CHIN and THE VIRTUAL MUSEUM OF CANADA

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CHIN and THE VIRTUAL MUSEUM OF CANADA
Patricia Young Canadian Heritage Information
Network July 12, 2002 www.virtualmuseum.ca www.c
hin.gc.ca
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Canadian Heritage Information Network

• Established in 1972
• Agency of Department of Canadian Heritage
• To broker effective access to Canadian and
  international heritage information for public
  education and enjoyment and for the collective
  benefit of Canadian museums
• Enabling the museum community
• Access to museum information

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Enabling the Museum Community

• Building capacity
• skills development
• www.chin.gc.ca
• Funding for content creation
• Public Access Portal
• The Virtual Museum of Canada

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Capacity Building

• Skills Development for creating and managing
  digital content
• Collections Management
• Intellectual Property
• Digitization
• Preservation
• Directors, project managers, implementers
• Partnerships to leverage the investment

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Capacity Building

• Web site for professionals - www.chin.gc.ca
• portal
• Subject access (user-centred )
• freely available
• search tools

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Funding for Content Creation

• Virtual Museum of Canada Investment Program
• 19M over 3 years to start
• 8M this year and ongoing
• Exclusive to CHIN members
• Competitive contracting process
• Contracts are for the creation of online content

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Public Access

• Virtual Museum of Canada Portal
  www.virtualmuseum.ca
• Collaboration between Canadian Museums and CHIN
• Showcasing Canadian Museums

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Mission of Virtual Museum of Canada

• Engaging audiences of all ages in Canadas
  diverse heritage through a dynamic Internet
  service freely available to the public in French
  and English
• A collaboration between Canadian museums and CHIN
• a collection of high-quality branded content
• PLUS the VMC portal and search engine

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Calls for Proposals

• First Call 52 proposals
• 13 approved / 1M
• Second Call 37 proposals
• 16 approved / 1.5M
• Third Call 43 proposals
• 10 approved/ 1.0M
• Fourth Call 35 proposals
• 12 approved/ 1.5 M
• Next call for proposals will be Fall 2002

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Facts Figures

• 728 member museums and growing
• 153 Virtual Exhibits
• 375 resources in Learning with Museums
• 265,000 images in Image Gallery
• 97 million hits, 3.1 million visits from 22 March
  2001 - 30 April 2002
• 5.2M in sponsorship

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Lessons Learned

• Feedback analysis
• 99 are signed
• mostly positive, additional information
• negative ones primarily associated with problems
  with the map plug-in
• no drop in number of messages

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Lessons Learned

• Marketing
• target groups
• marketing objectives
• marketing tools

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VMC Target Groups

• Adults, 25-49
• Students, 9-17
• Teachers

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Marketing Objective Results

• Increase awareness annually by 3
• Result 7
• Year 1 target of 3 million visits
• Result 3.1 million visits
• Media coverage 150 articles in 1st year
• Result 400 articles, interviews mentions
• Sponsorship 1M in cash, products service
• Result5.2M in cash and in-kind contributions

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Marketing Tools

• Advertising
• Direct Marketing
• Public Relations
• Promotions - Contests
• Research - Surveys
• Online Marketing

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Marketing Tools - Advertising

• Billboard 10 X 20

• February, March, April 2001
• August, September, October 2001
• January, February, March 2002
• September, October, November 2002

• 2380 English
• 635 French
• 3015 Total

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Marketing Tools - Advertising

• 4 X 6 Bus Shelter

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Marketing Tools - Advertising

• Ads in the January and September 2002 Issues
• Schoolnet Magazine
• 1 million potential readers reached (print
  Internet)
• Public Service Announcements on three networks

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Marketing Tools - Direct Marketing

• Direct mail to Canadian teachers
• September 2001 2002
• 15,000 schools and 300,000 teachers targeted

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Marketing Tools - Public Relations

• 400 articles and media mentions
• Awards and Distinctions
• 2001 Digital Marketing Awards - Best Information
  Web Site / Head of the Public Service Award /
  Library And Catalog Management Solution Award /
  MUSE Award / etc.

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Marketing Tools - Online Marketing
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Marketing Tools - Online MarketingO
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Marketing Tools - Online Marketing
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Lessons Learned

• Knowledge from Statistics
• difficult to get statistics on virtual exhibits
  on members sites
• analysis of search terms and search engines used
• search engine optimization - metadata
• how do you measure success?

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Lessons Learned

• Things that were not intuitive
• focus group testing
• content in language of choice
• More browsing than searching
• Featuring is effective
• Popularity of Image Gallery, Find a Museum,
  Virtual Exhibits
• Accessibility

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Strategic Issues

• Government Priorities
• challenge of maintaining priority positioning
• Building Partnerships
• constant renewal reinforcement of shared vision
• Excellence
• exploiting the full potential of the medium
• Sustainability
• capacity, sharing of information, business
  models, measures of success

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Whats Next

• New VMC Investment program for small museums
• Community Memories
• Local history exhibitions
• Pilot project completed
• First Call for Proposals due July 24
• Launch on VMC this winter

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Thank You!

• Patricia Young
• Manager, Professional Programs
• Canadian Heritage Information Network
• pyoung_at_chin.gc.ca
• www.virtualmuseum.ca
• www.chin.gc.ca