Museums are adapting to an increasingly dynamic and digital society. As spaces for dialogue and discovery, they face the challenge of balancing tradition with innovation. With advancements in AI, digital technologies, and born-digital heritage, how can museums seize new opportunities while preserving cultural and natural heritage? How can they measure success and refine strategies to meet the evolving needs of their audiences?
As visitors increasingly expect seamless experiences across physical and digital spaces, the NEMO Working Group Digital Transformation commissioned Casey Scott-Songin to explore these questions. The resulting publication ‘Connected journeys: Holistic audience measurement in the age of digital’ offers a timely and comprehensive guide to understanding visitor behaviour through a holistic lens, bridging onsite and online interactions. By engaging audiences through participation, dialogue, and inclusivity, museums can create meaningful connections and informed strategies for the future.
The publication 'Connected journeys: Holistic audience measurement in the age of digital' addresses three main objectives:
- To deepen the understanding of the needs, motivations, decision-making processes, and expectations of digital audiences.
- To present a systematic approach for measuring both digital and physical audiences, enabling museums to develop meaningful research practices and strategies.
- To provide detailed methodologies from 8 good-practice examples across Europe, showcasing how museums successfully implement joint measurement of digital and physical audiences.
On page 44, you’ll find a practical roadmap that guides museums of all sizes in integrating Digital Audience Measurement (DAM) into their practices.
The publication also features eight good-practice examples that demonstrate how museums can:
- Evaluate projects to better understand audience needs.
- Identify motivations for online engagement and its impact on in-person visits.
- Innovate with new audience segmentation techniques and key performance indicators (KPIs).
It also includes practical tools such as data categories, contact details for collaboration, and a comprehensive literature overview, empowering museums to thrive in an ever-evolving landscape.
The new publication builds on the 2023 report 'Audience Measurement in the digital era', developed by the Working Group in collaboration with BAM! Strategie Culturali. This earlier report introduced foundational concepts in audience measurement, such as data-driven strategies, online-offline engagement, metrics, KPIs and behavioural analysis. The latest report expands on these themes, focusing on integrated approaches to online and offline engagement.
Join NEMO Webinar to learn how holistic audience measurement can benefit your museum
On 13 February from 11:00-12:00 CET, NEMO hosts a NEMO Webinar with Casey Scott-Songin to introduce the new publication and its key concepts. Participants will gain insights into defining museum audiences that span onsite and online experiences, viewing these as interconnected journeys, and establishing data-informed practices to guide decision-making at all organisational levels.
Participation in the NEMO Webinar is free of charge, but registration is mandatory. The webinar is limited to 200 participants on a first come, first serve basis.
Meet the speaker and researcher
Casey Scott-Songin is a specialist in mixed qualitative and quantitative audience research methodologies with over a decade of experience in digital and user research across North America, the UK and Europe. She has extensive knowledge of the inner workings of the cultural sector, having been the User Researcher at the British Museum and the Senior Manager: Data & Insight at the National Gallery, London.
She founded The Creative Researcher in 2021 as a way to extend the reach of audience research practices to cultural organisations across the UK and globally and has since worked with a variety of museums and government organisations, such as Tate, the Museum of London, the Arts Council, and the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, to help them better understand their audiences and develop meaningful audience measurement practices within their organisations.