Influencers: is it time for museums to go all in?

Some people certainly think so. Elizabeth Furze, the chief executive of the advertising agency AKA, has been advocating for clients to consider influencers' vast potential for several years now. She cites a recent study from the survey research company Morning Consult that found that Gen Z audiences 'respond far more positively to content shared by another human that they trust than they do to an ad'.

Not everyone agrees. The digital strategist JiaJia Fei notes that paid influencer marketing could make the museum-going experience feel too transactional-like a product to be bought and sold. 'Museums are non-commercial entities,' she says. 'Adding the layer of advertising on top seems inauthentic to me.'

The influencer conundrum is just one expression of a broader set of challenges museums are wrestling with today. What is the place of the institutional voice in our hyper-personalised, hyper-fragmented media landscape?

Read at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events