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Kat Herve-Brazier, Marketing Officer

PatronMail Client Since: November 2003
Starting E-List Size: 38,813
Current E-List Size: 68,519

Kat: The V&A (London, England) is the world's greatest museum of art and design. The collection spans 3000 years in virtually every medium, including furniture, fashion, glass, ceramics, textiles, painting, photography, jewelry and architecture. It was established in 1852 and we have just celebrated 150 years at the South Kensington site. The founding principle was to make works of arts available to everyone, to educate people and to inspire British designers, and those values still stand today. It's a very inspiring place to work.

We have a varied audience. We communicate with tourists, colleges, schools, families, individual adults and groups, the creative industries, journalists and the press, sponsors and the government.

In 2006, 2.37 million people visited the V&A at South Kensington - the highest figure ever.

Hi, Kat. Can you start by telling us a little bit about yourself?

I arrived at the V&A three years ago, in September 2004, and my responsibilities include managing the production and development of all our e-communications, as well as providing project support to the marketing managers on exhibition campaigns. That includes working on all aspects of the marketing mix, including distribution, direct marketing, advertising, promotions, etc. I also assist in developing collaborations and promotional partnerships with other organizations, oversee internal communications, and monitor the use of the V&A brand internally and externally.

I'm currently the main PatronMail user -- there are a couple of other departments throughout the museum that use it, but marketing uses it most frequently.

I previously worked in Bristol in the design industry, assisting project managers in point of sale design companies. I then went traveling for a few years and returned to the U.K. knowing that I wanted to work in a creative environment, and was lucky enough to find myself at the V&A.


Give us a short overview of the V&A's whole e-marketing program.

We started using e-marketing on a regular basis in 2002, as a response to the changing times and changing climate back then, but also with a specific aim of increasing Web visits and driving foot traffic to the museum. Regarding e-communications, our patron list has reached almost 70,000 names, and our activities include sending general monthly e-newsletters, and events and courses e-newsletters, and monthly e-postcards promoting our contemporary program.

The regular monthly e-newsletters provide information on current and forthcoming exhibitions, events, courses, competitions, and reciprocal offers with other organizations. All articles link back directly to the Web site, driving visits.


And what kind of results do you see?

Our clickthrough rates are fairly consistent. Our monthly general e-newsletter has seen rates between 4 and 7 percent throughout this year. Rates for more targeted campaigns, such as our  "families" e-postcard, are higher - ranging between 12 and 20 percent. We're have several going out each month, so they're all carefully targeted and staggered so as not to bombard our subscribers with information.

We have 12-15 different preference categories at the moment, and we aim to increase those as the museum's permanent collection grows. They include furniture, architecture, Asian art, contemporary events, photography, sculpture, painting, etc. As the permanent collection expands, we'll expand the options.

We send the general monthly newsletter to all the major categories, but we have the ability to narrow it down to a very specific audience. For example, we recently contacted visitors who had booked for our Kylie exhibition earlier this year, many of whom were new to the V&A. To maintain their interest and start building a relationship, we offered them a discount on The Golden Age of Couture and it was really successful - we saw a 42% open rate and a 5% click rate.


Let's talk about design. You guys do some of the best-looking campaigns we've seen - can you give us some insight into your process?

The format was already in place when I got here, but it has been updated a bit since then. We've always tried to keep it very clean, fresh, and colorful. Subscribers can lose interest very quickly, so it's important not to get stuck in a rut doing the same thing each month. The V&A brand is a very clean, colorful, strong brand visually, so it lends itself quite well to the PatronMail format.

[Click here to read Kat's commentary on specific campaigns!]


Your e-mail list has effectively doubled in the time that you've been using PatronMail. What techniques have you used to grow that list?

Our exhibition advance ticket buyers make up a huge proportion of the number of new e-mail subscribers each year. And because we have three major exhibitions annually, we find that they really do make a difference to the figures every couple of months.

We also actively distribute print onsite, promoting the Web site and the e-newsletters. The e-newsletter sign-up section is in a prominent position on the homepage, and the forward to a friend option is included in every e-mail.

Subscribers love a good offer, competition, or interactive, particularly when tied into a specific exhibition or event, and these prove really successful in terms of forwarding to a friend. They're a good invitation for people, who may have never been to the V&A before, to find out more about it.


Anything else you're doing that you'd like to share or suggest?

Our Press Office, Corporate Events, and Membership department are now all using e-communication as a business-to-business tool and I think they're really reaping the benefits in terms of efficiency and effectiveness.

In terms of suggestions and recommendations, I think fine-tuning your targeting is the mostly important factor in keeping subscribers engaged and feeling that they're involved. The more involved someone feels with your organization, the more loyalty you'll gain. We're so lucky in the arts that people can and do have life-long relationships with an organization, and that's something to be nurtured.

Now you can read and subscribe to regular updates from Patron Technology's President, Eugene Carr. Gene's blog provides a snapshot of his perspective on what's going on in the e-marketing world now, and how it relates to arts marketing.

If you haven't been reading, here's a quick look at what you missed last week:

How to Lose a Subscriber & a Donor in 10 Seconds
Once again, a bad theatre-going experience can quickly influence perception. Your marketing can only get you so far if the rest of your organization isn't on top of their game.

Tis the Season... for Arts Marketing Conferences
Let's take this conversation off the Internet for a while! Gene and the rest of our staff will be at all the various arts marketing conferences this season - take this opportunity to drop by and say hello.

Click here to read the blog, and submit your e-mail address in the upper left corner to subscribe to get updates e-mailed to you.