Open Forum

Dear Colleagues,

Vizcaya Museum and Gardens is currently researching App development and issues centered on revenue streams. As the visitor seems to expect the App to be free one idea I have come across is institutions selling ear buds to make up some revenue for free app use. If anyone has done this could you please contact me. I am curious to know what the costs are and profits for selling ear buds to visitors.

Secondly, if anyone has any unique ways they have generated revenue from Apps I am curious to know outside of selling thematic or special exhibition tours as App content.

Thanks in advance for any responses.

Mark

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Mark Osterman
Guiding Programs Manager
Vizcaya Museum and Gardens
Miami, FL 33141
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Hi Mark,

We make earbuds available for purchase, but honestly, no one buys them. Our choice to make them available was less of a revenue generation decision and more of a visitor convenience decision.

Regarding revenue, we've been baking sponsorship/underwriting opportunities into our apps. We've designed a multi-tier program that lets funders support at several different levels...the app itself, special exhibitions in the app, and specific objects. These sponsor credits can be added at any time via a web-based CMS without shipping source code updates.

All our code is open source as well, so if you have a developer on staff feel free to fork it. Let me know if you'd like to chat offline in more detail.

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JEFFREY INSCHO
Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
Innovation Studio
4400 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Email: inschoj@carnegiemuseums.org
Web: http://studio.carnegiemuseums.org
Twitter: @CMP_studio

Original Message:
Sent: 04-11-2016 04:24 PM
From: Mark Osterman
Subject: Selling ear buds for App use

Dear Colleagues,

Vizcaya Museum and Gardens is currently researching App development and issues centered on revenue streams. As the visitor seems to expect the App to be free one idea I have come across is institutions selling ear buds to make up some revenue for free app use. If anyone has done this could you please contact me. I am curious to know what the costs are and profits for selling ear buds to visitors.

Secondly, if anyone has any unique ways they have generated revenue from Apps I am curious to know outside of selling thematic or special exhibition tours as App content.

Thanks in advance for any responses.

Mark

------------------------------
Mark Osterman
Guiding Programs Manager
Vizcaya Museum and Gardens
Miami, FL 33141
------------------------------

Hi Mark,

We're looking at providing branded ear buds for sale with our app as well but as mentioned earlier, it's more for convenience than revenue. Our galleries are packed in the summer and while the videos in the app will have closed captioning some people still prefer audio (especially for dinosaur sounds).  

One of the things we're looking to provide with the app is coupons for the gift shop or cafe when you participate in a quiz or game. Nothing huge but hopefully enticing. There are also opportunities to cross promote our programs with specific gallery content. For us, the revenue generation will come from awareness of other activities. 

Lisa