An email invited me to participate in a contest. The “Boston
Loves Impressionism” exhibit would be curated by MFA members, who would select the paintings to be exhibited. It was a great concept, well executed.
I saw the original email, but I’m not much of a contestant,
so I hadn’t tried it out. Making a visit to the MFA during the contest, it was
hard to avoid. This card graced our table with a QR code connecting to the
contest page. Each week for 4 weeks a set of impressionist paintings was posted
and visitors to the page were allowed to vote for their favorites. The museum
has a set of computers that allow visitors to look for information—great idea--and
it was easy to vote from them and people seemed to be doing so while we were
there.
Your vote not only counted in determining the paintings to
be hung, it qualified you for an invitation to the opening weekend. The MFA has
built an entire weekend of activities around the opening. There are
valentine-themed activities as well as gallery talks about paintings and
painters featured in the exhibit. I should note that the special Valentines Day
dinner at the Bravo café is already sold out! The MFA has long been a meeting
place for upscale singles as well as having many family and children’s
features.
The invitation email featured all of the above as well as a
link to the Pinterest posting of the paintings to be exhibited—just in case you
can’t make it to the museum. Note that the newsletter has the usual sharing
icons. It mirrors the page on the museum site which also prominently features sharing
opportunities. As might be expected this “crowdsourced” exhibit drew
considerable favorable publicity. The Globe reports that 10,000 people voted in the third week of the contest.
This contest made great use of MFA resources and its digital
marketing abilities. It has been a wonderful membership engagement—and thank
you—activity. I have just two suggestions.
I forget things like going to a site to vote. When I first
voted, I would have happily opted in for email reminders each time a new set of
paintings went up. In terms of voting itself, the number of votes for each
painting were displayed on the page. I would suggest hiding the current vote
tallies until the visitor has voted. Seeing them while you are voting makes you
wonder how much you are being influenced, even if you are trying hard not to
be.
I repeat. It was an excellent concept in the annals of
social media for good. It was well executed, and I’m sure the exhibit, which of
course starts on Valentines Day, will be a great success!
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