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.