Surface Impression

iPhone and Android apps are becoming more and more important as a marketing and audience development channel for cultural organisations. Surface Impression has developed a technical and editorial framework to allow museums and galleries to enter the smartphone app market both quickly and economically.

The main purpose of your first app is to act as an interactive “brochure”, delivering a well-rounded and up to date picture of your museum or heritage attraction, complete with its exhibits, activities and events. It also allows visitors to comment back to you, and share their experiences and interests in social media platforms.

Once you've established a mobile presence and have begun to understand the nature and behaviour of your audience in this channel, you can go on to add features or to create other, more ambitious apps  - taking full advantage of the new medium as it evolves.

• Use your website, blog and other online content to update the app directly
• Add custom content just for the app
• Build in vouchers and other loyalty schemes
• Keep your 'brochure' content constantly up to date
• Publicise events, news, special offers and promotions easily
• Connect with Twitter, Facebook and other web services
• Get your museum or gallery into the search results of the Apple and Android app stores (and by extension increase your presence in web searches as the app store listing will also be found there)