COVID-19 has changed everything including audio tours. Or has it?

Audio only and no distractions

Just before the pandemic started, I sat down with members of the Guide-ID team to brainstorm about our brand and the look-and-feel to accompany it. That’s because we wanted to better align our image with our core values. It was exactly during that creative meeting that we got word that all the museums had to close their doors. Seriously? Was this some sort of early April Fools’ Day joke?

In the years leading to that point, we had been rapidly expanding. Before museums had to close, we had shared nearly 400 million stories in 17 countries using our Podcatcher audio player! Our player had amply demonstrated its potential for years through all the hustle and bustle of apps and multimedia. Our ‘less is more, audio-only, and no distractions’ approach seemed to be the right approach for sharing stories in the cultural landscape.

No visitors and no listeners

And then one day... museums all around the world closed and we went from sharing 10 million stories a month to 0. At Guide-ID, that left us all feeling pretty worried – and obviously the museums shared this feeling. That’s because everything suddenly had to be online and in multimedia format. Would we really no longer need to go to a museum to see, smell, and experience actual artwork?

App developers didn’t sit still. For fear of catching COVID-19, no visitor would dare touch a dedicated device – such as our Podcatcher. All stories would have to be shared via apps moving forward. And so museums started all kinds of initiatives. Did we also need to invest in apps in order to be future-proof once museums reopened?

We will continue to listen to our customers

At Guide-ID we have known for years that apps in museums don’t offer the same added value as they do outside of museums. We know this because we study the data. And what all that data shows us is that visitors go to a museum to get away from it all; they want to be immersed in another world without distractions. And using a mobile phone with all of its distractions just doesn’t fit in with that. If notifications from your social media apps keep interrupting your audio tour, it’s hard to get a feeling of closeness to the actual works in the museum.

We had to come up with an appropriate solution to the aforementioned app-related hustle and bustle. We also know that anyone with a smartphone has an alternative to our Podcatcher in their pocket. That’s why our tech team created an app that shares stories with the same simplicity as our Podcatcher. With no distractions. Just by holding your phone close to the title card using the trigger. It’s brilliant (even if I say so myself)!

Dedicated devices are alive and well!

We offer visitors the same experience via both the app and our Podcatcher, the world’s easiest audio guide. This is all driven by one simple online platform containing all content. And from all of that data, the great thing is, that on a daily basis, we can see how visitors interact with both systems.

And what’s the outcome? Dedicated devices are alive and well! In fact, the percentage of visitors who choose a dedicated device over an app has never been higher. And visitors who listen to stories using our Podcatcher listen to more stories and for longer on average than visitors who use the app. Wow! This means that the Podcatcher still perfectly aligns with visitors’ wishes: listening to fascinating stories and enjoying art with no distractions.

Fortunately, in recent months we have seen a rapid increase in the number of stories shared around the world again. And I’m happy that all the data shows that we made the right choices with our Podcatcher and simple-to-use app. COVID or no COVID, visitors can only truly immerse themselves in a museum’s incredible exhibits when there are no distractions.