Speaker: Nik Wyness, Head of Marketing and Engagement, The Tank Museum

The Tank Museum has developed an important income stream through the careful cultivation of its global online audiences. With this revenue making an essential contribution to the organisation during the pandemic, is this an essential lesson for the future financial sustainability of Museums?

Nik Wyness is the Head of Marketing and Engagement at The Tank Museum in Dorset. He’s led a digital transformation, making this rural regimental museum an industry leader in the development and monetisation of online communities.

In 2021, The Tank Museum YouTube achieved over 20 million views and reached 400,000 subscribers. Its other social media platforms achieved a reach of an additional 70 million.

Alongside this The Tank Museum earned around 25% of a total £6m turnover from online sources, up from 5% in the year before the pandemic.

This is the result of a strategy that began by growing audiences and communities online – before focussing on monetisation in order to make serving those audiences sustainable.

When the pandemic hit, the value of this strategy was realised. Now the Museum has ambitions to significantly increase its non-visitor income by increasing its online reach.

In this presentation, Nik will walk through the evolution and delivery of The Tank Museum strategy. It’s a story of brand building, authentic and consistent communication, strategic partnerships, the development of team members, creative merchandising and harnessing the techniques used by independent content creators, such as Patreon.

About The Tank Museum

The Tank Museum a brings the story of tanks and their crews to life, with the world’s best collection of tanks in modern, awe-inspiring exhibitions.

The museum houses some 300 vehicles, representing every major conflict since the First World War. Our moving exhibitions tell the story of this British invention; from the mud of the Somme, to the beaches of Normandy and the deserts of Iraq – featuring powerful stories from the soldiers that fought in them.

As museum of the Royal Tank Regiment and Royal Armoured Corps, The Tank Museum is a registered charity which has been part of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio since 2018.