Digital for the Theatre

The Guardian's Theatre Blog has an interesting look this week at IShed's Theatre Sandbox project. An opportunity for British Theatres to take £10,000 commissions to integrate stage and digital media into one experience.

Check out Lyn Gardner's piece here.

SMartCamp looks at the arts and social media

Nice recap of the first ever SMartCamp, looking at the arts and Social media in the Huffington Post. Over 33 participants, including representatives from big names like MOMA and the Smithsonian.

Video from the entire conference that happened the first week in March is on their site through Ustream. www.socialmediaartcamp.com More than a dozen session videos there for you to view.

Kudos to Fox Theatre

Searching through the IPhone app store and came across Fox Theatre's latest release. The Boulder Colorado group updated their useful tool late in February and it remains free for download.

There are still very few theatres or museums in the country that have moved to a full app of their own for mobile devices, so this is certainly worth looking at if you are considering making the jump.

The online download page is here if you don't have an smartphone or iTouch to view in the mobile format. Or search Apple's app store for Fox Theatre.

When media becomes a medium

As an ad guy that works with arts clients I love this question - can an advertising venue become artisitic expression? In LA the answer is yes.

The MAK center for Art and Architecture has turned 21 billboards in to an exhibition called "How Many Billboards? Art in Stead" They feature works from artists like John Knight, shown above.

The installation continues through March. And information is available at www.howmanybillboards.org.

photo credit: Gerard Smulevich

Facebook solid because of older demographics

Great article that's being passed around in our office today from the New York Times on why Facebook hasn't gone the way of Friendster and other here today, gone tomorrow sites.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

"More than demographic stability favors Facebook. The site has shrewdly emulated the “network effects” strategy used by another brand that has long held a dominant position in the computer industry: Microsoft Windows.

Economists use the term network effects to refer to the way the value of a product or service increases in tandem with the number of people who use it. If you’re one of only 10 people in the world with an e-mail account, its usefulness is limited; add a billion more, and the practical value of yours increases apace.

A Facebook member enjoys immediate benefits when each friend joins — these are direct network effects. But the average user already has 130 friends, so unless the user is unusually gregarious, the direct effects won’t increase drastically beyond a certain point.

For an individual member, the most powerful network effects may be indirect ones that come from the huge number of unknown other people in the Facebook world. Their mass attracts, in turn, suppliers of complementary products and services."

Full article on nytimes.com here.

Still Accepting applications for NAMP 2010

Got an update from the Arts Marketing Project today, reminding everyone that the deadline for speaking proposals at this year's NAMP conference is 3/16/10. The 2009 conference in Providence was excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed being able to present with my friends from the Nasher Museum of Art.

If you've got a great case study to share I highly encourage you to submit for this year's NAMP. Hope to see you in San Jose in November.

Media Choices - Where's your audience spending their time?

If marketing focuses on the four p's, then ad planning often boils down to three m's (medium, message, measurement). Where's your audience, what will they respond to, and can you track their response.

A study by the Pew Trust released today, makes a strong case that educated audiences looking for news are turning to online outlets as their medium of choice. The study shows 60% get some of their news from online sources. And online trails only local and national TV as a medium of choice.

For budget conscious arts groups trying to attract more affluent, educated individuals it's a strong case for allocating many of your media dollars away from print. Tracking response is inherently easier online, we've always known that. But it's still been hard to move away from old reliable print vehicles. This study is one more reason to assess your advertising allotment very carefully this year.

For the full report from Pew, use this link. The summary and the full PDF are available.