What is your understanding of ‘brand awareness’ in this context?

Brand awareness refers to how a consumer relates a brand with the product/service it aims to be producing. Rossiter explains that the awareness of a brand is dependent on a consumers ability to identify a brand in sufficient detail and for the brand to be easily recognisable and recalled (2014, p. 534). My understanding of brand awareness is that consumers do not simply know of what you are selling, but have an understanding of your brand. A brand basically consists of who, what and why, Who are you? What do you do? And why do you do it? Brand awareness comes from positive connections between the business, these connections are significantly enhanced by a brand having a strong grasp on their concept of ‘why.’

In the context of art galleries, and specifically the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, brand awareness comes less from the idea of consumers and their ability to recall it and more from the idea of who the brand is they are, what they do and why they do it. As a company focussed on delivering art and culture, MoMA must have a very strong identity, one of which can also be easily relatable to the people that it aims to connect with. Being concerned with modern art, the brand must stay relevant with ‘modernity’ and strive to be ahead of the curve when it comes to social and cultural happenings, which, often are represented through art. The story that MoMA tells is that of the people, being based in New York City this means that the ‘people’ are an extremely diverse and progressive group. For success of their brand awareness MoMA must be, and in my opinion, is, synonymous of the ideals of today’s modern society and act as a place where these can be explored through artistry.

How are art galleries using media content to expand their ‘brand awareness’?

Art galleries expand much further than the four walls that their exhibitions inhabit today with the use of social media and the content that is being produced for these platforms. The online presence of art galleries as seen a further spike since the beginning of the global pandemic as they ave been forced to find ways to still interact with their communities without face to face exchange; Consequently, media content being used by these galleries has also seen a large development. The Museum of Modern Art in New York City and TATE in the UK are two galleries that have the largest brand awareness in terms of social media following and have continually been able to expand their reputation with the use of media content.

Both MoMA and TATE use extremely diverse media content in order to expand their brand awareness. Their content is being spread across multiple social media platforms so that it reaches all levels of online usage, from older, more ‘mature’ twitter users to Instagram users who are typically millennials. The diversity of their media continues through the engagement levels of their content, there are > 10-minute documentary-style videos being posted to YouTube and bright coloured, fast-paced 5-second videos being posted to their Instagram; by doing this they are allowing their brand to be relatable and enticing to all knowledge and age levels.

Expanding further from this, MoMa’s content not only taps into the diverse community that it already possesses but allows for even further inclusivity. As Kim Mitchell, the Chief Communications Officer at MoMA said, through their online presence they want to “contribute to a lively dialogue in a constantly changing landscape” (2017). Their content caters to and targets users from all cultural ethnicities and allows meaningful exploration into their history. Their media content is also extremely accessible for people living with a disability and again targets this audience by creating content that specifically deals with art interaction for people with a disability.

To expand their brand awareness before the time of online media, MoMA was utilising media content within their gallery. Typically, art that is seen in a gallery is static (paintings, sculptures, etc) but MoMA introduced multimodal forms of art into their repertoire and decided to exhibit films and other forms of media content. This notion has grown over time being paralleled by the age of media and has allowed their brand to expand to have a much wider engagement level and awareness.

What media and communication strategies are art galleries using to guide the production of content?

The communication strategies of TATE and MoMa are very similar in terms of the way they are being played out, although the tone of each brand changes slightly to cater further toward their specific branding. MoMA’s chief of communications explained that a “conversational tone” is used within the content they produce while TATE follows a slightly more formal approach to content creation.

The content being produced by each gallery has a wide variety of thematic intention; their content is all focused on appealing and representing their communities but due to their diversity, a wide range of content needs to be created. The content can be separated into sub-genres of educational videos, artist profiles, virtual tours, short documentaries and promotional content for their respective gallery stores. They are both using communication strategies that allow the viewer to gain insight into the history of the galleries and what they hope to achieve.

Being in New York City, MoMA often shares content that is specific to that city and dives further into its rich history. Much of their content is driven by NYC’s goings-on and relies heavily on the social and political state of its community; for example, recently there has been a growth in conversation regarding race and gender inequality and the content shown on all of MoMa’s social media platforms responds to and parallels this. Similarly, TATE being based in the UK sways their content toward European artists and themes.

Social media strategies are being used by both of the galleries to engage with larger audiences and ensure that their brand awareness is ever-growing. Both galleries post frequently to Instagram, approximately once a day, in order to stay relevant against Instagrams algorithm. They also share their content between all social media platforms and include hashtags in all of their posts on these sites. They often partake in collaborations with other brands and create content that will be seen by the collaborator’s audience, this allows for their brand to attract interaction from sometimes a completely different audience.

 

Reference List:

Museum Revolution. 2017. MoMA and the Art of Social Media. [online]

Rossiter, J.R. 2014, “‘Branding’ explained: Defining and measuring brand awareness and brand attitude”, Journal of Brand Management, vol. 21, no. 7-8

Suki, J.S.N.M. and Sasmita, J., 2015. “Young consumers’ insights on brand equity: Effects of brand association, brand loyalty, brand awareness, and brand image”. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 43(3)

TATE. 2020. Tate. [online]

The Museum of Modern Art. 2020. Moma. [online]