More innovation means more culture: The path to a sustainable cultural industry
The cultural industry faces major challenges. There is pressure on the framework conditions. The public has less money. Everything has become more expensive. How can we get them out to experience something together?
Culture is best created when people experience things jointly, so we need to think new and we need to think smart. There are many ways of rethinking, but we would like to talk about some examples from cultural actors Increo has worked with.
Smarter operations and logistics
Most people don't understand how many people are involved when a play or concert is going to be staged. There are so many resources being spent just in coordinating exercises and the logistics around getting people to be in the same room.
There is information to be conveyed at different levels. There are talents that need to talk together. There are workflows that change and rooms to be booked.
Increo is on a mission for Trondheim Symphony Orchestra and Arctic Philharmonic, designed and developed a custom digital platform - Bragi - to simplify planning and operation for symphony orchestras. The aim was to reduce the complexity of the everyday lives of cultural workers and managers, so that they have more time and surplus to create. The result has been a solution that simplifies scheduling and collaboration, providing an efficient overview of rehearsals, concerts and workflow, while reducing administrative complexity.
We believe there are many operational and logistics tasks that are unique in the cultural industry and that need to be looked at with “digital eyes.” We who work on understanding both users and technology can contribute here. Good ideas usually arise between heads, and the interactions we've had with the cultural industry are good examples of that. We can ask the right questions and together find good solutions.
Collaboration with other industries
Reaching out to the public alone is an arduous task, especially in an era where attention is spread across countless digital and physical offerings. Competition for people's time and interest is great, and individual businesses - whether cultural institutions, hotels or restaurants - have to work smarter to attract visitors. Here, digital innovation can play a crucial role in creating attractive holistic experiences for the public.
A good example of this is the collaboration in the Cultural Quarter in Trondheim, where Britannia Hotel, Nye Hjorten Theatre and Post Modern (PoMo) join forces to offer the public total packages that combine culture, accommodation and gastronomy. Through digital platforms and coordinated scheduling, they can tailor experiences that make it easier for audiences to choose an all-night or weekend experience over a one-off performance or overnight stay.
Such collaborative models show how technology can contribute to better resource utilization and increased audience engagement. By connecting ticketing systems, reservations and marketing efforts in one digital solution, operators can effectively communicate with audiences and offer a more enticing and holistic experience. This not only makes it easier for people to choose culture over the sofa, but also strengthens cultural institutions as an important part of the local community.
Such cooperation also gives the actors an incentive to help the others succeed. The more theater visits, the more overnight stays!
Ticket sales and crowd flow
The website/web solution is where ticket sales happen, as seen the actual cash register of a cultural actor - and therefore should be a priority! Many people opt for off-the-shelf solutions such as Ticketmaster or Eventim, but at the same time opt out of control over the user journey and customer experience, as well as the ability to customize the solution and make the different systems speak together. In our opinion, this is stupid, as it ends up that the operator and the customers have to adapt to the conditions of the ticket provider, and not the other way around!
Something Increo tries to be good at is integrating proven ready-made solutions with its own digital modules. This provides flexibility and the ability to get it exactly how you want without having to build everything from scratch.
For example, a cultural institution might use a standard ticketing engine but embed AI-driven visitor forecasting, personalized user experiences or better interaction with other platforms. Perhaps there is a need to manage audience flow through time allocation of entrance tickets or dynamic pricing. Maybe there are automated emails going out when something is approaching sold out?
Innovation can be done on top of a finished solution. Feel free to have a chat with us about this. We know a lot about the technology and the possibilities that lie there.
Service design to enrich the experience itself
Of course, there are also many possibilities in using technology to enrich the cultural experience itself, Augmented Reality, interactive elements, geolocation technology and... yes, let's stop talking about all sorts of cool technology concepts.
But we're going to end with a talk about service design.
Service design is about creating good and holistic, user-friendly and services (read: experiences) by understanding and improving the interaction between users, technology and organizations. It is a user-centered approach which addresses how a service is experienced from start to finish, and how all points of contact — both digital and physical — can be optimised to create a seamless and valuable experience.
We strongly believe that at Increo we can help any cultural institution to realise the potential of its offering. We can help you combine technology and creativity to create experiences that inspire and engage your audience.
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