Cell Phone Tours Tell Visitors New Stories
(3 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)
Loading ...- Tour Operators and Educators Rethink New Ways to Offer Tours.
They’re called cell phone walking tours, cell phone audio tours, or simply self guided cell phone tours, a low cost simple way to educate visitors to museums, breweries, classic homes, or anywhere an organization want to tell a story. The process takes a recorded script and broadcasts it to visitors who dial a preset phone number that ties back to a number placed on an item or location. Welcome to the world of mobile tours and mobile marketing.
So does this mean that the ways of the exhibit placards and written displays for museums on the way out? Has the cell phone finally found its true niche to educate and entertain? Does the iPhone open the door to a free podcast download so I don’t need to have docents and tour guides all over the museum? Welcome my friends to the age of the self guided audio walking tour. No longer do you need to rent someone’s dirty headset just to learn the behind the scenes stories. You can now use your own dirty headset!
Docent on Demand
Don’t stop with just audio. Add as much interactivity as you like to the cell phone tour. Ask your visitors to leave feedback right over the phone. Add to what’s known as a cell blog, a feature that inserts voice comments back into the tour. Allow visitors to press a key to receive a text message with a link to your site, a coupon or a mobile giving request. Include things like voting to engage visitors. It’s also possible to add photos, videos, and more through mobile interfaces, so the possibilities really so much more then traditional print exhibit explanations. You can also embed Mobile Giving into your tour to raise money and build your donor base. In today’s tough economic climate, don’t forget you could try to get a sponsor for the audio tour. Sponsors and advertisers love to participate and know that guests are going to get a direct message.
The Animals Talk
Interesting to see this idea spreading. During a field trip to the Sacramento Zoo with her son’s 2nd grade class, a mother noticed that they too offered a “Cell Phone Safari” (sponsored by IKEA) to learn more about the animals. I then realized that creating a museum mobile tour would be another great museum project for students. Teachers could contact a local museum and ask if their students could research and then develop various cell phone audio tours. Or, teachers could have their students develop mobile walking tours of the city (historical, geographical, scientific tours). Students in a foreign language class could offer to turn the audio English tours into bilingual tours. Instead of using one of the pay services mentioned above, students could use YouMail or Podlinez to create the dial-in tour.
The term sometimes used is Museum 2.0, referring to the revamping and business re-engineering museums are migrating towards to increase the interactive experiences of their guests. But I mean come on. I saw this one and scratched my head – Want to take a cell phone audio tour of Greensburg, Kansas? Just dial 620-805-3219 and press 1 for the Big Well, 2 for the Space Wanderer, 3,4,5,6, and finally 7 for the Green Club bench…fascinating! Click Here to get the map. Seriously, if Greensburg, Kansas can put together a tour, it’s a no brainer (no disrespect to Greensburg/more of a jealous kudos).
Historic Sites and Smaller Venues
The National Park Service blog took a look at how to leverage cell phone tours for historic sites. At the Woodrow Wilson House in Washington, DC they provide cell phone tours, similar to standard audio tours offered by many museums, but with several differences. One of the biggest advantage that cell phone tours have over audio tours is that the listener does not have to be physically present at the place to access the information. Cell phone tours have a similar function to standard audio tour “wands,” the listener enters a number that corresponds to a location/piece/exhibit and hears information relating to the exhibit.
Museum Ed posted results from a survey Twenty-four museums responded to the Cell Phone Tour Survey on Museum-Ed’s Web site. Of these, twelve had offered a cell phone audio tour for over one year, eight had offered a cell phone audio tour for 6-12 months, two had offered a cell phone audio tour for 1-3 months, and two of the museums had tours still in development. The survey provides some great insight on issues ranging from usage, audience participation, how seniors feel, benefits, and more. Check it out.
Cell Phone Tour Services
A few online resources that provide cell tour services (for a fee) include Museum411, Guide by Cell, OnCell, and Spatial Adventures (free 30 day trial). Additionally, schools can access information or tours from a specific museum by going to MuseumPods to download free podcasts for cell phones and iPhones.
At Guide by Cell, they state on their site, “You simply record over the phone or upload audio to create your tour. Visitors use their cell phones to hear audio content and interact. Ask your guest to leave feedback, share their thoughts, and even vote. You can incorporate visitor comments into the tour with the creation of a Cell Blog. Visitor generated content adds a personal dimension to the tour. Education was never so engaging!”
At the Frelinghuysen Arboretum in Morristown, New Jersey, the museum has narrated a cell phone tour on the Cottage Garden that is filled with facts and special insights. It’s a great way to see and hear about the Cottage Garden at its peak and hear Pat Rolston talk about her work there. (http://www.arboretumfriends.org ).
Superintendent Dr. Lesley Parness, who also leads the education program at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum, uses a company called One Cell Systems http://www.oncellsystems.com/ and they love the service. “You sit at a computer with a phone, record, and the audio is available immediately. The online system tracks all kinds of metrics on our users. We can even follow up, share links, let them download stuff, or even contact them later with a text asking them questions. It’s a fantastic educational tool.”
Sue Smith, Guest Experience Manager at the Seattle Aquarium says “Thousands of people are fascinated about marine life, and so many budding marine biologists visit the aquarium. Therefore, we wanted to make it truly memorable by enhancing their visit.
Realtors Are Doing It with SMS Text
Realtors are doing it too – call it realtor 2.o. Real estate agents have taken the cue and allow a driver to stop in front of a listing, dial a number, and get all the juicy details of the listing while sitting in their car. It’s a great way to engage the customer and give them instant information. If they like what they hear, they call the agent immediately, or you can track the text and reply with additional information. It’s service “on demand” and the users really seem to enjoy it. It cuts down on the paper as well because they’ll only take a brochure if they like what they hear on the audio. Many agents are also including SMS text message services that then allow the potential buyer to text and receive all kinds of additional information. Companies like Cell-A-House , House for Cell and Realty Connect’s Goomzee are great tools to check out and take for a test drive.
Cost
Cell phone tour programs vary in price and start at about $50/month, but typical programs can run around $175/month with accompanying software, recordings, and web based support. Not a bad deal for having on demand capability. One educator noted “We really like these programs because we can track what people want to hear about and how long they listen. If they start spending less time near the end, we know our tour is too long.” Part of being an effective program is knowing not only what to say, but also noting how long you say it.
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, among others, all feature cell phone audio tours for exhibits. Curators also added that feedback has been mostly positive and patrons are pleased that the museum is updating to make itself more modern with cell phone and podcast tours.
At the Columbia Museum of Art in Columbia, SC, “All of the information to take a cell phone tour is printed on a card that you can get at the art museum,” said Allison Horne, the museum’s spokeswoman. “The first audio clip is an introduction from the museum directors and the guests really like it.” The phone tour is free with paid entrance to the museum except for any cell phone minutes used. The entire tour is also available free through a podcast on the museum Web site.
Cell phone tours aren’t new. They’ve actually been around since the early part of this decade.
If you have any experience with cell phone audio tours, please post your thoughts.
See also:
‘Wireless tours’ to boost tourism
Center for the Future of Museums
No related posts.
(3 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5) Loading ...
We have a museum and small house that is a great historic site. People visit and are always looking for stories and insights. While the docents and volunteers are great to volunteer their time, they’re sometimes not quite the historian or storyteller.
So the discussion has evolved into researching other methods to tell stories that can be modified, changed, and updated regularly. So I started looking into cell phone tours.
Our museum doesn’t charge at the moment (another issue to discuss another time). Ipods are great idea, but most people don’t show up with one. We could maybe buy a few and hand them out.
But most people are carrying around cell phones/smartphones these days.
I’d love to hear who has cell phone tours, who uses them, and what the history community thinks about them. Are cell phone tours worth it? Do they work? Does the audience feel engaged?
[...] the idea of students making audio tours of museums; not original, but compelling: RT @juncanoo: http://bit.ly/8Zis9p #mtogo #musetech Category: TwitterTags: fresh > [...]
[...] @juncanoo: Great piece on mobile guides: http://blog.t3consortium.com/cell-phone-tours/ #iphone #museum #mtogo #musetech Category: TwitterTags: fresh > [...]
[...] could be a great way to increase participation & engagement non? http://bit.ly/8Zis9p #mtogo #musetech Category: TwitterTags: fresh > [...]
My main issue with delivering the tours only via cell phone is that you exclude any international visitors from listening due to high roaming costs incurred (dollars a minute). The long term solution is to distribute the tours on multiple platforms so that they accessible to all users including those who do not have access to the phone system or live internet connections.
Additional Updates:
The Philadelphia Museum of Art contracts with Antenna Audio for audio tours, but has been conduction experiments in alternate audio tour methods over the past year. Read their thoughts and comments on its benefits. http://www.museum-ed.org/component/option,com_jd-wp/Itemid,29/p,46/
Also Google “GPS Tours” if you are looking to use mobile devices for those driving around.
The Center for New Media wrote a good piece about mobile phone tours.
Take a look at http://chnm.gmu.edu/labs/mobile-for-museums/assessment-of-the-field/
For those interested in exploring the possibilities of incorporating mobiles for museums, we found the museum mobile development community is welcoming and encourages collaboration. Leaders in this subfield, including Nancy Proctor at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, encourage all to share presentations on best practices and lessons learned through a variety of blogs and wikis, in addition to following the #mtogo tag on Twitter. One may begin hunting through the resources available at the Tate Handheld Conference wiki, the MuseumMobile blog and Museums-to-Go working group wiki, or from the Museums and the Web Conference. In an effort to gather these resources and websites into one accessible place, CHNM created the “Museum Mobile” Zotero group that is open for anyone to join and add or annotate resources.
Listen to any of these demos from OneCell
Listen to customer tour stops by dialing (585) 419-9744 and entering the stop number of your choice.
Press # if you want to hear another one….
Demo Line (585) 419-9744
Stop # Site
10 Grand Canyon
11 American Clock and Watch Museum
12 Aquarium of Niagara
13 Bean Life Science Museum
14 Aquarium of the Pacific
15 Independence Hall
16 BYU Museum of Art
17 Calgary Zoo
18 City of Austin
19 City of Austin (Spanish)
20 City of Roswell
21 Colorado Railroad Museum
22 George Eastman House
23 Human Touch Massage Chairs
24 Everson Museum
25 Frank Lloyd Wright’s Rowing Boathouse
26 Fulton County Office of Children and Youth
27 Glencairn Museum
28 Granite Falls Historical Museum
29 The Big Well
30 Johnson Museum of Art
31 Landmark Society – 100 Acre Tract
32 Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts
33 Luther Burbank Home & Gardens
34 Memorial Art Gallery
35 Miami Art Deco
36 Museum of Latin American Art
37 Museum of Latin American Art (Spanish)
38 Fort Stanwix NM
39 Morrell Builders
40 NPS Rock Creek
41 Country Quilt Trail
42 Hawaiian Volcano
43 Moundville Archaeological Park
44 Nassau County Museum of Art
45 Nazareth College
46 College of Eastern Utah Prehistoric Museum
47 New Orleans Botanical Garden
48 Niagara Falls State Park
49 Arlington House
50 Arlington House (Spanish)
51 Assateague Island National Seashore
52 Booker T. Washington National Monument
53 Cape Cod National Park
54 Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Park
55 Tulsa Air and Space Museum & Planetarium
56 Effigy Mounds National Park
57 Eisenhower National Historic Site
58 Golden Spike National Park
59 Ackland Art Museum
60 Gulf Islands National Seashore
61 Harry S Truman National Park
62 Aldridge Botanical Gardens
63 Homestead National Monument of America
64 Art OMI
65 JL Barataria Preserve
66 August Wilson Center
67 Minuteman Missile National Historic Site
68 San Antonio Missions National Park
69 Saratoga National Park
70 Women’s Rights National Park
71 Oklahoma City Museum of Art
72 Civil War Philly
73 Key West Art
74 Owego West
75 Pollock-Krasner House
76 Memphis Zoo
77 Port Columbus
78 Rochester Institute of Technology
79 Seneca Park Zoo Society
80 Smithsonian Marine Station
81 Soccer Hall of Fame
82 South Coast Botanic Garden
83 Bostonian Society
84 Tang Museum at Skidmore
85 Tennessee Aquarium
86 Tennessee Aquarium (Spanish)
87 The Farmers’ Museum
88 The Heritage Society
89 Thomas Wolfe Memorial State Historic Site
90 Three Rivers Park District
91 US Botanic Garden
92 US National Arboretum
93 Wildlife Experience
94 Wish Machine
95 Little League International
96 Fort Sumter and Moultrie National Park
97 Indiana Dunes National Park
98 New Orleans Jazz National Park
99 Saint Gaudens National Park
100 Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park
101 Ormond Memorial Art Museum
102 Robert Hunker
103 Rose Garden Mesa
104 Susan B. Anthony House
Check out Antenna Audio Examples as well -
http://www.antennaaudio.com/content/section/2/23/lang,en_GB/
Some of the cool ones-
Metropolitan Museum of Art – http://www.antennaaudio.com/content/view/254/23/lang,en_GB/sample,standard/
Space Center Houston – http://www.antennaaudio.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=249&Itemid=23&sample=standard
National Gallery London – http://www.antennaaudio.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=248&Itemid=23&sample=standard
Francais?
Chateau de Versailles – Tres Bien – http://www.antennaaudio.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=283&Itemid=23&sample=standard
Espanol?
Sagrada Familia, Barcelona
http://www.antennaaudio.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=264&Itemid=23&sample=standard
Thought you might want to know about a new company that is developing a platform to use smartphones for tours, especially for those who have hearing loss (so the tours can be open captioned or sign – interperted) , but also for foreign language tours. http://www.keenguides.org
A few things about cell phone tours, that I have noticed – good and bad: The audience finds them easy to use because they are familiar with how their own cell phone works and they usually have it with them.
However, some museums don’t get good cell phone reception, so it is sometimes tough to get them to work.
Museums can create a cell phone tour for kids and a separate one for adults, which helps since then everyone can go through the museum together.
There’s the opportunity to offer a variety of voices and perspectives on a cell phone tour.
The advantage to a smart phone is the ability to have video as well as audio.
However, you have to make sure that you get the person to look at the OBJECT and not just the smartphone; Tours need to be better written.
I love the idea. I used a cell phone tour at Longwood Gardens a while back and found it easy and fun. Nicer than cluttering up the landscape with lots of expensive, inflexible signs.
This morning I stopped by the Old Barracks Museum in Trenton — huge text panels, tiny type, long sentences…. boooooring, even for a museum lover like me. Static, old-fashioned exhibit. Yawn.
The Tuckerton Seaport Tuckertonseaport.org has developed a walking tour with a cell phone component through a grant from the NEA. They borrowed from the success at Batsto and hope to have the vignettes put on their website for downloading. They also have iPods that can be borrowed on site for the tour that includes themed signs at each station.
Last year at the preservation conference at Rowan University, some of us took a tour to Red Bank on the Delaware and heard two test downloads of a South Jersey iPod tour.
Sincerely Tim
Timothy G. Hart, Division Director
Ocean County Cultural and Heritage Commission, a division of the Department of Parks and Recreation
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