Dundee Museum of Transport
We have been working with Dundee’s transport museum over the past three years providing design and marketing support to promote activities and events, and to provide official documents to support their ambitious fundraising plans to relocate to the former Maryfield Tram Depot.
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SECTOR
Tourism and Culture
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Challenge
The Museum required a complete rebrand to increase awareness and engagement, improve local perception and enhance its credibility as a well-run, albeit volunteer-led organisation, ahead of a major fundraising campaign.
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Their old website was no longer fit-for-purpose and required a complete overhaul to allow greater engagement with audiences, as well as to provide an improved retail platform to financially support the museum.
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There was also a need to revitalise the museum’s general marketing and promotion of special events to attract new and wider audiences.
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Solution
We donated our time to create a new logo, brand style and colour palette for the museum. We began by hosting a comprehensive brand workshop for a focus group of museum trustees and volunteers so that they could engage with, and feed into, the design process and brand development.
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Together we looked at the strategic aims of the museum, its values, the experiences and activities on offer, audience profiles, and the local and national tourism strategy. We also analysed the existing brand, marketing materials, website, social media, uniforms, merchandise etc, so we could identify areas for improvement.
We reviewed other museum sector branding and considered suitable visual elements, themes, and typography for the new brand.
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Finally we identified five core pillars which we felt should be the foundation of everything the museum does; Community, Dundee, Visitor experience, Past and Present, and Education.
We presented several logo concepts to the focus group before selecting one which we felt best represented the museum, its history, the core pillars and its future ambitions. From this we built a brand style for all printed and digital communications which was launched earlier this year.
Following the 2020 lockdown, the museum received some funding to support its marketing efforts and a portion of this was made available to redevelop the website.
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We worked closely with the museum’s trustees, manager and development officer to create a website that reflected the new brand style and provided a richer and more engaging experience for site visitors and museum members. The website platform provides an easy way for the museum to showcase and promote its upcoming events, share visitor information, photograph galleries, general news, and updates on the Maryfield project.
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It has an application form for membership and the development officer has used the form functionality to create engaging surveys to successfully gather feedback from the local community, and also provide a track and trace service.
We set up an e-commerce facility which has allowed online sales of books and gifts, as well as tickets and membership packages.
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Further work included a revamp of all the signage in the new brand style, and the creation of other marketing and printed promotional material to support museum events and activities.
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The attractive new logo has also been applied to a range of merchandise including jute bags, pencils, pens, badges, car stickers etc., as well as new uniforms for volunteers.
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Outcome
A strong and engaging brand has given the museum, and its volunteers, a new found confidence, greater local visibility, as well as enhanced credibility in the local tourism sector. Dundee City Council has recently committed financial support and the museum has passed first stage applications for the Heritage Lottery Fund and Historic Environment Scotland.
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New marketing and promotional materials have brought an increase of visitors to the museum. This in turn has led to a greater spend on purchases in the museum shop.
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A comparison of the first ten weeks of being open, post Christmas lockdown, with the new brand, compared to last year in the same period saw an increase in turnover of almost 50%, and compared to the same pre-lockdown period of 2019, an increase of 25%.
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Deliverables
Brand workshop, branding and guidelines, website, signage, marketing material, exhibitions and promotional banners, etc.
