The audience analysis of the visitors to a museum is a useful tool (even though it is not often carried out). But how many museums study the perception that people who don’t go have about the museum? From February 2015 the National Gallery of Parma will.

With a strategic planning intervention, we have created a simple public analysis of the non-visitors of the gallery that could be both an action of engagement (involvement of the public and followers) and outreach (reaching of new audiences).

The project is structured around three parallel and complementary themes:

• The involvement of peer representatives of the city of Parma from 17 years old (for example through programs which alternate school and work) and 99 years old (through the involvement of institutional partners – e.g.: other museums in the area, the association of friends of the museum)
• The handing out of paper questionnaires in partner cultural institutions and in places in which people buy and sell cultural products (from the Teatro Regio to the local comic book shop).
• A social campaign (mainly Facebook) through a potentially viral concept, that would provide the possibility of leaving random comments at hubs in the community and for the cultural operators to collect qualitative data useful to the next strategic communication action of the museum. At the same time, the digital part of the campaign consents the collection of geographical questionnaires to understand the level of awareness of the museum on a national level in relation to the cultural consumer habits of the people who fill out the questionnaire.

The project is now active and it will end at the end of April 2015. During the first week, the actions carried out allowed:

• The involvement of 35 cultural partners.
•  The collection of data from 150 paper questionnaires and 250 online questionnaires.
• The questionnaire reached 90.000 Facebook users (662 shares, 200 likes and 14 comments just on the page of the gallery)

We invite you to follow the National Gallery on Twitter and on Facebook for updates.