Editor's note2016, for the cultural industry, is destined to be a passionate year。
The repeated instructions of national leaders, the holding of a series of important meetings and the intensive introduction of policies and regulations indicate that the cultural industry is facing an important period of transformation and development opportunities。
For the museum, the above is only the necessary preparation before the departure, in order to unify the ideological understanding, break the policy barriers, clear the institutional obstacles, and provide ideological public opinion support and policy and regulatory protection for the transformation and development of the museum。To this end, the museum people who have been in the system for a long time have rubbed their hands and are eager to try。
On October 18, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage officially released the "Several Opinions on Promoting the Rational Use of Cultural Relics" on the official website, once again igniting the passion of cultural and creative units and enterprises。
So, what should museum culture and creativity do？How to meet the arrival of IP operation era？The following two articles may shed some light。
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The museum IP in their eyesPeng Wenzhuo
▲ During the National Day, the cultural and creative shop of Shanxi Museum (Photo: Wenbo Circle)
During this year's National Day holiday, museums in many places in China have repeatedly set off a surge in visits, and a variety of emerging cultural and creative products have begun to walk close to the audience, which has triggered an endless stream of related cultural consumption。It can be said that the current trend of literary innovation is rising in major museums。
At nearly 600 years old, the Forbidden City has finally stepped out of its seclusion，Become a new generation of "Internet celebrity" : Mingchengzu Zhu Di wearing sunglasses rap，Take selfies on wechat，Use QQ to contact the harem and the minister，The concubines wear VR glasses to play games;Spicy Xiaoya's royal court version of emojis is quietly sweeping wechat chat pages;Douban scores as high as 9.4 documentary "I repair cultural relics in the Forbidden City" let a group of "seemingly ordinary, with extraordinary skills" of the Forbidden City cultural relics restorer was sought after by netizens as "the male god of the Forbidden City"。
The industry agreed that the current museum has ushered in the era of IP operation。IP (Intellectual Property), that is, intellectual property, its popularity has spread from animation, games, movies and other industries to the emerging cultural and creative industry。Statistics show that China has more than 4,500 museums, and the massive collection of cultural resources have the potential to become a popular IP。However, in addition to the National Museum and the Palace Museum, which are super IP sought after by capital, how should the majority of local museums meet the era of IP operation？We invited designers, cultural and creative practitioners, and ordinary visitors to talk about the museum IP in their eyes。
Cartoons are not the only way
People/Wu Ya-zhen is a Taiwanese designer who has lived in the mainland for 4 yearsBefore coming to work in the mainland, Wu Ya-zhen was a regular customer of the Taipei Palace Museum souvenir shop, "the paper tape was originally a small gadget for a few yuan, but the Kangxi Emperor's imperial handwriting 'I know' was printed on the paper tape, and this small business was turned into a cultural business.。As a result, the Taipei Palace Museum sold out of the product。”
Last month, she just went to Chengdu to participate in the seventh "Museum and related products and Technology Expo" (referred to as "Expo"), Wu Yazhen wanted to find creative inspiration after seeing the exhibition but felt some discomfort: "It seems that every booth of cultural and creative products are selling Meng, printed with a conspicuous LOGO.。”
其实——
In this "Expo"，Almost every museum has gone out of its way to increase its appeal: The Capital Museum uses the traditional toy image of old Beijing, the rabbit，Made into colorful ornaments;The museum of Prince Gong's House has launched a doll of the cartoon character Ahli, which combines elements of Prince Gong's House.The Nanjing Museum has made cookies by transforming the lotus tile pattern，Using the collection of tiger image combination set up stationery;Luoyang Museum is to create a series of "evil beast" concept of throw pillows, floor MATS, aprons and other household products。
There are even fashionable purses that integrate Shu brocade techniques, clothing that can wear famous paintings on the body, animal specimens full of educational significance, and common silk scarves, umbrellas, mobile phone cases, pastries, tea, etc., which have penetrated into every corner of daily life。
Even so，Wu Yazhen still felt a sense of "too hard" incongruity: The research and development of cultural and creative products in most local museums is still in the shallow reference stage of a small number of classic images of "treasure of the town museum"，Are some primary processing refrigerator magnets, cups, throw pillows and so on，Rather homogenous and cartoonish，There are few creative products that consider the material and cultural connotation of the collection and even combine the spatial pattern of the exhibition。
"Selling cute does not reflect the essence of traditional culture, and the museum's IP development should not take this as the development direction.。Wu Yazhen believes that the development era of simple and crude museum cultural and creative products in the past has passed。Taking the star relic jade cabbage of the Imperial Palace in Taipei as an example, although it has been opened a variety of products, it has launched a new product - umbrella, which is a cabbage with white leaves, opening the green leaves field, shading the sun and rain, and has a charm。
"Cartoonization is not the only way forward，Cultural and creative products of museums should reflect cultural characteristics，From life and into life!"Wu Yazhen thought，Today, the cultural and creative products of museums around the world have shifted from the "heavy" replicas of paintings and paintings and porcelain to practical daily necessities，But cultural innovation is not simply a patchwork of museum cultural elements，Instead, "culture" and "utility" should be organically integrated。
The cultural and creative shop is not just the last showroom
Characters/Rikuji, visiting scholar, lived in Osaka for 1 yearLu Page first came to Japan, spent half a month to visit more than a dozen large and small museums, in his own words: "Too beautiful to stop.。At the Tokyo National Museum Souvenir Shop, the free postmark is beautiful and can impress you!"
In fact——
Domestic museum cultural creation is not without successful cases。For example, the cultural and creative souvenirs that became popular overnight in the Imperial Palace: the Qing Dynasty wore a flower-like sunshade umbrella, earbuds in the style of imperial beads, T-shirts with the pattern of imperial robes, and the words "I am such a man" in the folding of Emperor Yongzheng's Tian Wen mirror were printed on ordinary fans, and finally achieved a "imperial man fan".。
Data show that in August last year, the Palace Museum Taobao launched 1,500 mobile phone seats in 1 hour all sold out, the same day turnover of 1.6万单。By the end of 2015, the Palace Museum had developed 8,683 kinds of cultural and creative products, with sales increasing from 600 million yuan in 2013 to nearly 1 billion yuan in 2015。
然而，The reporter recently landed the official flagship store of the Palace Museum Tmall only to find，Although the cultural creation of the Forbidden City is divided into several parts, such as the selection of national rites, creative life, the childhood of the Emperor, and forbidden furnishings，There are also many books from the Palace Museum Press，Prices range from a few hundred to tens of thousands of yuan，But the most popular products are mostly less than 50 yuan notebook, mobile phone lanyard and so on，Art books and replicas with prices ranging from several hundred yuan to several thousand yuan are sold in small quantities，Few people are willing to buy。
"Because of the lack of knowledge and understanding of the content of cultural and creative products, it is difficult to sell.。"Lu page felt，But this is where Japanese museums can learn from: the guide is free，So visitors are willing to listen，The color pages about the lectures and the products are exquisite，So visitors want to see it，People who didn't want to buy it，It might be interesting to learn about the history，I'll buy it!
"Don't just use the cultural and creative shop as the last room for museum exhibitions。Lu Page believes that the positioning of cultural and creative products in the museum operation system needs to be clear, and the idea of hoping that visitors can pay for cultural and creative products and "bring the exhibition home" is only the most superficial understanding of cultural and creative products。In fact, museum operation is not only a form of visiting, cultural and creative products are a good carrier to inherit its history and connotation。
"Allowing visitors to have the opportunity to understand the knowledge and content, so as to promote the purchase based on understanding, requires a lot of basic work in the early stage, which is the improvement of domestic museums.。Real IP must pass the precipitation and test of time!"
Series development around an IP concept
Characters/Yang Qing, cultural and creative industry practitioners, operating animation IP"I saw interesting souvenirs on the Internet, but when I really took my friends to visit the Forbidden City, I could not find where to buy them, even if I suspected that the Internet was fake, or because of the rough display and sales attitude, the attractiveness of the products was weakened.。”
Because of the poor purchase experience and the loss of the original value of the goods, this once made Yang Qing feel very sorry: "The aroma of wine is also afraid of the alley is deep, the product itself is important, how to sell, where to sell is also very important!"
In fact——
The status quo of long-term survival and operation in the system mainly relying on government subsidies without survival pressure has become a constraint on the marketization of domestic museums。
(Chart by Fan Yu-rak)
In June this year, the National Museum of China and Alibaba's "Cultural and Creative China" offline operation center settled in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, and the platform launched 400 cultural relics IP;In July, Beijing Palace Museum and Tencent strategic cooperation, the two sides will deeply explore the value of the Palace Museum IP in social platforms and other fields。
Li Liusan, deputy director of the National Museum of China, said, "Although the museum has 6.7 million visitors a year, it is still too small for the market, so we took the transformational side and opened a flagship store of the National Museum of China on Tmall。It can be seen that at present, domestic museums have begun to take market-oriented steps, catch the "Internet +" ride, and usher in the era of IP operation。
"Museum IP operation should not only include exhibitions and cultural and creative products, but should form a series of development around an IP concept.。Many years of experience in the development of animation IP, so that Yang Qing believes that the museum IP development has great prospects: literature, film and television, cooperation with other brands, etc., can form a comprehensive system。
In this regard, the Palace Museum is making some useful attempts: "A warm Forbidden City" is the image of the Palace Museum through social platforms in recent years。To this end, the Palace Museum has opened its official Weibo account, wechat and calendar app "Daily Palace Museum", which has won the popularity of the market through its colorful copywriting and memes。
Although the Forbidden City is becoming "a world-class super IP", most museums are still in the process of getting out of the closet。Statistics show that China currently has more than 4,500 museums, but the average citizen only enters a museum once every two years, with the exception of a few museums such as the Forbidden City, which have become tourist hotspots, most of them are rarely visited。
How to effectively use the cultural resources of museums, so that the museum IP can be fully developed, still a long way to go。
(This chart was produced by Fan Yu-rak)
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Museum IP development creates new markets across borders
朱林
▲ You (Comic Zhao Chunqing)
When the museum is associated with IP
There is no doubt that our biggest impact this year, when the Palace Museum and Tencent launched the creative H5 "Through the Palace Museum to see you"。In H5, Mingchengzu Zhu Di raps while taking selfies to send wechat circle of friends and has been praised repeatedly, and the concubines wear VR glasses to play games。
The Palace Museum provides characteristic characters, combined with the strong technical support provided by Tencent, indicating that the domestic cultural and creative industry with museum IP as a resource is already in full swing, and the combination of the two has also played a demonstration role for many domestic museums to further explore their own collection IP。
In fact, national policies are also protecting museums from developing their IP resources。The "Regulations on Museums", which came into effect in March last year, clearly states that the state encourages museums to explore the connotation of collections, combine them with cultural creativity, tourism and other industries, develop derivative products, and enhance the development capacity of museums。
It can be said that in China, museums are ushering in an era of IP operation。But for many domestic museums, to play IP, some problems can not be sorted out。
Why do museums develop IP？
Before answering this question, it is necessary to understand the nature and location of the museum。According to the aforementioned regulations, museums are non-profit organizations for the purpose of education, research and appreciation, including both state-owned and non-state-owned museums。The regulations also clearly stipulate that museums enjoy tax incentives in accordance with the law;The funds for the normal operation of state-owned museums shall be included in the financial budget at the corresponding level。These regulations are undoubtedly designed to ensure the public interest nature of museums。
Based on the public property of museums, the IP development of museums should pay attention to the connotation of collections, and then develop derivatives, taking into account the popularization and education of cultural knowledge。This is precisely what is easily ignored when museums develop cultural and creative products。
Taking "Through the Forbidden City to see You" as an example, the novel form is attractive, but besides being happy, how many viewers are interested in the history of the characters involved in H5, regardless of the fact that there are many historical "hard wounds" in a short H5?。Similarly, even the colorful sunshade umbrellas and earphones in the Imperial Palace's cultural and creative shop may not arouse our interest in Qing Dynasty history。
What is reflected above is the lack of "culture" in cultural and creative products - ignoring the exploration of the connotation of collections and cultural resources。
On the other hand, since it is an industry, it cannot fail to consider the benefits。Although IP resources are provided by museums, there is a question mark over whether museums are the best operators。In Germany, most museums operate small shops selling books and souvenirs using their own resources and brands。It is worth noting that most of these small shops are not operated by the museums themselves, but are contracted to professional organizations。
From this perspective, Crossing the Forbidden City to See You also provides a classic case。The Forbidden City provides the highest quality IP resources, jointly has a strong technical support of Tencent, and jointly create a win-win ecology - the cultural heritage of the Forbidden City is completely exploded Tencent, but in terms of technology and profitability, the former and the latter are not the same。
The museum represented by the Palace Museum，The advantage lies in the profound cultural heritage and rich IP resources，So it is necessary for museums to pay more attention to the excavation of collection treasures and cultural resources.Internet companies represented by Tencent have strong technical support and excellent commercial profitability，Therefore, these enterprises should focus on the follow-up business model innovation and product promotion。Museums use IP to make cultural and creative efforts, and need the "advantage gathering" of the two.。
In short, the development of the cultural industry needs professional people to do professional things, but also needs to create new sparks in cross-border cooperation and docking, and create new markets。