ARTSblog

Clayton Lord

At the place where marcomm* and advocacy meet, discussing our value in the landscape of possible activities is becoming increasingly important. Because at its core, both marcomm and advocacy are about where someone should put dollars, albeit on different scales.

In the most recent edition of WolfBrown’s e-newsletter, On Our Minds, Zach Kemp wrote about a study published in the Journal of Epedemiology & Community Health (abstract here) on the difference between the types of art that seem to generate the most health benefit for men and women. By looking at what the study calls “creative cultural activities” and “receptive cultural activities” (i.e. art that you do, like painting, singing, etc versus art that you watch, like theatre, concerts, exhibitions, etc) in a large-scale community study, the researchers were able to demonstrate, essentially, that women report more physiological benefits from doing and men report more physiological benefits from seeing.

This may seem a bit heady and esoteric, but I’m always interested in the place where hard science intersects with artistic consumption, as that’s often (if you dig) a good place to start thinking about good marketing. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 6%

Drew McManus

It’s great to see how much technology is integrated into this year’s National Arts Marketing Project Conference. Out of the three conference categories (audience actions, technology treasures, and eye on income), technology occupies a full third and among the others, many of the session panelists are from technology-focused businesses.

And of all the tools available to arts marketers, technology solutions provide some of the most powerful advancements in recent years to effect positive change.

At the same time, technology providers have a responsibility to resist overselling products and services; something I fear is beginning to get out of control to a point where some arts organizations are beginning to suffer from the pursuit of improved technology solutions.

It’s become so commonplace among web and IT professionals in the field that dissolution is fodder for satire. For example, I received the following text from a colleague the other week who had this to say about the onset of a technology implementation project at her arts organization:

“…always fun to watch as people realize [Technology-X] doesn’t cause gumdrops and lollipops to fall from the sky…” Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 7%

Sam Horn

One of the best conferences I’ve ever attended was BIF-6, held in Providence, RI, and hosted by Saul Kaplan of the Business Innovation Factory.

Saul and his team collect an eclectic mix of pioneering thought leaders ranging from Tony Hsieh of Zappos to Fast Company co-founder Alan Webber, Jason Fried of Rework, and Keith Yamashita, who believes many of us “fritter away our greatness.”

Each presented a TED-like 18-minute presentation introducing their latest invention or insight.

I was on the edge of my seat the entire two days.

There was a recurring, underlying theme to each presentation. These visionaries had either:

A) seen something wrong and thought, “Someone should DO something about this. After being bothered about it for awhile, they finally concluded, “I’m as much a someone as anyone. I’LL do something about this.”

B) witnessed something that wasn’t what it could be. They thought, “It doesn’t have to be that way. There’s got to be a better way. An easier, greener, more satisfying, profitable way. And I’m going to come up with that way.” Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 6%

Amelia Northrup

Usually when organizations consider their ticket sales, they look mainly at total revenue. After all, revenue is what keeps an organization running, and total revenue is the 50,000-foot view of how well an organization is doing.

However, when considering how to optimize ticket sales, calculating and analyzing per capita revenue becomes a critical measurement.

Yes, “per capita revenue” sounds boring, complex, and technical, but stick with me—the reality is that it allows you to zoom in and see how tickets are selling on a season-by-season or show-by-show basis and that’s actually pretty useful.

What is per capita revenue?
In layman’s terms, per capita revenue is the average price paid for a ticket. It can be calculated for an individual performance, a series of performances, or an entire season. You can also break it out by group tickets, single tickets, or subscription/membership purchases.

How is it calculated?
The formula for calculating per capita revenues follows: Per Capita Revenue = Total Sales Revenue/Total Unit Sales Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 6%

Sara Billmann

It’s an honor to be included in the Arts Marketing Blog Salon. I’m looking forward to learning a lot from the conversations over the coming week.

If the Internet was the buzzword of the mid-1990s, there’s no question that social media has reigned supreme over the past few years, with names of sites now popular becoming verbs that have entered our modern-day lexicon and the entire industry now abbreviated as something that even as recently as a few years ago would have implied something tawdry.

The beauty of social media is that it ultimately just takes word-of-mouth to a whole new level, albeit a more visible one. Let’s face it, there was a certain comfort in the pre-internet days of knowing that people heard about performances by ‘word of mouth’ without knowing what, exactly, was being said.

Now that message is broadcast far beyond the reaches of our own venues, giving us opportunity to enhance or diminish our own reputations with the press of a few keystrokes. We all plot how we can use this power to our advantage as consumers, but would be better off thinking about how we should be using its reach and power to ensure nothing but the most satisfied, engaged customer. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 6%

Deborah Obalil

It’s been interesting to read various marketing experts and pundits over the past year or so declare the death of marketing as we know it in various forums. And, of course, we’ve all heard the platitudes of social media experts regarding the “customer being in control” and “it’s all about them, not you.”

It is true that the traditional interpretation of the Marketing Ps (product, price, place, promotion) may feel outdated in a world where people engage as often virtually as they do physically. And social media has definitely been a game changer in regards to customer relationships and communications strategy.

While I often find little to argue with in the details of these various exhortations, the conclusion that all of this means marketing is dead or vastly different at its core from what it was ten or more years ago confounds me.

I have always understood marketing to be “the process by which you come to understand the relationship between the product and the customer.” I don’t think this definition has become false because of all the changes in the platforms we use to connect with our customers, or even because the needs of our customers may be vastly different from what they were a decade ago. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 6%

Ceci Dadisman

Social media is an important piece of the event marketing puzzle. Unlike most nonprofits that are marketing one product all year long (a charitable cause), a performing arts organization markets multiple different products (performances and events) throughout each season.

It can be challenging to market diverse offerings whilst still under the umbrella of one organization.

Let me share my top-5 tips to marketing events that will generate buzz and improve conversions:

1. Don’t forget about the 80/20 rule. This is a rule that I live by regarding social media marketing, whether it is when I’m marketing an event or not. I find that the best ratio to keep people engaged but not tick them off is to have 80% engagement and 20% broadcasting. Even when you have an event to market, talking 100% about that event is just going to turn people off and they aren’t going to listen to one word that you are saying.

2. Engage creatively. This one goes together with tip #1 about the 80/20 rule. You may ask, why should I waste time tweeting or posting about stuff that has nothing to do with my event when I’m trying to sell tickets? Well, that is pretty simple to answer.

If you are engaging with people, you will be top of mind so that when they do hear something about you or your event, they will remember the interaction and be much more likely to check it out. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 8%

Alison French

As the 2011 National Arts Marketing Project (NAMP) Conference: Winning Audiences quickly approaches, we are taking a cue from our keynote speaker, Scott Stratten and his best-selling book, UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging.

What better way to kick off a meeting about audience engagement, communications, and revenue generation than with an online discussion with you and 18 top marketing practitioners and consultants in the field?

Join us on ARTSblog for a dialogue on the broad landscape of arts marketing, social media, and audience engagement.

From October 3-7, join us as we wrestle with and ponder on such questions as:

•    What new ideas or campaigns are you deploying to win new or broader audiences?
•    How do you consider your audience’s perspective in your marketing and fundraising choices?
•    How are you identifying your audiences and how are you keeping them coming back for more?
•    How is social media changing how you speak with your audience and what you say?
•    How is the fear of a double dip recession affecting your marketing and fundraising strategies?

We hope you will visit us in the salon and take a moment to leave a comment, share an opinion, or ask a question.

Then come to Louisville, KY, November 12-15 to continue the conversation in person at the NAMP Conference.

Popularity: 6%

Ron Jones

Tomorrow is my investiture as president of Memphis College of Art. I’ve been “on the job” for about 5 months, and now it’s inauguration time. Other than a lot of pomp and circumstance, visitors from out of town, and me making a speech, is there anything really that special associated with the day?

Well, maybe there is more to this day than I first thought because without this investiture, and without making a big deal of my stepping into the position, I would not have felt the need to step back, take a look at what I am discovering, planning, and doing and try to make some sense of it all.

The truth is that this entire process from the pomp to the ceremony itself may be nothing more than a devious means of getting the person entrusted with leading the institution to pause and contextualize what’s going on.

Maybe I am wrong about the intentions, but I can tell you that in this one case it has worked effectively. I have spent hours thinking about what I should say, only to remain frustrated for weeks regarding my challenge. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 7%