Communicating the Arts

Maximising ROI in Arts Marketing

2012-01-14T12:08:00.000Z

Where once we would try to market the arts ‘on a shoestring’, now the shoestrings are ever shorter, there’s a renewed evaluation of the role audiences play in the funding model for the arts in Britain. Hopefully this comes alongside fresh recognition that adequate resources should be given to arts marketers so they can do a professional job, but it is our responsibility to ensure every penny is worked hard to get maximum return on that investment.

So, how can we sweat our budgets to market our arts organisations more effectively?

Throw away the rulebook.

Or question it closely. Just because ‘we’ve always had 4-sheet posters in at the bus station’ doesn’t mean that’s the best spend. What if the audience you’re interested in no longer goes to the bus station? Just because collective wisdom is to move to social media channels doesn’t mean your target audience actually uses them for art events. And just because another organisation may excitingly be using a particular communications channel doesn’t mean it’s right for every organisation or every audience.

Of course, traditional spend – or the newest communications channels – may be the right thing. But too many marketing campaigns consist of inherited practice, without the necessary monitoring to check they are delivering on expectations.

Put the audience at the heart.

The audience (existing or desired) should be at the heart of all your decisions. How do they get their information about the art activities they do? What (or who) do they pay most attention to? Remember, a person may have different behaviour or influences depending on what they are ‘buying’. I’ll happily turn up to any new play by an unknown author on the basis of a couple of lines on a poster, but would need personal recommendation – even hand-holding – to attend an opera.

Then there’s the message. What aspects of your information most matter to people? What kind of language will motivate them or spark their interest? During ‘meet the audience’ workshops run earlier this year in the East of England¹, arts organisations learned direct from members of the public that the information with which they traditionally lead their marketing material (about the company, actors, directors and previous venues) was not of prime importance to all. Families wanted more prominence for show length, target age, parking and refreshment facilities. Non-regular attenders wanted to know first what a show was ‘about’.

Do the homework.

You can only get inside the heads of your target audience(s) if you do the research. Investing in considered research will always pay off, helping you make those solid decisions about where and how to place your marketing spend.

Start close to home. An analysis of your contacts database, cross-referenced with an Acorn or Mosaic² analysis of postcodes, will reveal the types of people coming, their relative numbers, how often, their average spend and their preferred art forms. This is the basis for understanding different ‘segments’ within your overall audience. Use already published research³ to flesh out the picture and understand the zeitgeist of your audience. Then make it personal – find out who your audience really are and what they really think. On- or off-line surveys, comments books or walls, informal conversations with front-of-house staff, vox pops or focus groups are some of the tools available. Arts engagement maps⁴ or other tools can help you understand other groups in geographic areas – the ones you’d like to see in your audience, but who don’t yet come.

Create segments.

We all like to think we’re individuals, and certainly the best way to persuade someone to do something is to tailor the information to their individual interests and priorities – whether that’s flattery that they’ll be the first to see a new artist, reassurance of a well-known name or that they’ll be able to squeeze in a bite to eat between work and the show.

Breaking your audience down into smaller groups of ‘like-minded individuals’ – people who are likely to behave or react to stimuli in a similar way to each other – brings you closer to understanding which messages, communication channels, and programme or ‘product’ is likely to be most appealing to each. Although this means creating different marketing materials or messages for each group, it is also the way to make your activity so much more effective.

Targets and priorities.

First, make sure your overall income or attendance target is realistic. Not every show or exhibition can be a blockbuster.

Now you’re ready to set targets and to prioritise your segments in order to divvy up your marketing resource. You may decide that just 2 or 3 of your audience segments are likely to respond best to a particular show. For example, you might aim to meet 70% of your target from your core, loyal audience. Because you now understand them much better as a segment your communication can be more effective in terms of lead messages, preferred channel, timing of communication and so on. You should aim to use less than 70% of your budget on them.

Perhaps you identified a group very like your ‘loyal attenders’, but who stopped coming often – you’d like to entice them back. Set a realistic target for conversions from this group, then consider what this group needs to hear to prompt them to respond in the way you want. For example, they may need more incentives (discounts for 4 so they can make it a social event with friends; ‘back stories’ to the production or actors …) or they may need to read reviews first. Or do they need to plan well in advance to get a babysitter? Allocate a proportion of your budget to work towards your target for this segment.

A third target might be to attract first-timers from (say) the young professionals who work close to your venue. Again, be realistic about the number of people you might attract, and from research understand as much as you can about the competition for their time and attention, what they might want from the whole arts-attending experience, and what kind of language to use. In this case, knowing where they hang out during their working day will help get communications into the workplace itself, along with promotions relevant to them.

Experiment (with safety nets)

Creating different messages, materials and campaign timings for these different segments may feel like unaffordable luxury, so build in monitoring methods to measure response rates. Promotions or discounts used with different segments or communications channels can be coded differently so the response rates don’t get lumped into one. Send out communications a few days apart so you can spot corresponding peaks in response. Explain to your booking staff how important asking the ‘how did you hear?’ question is – and that they record the responses accurately. If possible, set up control experiments till you gain confidence: divide a segment into two (at random) and send your newly-constructed messages or materials to one half and your traditional, generic style to the other half – and compared the response rates.

Watch closely.

Everything you learn about how your target segments respond to your new, more tailored communications campaigns should be fed back in to your ‘research’ folder, so you can build and refine for next time. Hence the importance of monitoring mechanisms. Some years ago, I worked for a well-known exercise machine company. The team had won awards for their direct marketing and had systems to tell them exactly how much they earned from every advert placed. They could compare different print titles, lead photos or strap lines, even times of day for radio adverts, to maximise the return on investment from their marketing. I still remember the thrill of realising marketing could be a detailed science as well as an art!

^{1 ACE East-funded audience development research programme, delivered by Audiences London in collaboration with Audiences UK.}

^{2 MOSAIC segmentation by Experian http://www.experian.co.uk/business-strategies/mosaic-uk-2009.html; ACORN segmentation by CACI - http://www.caci.co.uk/acorn-classification.aspx}

^{3 – EG ACE’s Audience Insights, DCMS’s Taking Part survey, reports from ACE-funded joint research projects carried out by the audience development agencies (www.audiencesuk.org), local authority surveys or published findings from consumer or opinion polls.}

^{4 Arts engagement indicator maps for}^{London from www.audienceslondon.org.}

I first published this article in the Journal of Arts Marketing, October 2011.

Building trust

2012-01-01T19:27:00.000Z

I’ve been wanting to introduce my friends to some of the edgy, alternative theatre productions by the kind of touring production company I often meet through my work. I’ve had some amazing, imaginative or mind-changing experiences at this type of performance – while sometimes the well-funded, slick productions at the big, establishment theatres come across as turgid, or at least unsurprising.

But, my companions are not necessarily so welcoming of risk. So when I saw that the Southbank Centre’s Winter Festival included shows that read as imaginative and whimsical, seemingly designed to appeal to adults as well as families, and referencing a blend of artforms in their make-up, I thought this was the perfect stamp of approval to encourage friends to come along.

In marketing and audience development with clients, we’re always stressing that the secret to building audiences for new, experimental productions is to engage the trust of your regular audiences so they will come with you on the journey into the new ‘because it’s you’. That’s the relationship I thought I had with the Southbank.

Instead, out of the two performances we attended, one (Murmurs) delivered the anticipated ‘fairy-tale’ quality and empathetic leaps of imagination that certainly did, for me, conjure up the horrors of moving house. I’ll never view bubble wrap in the same way again. The delivery was wobbly, in places, but we felt forgiving in the face of the overall charm of the performers and a particularly breath-holding example of circus skills – and because it was only an hour or so long. There were children in the audience, which seemed appropriate – but the larger number of adults without children found enchantment in it too.

The second production we tried really broke the trust compact. Yes, I guess we sort of realised from the flyer it was going to be a bit-off-the wall, fun and silly, and that it would draw on animation, puppets and other skills. It’s Christmas! But we didn’t at all think we were paying for a performance more suited to being toured to primary schools in term time. The price (£20), time (7.45pm) and predominantly adult audience seemed to suggest our reading of the Southbank Centre’s brochure hadn’t been too off the mark – but the production was. It had some clever ideas, sure and some amusing tricks. The blending of film, animation, old-fashioned sound effects and the rest was interesting. And the beautifully-printed, giveaway booklet that both extended the fictional world and aimed to explain how it was created was … unusual. But the narrative line was muddled, over-complicated, full of knowing references to the art world alongside schoolboy jokes. It just wasn’t very well done. And, at an hour or so, yawningly long. Even my companions questioned why the Southbank Centre hadn’t vetted the show for quality. So when, at the end, the actor announced that this may be their final production due to the ending of ACE funding for the company, for once I thought ‘maybe ACE has a point’.

Horse + Bamboo success

2011-12-21T14:03:00.000Z

Catching up with friends and clients at the end of the year, there are some good news stories to pass on. Horse + Bamboo Theatre - whose staff attended one of my 'Introduction to Arts Marketing' courses at Independent Theatre Council - report that putting the things they learned into practice has led to an upwards jump in the ticket sales levels they achieve for their touring productions. Catch their current Red Riding Hood one one of the dates here. And they've succeeded in their bid to Creative Scotland for the amazing sounding new production 'Angus'.

Creation of new national audience development organisation

2011-12-15T17:43:00.000Z

Looking forward to the strengthening and expansion into national-scope audience development projects for the arts and cultural sectors - as a result of the proposed strategic alliance in 2012 of Audiences London and All About Audiences as the north and south of England hubs for a new organisation - provisionally called Audiences Plus.

Read more about the proposals here.

Body of evidence

2011-12-12T09:56:00.001Z

At the London members meeting of the Museum’s Association last week, delegates were asked what they most needed. ‘Advocacy’ came the response. Advocacy towards local authorities and government who seem not to value the contribution museums make to society. Advocacy to fundraisers, to donors and sponsors. Even advocacy on behalf of the smaller, local and outer London museums to the big central Nationals to whom much is given.

As the discussion matured, it appeared that what people particularly felt was needed was robust, authenticated evidence of the good museums do – whether in social, educational or economic terms. They wanted facts, evidenced over a longer period of time: ‘We need more than just feel-good quotes’.

A few people pointed out that the arts sector were streets ahead of the museums sector in this, with well established measuring and benchmarking models and evaluation techniques developed, in many cases, by the network of audience development agencies. Indeed, even as the MA meeting was tussling with the issue, over in the House of Commons, the National Campaign for the Arts and Audiences UK, with director Sam West, were launching the new Arts Index as ‘an annual measure of the vitality of Arts and Culture in the UK’. This pulls together a number of different research sources to produce 20 indicators of the state of the sector – and shows that while there has been a sustained decline in private sector support from 2007/8 to 2009/10 a large, one-off injection of public funds from the Lottery went a long way to offset this. But as the report points out, ‘The Index does not reflect recent cuts to both which began to take effect in England in 2010/11. The 2012 Index will help measure the impact of the “double squeeze” already taking effect during 2011.’ Other headline findings show that employment in the sector has decreased, adult attendance figures have remained stable; satisfaction levels rose, digital attendance has increased significantly but there is a large (and growing) gap in experience between some of the English regions.

Meanwhile, other thorough investigations into the impact of the arts in different settings are published by funding bodies such as the Baring Foundation – see their report into ‘Creative Care Homes’.

So, research has been done – in this country and elsewhere. Perhaps what is most needed is a way for practitioners in the industry to easily locate the evidence they need, and to have confidence in its robustness.

On the other hand, given that there are holocaust deniers and climate change deniers, despite all the evidence in those fields, perhaps there are some people who just don’t want to be convinced….

Me, at one with the creatives

2011-11-30T14:17:00.001Z

When I'm working with and advising the individual artists, designers, photographers and jewellery-makers among my clients, I'm especially able to empathise with their marketing conundrums and the idea that their creations are part of themselves - because of my experience as a writer, promoting my own work.

So today's marketing exercise is: how to promote 'A Very Long Walk' ... the book of my blogs and articles from the long walk to Santiago de Compostella a couple of years ago, now at last available in print.

Well that worked

2011-11-24T16:21:00.000Z

A lesson in attracting a new audience: go to where they are.

City of London Sinfonia had a go at this on Tuesday, holding the first of its CLoSer concerts at The Village Underground in Spitalfields. Looking around, yes: the people there were decidedly different to those filling the seats at CLS concerts in Cadogan Hall, QEH, Wigmore Hall or elsewhere. New faces, younger - and more agile. More bean bags than seats!

I loved the sense of excitement, the bar, the lighting, the chatter and the informal approach of the musicians and conductor. Acoustics were great too.

The basis of our culture

2011-11-19T18:41:00.006Z

I was attracted for literary reasons. For the beauty of the language of the King James’ version of the Bible – a beauty defined by familiarity yes, but by resonances and rhythms in particular. And as the source of so many sayings and proverbs that echo through our defining literature to land, like cuckoos, in our daily phrasing. And also, as I once told my sister who wanted to protect her children from exposure to Bible stories at school and nursery, “these are our culture’s legends, its creation myths. Denying them to our children is like denying any aboriginal people its cultural understanding.”

But 18 hours of the Bible in four days, read by 46 different actors at the National Theatre earlier this month – could I take it? Would I play truant after the first session or two? Well, I made it to the end, and I’m glad I stuck it out. I found the echoes I expected – and much more besides.

During the course of it I nodded off, I grew angry, I fidgeted, I was filled with optimism, I laughed, I blasphemed, I recognised visions, I sang (silently) snatches of pop songs and hymns, I day dreamed. And I was surprised … at what I did know of the roots of this country’s culture, and at what I didn’t.

First off, anger. Burning anger. I had settled down expecting a soothing recitation of Genesis (so familiar) but was quickly appalled by the petulance of God. It seemed to me he reacted like a 3 year old, spoiling things and setting people against each other on no more than a whim. “It’s all his fault!” Cain and Abel, the Serpent, the Tower of Babel – all needless, wrecking interventions on the part of God, causing the path of humankind to be as rocky as it still is. That I reacted so strongly, so personally made me realise how central the figure of God is to how I was brought up understanding the culture surrounding me.

Moses too had to negotiate a careful dance between God’s arbitrariness and his own wayward followers. Centuries later, by the era of David and Solomon, God had butted out a bit. Man seemed quite capable of making a mess of things for himself. The arguing, the jealousy, rape, incest, war. I was saddened and frustrated. Even these figures that had been held up since childhood as heroes turned out to have to the bad. What price the Wisdom of Solomon compared with the extent of his lust?

These readings from the Old Testament traced an arc that could be mapped onto human evolution from primitive societies to modern sophistication. Or the arc of a single human life. First, in infancy, setting oneself face to face with the source of power in which one believes implicitly and obeys – with occasional rebellions. In childhood and early teens – early civilisation – the parent/God is more distant. Conversation is less direct, and carried on through dreams and visions. The omnipresent parent whose rules we follow while pretending to stand independent of them. In the flowering of young adulthood – in the courtly age of the medieval – there are psalms and the love songs of Solomon (how did they get in?). An upwelling of joy at living in the moment, an appreciation of the natural world around, and of love and sex. Art for art’s sake. But then Job and Ecclesiastes, the later years of enlightenment or disillusion. God is far away. One questions the basis of laws and seek to reason oneself into or out of them by intellect alone.

So much for the Old Testament. With the New, too, there were surprises. Where the Gospels differ and where they’re the same. John doesn’t mention the bread and the wine but does mention a lot else which the others don’t. And a lot of long speeches that couldn’t possibly have been remembered. Two dispense with the nativity and only one mentions a virgin birth.

As I listened to Mark’s Gospel, and Matthew’s – a lively, human presentation of actions, travels and advice on how a life should be lived – I thought, “Well, what’s wrong with that?” The Occupy London’s challenge to the St Paul’s Cathedral authorities of “What would Jesus do?” echoed clear in the audience and was answered with complete relevance in the readings. Strip the Gospels of mysticism and miracles and they are still the perfect recipe for a society to live in harmony. Ghandi would have signed up. Tellingly, the further the New Testament goes from the time of Jesus, the more mystical and dogmatic the messages grow. The Revelations didn’t sound much like his thing at all.

Through the whole 18 hours I greeted the combinations of words – as much as the stories – with shivering recognition. No wonder we still consider the Bible as the bedrock of British culture and laws, when from Shakespeare to JK Rowling we never escape the phrases and the lessons they contain. Laws and values come from our culture, and our culture is rooted there.

Engaging audiences

2011-11-17T17:38:00.000Z

At the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s concert last night at the Royal Festival Hall, there was a moment of unusual audience engagement. Towards the end of the evening – half way through the final movement of Bruckner’s 4^th Symphony, in fact, a man walked out. Now, in repressed Britain, if we don’t like something we might shuffle – even sigh. But if asked, would probably answer “Yes, lovely, thank you.” But this concert-goer left his seat in the choir area, in full view of the conductor, and walked right round to the exit. Not quietly: the acoustics of the hall made sure we all heard “Dreadful”, and ‘Dragging the notes”, “Too slow!”

Admittedly, that final movement was a bit all over the place – but I blame the composer not the orchestra. And any sluggishness wasn’t inherent in the players or the conductor Osmo Vänskä, as their playing of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (with Janine Jansen) earlier had proved – fleet and crisp.

Though it was a shame the performers had to be confronted with this opinion while they were in full flight, I was somehow thrilled that someone would still fell so passionately about their artform that they would make their objection so clear. It was like the good old days of the Paris Salons! But the performers did get their share of extended standing ovations too.

On a slightly different ‘engaging audiences’ topic, I spotted in the Southbank Centre’s 2011-12 brochure for classical music, the team have given people many ways in to choosing a concert to suit. There’s the usual date-led full listing for the events; but scattered throughout are pages that highlight the ‘blockbusters’, the ‘cutting edge’, ‘the new’ or ‘vocal power’ – and says a little more about what it’s like to experience this kind of music live. And once you’ve been drawn in and are eager for the experience, you’re directed to the page and listing for those concerts that will deliver the goods. Oh, and for those whose choices are driven by the composer or a particular orchestra, the listings are indexed like that too, at the back.

All-in-all, it’s reminiscent of the approach in the ‘Music to Remember’ website experiment I was involved with through Audiences London earlier this year – along with several of the city’s orchestras and venues. It’ll be interesting to assess the audience reaction to both initiatives.

Theatre tackles big subjects

2011-11-03T11:56:00.000Z

I was at the National Theatre last night for the new play '13'. A little over earnest, a little hectoring - but it's good to see theatre taking on subjects like the ambivalence of our sense of responsibility for our futures.

Getting them early

2010-11-14T11:43:00.009Z

The most recent findings from the government's Taking Party survey, published earlier in the summer, pointed out once again that one of the biggest indicators for engaging with the arts and culture as an adult is the extent to which you have been exposed to art and culture as a child.

So it is fitting that the new Journal from engage (the organisation for visual arts education in galleries and museums), concentrates on the theme of 'marketing' and gallery education. As I trace in my contribution, the techniques long used in gallery education have informed the discipline of audience development to the benefit of both.

There are also fascinating insights from Helen Charman at the Design Museum, Elizabeth Fraser-Betts at the October Gallery, as well as from IMMA, the BALTIC and others.

Copies can be ordered from the engage website (ask for issue 26).

Not for the likes of me

2010-09-15T20:46:00.002+01:00

When we introduce the ideas behind audience development, we say ‘imagine what it must be like for people coming to your artform for the first time’ – or better still ‘remember a time when you were fresh to an activity’. The research project title ‘Not for the like of me’ gets to the heart of the emotional journey many people go through.

It’s quite hard for people working in the arts to imagine being a newcomer to the arts, but last weekend I had that experience for real, and what an eye-opener it was!

Summer nephew visit #2 involved a 16-year-old football fanatic from rural Lancashire looking forward to his grown-up first trip to the capital. As my conversation about football (even in World Cup year) lasts about 1.5 minutes, I was mightily relieved to learn he has recently taken to poetry, by way of 2pac. I rushed around timeout.com looking for cultural events that might interest him, in my role of cultural ambassador for my provincial relations.

But it was me who got the greatest newcomer vibes.

The Hip Hop Shakespeare Company were performing free at the Southbank, with hip hop artist Akala, MC Marechal from Rio and THSC band. All names utterly unknown to me – my nephew had to give me a running commentary. It was the ‘Shakespeare’ that got me in: much more my sort of thing.

I went through the classic uncertainties that we warn clients to look out for: ‘Do I need to book? How early should I get there to get a place? Will I be bored? Will I look ridiculously out of place as a middle aged white ‘liberal-opinion’? How should I move? Do I really have to whoop and call out – will anyone mind if I don’t? Did anyone spot me frowning when they clapped in between lines of a sonnet?’

And I was grateful for the small familiarities that I could latch on to – it was in the Queen Elizabeth Hall foyer (having been rained off the terrace): ‘my space’. The stewards on the door didn’t look me up and down as if I had no business being there, but were helpfully directing everyone to the new location in exactly the same way. Some of the rapping, whether of Will S’s own words or the young people’s interpretations of certain plays, was delivered slow enough and with ample dramatic delivery for even my ear to understand. Akala linked the pieces with explanations of what the Hip Hop Shakespeare project was all about and what to listen out for in the next piece.

I came away with the evangelistic enthusiasm that we all hope our new audience members will feel: I had never expected to be so challenged, moved or to experience such a sense of revelation.

Of course, my nephew stayed much cooler throughout – even when getting autographs.

Whatever sparks your creativity

2010-09-15T20:38:00.002+01:00

I had my nephews to visit over the weekend. A big deal for all as we only get round to it once a year. They’re five years apart in age, and now that those ages are 17 and 12, the five years seem an even bigger gap to bridge.So we thought we’d take them to see Enron, and treat the older one like a grown-up. He thought it great, was really into the satire and came away suitably steaming about the injustices of the world.

I’d been a bit worried the younger nephew would be bored out of his mind. But he was buzzing: in a 20-minute expose of exactly how he would re-design light sabres to make them even more lethal, and the additional features the corporate ‘monsters’ could have, the moral of this blog became clear. So long as you have light sabres and scary monsters to spark your own creativity, who cares if the satire goes way over your head?

Doom, gloom and a cat with three legs

2010-07-17T18:13:00.003+01:00

Rachel recommends: Simon Tait's blog, my round-up of the messages from the Independent Theatre Council's conference Evolve or Die, the strange and uplifting tale of the cat with three legs.

Audiences in London

2010-06-07T15:56:00.002+01:00

For the next ten months, I'll be joining the team at Audiences London to help them build their Audience Development services and to grow the consultancy side of their offering. Audiences London play a key role in helping arts organisations (of all genres) throughout the capital open up to and welcome in new and expanded audiences. Part of their strength has been to build up a 'Knowledge Bank' of market information about London's audiences and their behaviour.

Because - unusually but very appropriately for the sector - Audiences London prioritises collaborative and partnership working, much of their knowledge and guidelines will be made available free to all; while a range of other advice and services, including seminars, come 'at cost'.

Then there's the bespoke-for-you audience research and consultancy element at competitive consultancy rates. So, as Head of Audience Development Services there, I'll still be available to you on a consultancy basis - see the Contacts page of my website for how to get in touch.

Pressure Drop!

2010-04-29T19:52:00.002+01:00

Just sometimes, you have an art experience that feels important. Some thing that feels like it could change the world, or at least the bit of the world that surrounds you.

That was Pressure Drop, with Billy Bragg, band and actors at the Wellcome Collection last Saturday night. Part gig, part play, part art installation, spinning out of the 'Identity' exhibition that the Wellcome Collection put on recently (is that exhibition going to tour? It should). There was anger, humour, soul-searching and deep questions - and a joyfulness of rediscovering old songs. Most importantly, we left feeling that the world could change - for the better - and we could be involved in that ... if we took the trouble.

It's on till 9th May. Go!

Number crunching

2010-02-06T10:14:00.004Z

I attended a concert by the London Philharmonic Orchestra this Wednesday, at London's Southbank Centre. The draw was Sibelius' ever-uplifting Fifth Symphony, but the surprise was the preceding Fourth Symphony, so much darker and bleaker in tone. A picture of a mind on the edge of an existential nightmare. The conductor Osmo Vänskä shaped and moulded the sounds as minutely as he did with the quiet moments of the Fifth - and hypnotised the whole audience with the little-known Fourth. The Times' Hilary Finch can say it all so much better than me.

The Orchestra, as they stood for the applause, looked triumphant - as much as the faces an orchestra after such an intense perfromance can express anything. The was no hint of the gigantic financial scandal that is engulfing their company. For it was also a Times article that reminded me, the next day, of the £2.3 million theft from their coffers by their former financial director.

"You wouldn't guess from their faces that their orchestra must be teetering on collapse," I commented.

"Of course not," I was told. "They've got this far with the hole, and survived. What they've learned is that in fact they'll one day be £2.3 million better off than they thought they were."

Oh yes. Just was well for all that I'm a marketing person not an economist.

Meanwhile, don't miss the recording of last Wednesday's concert, which will be on Radio 3, 7pm, on February 15th.

Data entry

2010-01-16T18:28:00.002Z

I've had good reason recently to appreciate the value to arts organisations of maintaining good contact databases. Two reasons. First there was the sickening moment when I realised that the Excel spreadsheet everything is kept on had partly 'scrambled' (oh to get it all moved onto a properly secured database!) which meant wee've had to re-enter much of the feedback people had sent us about their contact preferences. Yawn.

But secondly, and more positively, the Chief Exec of the organisation I'm working with negotiated to be given the contact data of the people who attended the concerts, by some of the venues where they play. After all, it was the orchestra the audience came to hear, not just the venue they chose to go to, so it's logical to view the data as 'ours' as well as 'theirs'.

Going a step further I also got from the venue the surnames and postcodes of the people who bought tickets but didn't give permission to be mailed abut future events. So though I can't mail them, I can at least cross-reference them with our contact database to see what proportion of the people we told about the concerts actually came.

It's an eye-straining job do do this analysis, but has already yielded valuable lessons about how many people respond to our overtures and the difference between post and email response rates. So, even as a touring company without its own box office data, there's a lot that can be done to learn about and build your contact list for better marketing - even if it does mean the occasional tedium!

Now's the time to reflect and renew

2009-12-14T15:15:00.003Z

A former trainee of mine - an alumnus of the Fast Track programme formerly run by the Independent Theatre Council - phoned the other day for a catch-up chat. After putting in the usual slog with two or three internships, she was full of excitement for the paid work she has been doing for Tête à Tête, in which she has been going from strength to strength.

Gratifyingly for me, she claimed 'I owe it all to you!' Of course, she doesn't - she owes it to her own instincts for communication and to the organisations which have trusted her to develop her skills. But she did get switched on to the fun and creativity of marketing on our Fast Track day, and she goes back again and again to the resources and crib sheets I supplied - constantly asking herself 'What more could I do? What have I forgotten?'

For many of us, the time around Christmas and New Year is a lull and a chance to catch our breath and catch up with ourselves. Taking time out from the heads-down, headlong rush of the job is never wasted. It allows us to reflect on our successes and slip-ups and to review what we do and why we do it.

It gives you time, maybe, to sign up for my next Introduction to Marketing Skills course on January 29, and treat yourself to a whole day of reflection and refreshment. Call it a spa day for the arts marketing professional!

Entertainment on dark nights

2009-11-16T16:33:00.003Z

Here are two to indulge in this week:

Julie McNamara's Crossings at the Cochrane Theatre 17th and 18th November. A powerful 'ghost story' that challenges today's teenagers to live their own lives.

Mozart's Requiem with the City of London Sinfonia and BBC Singers at Cadogan Hall on Thursday 19th November. Sublime music, touching a spiritual chord in those who play it and those who hear it.

See you there?

Opera virgins

2009-10-25T09:00:00.003Z

So, I finally sat through a whole opera without walking out. Admittedly, Britten's The Turn of the Screw is relatively short, as operas go, but nonetheless I feel I have turned a corner.

In view of the decided risk that we would hate the experience, we had gone for high-up, relatively cheap seats at the London Coliseum. I hadn't realised that would mean we couldn't see the sur-titles (the website had said the seats were restricted view but hadn't specified what was restricted about them). Luckily, several rows in front of us were empty so we shifted forwards - problem solved.

And what do I now think of opera? As soon as the singing started, it felt just like a musical - on stage or in film. Perhaps it was because the singing was in English; or perhaps it was that we were able to read the words, but suddenly the whole thing was more like a sung play than I had expected. The staging was atmospheric, and once we'd decided not to read the synopsis after the first act, I was caught up with the drama of not knowing how the story would unfold. Atmospheric and creepy it certainly did feel, and by the end I could even admit that the music, the particular melody of the voices, was adding to that atmosphere.

But I was not swept away with high passion or awe at the beauty of drama, music and voice in combination. I did not leave feeling that opera was the highest artform of all, as aficionados love to claim. I left feeling like I do when I have sat through a rather good film. But at three times the cost of a rather good film. Certainly less emotionally-charged than after a theatre play. But mostly I left no longer intimidated by the idea of going to the opera.

Social Diary

2009-10-17T14:46:00.003+01:00

The newly-minted design of Arts Professional magazine landed through the door the other day. Flattering our super-cool arts sensibilities the layout is clean, sleek... and anal. Unadorned by images the type is so tiny that I struggled to get interested in what they had to say. Or maybe I'm getting old and my eyesight is failing. But it seems a shame for a publication I used to grab and read avidly as soon as it arrived.

Another change is the obligatory list of what the journalists have been up to, culture-wise. Is this trend (borrowed from the Guardian and others) a way of implying that unless your cultural diary is jammed full, how can you possibly tell good from bad? If so, I'd better state my credentials pronto...

Rachel Escott has lately been sampling War Horse at New London Theatre, Vladimir Jurowski conducting Mahler's 2nd Symphony at the Royal Festival Hall, Paul Smith talking to fashion students at the Design Museum, The Battle of Ideas debating history and identity and the divine in culture, City of London Sinfonia concerts, the Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus and John Irving launching his latest tome.

Coming up there's a first for us: The Turn of the Screw at ENO (will we stay the distance?) and the following night a thrill to see again The Indigo Girls at last back in the UK.

All washed down by ample doses of Dance to the Music of Time, The Lost Symbol and The West Wing.

Don't just do it!

2009-10-17T12:30:00.003+01:00

Friday 14 August 2009

So many providers of activities for young people – whether that’s local councils, charity-led venues or museums – seem to think that just by running the activities, they people they hope to see will turn up. Here’s a news flash: you have to tell them about it first!

This is the ground-breaking conclusion from a piece of research by the DCFS, Positive Activities, which was announced a few days ago. In essence it suggests providers should put the young people’s hopes, aspirations, way of thinking and self-perception at the heart of how they communicate their young people’s activities (and indeed at the heart of how they design them, something that the Government-funded myplace youth centres seem to be effectively doing).

So go on, put some resources aside from your programming budget to make sure all your great ideas are effectively communicated!

Co-creation

2009-10-17T12:29:00.011+01:00

Sunday 26 July 2009

By the end of the AMA conference this week none of us were in any doubt that ‘co-creation’ is the way to go. Inviting audience members and visitors to put forward their suggestions for programming, to join us in making art or simply to get behind the scenes of our world and help us spread the word. We heard from Innocent Smoothies about the customer who insisted in getting hats knitted for the bottles – and raised loads for Age Concern. You Tube took us through the highs and lows of getting the first internet symphony out into the world. The Watershed in Bristol showed some of the films their users made, spontaneously, that contributed to the complete change round of this very rooted organisation. And the Hallé told us how playing a very ‘difficult’ piece of music twice through, with the audience invited at the repeat to come up on stage to see how the musicians did it, has led to requests for many more ‘difficult’ concerts!

We came away from the conference amused, inspired, thoughtful, envious and with many germs of ideas for opening up our work to our audiences.

What does the client think?

2009-10-17T12:29:00.007+01:00

Sunday 21 June 2009

The Trained Eye is a studio that provides professional courses for photographers. They have recently started ‘The Academy’, a year-long, part-time course for photographers who intend to make their living from their art. I was privileged to be asked to deliver the second day of the Academy, with a tailored version of my Introduction to Communications Skills workshop.

Privileged, because by working with the participants so early in the course, we were able to explore the way marketing research and decisions affect the very essence of how they will run their creative business and the style of services they will offer – and to do this before they have gone too far down inappropriate routes. All too frequently, entrepreneurs turn to marketing or communications as a small, add-on activity after everything else about their business has been established, with the result that their dream businesses fail to deliver the full satisfaction and potential revenue that they are aiming for.

'Without you I wouldn't be here!'

2009-10-17T12:29:00.006+01:00

Friday 22 May 2009

This was the refrain heard over and again in a performance of ‘England’ at the Whitechapel Gallery last Saturday. Tim Crouch’s piece is about art, about the value of art. The monetary value and the restorative, uplifting value. It was a stunning experience for those of us who were there, made more so by the closeness of actors and audience as we negotiated the artworks and spaces in the Isa Genzken exhibition. The actors stared into our eyes as they spoke and we couldn’t hide our reactions from them.

The repetition of such pat phrases to punctuate the unfolding was sometimes creepy, like a stalker; sometimes wholeheartedly joyful; sometimes ironic. Like the idea of the value of art itself, the piece both reaffirmed and debunked current government and media obsessions cultural purpose.

Does Culture Matter?

2009-10-17T12:28:00.003+01:00

Friday 1 May 2009

That was my starting point for the week, at a debate organised by Queen Mary College in Mile End Road. The debate itself was self-contented and surface, despite some interesting expositions from Keith Khan , Cressida Hubbard of Artangel, Stella Hall and Stefano Harney. Brian McMaster had been touted but failed to appear.

But the question came home in chats over wine in myriad settings during the week, with people who feel swamped by their family, income and networking needs, to the point where their own creativity is quashed. It is proven – indeed we know it inside ourselves - that being able to exercise one’s own creativity promotes self-worth and fulfillment, quite apart from any question of fame and fortune. In times of recession, keeping channels to creative activity open and well plumped could be a lifeline for the Britain’s morale and ability to launch out of the hard times. To boost resistance to viruses, eat well and exercise; for resistance to the kind of low spirits that put off friends and employers alike, keep up your esteem and self-worth through creativity.

A quote from AS Byatt in an interview in the Guardian on Saturday puts this much better: "I think of writing simply in terms of pleasure. It's the most important thing in my life, making things. Much as I love my husband and my children, I love them only because I am the person who makes these things ... who I am, is the person that has the project of making a thing ... And because that person does that all the time, that person is able to love all these people."

The installation artist Rachel Howfield is exploring similar ideas in her blog as part of an ACE-supported period of re-focusing on her creative practice.

What's in a Board?

2009-10-17T12:27:00.003+01:00

Friday 24 April 2009

At the sunny reception on the top floor of the Southbank Centre to launch GAIN this week, I was frequently asked why I was there. Not as a prelude to being shown the door, you understand, but as interest in why a marketing and communications specialist should be at an event concerned with Boards and governance of arts organisations.

Gain (Governance, Access, Inclusion and Networking) aims to enrich arts, sports and heritage organisations in London through enabling disabled people and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic individuals with the opportunity and skills to serve on the boards of arts or sports organisations in London. Participants – whether the future Board members or the host organisations – receive training in the skills and knowledge required to effectively serve as trustees. The scheme is managed by The Independent Theatre Council on behalf of Arts Council England, Museums Libraries and Archives, Sporting Equals, the Greater London Authority and Arts & Business.

So the answer to that challenge to me was obvious and easy: with so much pressure on marketers and artistic directors to seek out and satisfy ever more diverse audiences, how will those audiences feel confidence in those gestures unless they see themselves reflected also in the staff and governing structures of the organisation? Gestures towards diversity need to be more than just gestures; they need to be embodied in the ethos of the organisation itself.

If anyone is interested in finding new members for their Boards, or in becoming a Board member for a cultural organisation, get in touch with GAIN.

Olympic opportunities

2009-10-17T12:23:00.004+01:00

Sunday 19 April 2009

Two opportunities have recently been announced for artists and creative companies who want to get involved in the cultural side of the London Olympics. Here are pointers to them – click through to the relevant websites to get all the details and to judge if they’re relevant for you:

Inside/Out – the Olympic Delivery Authority, LDA and ACE want to hear from ‘experienced arts organisations or curator/producers’ to put together several strategic artist-led temporary commissions/ projects around the edges of the Olympic Park. See http://www.london2012.com/index.php

Meanwhile, the Arts Council is calling for ‘original ideas for projects in any art form, led by artists (from individuals to collectives or organisations)’ that reflect and are inspired by the locations where they will take place. Check for full details at http://www.artiststakingthelead.org.uk/

Building relationships

2009-10-17T12:23:00.003+01:00

Friday 3 April 2009

At the Venues and Touring Company Relations workshop I ran in Belfast last week, it became clear how much work needs to be done before each side of the marketing equation for tours genuinely see themselves as building a long-term partnership.

In fact, many of the participants last week reported they do have good, longstanding relations with venues, which is a great start. But until the idea of really understanding how your audiences and potential audiences work becomes embedded in your marketing approach, companies retain a narrow view of their roles and miss out on just how valuable an open, co-operative and sharing relationship could be.

The five rings

2009-10-17T12:22:00.001+01:00

Thursday 19 March 2009

I’ve just attended a seminar that put the frighteners on everyone who was there. It was all about the Olympics, and what the creative sector can and can’t do to make the most of the huge opportunity we’ve all been told the Games will bring us. HOWEVER, at the same time that the phrase cultural Olympiad is being tossed gaily around, and arts organisations are being urged – nay ordered – to put on a good show with zero extra money, new intellectual property laws have been passed that lock down the use of a whole range of words, phrases, signs and symbols to do with the event. And the strong advice, given by leading intellectual property lawyers Marks & Clerk at the latest Own-It seminar, was to be very wary of risking a court case; to make sure you understand what is allowed and what isn’t; to get expert advice on proposals; and even perhaps to contact LOCOG for guidance!

There isn’t space to detail all the advice here, so if you’re at all thinking of taking advantage of ‘the big event that is coming to London in a few years’ time’, do get in touch for more information, or watch out for other information seminars in future.

An illustrator's take on empathy

2009-10-17T11:53:00.003+01:00

Thursday 26 February 2009

I was invited to give a talk last night for students from across the University for the Arts, London who are preparing for their Degree Shows in a few months' time. It's great that arts courses are also thinking to prepare students for success in the 'real' world beyond their course, and the evening was organised by ECCA as part of a week-long series of events that will also have a web presence.

A fellow speaker was the illustrator Rachel Ortas who graduated a few years ago. She struck me as a great case study of an artist who naturally thinks of her audience in everything she does, seamlessly matching the meeting of their needs with her own creative inspiration. Rachel explained how, for her Degree Show, she realised that her most important target market were shops who might buy her cards, badges and other products exactly as she made them. So that was who she concentrated on inviting; researching appropriate shops and making sure they had personal invitations that reflected her work. And at the Show, there were plenty of little, witty things for people to take away and remember her by.

This awareness of how her 'audience' thinks has remained. Today Rachel is also Art Director for a new children's magazine OKIDO, supported by the Welcome Foundation. Their market research is intrinsic to their creative process: "We run workshops too, and that's how we can understand how a five-year-old sees things. So our designs and our ideas work for them. How can you design for a five-year-old unless you know five-year-olds?"

All that, and wonderful illustrations too!