Say...That's not a bad idea

There was a victory for the arts last week in Toronto, sort of. For a few years now local arts organizations have been pushing for a tax on billboards, with the money to be designated to go back into beautification projects and the arts.

Apparently the idea was a little too good.

On December 7th councilmen voted to approve the tax, all except the benefitting the arts part. Seems city government will place the over $10 million in taxes into the general fund. With budget short falls being what they are this year, I suspect we all know that money won't be going to arts groups anytime soon.

To read the full story check it out in the Toronto Sun here.

Technology in the Arts

This evening I had the opportunity to go to dinner with some very interesting and passionate arts marketers from across the country.

One member of the group was Corwin  Christie, the primary author of a blog you should read if you haven't run across it before.  Technology in the Arts consistently has good, new information on the use of technology, from mobile to the web, in the marketing of arts organizations.

Check out Corwin's thoughts at technologyinthearts.org

NAMP Conference

Opening day was really great here in Providence.  Lost of marketers interested in finding new ideas to take back to their offices and put into use.

The openings session with David Court of McKinsey was very interesting.  They've done a lot to measure the effectiveness of various media  on consumers.  One of the most important charts he showed was on the way mass media diminishes in effectiveness for those that aren't familiar with a brand.  

If you haven't worked your way into their consciousness before they need your product, Court says you have to rely on having a great web presence because the consumer is in the driver's seat once they start searching for info to make a decision.  They'll look online and make up their own minds at that point and it's too late for your mass media messages to have an effect.

I'm waiting to see his presentation again on the NAMP website this coming week so I can digest more of his message.  I'll share thoughts of my own when I have.

Plus more to come from Rhode Island in upcoming posts.

Providence

Arrived in Rhode Island today in preparation for the opening of the NAMP conference tomorrow.

Providence is a wonderful choice as host for the conference.  The commitment to promoting the arts shows everywhere here.  There is a reason they bill themselves as the creative capital.

One of the biggest draws downtown is the restored Providence Performing Arts Center.  Had a chance to get my first tour of PPAC and to grab lunch with marketing director Lynn Singleton today.  If you are in Providence it's worth your time to see the remarkable old theatre that originally opened in 1928.  

Tomorrow the Collaboraction conference starts and I'm really looking forward to a number of the sessions.  A panel of Massachusetts arts groups presents on Collaborative Cultural Tourism in what should be a great afternoon session for the first day.  Then the Museum of Art at Rhode Island School of Design hosts our reception tomorrow evening.

More thoughts from RI throughout the weekend.

North Carolina Central University

The last three weeks we've been designing and preparing to install new materials at the North Carolina Central University Art Museum in Durham.  NCCU has recently committed to significant upgrades in the museum's branding.  The new graphics are coordinated for the opening of "Homecoming", an exhibition of works by Central grad, and Durham native, Ernie Barnes.

I'll share some additional pieces from their new graphics package in the next few weeks.  The exhibition opens this weekend on the Central campus.

Collaboraction!

I'm getting very excited about attending the National Arts Marketing Project annual conference next week in Providence.  As I've mentioned here Wendy Livingston and I will be presenting a case study on how they've reduced their collateral budget at the Nasher Museum of Art over the last year.  Wendy's eliminated almost 50% of printing costs without losing impact and I think it's going to be an interesting discussion.

The rest of the lineup for the conference is really tremendous as well, including speakers like Arthur Cohen, futurist David McIntosh and John Maeda, President of the Rhode Island School of Design.

Check out the full schedule here.

Arts destination marketing push in Florida

Apparently having some of the nation's best beaches wasn't enough for Sarasota. A new marketing effort is underway to draw visitors for the arts as well. Sounds like a winning combination.

Marketing Sarasota as an arts destination

For many who come to Sarasota for a weekend, week or season-long stay, the white sands and turquoise waters of the Gulf of Mexico may be the primary draws.

But Sarasota also treasures its reputation as Florida's cultural capital, with theater, visual art, opera, ballet and classical music available for top-caliber entertainment after a day at the beach or on the water. (read the full story from Herald-Tribune)

National Summit on Arts Journalism

Arts journalists gathered in Southern California last week to talk about the future of their craft.  The decline of arts coverage in traditional media and the rise in arts coverage among social media outlets were high on the list of topics.

Fittingly the top coverage of the event can be found in various  blog posts:

A few thoughts on National Summit on Arts Journalism

Reinventing arts journalism... by starting with a virtual summit

And there is plenty of video from the summit posted to their YouTube  channel.

More (almost) free stuff

Yesterday, after looking over the reporting on Museum Day from Smithsonian Magazine, I was reminded of an entry on Tyler Green's blog Modern Art Notes, from back in March.  Thought it was worthy of passing along in case you didn't see the original.

Fine, don't pay us.  No, really.   Seriously.

Green chronicles Seattle Art Museum's pay what you can program for last winter's Edward Hopper exhibit.  An interesting extension of the "voluntary contribution" hours MFA Boston conducts on Wednesdays.

Museum Day

Saturday will be national museum day across the country, when many institutions mimic the Smithsonian and open their doors for free.  

The Times has an excellent rundown of the history and some sidebar examples of how free days are helping to keep museums full this year.  The Best Things in Life are Free - for a Day, Anyway

And the Smithsonian listing of participating museums.

NPR Story

Thursday afternoon NPR's Neda Uluby reported on the response from various arts organizations to their budget shortfalls this year.  As you'll hear, their answers have ranged from total pullback to all in gambles.

Economic Woes Force Arts Groups To Scale Back

Thursday Tidbits

Some stories and links from around the country that may be of interest:

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel did a nice summary a few days ago on how arts groups are dealing with the economy this year.   Performing arts groups dealing with recession.

Buffalo is claiming some success as rebranding itself as a arts and culture destination in this story from The Buffalo News.  Cultural tourism exceeding expectations.

Philadelphia blogger and arts marketer Maryann Devine has some nice thoughts on Facebook usage based on Universal McCann's fourth social media survey, Wave 4.  Read her take here.   What Facebook means NOW for arts marketing.  I'll be looking at some of the data concerning online video next week.

Why "I don't know" doesn't cut it

It's said that the Royal Library of Alexandria may have held up to a half million scrolls at its height more than 2,000 years ago, all the knowledge of the ancient world. In a lifetime, you couldn't have read through them all.

Today you still can't know everything about everything. But when it comes to knowing your audience I don't believe you can afford to be in the dark. From donor demographics to customer satisfaction scores, the information is easily attainable and infinitely valuable. That data will allow you to do any number of things like:

- Identify and address problem areas in service delivery
- Model donor profiles to cut direct marketing costs
- Spot trends in general attitudes to your offerings

How do you go about getting this data? Start by asking good questions. Survey your donors and patrons regularly. This can be done through a private research firm or in-house. Even the most cash strapped of organizations can usually afford the $200 a year it takes to use online survey tools like www.surveymonkey.com, www.surveymethods.com, www.zoomerang.com, www.esurveys.com. If you can't match the responses back to your database, make sure your surveys include lots of optional questions on demographic info (age, education, home address).

As a next step, you can spend $5,000-$10,000 a year for services like demograhicsnow.com. They'll take your consumer and donor lists and compare them with the rest of your market using SCR data. This can give you much more sophisticated models for your potential new customers and donor targets. That information can inform your media buys, your story pitches, your direct marketing lists, possibly even the geographich areas you select for doing community outreach.

It comes from the Land Down Under

Today I stumbled upon a nice, free arts marketing title called "Arts Marketing, The Pocket Guide" published by the AustraliaCouncil for the Arts. At just under a hundred pages it's a good overview for beginners or non-marketing types in your organization that would like to understand what you do a little better.

It was published in 1997 so the internet section is woefully outdated, but again it's free and it doesn't portray itself as a book for experienced professionals.

Download the full PDF.

Arts Marketing Conferences

Labor Day has passed and some very good conferences are coming up.

I''ll be in Providence at the end of October with Wendy Livingston from the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University.  We'll present at the National Arts Marketing Project annual meeting.

Meanwhile ArtsReach is holding their annual Arts Marketing and Development meeting earlier in the month in LA.  ArtsReach put together this video as a preview for their gathering which runs October 8-11.

Local story pitch idea

There's new survey data out that a company called Ad-Ology released yesterday.  It lists their top 5 "Opportunities/Challenges" for museums this year.  I'm not sure how you compare the importance of opportunities and challenges in one combined list, but they have. Regardless of the quality of the full report, their #2 finding hit me as useful. 

The finding says, "Consumers view museums as budget-friendly forms of entertainment for the family, which is likely to fuel growth in visits."  I think this is a good point when it comes to marketing in your own community and it offers a story idea for you to pitch local media.

I've written in previous posts about "staycations" and the importance in this economy of marketing to locals and not just out-of-town visitors.  The study's budget-friendly finding is a good reminder that locally we have a compelling "total cost" argument.  

A local day at the museum (or a night at a local theatre for that matter) looks mighty affordable to the budget conscious as an alternative to a weekend out of town.  A local arts experience eliminates the cost of driving, hotel and multiple meals associated with out-of-town attractions.  

When couched in these terms, this could be a nice story pitch for a local paper or TV station looking for ways that consumers are adapting to the economy.  You might do a quick survey to see how much your local numbers have increased, especially as a percentage of overall attendance. The story becomes especially powerful if you have a couple of local partner venues lined up that could all comment on the trend with you.   Yes, you'll share the limelight, but you're much more likely to see a reporter bite on the story.  

Happy pitching.

Word Tasting

You do some things just because they're fun. That's why we've been working on the first annual Piedmont Laureate Word Tasting. This October noted local poet and 2009 Piedmont Laureate, Jaki Shelton Green, will do a day long tour of the Triangle. Green will read from her works in eateries in Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. Hence the title, Word Tasting.

We've worked collaboratively with the local arts councils to name the event and create a marketing plan. The first of the marketing efforts is a poster for local businesses to display.

Personally, I love the concept that our Art Director, Ryan Taylor, developed. As you can see, he's literally taken a bite out of one of Green's poems. I'd love to take some credit for the poster but the idea came from Ryan and the creative team and it's going to be a great launch for the event.

In addition to the signage we'll be engaging social media and PR to promote the event, as well as using all of the four local councils' traditional promotional vehicles. From newsletters to group emails we've worked to create a coordinated effort that should make it hard for the local market to go unaware of the event.

As we get closer to the Word Tasting I'll post additional updates and share some of the things we learn.

Side Effects of the Economy

Fascinating article in the New York Times this past weekend concerning corporate collections appearing as full fledged exhibitions.

And Now, an Exhibition From Our Sponsor

Re-invention for Relevance

Interesting article in last month's Christian Science Monitor about the ways that museums are retooling and repositioning themselves to stay relevant. A number of examples from LACMA were particularly interesting.
Museums' new mantra: Connect with community

Michael Kaiser

Earlier this year I wrote a post about the Kennedy Center's Arts in Crisis initiative, spearheaded by their president Michael Kaiser.

I recently ran across this video of Kaiser presenting at MIT's Sloan Management school two years ago. It's a great case study of his work with the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre. The video is nearly an hour but if you have just 10 minutes, start in at the 16:00 mark to get some of the best parts of the turnaround story.

Highs and Lows in Detroit Fundraising Effort

The good news is that arts organizations in Michigan just got over $3 million in donations. But apparently the process was less than smooth.

The Community Foundation Challenge matched 50 cents on the dollar for donations made to Detroit area groups today. But the online collection program had many donors out of sorts.

The full story posted about a half hour ago on the Detroit Free Press' site. Despite glitches, $3M for arts

Retail vs. Brand marketing

I've been thinking about the challenges we'll face over the next few years as the economy slowly seems to turn around.  It's unlikely that marketing budgets will rebound in 2010 and 2011 may also be a tough budget year.  

Which led me to think about the differences in retail advertising and branding.  It's not unusual for branding to be pushed to the side when times are tight. And predictably, it seems that most marketing being done for the arts today is exhibition by exhibition, performance by performance.  The retail side of our business.  

I see very few ads or campaigns promoting the museum or the performance venue itself.  And while there is an argument to be made that you are your content, I strongly believe your brand goes beyond today's playbill.   But when budgets are tight we tend to focus on driving today's ticket sales, leaving the brand as tomorrow's issues.

That works fine when you've got recognizable names coming in show after show.  What happens when you a lesser name performer, a more artistically driven production, an exhibition from your permanent collection?   Is your brand going to be strong enough to bring in the audiences then?   Probably not, if you've been ignoring it during the down economy.

It would be nice to address this issue with a new image campaign, but as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, budgets aren't likely to get larger anytime soon.  May I suggest, in lieu of additional advertising, that you look at your complete marketing plan and see where you can infuse your brand. 

Most of us have lots of touch points already.  It's a matter of making sure that each of them carries our brand message as well as info for the individual show.  Here are a few examples you could start with:

- What venue info are you including in collateral for your performances?

- Does your social media only talk about individual shows or does it also cover the organization as a whole?

- Are you also including brand ideas in your PR plan?  

Just take time to look for the opportunities that allow you to promote current shows but also  build your organization's reputation as a whole.  You're brand will be the stronger for it.

 

Outstanding Outdoor

Wanted to provide some thought starters to begin the week.  

Now I've never been the world's biggest fan of billboards and outdoor signage.  Probably because most of it is so horrid.

It can make an amazing impact if done well though.  Sometimes it takes thinking beyond the limits of the a two dimensional 14 x 48 space to create an impact.  Or in the case of Lowe's, thinking within it.

  

Do people know when you're ads are on?

I had coffee earlier this week with one of my friends at the Durham Performing Arts Center. In a tough economy they have had an incredible first year. Sellout after sellout and big increases in season ticket sales going from their first to their second year.

They've done it by programming great shows in a great venue. I also think that their willingness to be aggressive in their media planning helped to get them off on the right foot.

I've always been a proponent of the notion that "When you're on, you're on." When we have a campaign in the market I want to be noticed and I'd much rather have a big advertising presence for one week than a minor one for two months. Generally, I'm looking for a frequency of 3-5 impressions per week with whatever media we're running to get some message recall among the target.

So when it came time to promote the launch of the DPAC we proposed to turn a three-month opening into a very compressed media schedule that lasted 6 weeks. We bought tons of GRP's in TV and radio. During the month and a half the ads ran it was nearly impossible to watch media in the Triangle without seeing or hearing about the new DPAC. They got off to a great start, word of mouth spread from the early visitors and they've been firing on all cylinders ever since.

As you are doing planning for exhibitions or shows this fall and winter, look at your media buy and see if you've got your ads running with enough frequency to create an impact. If the weekly frequency's a little low, look at shortening the schedule to make sure that your audience notices you're on.

Hmmm

Ok, I get that these Americans for the Arts ads are meant to be tongue-in-cheek and I'm sure they test fine with focus groups.   But comedy in advertising is a pretty hard thing to pull off and I'm not sure these are completely successful.  Over the years I've come to believe that it's best to leave funny TV spots to the beer makers.  Check these out and draw your own conclusions.

Video Series on Theatre Marketing

The folks at First Light Video produce plenty of instructional materials for those in the entertainment industry. In the last year they've put out a four-part DVD series called Producing for Theatre that includes a conversation with Randy Snow. Snow is the head of one of the largest entertainment focused ad agencies in the country. There's a two minute snippet of that conversation below that talks about the use of critic ads. It's an interesting segment and has me intrigued about the series, but it's pricey. First Light currently lists the 49 minute DVD at $129.

Common Problems

A few months ago I wrote a note about recruiting bloggers to help supplement diminishing coverage of the arts by local papers and other media.   When the local arts writer is let go

Looks like it's not just the arts that are having problems with coverage.  And we're not the only ones turning to online solutions.  An AdAge article shows one of the most popular sports leagues in the country is having this issue as well.  And for you cynics yes, here in North Carolina racing is definitely a sport.

NASCAR handpicks 28 Websites to Cover Races

The article reminds me how important it is to keep up with online news outlets and bloggers that are covering the arts in our local community.  If you haven't done a survey of online outlets recently, I'd encourage you to spend some time on it before you send your next press release.

Moma Followup

Last week I shared a little information on the new website at MOMA.  Victor Samra is their digital marketing manager.  Back in February he spoke about the use of social media at the Arts, Culture and Technology meetup.  I think you can see the influence of MOMA's earlier experiences with Facebook and Twitter on the new main site.

MOMA launches new website

You may have visited moma.org and noticed changes recently.  Lots of images, constant refreshes, the chance to customize for your personal tastes.

I'm a big fan of the Perspective button, which allows you to tell them a bit about yourself (film goer, first time visitor, student, etc.).  Based on your input the site begins to customize your experience.  Sign in and you get more customization possibilities.

A number of other folks have noticed the changes too.  OMMA, the Magazine of Online Media, Marketing and Advertising has a feature article on the site's new look.  The article was of specific interest because they feature a roundtable discussion with some of MOMA's marketing peers including Joanne Champagne, chief of web and new media initiatives at the National Gallery.

Their comments concerning the changes at moma.org are interesting and I found their broader views on the opportunity for online audience connections insightful.

Read the article here.

NEA Survey on Public Participation

Last month the National Endowment of the Arts released the findings from their Public Participation report.  Conducted in May 2008, it showed significant drops in overall attendance for performing arts events, museums and craft events.  Full PDF of the report is here for download.

The report also indicates a rising median age for attendance from 43 years old in 2002, to 45 years old in 2008.

Attendance drops were partially influenced by high travel costs at the time of the survey.  Gas prices were registering between $3 and $4 per gallon during this period.  So those attendance numbers could be expected to bounce back if the survey was taken with today's lower energy costs.

But the report suggests that the median age numbers shows that an aging arts audience is a more permanent trend.  

The data reported by the NEA offers an excellent opportunity to compare your own attendance surveys against national trends and to consider how much your audience/visitor population is aging.

Charleston Market Profile

Very interesting article giving an overview on the state of Charleston's arts scene appears today in their local Post-Courier.

Between hosting the annual Spoleto festival and being a year-round tourist destination, the Charleston market has a number of built in advantages that help support local arts organizations.  

This year they also received a marketing boost from their Office of Cultural Affairs to increase single and season ticket purchases for local performing arts groups.

Arts Marketing Hotline experience with Pinecone

Thought I'd give an update on the work we're doing through the Arts Marketing Hotline and some of the things I'm seeing and hearing from other organizations.  The Hotline is an initiative my agency began this year to offer pro-bono marketing and consulting help for members of the the North Carolina Arts Council and other selected NC based arts group.

So far this year we've worked with Playmakers Repertory Company here  in Chapel Hill, the United Arts Council in Raleigh and Pinecone - The Piedmont Traditional Music Council.

Yesterday I had a chance to sit down with Pinecone's Executive Director William Lewis and the Program Associate Jamie Katz.   I came away very impressed.  They are celebrating their 25th anniversary and have an exciting schedule lined up this year.  The anniversary culminates with their Winter Music Festival featuring Kris Kristofferson, Tift Merrit, Ricky Skaggs and others.

One of the things they are focusing on this year is connecting each of their events and activities back to the organization.  They recognize each individual event is an opportunity to introduce new people to the broader Pinecone brand.

We spoke about the opportunities that each event offers to "touch" visitors with the brand message.  They've done a lot of that work to capitalize on those opportunities.  Currently they staff a booth at each concert to share Pinecone information and followup with a letter to first time ticket buyers telling them about the organization.  And they continue to look for additional "touches" at each event.

While you're planning your '09-'10 schedules I'd encourage you to review the "touches" you have available to you.  Taking the time now to catalog these will make it easier to put the plan in action when the event happens.  That'll help turn one-time visitors into long -time fans.

If you know of an organization that might benefit from the Arts Marketing Hotline, please feel free to refer them to us.  I can reached easily through email, dmooring@jenningsco.com

A good measure of advertising

Less is often more, especially in print advertising  So when you can run an ad that needs no bodycopy, like this MFA ad from 2004, you're probably doing something right.  

Next time you've got the mockup for a new print ad or piece of signage in front of you, think about whether it communicates your core message just by image and headline alone.  If you have to read the body copy to "get it", you may need to go back to the drawing board.

Another for the Library

I try to keep my eye out for books that would be worthwhile to add to your personal library. One to consider is Arts Marketing by Finola Kerrigan and a host of other writers.

Arts Marketing is broken into chapters on different areas, including theatre, museums, film, popular music, etc. Each chapter is written by a different author, most from the UK.

While I'm generally interested in any title on the subject, this book has a distinctly academic feel that made it harder for me to engage. I also didn't find the area on theatre nearly as helpful as some other titles I've recently read. Much more history of theatre and it's promotion rather than current thought on reaching audiences.

I wouldn't place this on a top 10 list but I'm still always glad to find another title covering this field. I highly recommend reading the preview excerpts to form your own opinion before shelling out the roughly $45 cover price.

Alternative advertising ideas for Facebook

Seems a lot of folks are back in the swing of things after vacations and a long holiday weekend.  Not sure about your office but ours is definitely back to full steam.  So I'm back to the regular blog schedule as well.

If you've had concerns (or heard them from your internal audiences) about advertising on Facebook and other social sites because of the content your brand might be surrounded by, you'll be interested in this article Making Facebook Pay. It appeared yesterday in Forbes' online edition.

The article highlights the way some big brands (GM, Volkswagen) are placing their ads with application developers that can guarantee the content environment.  Seems to me step one is putting your ads in "safe" widgets and apps like the ones created by RockYou.  A next, more powerful step is creating your own widget or application, intertwining your brand and the users actions.

Observations from Washington

I just spent the last few days in D.C. for vacation and saw how some of the area's famous venues are addressing some marketing challenges, particularly the high cost of printing.

The Smithsonian

The first day in town we picked up a guide that includes not just one museum's information, but info for all of the Smithsonian members.  In one saddle-stitched booklet I got great info for Air and Space, American History, the National Portrait Gallery and all the rest.  I found myself holding on to it, then using it at night to plan some of our next day's touring.  

The Smithsonian may find this a little easier to coordinate because all the museums are under one brand, but it occurs to me that any geographic area with multiple arts/tourist destinations might benefit from a combined booklet that summarized the offerings.  Certainly there are potential print savings from multiple organizations pooling their quantities into one piece.  Meanwhile each organization benefits from the cross promotion a booklet like this could offer.

The National Gallery

At the National Gallery, the only museum on the mall which is not part of the Smithsonian, they have an eco-friendly/budget-friendly alternative to gallery guides.  For information about the works or the artists there were 8.5 x 11 handheld guides for each gallery which were laminated and mounted on 1/2 inch hardboard.  A wall-mounted rack housed the guides and interested patrons could pick up the information on for instance Manet, then return it when finished.  The heavy duty pieces probably make it through thousands of readers before they need to be re-laminiated.  No paper wasted, no printing costs.  In fact the only readily available printed piece was the gallery map itself.

The National Zoo

The folks at the National Zoo seem to be on a similar reduced-paper plan.  Printed maps were available for the public but for a $2 fee.  Most visitors seemed to favor the mounted maps available at every major intersection in the park.  In fact I think I observed more people buying maps as they left the park, than using the maps inside.  With a little more promotion I'm guessing they could have sold even more as souvenirs.  Maybe a rolled version in a takeaway tube could have done the trick

 

Quick notes on Twitter

The Harvard Business Review has a new study out on the use of Twitter. 

Two points stood out to me:

- 10% of all Twitter accounts account for all 90% of all Twitter posts

- The average Twitter account has one tweet sent.

Obviously this means there are a lot of false starts out there.  Individuals and organizations that open accounts and then never return.  A big reason for this is that it takes time and effort to generate content.

That highlights a broader theme concerning social media, consistently creating and distributing content.  It does your organization no good to create a presence on so many platforms that you can continue to offer fresh content.  Create a plan that you can execute on an ongoing basis and you'll become a voice your followers/fans/members can come to rely on.

National Arts Marketing Project Conference

I'm happy to announce that I'll be speaking with the Nasher Museum's Wendy Hower Livingston at the National Arts Marketing Project annual conference in Providence this fall.

Our discussion is titled  "Printing Money: Stretching your collateral budget".  I've worked very closely with Wendy over the last six months to help the Nasher develop alternatives to their traditional print projects and I'm looking forward to the presentation.

If you'd like to see a list of all the scheduled topics for this year's conference here's the NAMP's conference home.

Museums10

Long article in Business West about the consortium of museums that are working together in Massachusetts.  Officially started in 2006, M10 brings together 5 university art museums with other attractions.  The result is a highly marketable entity.

Every two years the full group conducts a special exhibition with each member featuring a different aspect on a theme.  Outside of the special exhibition period the museums still collaborate to market themselves as a cultural destination.

Read the full article.

Betterwall

A few months back I wrote about an Arizona company, Vy and Elle, that recycles banners into gift bags and totes.  There's a similar company in the Denver area called Betterwall.  But instead of recycling the material for other uses, they resell the promotional vinyl banners and posters from museums to the general public.  The pieces are usually then displayed as art for the home or office.

If you're interested in talking with them about reselling works from your organization the contact info is info@betterwall.com or the phone is 303-756-6615.  A portion of the sales price goes back to your organization.  

Facebook URL's

Saturday Facebook began allowing personalized URL's for page owners.  This means that www.facebook.com/00987653 has become www.facebook.com/dewey.mooring.

If you are currently using Facebook to talk with fans of your organization, it's probably a good idea to claim your organization's name.  While Facebook is working to prevent "squatting" on brand names, it is still easier to get there first than to fight someone for your brand name after it has been claimed.

Find out more here or go directly to www.facebook.com/username/ to set your personal URL.

Perspectives on Art Organizations and the Economy

The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently held a roundtable discussion on the ways arts organizations are dealing with the double whammy of lower ticket sales and slower fundraising during the recession.

Participants included Chris Elam, founder and artistic director for New York's Misnomer Dance Theater and Steve Runk, Executive Director of the New Jersey State Council for the Arts.

One of the questions covered was how to make sure the arts remained a priority in their communities as local governments are making budget cuts.  Here are some of the thoughts Steve Runk shared: 

"Arts groups need to be able to talk about all the ways their programs and activities produce public value, whether that is impact on the local economy, in education, addressing at-risk youth, contributing to tourism, healthcare, aging, etc. The arts play a role in advancing all these community issues and priorities, as well as having an impact on individual and community quality of life. We need to measure and document that impact and then tell that story. We are currently finding and have found in the past that in the public/government sector the economic argument has been the most persuasive."

During the session the panel also referred to an interesting study of arts organizations in the Puget Sound region and how they were reacting to the economy.  Since its release a number of other regions have reported similar findings.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy has posted a full transcript of their panel discussion and it's well worth the 15-20 minutes it takes to read.

A quick conversation with the Seattle Opera

Yesterday I wrote about the Seattle Opera's Confessions of a First-Time Opera Goer contest.

As a followup, Kristina Murti, Associate Director of Marketing at Seattle Opera was kind enough to answer a few more questions about the promotion.

Ticket: Where did you get the idea to search for a young, behind-the-scenes host?  

Murti: We are fortunate enough to have received a generous grant from the Wallace Foundation for the Arts to support creating virtual communities around the opera.  So this project is part of many we are doing for that grant.  All of the projects we are doing this summer around the Ring have to do with storytelling – either telling of the actual Ring stories themselves, or how we produce the Ring, or how someone experiences it here or elsewhere. So for this project we are focusing on telling the story of someone who is attending the Ring for the first time.  Since we also want to achieve the goal of creating an online community, we thought that using a young person would be the best fit for that.  

Introducing young people to opera is an ongoing part of our audience development goals.  We have successful programs for group sales in the high schools and colleges with ticket prices as low as $30 for seats in the orchestra.  We also have the largest young professionals group in the country with almost 700 members (of which 85% subscribe to Seattle Opera).

Ticket: Has the response met or exceeded your expectations?  

Murti: So far we have been thrilled.  We had a 3 week period where we accepted applications.  We had about 25 people send in their applications directly to us or post on our Facebook page.  We had another 25 people audition through a Live Casting call we did at a recent performance.  It was really hard to select down to 5 finalist and we have had over 5000 people vote to select the winner, which we are announcing on our blog tomorrow.  Of course the main part of the project is introducing our host to Seattle Opera’s Ring over the course of the summer, and culminating in that individual attending the Ring starting August 9.  So most of the project is yet to come.  We plan to release short videos over the summer and also the winner will be blogging.  In mid September, we will have a release party for the final 10 minute documentary.

Ticket: Will you consider continuing the program after "The Ring" has completed its run? 

Murti: We’ll have to see how this first one goes.  There was a lot of enthusiasm not only from the contestants but also from the voters, and our own audience.  

Attracting more first-timers

The Seattle Opera has put together an interesting program called "Confessions of a First-Time Opera Goer".  It's an online contest featuring five young people competing for the chance to be an official reporter during the preparation and performance of Wagner's "The Ring".

Each entrant has an application video posted on Seattle Opera's blog.  Voting ended last week.  The winner will file behind-the-scenes reports for the next few months leading up to opening night on August 9th.

I'm hoping to ask some questions of the contest's managers at Seattle Opera and share those with you in a future post.

Are reports of traditional advertising's death exaggerated?

The Wharton School and the Advertising Research Foundation are releasing 21 papers later this month concerning advertising usage and effectiveness.  The studies cover a variety of topics, from DVR's effect on TV advertising to the impact of web ads.

The early summaries of the data seem to say that many traditional outlets like TV and print are not losing effectiveness in the way recent reporting would lead you to believe.  

However I'm going to remain a little skeptical until I can read some additional information.  The DVR findings seem to based on one study done in South Africa.  The overall findings on overall TV advertising effectiveness seemed to be mixed depending on the size of the advertising.

I do agree wholeheartedly with one of the overviews.  They found that word of mouth marketing often starts with, and can still be driven by, paid media.  Beyond that I'm looking forward to reading the reports.

Here's AdAge's story about the research.  And here's the ARF's Site to order a copy of the reports.  You'll have to do the free sign up with the ARF before you can order.

Should our offerings be reshaped? Part II

Yesterday I started a discussion about ARTNews' article "Reshaping the Art Museum".  

Again, generally I'm in favor of anything that makes art more accessible and engaging for general audiences.  But the danger comes when the art or the scholarship is sacrificed to bring those audiences in.

Consumer products often have easier math.  More users mean more units sold.   Creating wide appeal holds obvious benefits for those brands.

But we know that many of our organizations are more dependent on the support of a few large benefactors.  One committed supporter can have more financial impact than 10,000 casual fans. In almost all cases these supporters are there because of their commitment to our long-term mission.  A move to "Art Lite" to attract larger audiences runs the risk of alienating those that are most important to us.

Is there a middle ground, yes.  It starts with judging any new offering against your current mission and then having a dialogue with your most important supporters.  When a new consumer-focused program both meets your mission standards and has donor input, it's time  to move ahead aggressively in bringing the arts to a broader audience in your community.

Should our offerings be reshaped?

There's a great article in the June Issue of ARTnews magazine titled "Reshaping the Art Museum".  It's an in depth discussion of the ways many museums are reaching out to broader audiences.  I think it's a worthwhile read whether you're in the museum business, theatre or another other arts endeavor.  Connecting with audiences beyond the core arts supporter is an issue that extends to each of us.

Here's an excerpt that struck me.

If these leaders succeed, the art museum of the future will offer the customer service of an Apple store, the comforts of a Barnes & Noble, and the dynamism of a town square. It will have areas where visitors can plug in or tune out, where they can immerse themselves in virtual-reality games or speak to live curators in the galleries, and where they can comment on the art they see—or make their own.

There are a lot of positives in making your organization more inviting and intellectually accessible to the general public.  Art, regardless of form, has little chance to affect or transform a person if they never come to experience it.  And as a marketer I'm nearly always in favor of consumer-focused products.

I can think of at least one reason to be thoughtful in the way this is done however.  I'll talk about that in my next post.

Admission rises at the Art Institute of Chicago

Many museums around the country will be watching the attendance impact of the 50% price jump for tickets to Chicago's Art Institute.  The change went into effect this past Saturday in conjunction with the museum's new Modern Wing opening.

Museum officials say they aren't expecting attendance drops because numbers have risen steadily in recent years, despite moving to mandatory ticket fees (from voluntary) earlier in the decade.

The pricing change is actually a benefit for those viewing special exhibitions because the new $18 fee is inclusive for those events.  Previously special exhibitions could run an extra $20 over the general admission charge.  

Still, the effect on overall attendance will be interesting to keep an eye on.  If general attendance remains steady or increases, it could signal pricing increases at other museums across the country.

Other items:

One additional note from the land of the Cubs and the home of the Bears.  My thanks to Adam Thurman, director of marketing at Court Theatre.  Adam authors the Mission Paradox blog for arts marketers and was kind enough to give That's the Ticket a mention last week.  If you haven't read Mission Paradox I'd encourage you to give it a try.

Online Video Advertising

Interesting interview in Media Post's Behavioral Insider with Ted Sacerdoti of BrightRoll.  He discusses the current applications for, and limitations of, online video.

The growth of video on the web is certainly one of the year's top marketing topics.  And while they may not be a viable advertising medium for arts marketers yet, that will change once video ads can be targeted by content, geography and viewer profiles.

I'm waiting until YouTube can sell an ad to me for any viewer in the Raleigh market watching a video with the tag "Contemporary Art".   As soon as that happens we'll have to add online video to the considered set when doing media planning with the Nasher Museum.  

How much more valuable is that self-identified potential visitor worth than the general population your advertising currently reaches?

 

MoMA's new video excites and disappoints

Last week a colleague sent me the link to the Museum of Modern Art's new short film "I See". I didn't want to write about it initially, because I wasn't satisfied with my first impressions. Today I saw the work had made it on to AdAge's online spotlight, so this morning I looked at it again. I'm still torn.

On the one hand I absolutely love the piece. It addresses our tendency to quickly dismiss much of contemporary art without time for reflection. And it points this out without chastising us. I came away reminded of how much richer life can be when you go beyond initial impressions and spend time with an idea.

At some level that's why I didn't write about the short film immediately. I wanted to give "I See" some time for reflection.

But the thing that stuck in my craw the first time I saw it has stayed with me for nearly a week. After two minutes of thought provoking copy and images, the piece ends with the web address moma.org/isee.

I, like most who will watch it, went to the address. And here's where my disappointment comes in. The site simply plays the same video for me again. There is no series of other videos (this is apparently their first). There are no essays on the benefits reaped from deeper consideration. There aren't even T-shirts that say "Now I see" for sale. It's a missed opportunity to extend the idea.

Granted, the piece was powerful on its own, and I would have been completely satisfied had it simply ended with the MoMA logo or the museum's homepage address. It may be that they created an idea larger than they had expected and weren't quite prepared to take it beyond those two minutes. But by providing that special URL, I felt they were promising me more. Then they let me down.

So I'll applaud MoMA and their agency, TAXI, for creating an amazing piece of work. But they should take a cue from the main character in their short film and give more time for reflection. I believe it would allow "I See" to be fully realized.



If you want to read even more, here's what the Wall Street Journal wrote about it.

NOMA gives a Tweet

Our friends at the Nasher Museum have been using Twitter for nearly two years. Originally the Tweets were directed to early adopters, mainly student groups on the Duke campus. With Twitter more widely accepted now, the messages are designed for a more general population.

The short, direct communication seems to serve the needs of both the museum and its fans. And Nasher is hardly the only one taking advantage.

During a panel session on arts marketing conducted by the Arts Council of New Orleans, Jim Mulvhill, Director of Communications and Marketing at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) talked about how well Twitter was working for them. Here's a brief audio clip from his comments:



Take a look at Jim's NOMA Twitter feed or Wendy Livingston's at the Nasher Museum for yourself and see if there are ideas that you might be able to implement.

Arts in Crisis

"...marketing is the only way to grow an audience."

Michael M. Kaiser, President Kennedy Center

I believe that quote that should be pasted in big bold letters on the wall of every arts organization in the country.

Three months ago Mr. Kaiser announced the creation of Arts in Crisis: A Kennedy Center Initiative.  Through the program, Kaiser and other executive staff members at the Kennedy Center are providing free consultations to arts organizations around the country.  

The Sacramento Philharmonic is participating in the initiative and they're hearing very clearly that Kaiser is not in favor of putting marketing budgets on the chopping block.  Here's an article that appeared yesterday in the Sacramento Bee "Don't sacrifice marketing, expert warns arts groups".

Mr. Kaiser's remarks resonated deeply with me.  Yes, we need to be prudent.  Yes, we need to stretch marketing dollars.  But if we allow our offerings to disappear from public view because we don't promote them, we are assuring that our audiences will disappear as well.

If you'd like to know more about the Kennedy Center initiative the website is www.artsincrisis.org.  Or read one of the following articles:

Kennedy Center Crisis Counselor - The Washington Post

Kennedy Center Offers Help to Arts Groups - The New York Times

Performing Arts Struggle Under Crisis - Variety

Joanne Bernstein on Selling Season Tickets

Joanne Scheff Bernstein is the well known author of two arts marketing books, Arts Marketing Insights and Standing Room Only.  With so many of us in the midst of selling ticket packages for the 2009-2010 season I thought it would be a good time to get her perspective on how to handle sales in a down economy.  She was kind enough to answer a few questions on the topic:

Ticket - Is this the most difficult year for selling season subscriptions you’ve seen as a marketer?  

Bernstein - Most organizations are still selling their subscriptions for the 2009-2010 season, so it is hard to tell at this point how much the performing arts will be affected during the upcoming season by the difficult economic situation. Overall it is expected that subscriptions will be down. How much each organization is affected is dependent on three main factors: 1) the quality of their artistic product 2) the pricing structure of the organization, and 3) how responsive the organization is to customer needs and preferences. If subscribers have only been delighted by 2 or 3 out of 5 productions in their series in recent years, they are more likely to drop their subscriptions and select which programs to attend. When the quality is consistent and meets audience expectations, there will be far less erosion of subscription sales. An organization with highly priced tickets, such as a major opera company or symphony, is more likely to lose subscribers than an organization where the financial commitment is not significant given people's more frugal life styles in the current environment.

Subscription selling became challenging for performing arts organizations around the turn of the 21st century.  Over the past several years,  more people have clearly exhibited their preference to choose exactly which shows to attend and to be more spontaneous in their ticket purchases. Organizations that have adapted to these changes in consumer behavior by offering mini-series, choose your own series, and offering payment plans over time for package sales, among other strategies, are in a stronger position to retain subscribers and even attract new subscribers than those organizations who have not been tuned in to meeting customer needs. Those organizations  that have not been flexible and customer-centered in their marketing approaches are definitely facing difficult subscription campaigns this season.

Ticket - What are the questions you’re getting from your clients in regards to season subscriptions and what advice are you giving them?

Bernstein - My advice this season is no different than it has been in the past several seasons: the key to success is great art well marketed. If marketers keep doing the same things they have always done, no matter how much they improve it, they will only get what they had before. It is crucial that marketers put their customers first. This means that they must pay attention to what their customer are saying and doing and that they must be rigorous about customer satisfaction. This is the fundamental concept that is explained in detail from various approaches in "Arts Marketing Insights."

Ticket - What are some of the more innovative ideas you’ve seen organizations use to try to combat the economy this year?

Bernstein - One symphony I work with has gone from a season brochure that historically divided up concert descriptions by whether the programs were classical, pops, chamber, or choral. This year, based on the premise that people often like a variety of styles, the brochure listings are strictly chronological and people are encouraged to select which performances they want to attend. None of the programming is pre-packaged for them. Hopefully this new approach will encourage people to try programs they have never attended in the past and possibly even purchase more tickets than in previous years by selecting from among the variety of options.

Some organizations are starting to do something that I recommended in both my books: offering extended payment plans over several months to encourage subscriptions.

The most common strategy I've seen in recent years is the frequent use of deep discounts. There are pros and cons to this tactic. Generally the organizations sell more tickets than they would have otherwise, but I am concerned that people will become accustomed to "last-minute" price reductions and will not buy tickets without such discounts. Hopefully, as the economy improves, people will ease up on their expectations for discounts and will attend the shows they want to see. People need entertainment and appreciate asethetics as much as ever, if not more so, and arts attendance is a fine alternative to other more expensive pursuits, such as leisure travel.

Many organizations are appropriately cutting costs in areas that do not have a detrimental effect on the quality of the artistic product to help them through these difficult times. I am recommending that organizations conduct short-range strategic planning, reviewing budgets on a monthly basis and their strategies every three months, so they can be responsive to the rapid changes in the environment. When an expected foundation gift does not come through or the annual fund does not realize the anticipated revenue, organizations must adjust immediately.

Ticket - You released your last book in 2006.  Any plans for another?

Bernstein - Since my books cover fundamentals and strategies that apply over a wide variety of times and situations, I do not feel the need to update what I have written in the current environment. I do expect, however, that over the next couple of years I will compile some interesting case studies based on my consulting work that will have generalizable messages for arts managers.

You can learn more about Joanne Bernstein at her website Arts Marketing Insights.

Fundraising Ideas

Our creative director often tells me that when you borrow an idea from one source it's plagarism, but when you borrow from many you're observing "Best practices".

I was reminded of that when reading excerpts from Alvin Reiss' 1995 book "Don't Just Applaud, Send Money: The Most Successful Strategies for Funding and Marketing the Arts".  It's full of dozens of case studies from around the country, presented in easy-to-read two or three-page summaries.

One of my favorites is from the GeVa Theatre in Rochester which used law firm sponsors to fill the roles of non-jury members in "Inherit the Wind".   Not only did they raise money from the sponsorship, but the law firms usually invited clients and colleagues for both the show and a post-show reception.  

Not sure which of the ideas may provide some inspiration for you, but I'm sure there's at least one new fundraising strategy that could be of use.  Here's the Amazon link if you'd like to find out more or get a copy for yourself.

Creative from the Getty

I always love to see what other organizations are doing for their advertising.  A few weeks ago I shared some print ads I thought were intriguing.  Today I've got a TV spot that aired in the Los Angeles market last year for the Getty.   

Nice production values and a clear simple takeaway.

A Free Resource from NAMP

The National Arts Marketing Project provides their free arts marketing newsletter twice a month via email and I recommend it for anyone looking to get ideas from other markets.  

One of the recent articles "Cultural History Tourism" is from Meri Jenkins, the Program Manager for the Cultural Economic Development Program, an initiative of the Massachusetts Cultural Council.  

I was just in Boston last week and had a conversation with Larry Meehan of the Boston Convention and Visitor's Bureau.  It's very obvious to see how much integration they have between their arts destinations and the area's overall tourism efforts.   So Jenkins has a good perspective to offer.

If you'd like to get your free NAMP newsletter in your inbox sign up here.  

When the local arts writer is let go

The May issue of the Art Newspaper has a lengthy article on the decline of arts journalism in the newspaper industry.  You probably have some first hand experience in your market, almost everyone can point to staff cuts at the local daily.  Either your local reporter was let go or their beat is now much larger so it's harder than ever to get their attention for a story pitch.

One of the article's key points is that, while newspaper arts coverage is in danger, there are more people writing about the arts than ever, thanks to blogs.

If you are concerned about the decreasing coverage of the arts in your local media I would suggest it's time to update your media list to include the authors from your most popular local arts/entertainment blogs.  While these writers are rarely trained critics in the way traditional arts journalists may have been, they are becoming a vital source of arts news when newspapers are cutting back.

As an example, here in the Triangle there's a name that probably isn't on a lot of traditional story pitch lists, it's Ginny Skalski.  Ginny's a community content manager at the local NBC affiliate's online effort, mync.com.  

She's not officially a reporter, but not only does Ginny make decisions on what's shown on the mync.com site.  She's a major contributor to the local events blog 30threads.com.  And she hosts her own site as well Ginnyfromtheblog.com.  As such she has the power to touch thousands directly each day and could be a valuable contact for any arts marketer in our area.

Do a Google Blog search for arts, or museums, or theatre in your community and soon you'll likely find the Ginny Skalskis that are writing in your market.  If you don't already have them on your media contact lists add them and make a first connection. 

Economic Impact on the arts

Good overview story in the Washington Post on the impact the economy is having on arts organizations across the country.

One interesting example included in the article was from the Rochester Philharmonic.  They've elected to keep season ticket subscriptions open for those that have lost their jobs since January.  The Philharmonic has guaranteed that if the member is still unemployed by the time the season begins, they'll receive their seats for free this year.  It's a nice gesture that, hopefully, will build long-term loyalty.

Read the article here, Stage of Emergency. 

Season ticket marketing tactics

With the rapid changes in technology and the new mediums that constantly appear for delivering marketing messages, it's surprising how some basic marketing tactics have an evergreen quality.

I was looking over the site for the Theatre Communications Group and ran across a pair of archived articles on marketing season packages and single tickets in tougher economic times. The first is a primer written for TCG in 2003 by Jim Royce on capturing and renewing season subscribers. The second is an NY Times article from 2002 by Robin Pogrebin, in which she discusses the phenomenon of ticket buyers waiting later and later to make their purchasing decisions.

Royce covers a lot of basics, from courting single ticket buyers within days of their attendance, to combating some of the most common reasons current subscribers don't renew. For me it was worth the ten minute read.

Both articles can be found in the May, 2003 edition of TCG's Centerpiece Focus on Marketing.

Two heads (or 200) are better than one

I know that I learn something new from the people I talk to everyday.  Recently I've spent time talking with marketers from both Playmakers Repretory Theatre in Chapel Hill and Raleigh- based Pincone, the Piedmont Council of Traditional Music.  In every conversation, I've taken away a new idea or a new way of looking at marketing challenges.

Whether you handle PR for a small theatre or have a staff of 15 in your museum, you can bet there are some arts marketing professionals that are facing the same challenges you are.

Which begs the question, why aren't we consulting more with each other? 

One group that seems to be exchanging ideas is the Columbus Arts Marketing Association. They're on Facebook and have an active meeting calendar. But if you search Facebook for arts marketing, they are the only American group that I can see with an ongoing forum for talking about their market's challenges.  Which tells me there are still a lot more opportunities to make peer connections.  

  

Whether you do it online or in person, formally or informally, the format doesn't really matter. Share the issues you are facing with your peers at other arts organizations.  And let them do the same. Everyone will likely come away with some new perspective and, perhaps, a solution or two.

YouTube Non-Profit Channels

YouTube is making it easier for non-profit arts organizations to have a video presence on the web.  They've created non-profit channels that allow you to update content anytime and collect donations right there on the page.

It's a very inexpensive way to get started and YouTube offers plenty of tools to build a professional looking page.  Linking back and forth to your main website is simple as well.

The Anaheim Ballet was an early adopter of the technology, establishing their page in the first part of 2007, and is seeing tremendous success.  One of its videos, "Dancers", has reported over 3.8 million views to date.  You can view "Dancers" and other video projects from the Anaheim Ballet's YouTube page here.

You can also learn how to create your own YouTube non-profit channel at www.youtube.com/nonprofits.

Federal money for the arts trickles down

Ten days ago the NEA announced their grants from the President's stimulus package.  In all $19.9 million was given out to state and regional arts agencies.

In our neighborhood the Southern Arts Federation in Atlanta received just over a half million and the North Carolina Arts Council (NCAC) received $339,100 in federal grants.

The NCAC announced that it, like other recipients of the stimulus money, will "re-grant the funds to support the preservation of critical jobs and artists' contracts".  Local arts councils, statewide service organizations, and organizations that currently receive General Support and Outreach grants are eligible.  North Carolina organizations have through June 1 to apply for the funds to NCAC.  

For more information about the North Carolina grants check out the NCAC's Economic Resource Recovery Room.  A full list of the organizations that received federal money from the NEA can be found here.

Everybody's doing it

There's a new survey out that says 88%, or nearly 9 of every 10 marketers, are using social media to promote their product or service.  No surprise that the most popular tactics used are Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn and Facebook.

It's a pretty astounding figure.  I'm a little leery of some of these numbers because 70% of the respondents were small business owners (individuals that are less likely to be able to afford other traditional mediums because of cost) and not necessarily professional marketers.  Still it's an amazing indicator of the effect social media is having on marketing.

You can read more about this study, which was conducted by Michael Steizner for the upcoming Social Media Success Summit 2009.   You may find a useful strategy that you haven't included in your social marketing efforts. I thought the charts on the time committed to social media were particularly interesting.