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