowed us to launch our distance learning program. I told my staff from the beginning anything we create during our closure and in response to COVID-19 should be sustainable, and be fruitful for our department well into the future. While distance learning really serves us when we can't be open or people can't come in large groups to our facility, it's something that we can continue to provide even if our grounds remain open and visitation can't occur like it used to. That's been one thing that we've really been focusing on is now getting that to teachers and letting them know that that's a possibility, so that if funds are limited in the next year for field trips or we don't even know if classrooms in schools are going to look the same come fall, right? How exactly we'd reach all of those students like we would, and that distance learning program, I think, will be the way that we go.
For summer camps like Christian was saying, focusing less on, "We're selling out and look at all of the number of people." But really meaningful experiences with even smaller groups. Right now our summer camps, through late June are going to be all virtual. Then it's June and late June and July we'll start seeing what our restrictions and everything looks like at that point, but we're certainly thinking these aren't going to be facilitated in the way that they were in past years, that it's going to be much smaller, intimate groups so that we can physically distance kids from each other and still have good learning opportunities.
I think even as we look into the future, some things will be like they were but not ever as they were launching all new things in initiatives to keep our community engaged through a virtual platform. That being said, we're all really honing in on how to encourage people to get away from technology, thinking about what we can provide but also stepping away and doing nature-based activities. Laura mentioned her Zoo School and Nature Play, that's still such an important initiative that creates opportunities for kids to go out and do that as well, as well as tune in virtually.
Brendan Ciecko:
Excellent. Thank you. We have a really interesting and important question coming to us from Katrina Stacy at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico. How can you offer programs for a fee in times of crisis without appearing greedy? What words, timing, or programming is appropriate? This comes up time and time again around the ask, the language, how it's marketed, timing is everything today. Sensitive language is everything today. Being cognizant of people's realities on the other side is more important than it's ever been. I'd love to hear about the, the language, the messaging that you're putting into this right now. Christian, I'd love to hear from you on this.
Christian Ramirez:
Yeah. It's something that we think a lot about is that being really sensitive to the fact that so many people are facing unemployment at this moment or pay reductions or whatever is going on. Again, using the same language that we used when we're open with the pay what you wish is just reinforcing that, "You are welcome here, we want you to participate. But do what you're able to and if that's totally okay, too." I think part of my thinking of connecting more with membership makes it less of a, "You don't get this because you can't pay for it." But more of a, "This is something that is created for members but is eventually, will be shared with the public." It's a tiering out system instead of a hard, "You just won't get access." What I'm hoping and what the logic is in our conversations.
Brendan Ciecko:
Yeah. I think data is important in it being data-driven is important. But obviously, back to the pay what you want model, I think that's probably the most beautiful thing of the model is it keeps you in a position where you can be true to your mission around access and making sure that people aren't barred or restricted from seeing the content or accessing the educational materials. So there's no real data point on that, it's a reality, "If you can pay what you want, means if I want it for free, you got it for free if you don't have the means to pay for it. But if you do have the means, you're welcome to contribute." That's always an important thing to look at. It seems like it's working well so far at most of your organizations. Michelle, how about you? How has the messaging been around this content offering?
Michelle Mileham:
Yeah, I think we've been really sensitive to it and that “pay what you can” model has really worked well. It seems like we're meeting people where they are financially. We've also really framed our language with camps. Our closure came right before our spring break camps. Of course we had registrations for that and ultimately had to cancel. And really framed it around, "We know you're hurting. We're hurting too. We're an integral part of our community and we really admire our community support." It worked well for the people who could. They ended up donating their registration fees just as a donation to our organization because they knew this was going to be hard on us as a nonprofit as well. Really being what's not us and it's not you, but we're all having this difficult time together." Has really been a good message for us.
Brendan Ciecko:
Thank you. Laura, I'd love to hear from you, especially given you have content that's available for free, but also content that's probably on the higher end of the spectrum. Talk to us about the language that you're using around this. Are you leaning on where those contributions go? What they support? So on and so forth.
Laura Houston:
Exactly. We've been very transparent that each day that we're closed in May and June, we're losing $18,000 to $33,000 a day. We still have a collection of animals that need to be cared for and need to eat. So we've been very transparent on what our costs are and what our needs are. For us it was important that we have that balance. Three quarters of the programming that we're offering is free and accessible to everybody. Then we just limited just that specialized experience to help give back. It's all giving back to our emergency fund to help keep us going. For us, we've found by just being honest to people and saying, "Hey, we're just doing this so that we can stay open and feed our animals in this time until we can all be back again." People have been very open to that and very understanding about that.
Brendan Ciecko:
Excellent. That sounds like it's working really well. I think transparency is probably the number one policy and the fact that it is going directly back into the great work and the mission of the organization. Seems like the right type of messaging for the majority of organizations. Let's look at other types of events like: galas, concerts, and fundraising events, which are usually large revenue streams or revenue generators for museums and cultural organizations. Are any of your organizations planning to test these out in a digital capacity knowing that such large gatherings might be off the table for quite some time? Last week we heard from the San Jose Museum of Art that it's their first evel- virtual gala. How does that play a role in some of your reopening plans?
Laura Houston:
Well, I can tell you for us at Elmwood, we did do, as I mentioned earlier, our Giraffeathon to help us in place of where we would normally have a big, spring revenue, Beast for a Feast is our big revenue generator. We did do the Giraffeathon which was all virtual and we had special guests come in. We, Zoomed in a school group, we had not only our giraffes feeding but also we had the opportunity for you to see them painting, and training, and talking to our keepers. That's something we did in place. We're also going to do, although it's not quite virtual, we are going to work out a drive through safari coming up in about two weeks. We've done those types of things to help offset the fact that we would not have our normal spring fundraiser.
Brendan Ciecko:
Thank you. Christian, I'd love to hear from you because I know that AAM a couple of years ago had one of their great receptions at the Phoenix Art Museum. It's a beautiful venue, I'm sure that before Coronavirus was constantly being booked for the evenings and weekends and all sorts of events and gatherings. Specific to your organization, big fundraisers, are those making a shift into the virtual world? Or are those being postponed indefinitely?
Christian Ramirez:
We actually have an opposite gala schedule because of our temperature here. We do things in the spring and everything tends to be in the fall. But we have rescheduled the gala that normally happens in November to happen a few months later. I believe it's the first weekend of February or March, I can't quite remember off the top of my head, I'm sorry. But the plan is to still go forward, hopefully by that point, everything will have settled down and restrictions will have lifted. It's very much, we are not 100% sure where that's going to land at the moment, but there isn't a specific plan to take the gala virtually, but it is conversations that we've had just to see if maybe there is an opportunity to fundraise in this virtual plane.
Brendan Ciecko:
What does the longterm picture for digital content look like at your organization? Are you figuring digital revenue streams into the long term strategy and financial outlook at your organization? Will we see digital as an earned income line item in the years to come? Do any of you have strong thoughts on that?
Christian Ramirez:
I'm not sure about what the budget will hold in terms of trying to generate revenue specifically around digital content. In terms of the longevity, again, coming back to the website that has recently been redesigned is a lot of that content that we're producing for virtual visits, for artist talks, for May First Friday, all of those types of things will end up living on our website. The plan is that even though these things that we're creating might be for a one night event that they will have a long term lifespan on the website, again, being able to really be a resource for the community to learn more about what the museum is doing and also see past performances.
Brendan Ciecko:
Thank you. Michelle, is your organization considering integrating the work that you're doing right now with distance learning and digital content as part of the long term strategy?
Michelle Mileham:
Yeah. I think it'll be interesting come fall and when we have maybe even just a better understanding of what the near future holds will give us a better sense of things. Right now, I'm thinking it's really replacing what we could have been doing and what our other revenue streams were. So opposed to in person outreach opportunities we're now doing distance learning instead. I think it'll be interesting to see how many of those in person programs come back that will continue to be a revenue source versus is this a replacement for revenue that used to exist? I think it'll be interesting to see what happens come fall and when we have a little bit better sense. I'm definitely thinking distance learning in virtual programs is something that's going to be sustainable for our organization and can continue into our future.
Brendan Ciecko:
Thank you. Laura, this new program at the Elmwood Park Zoo has been fairly successful from, from what we sene and from what we hear. Do you think that, as you reopen, if you get to full capacity at some point in the future back to your original pre-COVID-19 capacity, that you'll continue to do this animal cameo program? Has it become something that there's just so much excitement and buzz it's allowing you to reach new audiences? Where does it sit in the future plans at your organization?
Laura Houston:
It's something we're definitely going to continue. We had had a distance learning option in our menu for quite some time. And just weren't particularly successful for it. This gave us a chance to by need, rethink it and repackage it. We're definitely going to keep the cameos going. They'll be a little more restricted on times, a little more restricted on how many we can do because we'll be open, of course, and have limited capacity. But we'll definitely going to keep them going.
Brendan Ciecko:
Excellent, that's great. Just a quick side note, one thing that we've been playing around with at the office is the idea of booking one of your sessions and booking one of the sessions with the museum in the Netherlands and inviting museum professionals from around the globe to see it in action and to learn from it. There's so much sharing of best practices and sharing of ideas right now. I'm sure we'll be in touch in the future about how we can introduce more people to the way that you go about it, the tools that you use, the transaction, how it works online, kind of things of that nature. Because this has been just an absolute joy to watch giraffes in the afternoon in freezing cold New England for the last hour or so. I want to say a couple closing notes before we go into our big last question. After this webinar, we're going to compile everyone's questions, ideas, solutions into one living and breathing document. We're going to post it online where it's been for the last six or seven weeks. Feel free to share your ideas in the webinar chat, e-mail them over to hello@cuseum.com. We are all hoping for a smooth reopening phase. We're all hoping that if there are new revenue channels that they're easy to come by, that they're easy to put in place as we strive to be as ready as we can for this new reality that we're facing. The fact that you're here shows that you're taking proactive steps in preparing your museum and the strength for the cultural sector really lives in communities like this that we built together.
Before we go our separate ways, can each of you leave us with one big idea that we can bring back to our organizations during this time?
Christian Ramirez:
Yeah. I think we just have to try. This is a really hard and scary time of just a lot of uncertainty. But the biggest thing is that we have community not just in, with our colleagues at the museum that you work at, institution, but also here. Is that this is a really great space to be able to know that we all don't really know what we're doing and we're figuring it out together. Yeah, I think just try and trust your gut and know that whatever you are attempting will be successful or not, but you learn something from those things, too. Yeah. And I'm happy to also talk to anyone after this that might want to further that conversation.
Brendan Ciecko:
Excellent. Thank you. I think there is no fear in failure. I think we learn so much. So I'm happy to hear that that's the approach that you're taking at your organization. Michelle, what's one big, medium, or small idea we can bring back to our organizations right now?
Michelle Mileham:
I'm actually going to borrow one that I heard on a webinar right at the start of the closure , you are where you are. I think it's really hard for museums of all different sizes to see what everyone else is putting out there, and just remember that they may have more staff, more budget, more resources that already existed pre-closure, that they have to work from. I just want people to remember that you're doing the best that you can and with the resources that you have. Like Christian said, we're all learning something new. Don't take it as a competition or a failure if you're not doing as much. You're doing as much as you can.
Brendan Ciecko:
Can you leave us with one closing idea that we can all bring back to our organizations today?
Laura Houston:
For me I think it's trust the creativity of your staff. Your staff has tons of creative ideas and trust them. Listen to them. Be willing to put them out there and be a little bit behind them. Because sometimes they see things slightly differently than you may or other members of your team do. And it lets you get some different views. That, followed by don't be afraid to ask for help from other people, and any of the institutions I'm sure that are represented here would be willing to help. It's all one big family. We're all happy to help each other.
Brendan Ciecko:
Excellent. Thank you, everyone for sharing your wisdom. Thank you for sharing your closing words of wisdom. I think that so much of that is relatable and I'm seeing in the chat dialogue everybody just being really in agreement about the words that you said. Thank you so much, Laura. Thank you, Christian. Thank you, Michelle. This was a really dynamic and informative conversation. Thank you for sharing your time with us today. Your wisdom, thank you for sharing your giraffes with us today. I think that was an unbelievable, special thing to encounter. I've never been on a webinar, let alone a video conference call with a giraffe. So that was a first for me. I think it was a first for a lot of people here today. Thank you for that. More than anything I hope that everybody is staying safe, staying healthy, staying sane and optimistic during these really challenging and unusual times. Thank you so much. Thanks, everybody.
Looking for more information? Check out our coronavirus resources page.