CultureLabel

The sector is finding more and more entrepreneurial ways of generating value from assets. The British Museum has a select group of Global Partners such as BP and Morgan Stanley who they offer a number of unique benefits including Relocation briefings for company staff by Museum experts on culture and history of regions such as China, Africa, the Middle East and India.

The National Maritime Museum has a successful corporate loans scheme (starting from £3000 + VAT) and this helps care for the collection as a whole. The museum is also offering a corporate gift sourcing service with optional personalisation.

Punchdrunk, one of the most innovative theatre company’s in the UK right now have developed a new dimension to their productions with La Fee absinthe one of their commercial partners. Punchdrunk Productions such as the recent sell-out show, Masque of the Red Death inspired by the tales of Edgar Allan Poe are characterised by the audience being free to choose what they watch and where they go. Known for the incredible scale and attention to detail in set design they applied they applied these talents to creating a show within a show, a chill-out space and bar that acted as the ultimate theatrical backdrop for La Fee Absinthe. Sponsorship has morphed to a point where brands want to be partners in creating experiences for consumers and the cultural sector is no different.

Filming is a long-established way of exploiting your assets, perhaps the most high-profile being the incredible visitor spike enjoyed by The Louvre post Da Vinci code that made it the world’s most visited museum or the American Museum of Natural History which enjoyed 20% visitor growth after the movie’s release. As well as the exposure provided by filming, it can be a lucrative revenue generator also. The makers of Night at The Museum: Escape from The Smithsonian, the sequel to Night at the Museum are rumoured to have stumped up $500,000 dollars to use the institution.

Perhaps the most high-profile exploitation of assets is partnership between The Louvre, the French government and the United Arab Emirates. This 30-year $1.3 billion relationship breaks new ground in the rapidly growing field of cultural branding. The Louvre and other leading French museums are loaning thousands of objects as well as providing expertise and a world renowned brand to create a new branch of the museum that will form the centrepiece of a new cultural district at Saadiyat Island. The Guggenheim is also getting in on the act with a $400 million development designed once more by the architect Frank Gehry.

Finally, Tate Online (powered by BT) has broken new ground as a digital extension to the Tate galleries. Drawing on the Tate Collection and curatorial insight, this co-produced platform, often referred to as Tate’s ‘fifth gallery’ also acts as a demonstrator for showcasing new BT technologies.

[PT]