The digital economy has urgent lessons to teach the museums sector – lessons that it is a decade or more late in learning. Over the last 10 years, the rise of digital products and services has seen traditional industries being positively disrupted, giving more choice and control to audiences. Netflix and Amazon Prime did this in the film and TV industry, Spotify for music, Uber and Lyft for private transport. Services such as personalised recommendations, on-demand services and dynamic pricing are now standard in most sectors, yet remain huge areas of untapped value for museums.
In a changing and competitive entertainment environment, museums and galleries are now experiencing higher barriers to income generation and meaningful audience engagement (particularly with younger and diverse audiences). Consumption of art information continues to rely on outdated media devices, wall labels or print-outs that fail to meet the needs of diverse population and expectations for personalized, social, emotionally impactful experiences. At the same time, subject to funding cuts since the recession and with their philanthropic and corporate partners all living with global economic uncertainty, for museums a sense of real forthcoming change pervades.
Smartify CIC is a social enterprise with a mission to make information about art accessible and to support the audience reach and financial resilience of museums. The app is already used by the world’s most popular museums and galleries, along with many more that are smaller and relatively unknown. Smartify has been downloaded by over 500,000 museum visitors since its launch in February 2017.
Our partners see Smartify as an opportunity to invest in a cross-institutional targeted platform that embraces data-driven business models. However, this must be done in a way that respects the museum brands, helps them replace declining revenue streams and, at the same time, offers end-users and visitors exciting, engaging experiences with art.
With this context in mind, the objectives of the project were:
1. To prototype, develop and test two new features in Smartify app, that would increase user retention and monetize the platform
2. To open new markets and establish new contacts in the museums and arts sector at a European and global scale.
3. To improve the image and visibility of Smartify as among the best European and global SME’s in the creative/immersive technology sector.
4. To produce validate Smartify's business model for follow-up financing, enabling Smartify’s growth.
