Seemingly every museum collects, or at least should collect, visitor comment cards, along with online reviews, comments, and ratings. Together, they offer valuable insights into the visitor experience, what's working, and what could be improved. Most of the time, that feedback is useful. Sometimes, though, a review has nothing to do with your museum at all.
At the New Bedford Whaling Museum, a one-star review and an off-topic complaint became a long-standing staff joke until the museum turned them into a line of T-shirts, tote bags, and mugs that has since become a summertime viral sensation. To learn more, I caught up with the New Bedford Whaling Museum by email.
Adam Rozan: Hi, can you introduce yourself, share what you do, and share the backstory to the one-star review?
Annelise Conway: I'm Annelise Conway the Whaling Museum's first Chief Engagement Officer. I'm responsible for driving audience growth while deepening the Museum's connections to the community, and providing leadership and oversight across marketing, communications, public programs, digital engagement, and visitor experience.
The one-star review was a real Google review from 2020 that had given the museum team a long-standing laugh throughout the years. It was always thought that it should be on a T-shirt. Our Visitor Experience Manager, Emily Roznoy, who is also a designer, did just that last November. It was an instant success and has been consistently in our top 5 sellers since then. A few weeks ago, we added to the "Worst Aquarium Ever" merchandise line with a new crew neck t-shirt and tote bags. To mark that we shared a clever social media post highlighting that we did, in fact, now have a modest aquarium. It was this post that was picked up by our local media partner and the rest, as they say, is history.
AR: I should share that I absolutely love this, and of course I have some questions. What typically happens with your comment cards and online reviews, and what happened with this card?
AC: I personally read every review that we receive. Most of them are very kind and are appropriately complimentary of our incredibly talented curatorial team. There are also great feedback points for other visitors – it always takes longer to visit than expected, we're larger than they imagined, bring snacks, etc. – and if there are complaints, we'll address them head on as best we can. This review was an obvious quip – and it brought the staff so much joy. We just wanted to make sure others could share the joy.
AR: If I understand correctly, the idea was first shared as a joke? What happened, and when did the idea go from "Wouldn't it be great if we had this on a t-shirt" to actually doing it?
AC: It has been staff lore from the start, and we thought wouldn't it be fun if we made a t-shirt and a few of the staff and a few museum visitors bought them. But it did fit into a larger retail strategy. There can be inaccurate assumptions that history, and whaling museums, are dusty, stodgy, buildings encased in time. The Whaling Museum is anything but that. We wanted to expand our Museum Store product to reflect who we were, the stories we told, the wittiness and character of the region and the people whose history we share – and creating a shirt like this, while seemingly atypical for another Museum, is exactly the type of smart tongue in cheek humor you'll find here. It's a living, engaging, smart, and vibrant place to visit and learn. So, it was a natural step to take.
AR: I can't imagine that going about this new line of merchandise was the usual review process. What did you all do to get this approved, and what concerns, if any, were there?
AC: The approval process is pretty straightforward. First, our President & CEO, Amanda McMullen, had been encouraging Emily to take the risk and make the shirt. When I came on board last summer, it very much fit my charge – make the Museum more engaging and welcoming, expand the audience, and refresh the product line. We have a few products that already have a zany sense of humor – a shirt from our Melville Society partners "It's better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian" the famous line from Moby-Dick, a print with a flipped whale boat with the title "Mistakes were made" – so it wasn't a far stretch to create this merchandise from a tone perspective. One of our biggest concerns was actually how much inventory to order and where to keep it if we over ordered. That is clearly not a concern now.
AR: Have you all been in touch with the person who posted the online review?
AC: Yes, New Bedford and the South Coast are small communities, so we were introduced to him very quickly. We had hoped to keep him anonymous; he didn't ask to be put on a T-shirt or for this excitement, but he was very gracious about the whole experience. And, yes, he is getting merchandise.
Here's an interview with him on the local radio station: https://fun107.com/whaling-museum-one-star-reviewer/
AR: I always think that the staff and your volunteers are a good litmus test. Was that the case here, for knowing that you all were on to something?
AC: Like I said the staff enjoyed the joke for many years, and it is a really good joke! At the staff meeting when we told them the shirt had been ordered and would be in the store, they were all excited to buy it, so we knew we were on to something.
AR: The museum and your one-star rating have gone viral, captured the media, and hopefully the public's attention. How have the sales been, and has this increased attendance?
AC: It's been all "hands-on deck" filling orders. The full senior leadership team has been making boxes, signing cards, printing shipping labels, even picking up products! In the beginning, we still had a postal pickup walking, now we have two vans coming by a day.
Yes, we have seen increased foot traffic. We like to say "come for the shirt and stay for the experience." The museum has so much to offer from our science-based learning to exceptional exhibitions up right now like "Look Pleasant, Please", "Proteanna", and "Sailor's Valentines." We love that the city and region is shining bright in this moment and getting so much attention.
AR: Were there any other comment cards or reviews in the running, and are there plans to turn the review into a marketing plan?
AC: We certainly want to maximize on the current success of the merchandise and excitement around it, but you can't authentically recreate that kind of energy again by using another review. What we will do is still use the core messages and values: leaning into staff creativity, sharing the unique personality of the Whaling Museum, and sharing joy where we can!
AR: For the staff at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, what's the lesson here?
AC: The lesson is teamwork: everything you do contributes to the team, from the joke you tell, the idea you have, the design you create, the social post you write, the exhibit you curate, the shirt you package, the product you pick up. The Whaling Museum has been around for 123 years telling the story of New Bedford and the South Coast, and now a lot of people outside of our region know about our 5 massive whale skeletons and our sense of humor – and more will learn about our deep scholarship, scrimshaw collection, digitized logbooks, and history of a global energy source that can teach us about economics and resources in a way that doesn't feel like lessons.
And, you can find inspiration in almost everything: a review, a funny saying, a staff joke. If you like it, chances are someone else will too – even if it's a twist on a bad review.