Our Blue Planet Needs You.

Today marks World Ocean Day, a United Nations initiative highlighting the critical importance of our planet’s waters for survival. Its aim is to unite people in sustaining this essential life force. For many, the ocean is a distant, exotic destination, a place for adventure and relaxation. However, experiencing the wonders beneath the surface and understanding our interconnectedness with marine environments often relies on visiting an aquarium.

Aquariums, including aquatic exhibits within zoos and wildlife parks, offer unique insights into the natural world and opportunities for engagement. Yet, their role extends far beyond mere entertainment for paying visitors. In addition to providing leisure, entertainment, and contributing capital to local economies, the modern aquarium’s remit has expanded. It now encompasses animal rescue, care and rehabilitation, scientific research, and crucially, conservation and education.

Further underscoring their beneficial role, a 2016 study at the UK’s National Marine Aquarium found that watching marine animals can soothe and calm individuals, delivering psychological and physiological benefits for observers of all ages. Similarly, ‘The Silver Sharks’ education outreach programme, conducted by The Deep Aquarium in Hull, UK, in 2019, aimed at the over 55 age group, enhanced participants’ mood, communication skills, and knowledge of marine life. Engaging with the natural world through 'edutainment' is vital for fostering understanding, a deeper relationship with nature, and ultimately, its conservation, as our lives depend on it.

How Technology Boosts Conservation and Education

The urgent need for a shift in attitude is evident in the widespread pollution affecting our waters, which are no longer the pristine habitats they once were. To address this, aquariums continuously expand their educational efforts. However, there’s a limit to how much knowledge they can impart and how quickly they can instil a sense of urgency and care before it’s too late. This is where technology can significantly amplify their message and improve engagement.

Reaching and engaging millions to effect change can be achieved, in part, by improving audience engagement through technology. In our mobile-first world, smartphones serve as powerful tools. While not everyone has access to a smartphone, these devices, in the hands of informed individuals, can still connect with those who need information. The mobile phone is arguably our most essential and pervasive educational tool and a force for good. Combining the power of mobile education with an application that delivers world-class knowledge in a fun, interactive, and action-oriented manner is eminently achievable and potentially transformative. Consider a visitor experience app linked to an audience engagement platform (AEP) deployed by an aquarium.

Cloud-based Custodians of the Future

Understanding the Audience Engagement Platform (AEP)

Simply put, an AEP is cloud-based software that houses interactive content, uploaded or created by the venue (e.g., an aquarium), which is then delivered to the audience via an app on their smartphone. The platform behind the app integrates numerous features to enhance the visitor experience while monitoring engagement to provide valuable operational insights. These insights can then be used to deliver even more personalised interactions.

How it Works in an Aquarium Setting

An aquarium installs the AEP operator platform and uploads all relevant information about its exhibits, displays, and species. Content can be bulk imported and includes written copy, multimedia (video, images, audio), or a combination. This content can be purely informational or highly educational. For educators and conservationists, AEPs can host curricula, with specific profiles for schools or individual users to access tailored material.

Once content is uploaded (and it can be updated or changed anytime), the platform automatically configures it into a highly customisable audience experience app. This app can be downloaded from app stores or accessed as a progressive web app. Simple platform customisation, without technical expertise, ensures the app mirrors the operator’s branding, look, and feel, providing a cohesive branded experience for visitors.

Dynamic Engagement and Insights

Engagement and accompanying data insights come from triggered interactions between the platform and the app. The platform tracks user behaviour as they navigate the attraction and digitally interact with its content and exhibits. With the app open (even offline), the platform can monitor dwell time at exhibits, delivering more engaging content, live updates, and interactions. This provides operators with valuable information about exhibit engagement, crucial for curating complex and multiple exhibits like marine species at public aquariums.

The highly customisable app can also make the visit more interactive, immersive, and enjoyable through features that surprise and delight, unlocking new layers of information. For example, using in-built triggering technology (via beacons or QR codes), visitors can engage with interactive multimedia and educational content – far more than can be displayed on physical signage. If a visitor is near a touch tank of a lesser-known species or an endangered marine creature, proximity-triggered information appears on the app, alongside features like live quizzes or challenges. This not only captures user attention but also provides a prime opportunity to influence perception and mindset.

Beyond the Visitor Experience

From an operational perspective, the AEP serves as a new tactical tool for the aquarium, benefiting not only visitors but also the exhibits and species under its care. The primary role of an aquarium team is to ensure the welfare of the sea creatures. By handling more of the visitor engagement, the AEP frees up time and resources for this essential work, complementing but never replacing the invaluable contributions of aquarists and guides. The platform can also assist in managing exhibits and displays, even before opening. For instance, if a fish needs quarantine, the platform seamlessly and instantly updates relevant information for visitors, ensuring they always receive the correct content at the right time.

Fostering Long-term Engagement for Conservation

To achieve effective, long-term change for planetary sustainability, ongoing advocacy and behavioural transformation are essential. The AEP and app play a crucial role here, as the educational and conservation efforts of aquariums need not end when visitors leave. Post-visit, the app allows visitors to relive their experience, unlock new content, and receive relevant updates based on their activity and interests. Examples include updates on a turtle’s rehabilitation, a new birth in captivity, or the latest statistics on plastic pollution and its impact on marine and human life – all tailored to the visitor’s prior interactions.

Keeping the audience engaged with relevant information, insights, and updates helps develop lasting and meaningful relationships. The operator knows what is applicable to each active app user, as their journey has been unobtrusively tracked and interpreted digitally. Spreading the word on conservation, the ultimate goal, is made easier through social media sharing. Operators can upload pre-branded digital photo frames, enabling visitors to capture their time at the aquarium in an engaging way and share it instantly. If the aquarium is running a particular initiative, users can be incentivised to participate through reward and redemption mechanisms – all facilitated by the highly customisable audience engagement platform.

These benefits are just the beginning of what an AEP can offer an aquarium. The full spectrum of digital engagement can be integrated into the visitor lifecycle, from digital ticketing and wayfinding to interactive trails and unlocking new content. The platform enhances the physical experience, acting as an enabler for the aquarium’s mission. Technology like the n-gage.io audience engagement platform and visitor experience app has been designed with research, education, and conservation in mind. Furthermore, to assist operators in their day-to-day functions, conserve resources, and maximise output, the platform is quick to install, simple to use, and easily customisable, requiring no technical skills.

This year’s World Ocean Day theme, 'Revitalize: Collective Action for the Ocean', perfectly aligns with the AEP’s capabilities. As a collective of data and insights, the platform is a key enabler for revitalising the visitor journey through an aquarium and promoting action in ocean conservation.