Today’s cultural consumer is overwhelmed with choice yet empowered by the wealth of competitive alternatives in the marketplace. For many, the cultural experience has moved away for the traditional approach of culture as aesthetic or intellectual to culture as a social experience. As a result, the cultural industry is competing with the larger leisure market for individual’s time, attention and dollars.

Rafael Chueca from the Obra Social la Caixa, a foundation managing several cultural centers across Spain, is well aware of the growing competitive landscape his organization faces. Attracting new visitors and encouraging repeat visits is a challenge, he explains. In addition to competing with other cultural products, la Caixa Foundation competes with malls, football games, television, the beach, and the list goes on and on and on. So how do cultural organizations stay relevant in a world where attention is the new scarcity?

It’s necessary for cultural organizations to realize the twenty-first century cultural consumer has changed. Audiences are no longer passive recipients. They are active members who interpret the value of the cultural experience through their personal involvement. For a cultural organization to stand out from the cluttered competitive landscape, they need to be relevant.

Sleep No More, an immersive, interactive theater production in NYC is an example of the new theater experience. Inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth, it takes the audience on a unique journey. There are no programs, there are no seats, and there are no words. The audience, wearing white masks, shares the “stage” which is several floors of the McKittrick Hotel, with the actors. Audience members move freely from one room to the next, one floor to the other at their own pace, choosing where to go and what to see. The story evolves with and around the audience. The individual is ultimately empowered and responsible to create and interpret the story as it unfolds. There are no two individuals that will leave the McKittrick Hotel with the same experience. As such, each individual audience member owns their experience.

The museum world is also moving outside of its traditional comfort zone. Curators attempting to increase attendance are cooking up untraditional museum offerings which compete with nightlife destinations: live music, open mic nights, fine dining, sleepovers, collective hacking sessions, etc. Bruce J. Altshuler, director of New York University’s program in museum studies, says museums are repositioning themselves: “It’s about being more than just a place in which art is displayed. It’s about becoming a center of activity, a place for congregation, a place for social interaction — in other words, a place where people can have fun.” The Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal’s Friday Nocturnes are an example of a successful initiative that has broadened the museum’s audience through a destination activity. Museums who shift from service-based marketing to experiential marketing are those who will most likely succeed.

Barcelona’s Mercat de les Flors, a contemporary dance performance centre that labels itself as a “reference space in the arts of the movement,” fully embraced the new cultural consumer. It’s refreshing to hear Pepe Zapata, its director of marketing and communications explain how the rules of marketing have changed, using a sports metaphor: “The ball is the same but the play is different.” Not only has the Mercat recognized the changing landscape, it is seizing the opportunity to connect with a broader audience and create a deeper relationship with existing members. The organization’s strategy is to put people at the center of everything they do: cooperating with street artists, hosting street dance parties, leveraging audience feedback and inviting individuals to dine with directors.

Today’s consumers are no longer passive recipients, they are actors that define and refine their experiences. This is as true for the cultural industries as it is for media, software, music, cities. Like for Mercat de les Flors, the onus is on building an empowered and emotionally connected audience.

Lisa Waizmann (@waizwomann) is Product Marketing Manager at iPerceptions and holds a Masters of Science in Administration from HEC Montréal.

This text is part of a series written in the context of the Fifth edition of the Montreal-Barcelona Summer School on Management of Creativity, organized by Mosaic HEC Montréal and Universitat Barcelona, July 9 to 24, 2013.
Illustration by Studio 923a. Read all posts in the series at blog.fandco.ca/yulbcn.