have similar KPIs: people turnover, engagement, loyalty and conversion. They have learnt to work with social media and celebrities; they can influence the public opinion and convert people’s free time into visits. These “boring” buildings have even managed to overcome the cinema, TV and the Internet in this fight for people’s attention. The irony of Andy Warhol words that in the future all department stores would become museums and all museums would turn into department stores was prophetic.
Pop-up museums and temporary art galleries in shopping centers, business centers, factories and warehouses waiting for reconstruction; collaborations of product makers with designers and artists or famous museums with shopping centers; limited theme collections in museum shops and appearance of art-objects in flagship boutiques – all of this is a direct proof that the bright line between impression and consumption is fading. The most important element of any marketing these days is not the form or context but the content itself. In both, a shopping center and a museum, we can see a collection of material objects. People visit both places not only to get knowledge or goods but mostly to do some people-watching and have a chance to be watched, to check-out new goods, and to try something new or exotic. A visit to a museum or a shopping center resembles a getaway trip, when you change the scene and routine.