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.
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