This Brand of the Year story was originally published in the Fall issue of Strategy Magazine. Check out the winners as they appear online over the course of the week here.
A giant oculus sits beneath the feet of a 50-million-year-old dinosaur. Light pours directly onto ancient artifacts once created by human hands. It sweeps across the foyer and into an atrium that doubles as a stage for musical performances. While breath-taking and sensational in its scale, the new gaping belly – currently under construction – at the base of the Royal Ontario Museum would be considered par for the course in a building that’s home to objects of historical interest. Except it’s not. It’s actually rather uncommon to see the fossil of a Stegosaurus, a granite bust of Cleopatra and The Death of General Wolfe painting all in the same collection. The ROM is among the few stewards of artworks, cultural objects and natural history specimens in the world.
It’s this claim to fame that Josh Basseches, a PHD candidate, former Peabody Essex Museum director and current CEO of the ROM wants to articulate to the public. The OpenROM concept described above – where the Hennick Commons is currently two years away from completion – does just that, and more. While it’s a literal billboard for the ROM’s unique tripartite collection, it also communicates Basseches’ vision for the historical hub to be seen as a cultural enclave in the heart of Toronto. By allowing the Commons to be free for all, the CEO hopes that people will drop in and drop out, using the space as a public plaza where they can gather, learn and exchange ideas.
The Brits have enjoyed universal free admission to museums for decades (much to our chagrin), so for the ROM to foot the bill for a 6,000 feet gallery space is both welcomed and disruptive. But almost everything about the museum these days seems unexpected. According to Sally Tindal, the ROM’s chief marketing and communications officer, that’s all by design. “Our strategic direction is very much about shaking up the way people perceive us as a museum.”
Take for example, the ROM’s six-minute “Immortal” film, which is as deep and as dark as the ocean waters. “We said, ‘Let’s break the rules here,” explains Tindal of the marketing team (which Diamond’s Lori Davison led at the time) and its decision to greenlight the award-winning spot by Broken Heart Love Affair. The commercial from 2022 was a sort of coming out for the museum; a creative punch that could be deemed risky for a 110-year-old government and privately funded institution, but which was embraced by Basseches because it aligned perfectly with his mission, says Tindal.
Directed by Mark Zibert, the dramatic message behind the gritty ad was that “we live on in what we leave behind,” an ode to human history. Of course, putting people at the centre tells only one part of the museum’s story. So the next film, which will be as surprising as the first, will be a “love letter” to the natural world when it launches later this year. “Part of that focus came from Josh, our CEO,” says Tindal. “Museums tend to be human-centric. But just because we see it from that perspective, doesn’t mean there aren’t other perspectives beyond us.”
The ROM also has a much larger place in the world than just being a place where objects are held, adds BHLA CSO Jason Chaney. “And those objects aren’t passive. They’re very active portals to stories that connect us back to our past, make sense of what’s happening today, and help us understand how we can navigate the future,” says Chaney, citing the vision Basseches came to the ROM with eight years ago. In fact those objects – of which there are 18 million – are of such significance to the ROM’s marketing that they were infused into its brand identity by Leo Burnett, which includes an ultra-contemporary black-and-white wordmark and typeface that expands and contracts to show the history of our planet. The branding is still being rolled out across the floors of the museum, because “it’s an enormous institution and we can’t transform it overnight,” says Tindal. “But we’re starting to see the brand woven into exhibitions.”
When asked about the catalyst for the transformation, Chaney points to the museum’s desire to diversify its audience, which it believes can be done by “recentering the ROM as a cultural meeting place, where people can discuss and have opinions, more than just being a tourist destination or an entertainment centre.” Adds Tindal: “We’re all aware that consumers’ interest in going out and spending money has changed. So it’s critical that people see the museum as not just a one-off place for an exhibition.”
The CSO admits that, growing up, the ROM was seen as a “rainy day baby sister” and mostly attracted those who grew up in Ontario. “Now, our breakdown is 60% female, 40% male. Sixty-six percent of our visitors are between 18 and 44 and almost 60% were not born in Canada – 44% are first time visitors,” says Tindal of the shift that’s taken place over the last couple years. “So new Canadians and new audiences that have never been through our doors before. This is the kind of data that we wanted. The profile of our visitor is no longer what one might have thought about a museum even five to 10 years ago. And that’s truly exciting.”
Toronto, she adds, is uniquely positioned because of its diversity and size, and so future growth exists in the ROM’s ability to create more access points for different communities. Through its exhibitions – and first-of-its-kind appointments, like the hiring of Dr. Soren Brothers as a Curator of Climate Change – the museum is attempting to deepen public engagement on topics that impact everyone.
Most don’t know that the ROM is also a scientific and research institute; that its scientists actively study meteorites from Mars, for instance, in order to better understand the past, present and future of life in the solar system. By being an active contributor vs. a passive purveyor and tackling the pressing issues of the day, Tindal believes the ROM will continue to maintain relevance. “It makes the ROM feel like it’s a place for the future and the past. We’re asking big questions and answering some of them – now we want people to join in asking questions and inspire them to think about life and history in different ways.”
