54 UNESCO sites, nearly 5,000 unique museums, monuments and archaeological areas, 40 thousand historic houses and about 85 thousand churches under protection. It is estimated that our country concentrates between 60 percent and 75 percent of all existing artistic heritage on every continent. An immense heritage that must be communicated and enhanced in the right way and, above all, by the right means.
Communication in the cultural heritage sector is a highly topical issue, especially when it comes to the relationship between historical-artistic heritage and the digital world. If, in fact, the culture-technology binomial is increasingly at the center of the valorization strategies of organizations and associations, when we talk about communicating art and culture we are faced with a fragmented scenario, characterized by communication that is often obsolete and at times ineffective.
Yet, enhancing a cultural asset also means making the latter accessible and comprehensible to increasingly broad segments of the population, it goes without saying that it is necessary to design more creative and participatory communication strategies also, and above all, thanks to the power of new media.
From the "Ferragni Case" to Micro-Influencer Marketing.
Among the new communication levers for cultural heritage, one example is influencer marketing. What we would once have called simply "word of mouth" is now, thanks to the advent of social media, a tool of strong strategic relevance. Involving an influencer in one's promotional activities, in fact, means reaching a targeted audience that is often interested in a specific topic or market niche. However, while many companies have redefined their marketing and communication strategies along these lines, some sectors, including the cultural heritage sector, still seem to be reluctant to introduce influencer marketing into their communication plans.
Setting the standard is the recent "Ferragni case" that saw the well-known influencer at the center of a heated controversy last August over a selfie taken inside the Uffizi Galleries in Florence in which the Cremona-based entrepreneur invited her community to visit "One of the most beautiful museums in the world" during a shoot for Vogue Hong Kong. What is most surprising is that the harshest criticism came precisely from scholars, enthusiasts and art critics who saw the initiative as a "fall from style" for the prestigious Florentine museum.
Influencer marketing in the cultural heritage sector
However, that of Chiara Ferragni at the Uffizi Galleries is not the only - nor the last - case of Influencer Marketing in the cultural heritage sector. In fact, museums, parks and historical centers of our country have always been the stage for great fashion shows or the photographic set for international shootings and advertising campaigns. Ferragni herself, just before her visit to the Uffizi had documented the experience inside the Vatican Museums with posts and stories on her own social channels, Dior showed the beauty of Puglia by having its models parade in the historic center of Lecce, while the well-known singer Mahmood chose the Egyptian Museum in Turin to shoot the video clip for the single "Dorado." It is a trend that TikTok, the Chinese social network so beloved by Gen Z, also seems to have picked up on, and last June it scheduled daily live shows at major European museums including the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, the Prado Museum in Madrid, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Naturkundemuseum in Berlin and the Grand Palais in Paris. If we then replace the large numbers with small communities of enthusiasts, the landscape of influencer marketing for cultural heritage becomes even richer and more varied. In fact, there are so many micro (and nano) influencers who are promoting the beauty of our territory by actively involving their audiences.
In short, if public figures and well-known faces have always stood side by side with works of art and historical masterpieces, what is important to emphasize is that the possible presence of a given public figure should not be left to chance, but curated according to a strategy aimed at enhancing the asset itself. It is certainly difficult to establish the right parameters for communicating art and culture, but this should not discourage institutions from experimenting with new communication tools and strategies.
Influencer marketing and more will be discussed at Digital Innovation Days 2020, online October 29 and 30, 2020.
Purchase your ticket at the link https://www.digitalinnovationdays.com/?ref=111eenter the code Didyou30 to get 30 percent off.
Simona Rossi
Brand Ambassador Digital Innovation Days2020