Simon

Delighted to be joined by Claire Lane from Ashmolean Museum. Claire, thanks for coming along.

Claire

Thank you.

Simon

How many times have you been to ACE?

Claire

Oh, that is a good question. I think it is probably about ten years.

Simon

Look at that.

Claire

Which is frightening, but it has absolutely flown. I am immensely grateful to ACE because I started in the cultural sector about ten years ago, so ACE was my first real foray into a cultural enterprises conference.

It was so very different to the retail conferences and travel conferences that I had been to in the past, in terms of how open it is.

So ten years, and I am sure there will be many more.

Simon

Yes, it is a great event. We obviously come back and see lots of friends in the industry.

Looking back at the way numbers and attractions have been operating over the last few years, you have had a lot going on at the Ashmolean over the last twelve months or so. How has that worked out for you? Are you finding good, positive, stable numbers?

Claire

It has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride, if I am honest.

I joined the museum about four years ago. The first two years that I joined, we were still really in the midst of Covid. But we did have some very supportive commercial programming, so we had a number of really popular exhibitions, the likes of Pissarro and Pre-Raphaelites, that did really very well.

Last year was a tricky year. We had some brilliant exhibitions, but they did not quite achieve what we were hoping they might achieve in terms of visitor numbers. It was a bit of a shock, actually.

I know those who have worked in the sector longer than I have probably also recognise that kind of rollercoaster ride, but it was a bit of a shock last year.

Again, I am incredibly grateful for a number of people around the sector who I put a call into and said, this is different. Actually, that reassurance was important. You have got to keep going, and you focus on the things that you can impact.

So we focused on continuing to drive free visitor volumes and making sure that we were driving that base footfall. We also made sure that all of our commercial propositions were absolutely tip top, so that when someone did visit the shop or did visit the cafe, it was really top notch.

We were optimising conversion and average transaction values, and then focusing on that forward plan.

I think that has been a really key learning. A number of the conversations and presentations this morning have really honed in on that, and the importance of having a commercial voice in the room as you are planning out programming and planning exhibitions.

It is so critical for driving footfall and secondary income, so we focused a lot on that.

Actually, this year to date, we are wiping sweat from our brow. It has been a much more positive year. It has been a really well received programme, and we have seen those numbers come back up again, which has been really, really good to see.

Simon

Right. I come from a commercial attractions background, so I think it was almost built into us to understand how commercial programming can add a huge amount of value from an attractions point of view.

It sounds like that is something that you guys take really seriously when looking at these programmes and looking ahead to what you can bring in. It is something that can drive the visitor numbers you need, but also support different missions at different times as well. So a lot of it is hooked around the programming.

Claire

It really is.

It has been a really interesting couple of years because you have seen such a shift, and some of it is about the economic climate as well.

We have seen really phenomenal growth in terms of free museum visitors, but we saw a more challenging year last year in terms of exhibition visitors.

It is a balance that we are always navigating as cultural institutions around what public programming we should be doing and what we might want to offer. Certainly for us, as a university museum, there is also a real need for a lot of our exhibitions and our programme to be really grounded in research and have something really new and interesting.

So trying to find that lovely middle ground that brings together all of this great insight alongside something that is actually commercially appealing and is going to generate the return on investment that we need it to is a constant conversation.

Taking that step back and saying what does our forward plan look like, and if we have got an exhibition that we think may not be quite the blockbuster we are hoping for, balancing it out with something else to make sure that in any given year we have maybe something that is a bit more experimental and might be for a slightly different audience, in some cases something we co-create with, actually balancing that alongside something that we think is going to make sure that we can generate that income.

It has been a really interesting conversation. So yes, programming is absolutely critical for us.

Simon

You mentioned co-create there actually, Claire. I think collaboration is a big part of what this sector has been good at, and I think it is really important for organisations where they are bringing together different entities or different brands almost, that you make the best of both worlds.

It is almost about tapping into both types of audiences within that collaboration, and that works really well. Is that something you guys think of when you do that?

Claire

Completely. Yes, completely.

Again, we have been very lucky that over the last four years, since I joined, there was a real push around data and really being audience led.

There was a major segmentation project to really understand who our audiences are, what they are looking for, and what the missions are that people are on.

Taking all of that really important data and insight has enabled us to be much more purposeful about that forward plan.

So yes, I think it is absolutely critical to know who it is you are building propositions for and how you are navigating that together.

Simon

As an organisation that thrives on data, that is music to our ears because the understanding of the audiences, that segmentation, knowing how they respond, and then having some data for organisations like us to use means we can apply that within marketing and advertising.

We can use it for targeting, driving these people in, and it can also be used across email and many other channels. There are so many different ways to make sure that you are putting the right message to the right people to get the right response from them.

I think there is also a lot of expectation that things will continue to be tough, as they have been over the last few years. Costs have gone up again this year with more salary increases and so on. I do not think personal finance for many people will feel good, but we have seen optimism from a lot of people.

We have seen a bit of the international markets coming back. Certainly some of the longer haul markets seem to be making a bit more of a comeback now, with Canadians and Australians particularly.

Obviously Oxford is quite a big international destination. Are you seeing that yourselves as well?

Claire

Definitely, definitely.

We are very lucky actually that we are right in the centre of Oxford, and we have certainly seen the return of the international audience.

For the first couple of years there was a lot of domestic travel and a growing European audience, but certainly over the last year or so there has now been a return of American and Canadian audiences, and some audiences that we have not seen for a while, which is brilliant to see.

I completely agree also with your point around data, and that has been a complete game changer.

Since starting at the museum, we have been really focused on building up Power BI and other similar platforms across the business. At the National Trust we worked with Tableau, but really having a tool like that is so critical for arming all of the teams and all of your team members. It is a democratisation of the data, really.

That is when the magic can happen, because suddenly it is not linked just to a few people. You have the whole team empowered, spotting things and pulling that together in their own world, whether that is retail or venue hire.

It really is the moment that enables some really magical conversations to happen.

So I could not agree more. Data is just so critical for enabling everyone to plan out that strategy, but also to have a level of involvement in that strategy and its development.

Simon

Can I just ask one last question?

Claire

Yes.

Simon

Obviously in 2026 there are many opportunities to help drive people into cultural venues. Have you got anything coming up on the horizon that you guys are excited about or looking forward to?

Claire

We have got some really exciting exhibitions coming up.

We will open In Bloom in March, so it is really tied into springtime and the conversations we have just been having downstairs about talking to people about what they want to hear about. I feel really excited about that, with lots of use of florals and so on.

We have also been looking at ways in which we can make more of the forecourt of the museum and really bring that out of the museum, to really bring people in.

I think museums can sometimes feel a bit intimidating, actually. I adore museums, but they can sometimes look a bit grey and a bit structural. Actually, if you can soften some of those entrances and maybe have some cafe tables and things of that nature, it really opens up the spaces for everyone to enjoy.

So yes, we are really excited about the exhibition programme that we have coming up, and programming is absolutely critical.

But actually I am also really excited about the fact that through this democratisation of the data, we have got so many people across the museum who are now coming in and saying, should we try this, should we try that?

In terms of how we navigate those conversations, we are navigating them together and we are able to prioritise together. A lot of that prioritisation is about commercial improvement and improving our commercial use, which is really exciting.

Simon

And that is key to the long term stability within the sector. With the way funding has changed over the last few years, it is really key to get that commercial message coming through.

Claire, thank you very much. It has been brilliant.

Claire

Pleasure. Thanks very much indeed.