The Egypt Centre won this award for their ‘Night at The Museum’ project which was held on Saturday 6^TH December 2014. As the film ‘Night at The Museum 3’ was due for release at the same time the Egypt Centre  wanted to try and target a new audience that may have not visited the Centre before, or who may not visit museums at all. The strategy was to target a new audience through the promotion, in the first instance, of a one off event and to create and nurture a partnership with a previously unexplored entity, the Vue Cinema in Swansea. 

For the ‘Night at The Museum’ event the Egypt Centre decided to reopen its doors from 4pm to 6pm and volunteers and staff took on the roles of an explorer; an Egyptian Pharaoh; Egyptian princesses; Egyptian musician; museum security guards etc, who talked to visitors as they explored the galleries. Visitors were also given a booklet containing activities and facts which was specific to the actual event.

The partnership with the Vue enabled the Cinema to promote the Centre’s event through fliers and posters and the Centre in turn distributed the Vue’s marketing material for them, and included the Vue logo on the Egypt Centre’s marketing material for the event. Vue Swansea also contacted 20^th Century Fox who made the film, who sent the Egypt Centre  a huge box of Night at The Museum 3 themed prizes which they  were able to give away on the night, including t-shirts, teddies, postcards and torches. They also donated two tickets to see the Night at the Museum 3 film which were given away as a prize on the night.

47 individuals pre-booked to attend the event. All of the people who had pre-booked turned up, 20 evaluation sheets were returned with a 100% positive feedback. 61% of attendees had never been to the museum before, exceeding the goal of attracting at least 50% from a new audience.

All entries for the Marketing Excellence Awards were judged by Dr Jonathan Deacon, Reader in Entrepreneurship and Marketing at the University of South Wales and Trustee (former Chair) of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Cymru.

Dr Deacon commented: “I have been judging these awards for several years and I have to say that the standard of entries, innovative ideas and resourcefulness of staff in the three sectors continues to impress me. There are many examples of excellence in marketing that could equally be applied to any business or organisation within Wales.

“Many of the entries were low in budget but high in creativity – proving that sophisticated and successful marketing does not depend on large budgets.”

Winners received a trophy, certificate and a variety of prizes including marketing workshops and specialised equipment to enable them to further develop their skills and enhance their marketing activities.

The Egypt Centre’s prize included a box of IPad filming equipment, donated by the video production company Tantrwm, which they hope to use to help develop their marketing strategy and branch into video marketing on social media and on their own website.

Picture 1: Front of House and Gift Shop Manager Lauren Wale and Education Officer Samuel Wale

Picture 2: The Night at the Museum poster for the event.

• The Marketing Excellence Awards recognise the fantastic work being done by staff in museums, archives and libraries across Wales, often with very limited resources. The awards are part of the Welsh Government’s ‘Attracting the Audience’ programme for museums, archives and libraries. Over forty entries were submitted to this year’s Marketing Excellence Awards from libraries, museums and archive services across Wales. Categories included: demonstrating marketing excellence; joint marketing project of the year and marketing champion of the year.
  
  
• For more information about how the Egypt Centre organised the Night at the Museum event go to  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5Tlpuzjybw.
  
  
• The Egypt Centre is open Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 4pm. Admission is free. For more information on the Egypt Centre go to http://egypt.swan.ac.uk