To give you an overview of what someone who works in museum marketing does , I thought that I’d outline my typical day. In order to do that, I recorded my activities throughout the past Monday. While some of you were relaxing (or partying) on your Columbus Day off, I was hard at work with my fellow colleagues at the IMA.

Image taken from ugotbling.com

COLUMBUS DAY, OCTOBER 12, 2009*

8:27 Arrive at office. Plug in laptop.

8:35 Sip coffee and respond to emails sent over the weekend.

8:50 Research the 100 Acres: Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park for IMA  Magazine article.

9:15 Write interview questions for article to send to Ed Blake, the  landscape architect for 100 Acres.

9:32 Email interview to Ed Blake.

9:37 Discuss signage in Efroymson Family Entrance Pavilion with Marketing Manager.

9:42 Register for Next Audiences Summit.

9:52 Review marketing budgets from last 2 years.

10:22 Read NYT’s article about the Louvre’s attempt to ‘Loosen Up.’

10:34 Get distracted by Jamie Oliver article in NYT’s Mag.

10:39 Review Web site content. Put together work plan to present in the afternoon’s Web team meeting.

11:22 Read Geoff Von Burg’s blog entry.

11:31 Email this week’s TV schedule for Sacred Spain commercials to Max, curator Ronda Kasl, and Nugget Factory.

11:38 Check attendance numbers from the weekend.

11:39 Organize opening weekend debrief meeting for Sacred Spain.

11:45 Polish up communication pieces for potential Winter Nights and Summer Nights media sponsorships.

12:18 LUNCH (Lean Cuisine and Fage Yogurt).

12:38 Watch Gentleman Broncos movie trailer.

12:41 Send movie trailer to Dan Dark.

12:44 Change Twitter name from @IndyArtGirl to @MegLiffick.

12:50 COFFEE.

1:00 Catch up on emails from the morning.

1:30 Web Team!

2:50 Review and edit Group Tours corporate mailer for Sacred Spain.

3:15 Respond to email from Contemporary Curator Lisa Freiman about the prestigious national award that her husband received. Congrats, Ed!!!

3:17 Create an initial inventory of marketing materials that can include media/corporate sponsor recognition during 2010.

4:02 Continue to draft 2010 marketing plan for Public Programs.

4:48 Brainstorm about communication ideas for TAP.

5:21 Respond to remaining emails.

5:42 Leave office. Head to gym.

6:13 Check email while running on treadmill at gym. DANGEROUS!

6:16 Attempt to respond to an email while on treadmill at gym. EVEN MORE DANGEROUS!

8:15 Read IBM’s social media guidelines while watching Will Ferrell on Man Vs. Wild.

8:30 Close laptop. No more work for the day.

*Please note that I have left out some details such as phone conversations, specific email correspondences, bathroom breaks, and Facebook and Twitter checks.

Next up (Oct. 28), I’ll tackle the ginormous topic of branding a museum. Stay tuned.

My work at IMA is in video production. I work with an ever-changing team of talented people to identify topics, interview artists and otherwise generate content we can float out onto the web and hope someone nibbles at it. Occassionally a hundred someones, even on occassion a thousand or more partake in our work. But we have yet to discover the elusive million-views video formula seen in YouTube classics like Dramatic Look (my 2007 favorite) and the notorious Rick Roll. Even the unexpected hit, Slug Sex, is kicking our proverbial ass. (If you haven’t seen this video, you absolutely should.)

So what is it? What is that wonderful, viral quality that compells you to e-mail your friends? Perhaps a good laugh, maybe playful irreverance, or just a creative peppering of well-timed obesenities, often set to music, top the list of viral trends. Certainly, we try. For the Roman Art from the Louvre webisode project, we pulled out the big guns and created an episode eerily similar to VH1’s beloved, I Love the 80’s series filled with our own brand of wit and swearing. But it wasn’t quite enough to get us over the hump. So as we move forward, I think it is safe to assume we will keep producing content that we feel has a lot of artistic integrity, contributes to the mission of the museum, all the while brainstorming about ways to strike YouTube gold. So, I challenge you, our constiuents, all 5 people reading this blog, to offer your suggestions for how we can grow that number to 10, then 10 million. I’m waiting….