Abstract
"Audience development and audience engagement are strategic activities for every cultural institution. The implementation of digital experiences is now becoming an interesting approach for cultural institutions, such as museums, to reinforce the relationship with the target audience and to renovate their image in order to fit better with younger generations’ lifestyle. This chapter investigates how three popular digital experiences offered by museums, gamification, virtual tours, and podcasts, are perceived by consumers and contribute to overall improvements in how visitors perceive museums. An experiment was conducted to test the differential effect of the three digital experiences on perceived authenticity, the intention to interact with the digital experience, the novelty of the experience, and attitude toward the museums, which are critical variables for maintaining, reinforcing, or developing valuable relationships with consumers. Results suggest that gamification can be a viable solution for museums: consumers perceive the gamified digital experience as novel and authentic, are willing to use the digital tool, and through its use develop a more positive attitude toward the museum."