Established in October 2014, the Musée National Picasso-Paris has been a massive success with the general public. Looking to build on this success by developing public development strategy tools and offering a modern purchasing journey to its visitors, the museum chose the ticketing and CRM solution SecuTix 360°. The Musée National Picasso-Paris is a single-artist museum dedicated to the work of Pablo Picasso. With 5,000 works, the museum curates the world’s largest public collection of works by the master of cubism. It is situated in the Hôtel Salé in the heart of the historic Marais district. Following 5 years of renovation, the new museum opened its doors on the 25th October 2014, generating considerable interest both with the French general public and foreign tourists. To mark its re-opening, the museum decided to accept tenders for an integrated system which could be used to manage advance Internet reservations and develop public interest through marketing programs. The museum chose the SecuTix 360° ticketing and customer relationship management platform. After only a few weeks setting up, the platform was operational on time for the opening of the museum’s ticket sales.

 

A multi-channel and multi-product strategy for revenue development

An important factor of the museum’s re-opening was an expected dip in interest following the “curiosity effect ” period. To attenuate this, the museum chose to diversify its marketing channels. Currently, the museum manages three sales channels : on-site ticket desk sales, telephone sales for groups and mass bookings and Internet and mobile sales. In the near future, these will be joined by sales from distributors. The use of digital channels for the sale of tickets allows the museum to project a modern image to its visitors, particularly the young. SecuTix 360° offers a single, unique tool for the control of distribution strategies and the organisation of ticket distribution by channel in response to the current situation and requirements of the museum. The museum also relies on the SecuTix 360° tool as a means of diversifying its products. The museum can now offer packages which were not previously available or which could only be offered on site. For example, visitors can reserve a package ticket, which includes museum entry and an audioguide. Young visitors can benefit from museum entries combined with educational activities. The museum has also set up a membership scheme offering a variety of deals, including packages and cross-selling . Very much like a control tower, SecuTix 360° enables direction of the ticketing process while simplifying the management of multi-product and multi-channel processes. In addition to the diversification of distribution channels and the simplification of processes, the real power of SecuTix 360° lies in the integration of ticketing with CRM. This provides the Musée Picasso the ability to set up marketing strategies to attract and build loyalty with new segments of the public.

 

Creating the optimal welcoming experience for a massive number of visitors

The optimisation of visitor flow was a major challenge in the initial stages of the software’s use. In less than 5 months, the museum had attracted more than 400,000 visitors with daily peaks of 3,200 tickets sold. Thus, it was essential to have a reliable system capable of absorbing these significant peak loads, arising over several weeks in a row. By setting up the advance reservation system both on the website and mobile technologies the museum has been able to meet the challenge of hosting a considerable number of visitors in optimal conditions. Previously, tickets could only be purchased at the ticket desk. With SecuTix 360°, the museum has put in place online ticket purchasing enabling the public to reserve the time slot of their ticket in advance. The principle of fast tracking through half-hourly time slots enabled waiting times to be reduced by approximately 30%. By developing ticket sales on its website and mobile app, the Musée National Picasso-Paris has increased its ticket sales capacity faster and in significant numbers.

 

Attract and build loyalty with the local public

As a way of developing stable visiting numbers once the effects of media interest in the museum’s re-opening wore off, the museum put in place a public development strategy whose main goals were to attract and build loyalty with the local public. The largest risk faced by a single-artist museum is being seen as a « fixed » institution which merits only a one-time visit. By frequently renewing its activities, the museum is aiming to encourage the local public to discover and revisit its exhibitions and diversify its public. The new museum project aims to make the Musée Picasso an exciting, dynamic environment, emblematic of Parisian cultural life. In this context, the data provided by clients at the time of ticket purchase constitutes a valuable source of information. Understanding the public is the starting point for targeted information campaigns which the SecuTix 360° tool is able to establish via digital channels. In order to develop its position within Parisian cultural life, at the time of re-opening the museum put in place a loyalty program to create a community of subscribers. Crucial to this community building project was the museum’s usage of the integrated SecuTix e-marketing tool to animate its membership network and establish direct links with different segments of the public. Thus, members receive a monthly newsletter detailing future exhibitions, offering invitations to preview events and even discounts for partner institutions. By offering an integrated data platform which can collect information provided by clients at the time of reservation, SecuTix 360° enables better management of the upstream phase of the client journey from the initial provision of information, through the moment of purchase and up until the museum visit itself.