The fine art world is finding its way to digital marketing and new media with this month’s launch of The Met—the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s flagship smartphone app developed exclusively for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. By launching the app the Metropolitan Museum of Art is embracing one of the best digital marketing tools available.
“With so much to see and do at the Met on a daily basis, we wanted to create a simple yet personalized way for our community to find the art, exhibitions, and events that matter most to them,” says Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “The new app is a pocket-sized, customizable tool that puts the Met at users’ fingertips. It will be great for both New Yorkers and everyone in our global community who wants to stay connected with the Met–from anywhere in the world.”
The Met app informs users of galleries, works of art, news, events and other resources for the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue as well as its Cloisters museum and gardens in Upper Manhattan. “In developing the app, we hope to provide our audiences with what’s most useful to them, and in the most engaging way,” notes the museum’s Chief Digital Officer Sree Sreenivasan.
“This is an entirely original type of museum app,” explains Loic Tallon, the museum’s Senior Mobile Manager. “At the start of this project we took a step back and asked people what they wanted to see in a Met app. They told us three things: make it useful, make it simple, make it delightful. We know there’s a lot to do at the Met, and what we heard was that people wanted our app to answer easily their most essential questions about the Museum: ‘Where should I start? What’s happening today? What can my kids do there? Can you show me something fresh?’ These are the types of questions about the Museum for which our audience wants to turn to their phone, and our app, for answers.
“At the same time we had to make the app as beautiful as it was useful—a product worthy of the museum itself. We worked with Instrument, one of the world’s leading digital agencies, to design and build an app that would meet those goals, and I believe we have. The Met app balances beauty with utility.”
Produced by the Metropolitan Museum’s Digital Media Department in collaboration with Instrument, an independent digital creative agency in Portland, The Met app is supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies which, according to Campbell, “made an extraordinary and important investment in the Met’s digital initiatives, and this innovative new app is just one of the results. The foundation is an amazing, forward-thinking partner whose generous support will expand the Met experience exponentially across the globe.”
“The Metropolitan Museum is one of the world’s most important cultural institutions—and the museum’s new app will help open peoples’ eyes to its extraordinary collection and programs like never before,” adds Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and three-term mayor of New York City. “The Met app makes a day at the museum even more rewarding, and by making it possible to experience the museum even when you’re not there, the app is a wonderful way to bring art into more lives, more often.”
The Met app can currently be downloaded for free from the App Store, but the museum is also developing a version for Android users which will launch in 2015. For more information about the app, visit www.metmuseum.org.
