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.

Thought starters

Struggling for an idea to promote a show or exhibition?  We find that looking at great advertising is often a jumping off point to inspire our own ideas.  In that spirit, here are a couple of ads to get you going today.

The first is an ad for the cafe at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.  It's a pretty simple concept, but nicely executed.

The second is for the Alliance Theatre's 200 seat Hertz Stage, where they produce their edgier fare.  Their "decidedly underground" theme is on obvious display in this one.  

Need more inspiration, adsoftheworld.com is a nice place to start.

A green idea

Our production manager introduced me to a very cool idea this week.  Vy & Elle is a company out of Tuscon, AZ that creates bags, totes and carrying cases from old billboards and banners.

  

We always seem to be looking for something to do with old vinyl after a marketing campaign is done.  Sadly, most of the time it ends up just getting trashed.

If you produce banners or billboards for shows and exhibits, I'm betting you have the same issues of what to do with the materials once the closing date has passed.  

Consider whether it makes sense to recycle the material into an item that could be sold in your on-site store.  Or whether that item would be a good giveaway to promote membership or season ticket upgrades this year.  It has the potential to be a profit center and a nice PR story if you are the first one in your market to do it.

Right now I'm looking into it for our friends at the Nasher Museum and as I learn more, I'll share it here.

To see the ideas for yourself, here's Vy and Elle's site.

Full Frame is underway

It's day two of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham and so far it's a big hit.  The theaters are packed  and the reviews for this year's films have been very positive.  

The folks at the festival did a great job in choosing this year's selections.  One particularly good popular series of films comes from Steve James, director of 1994's Hoop Dreams.  He's selected 10 films under the heading "The Sporting Life".  

Featured documentaries for the series include "Fallen Champ, The Untold Story of Mike Tyson" and "Zidane, A 21st Century Portrait".  James also threw in a few old favorites like "Slap Shot" and his own "Hoop Dreams".

I'll also give some kudos to our PR team for the amount of coverage garnered for the Festival, particularly in the on-line arena.  Despite a smaller list of films and the economic challenges we've faced this year because of the economy, media interest has been astounding.  

More than 115 outlets are covering the event.  Nearly 100 stories have already been published or aired in the three weeks leading up to the event and this morning there are more blog posts listed under the google search "Full Frame Film" than you can shake a stick at.

If you are within driving distance I'd encourage you to try to check out some of the happenings at the Festival over the next three days.  Or you can follow along from behind the scenes as our team continues to blog live from the festival http://fullframefest2009.wordpress.com.