The Mission Paradox Blog

That's What I'm Talking About Baby!

When I ramble on about the need for artist to find multiple ways to use their talents, you might have been thinking . . . can I get a few more examples of what you mean?

Certainly.

Growth is A Must

So I'm talking to the head of a dance company.  He's telling me about his operation and as part of the conversation he tells me how the budget for his group has basically been the same (under 150K) for about six years.

He's taking pride in this.

He's telling me how the budget helps his company to stay "lean and mean".

He's bragging about how hard his staff works for so little pay.

Again, he's taking pride in this.

And I'm thinking "this is the saddest thing I have seen all week."

I'm looking at dancers that get paid chump change. 

I'm looking at admins that are twice my age and get paid less then half what I do.

This is something to take pride in?

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In this business we make art, not computer desks.

This means that there is no looming technological advance in the arts that is going to really allow one person to do the work of two.

It takes as many dancers and as much rehearsal time to do the Nutcracker now as it did back when it was written.

The time it takes to get a $500 donation from a person now hasn't decreased much over the years.

Most of the arts are a labor and capital intensive business.

Any labor and capital intensive business requires money.

Probably more money next year then it did this year.

So if you aren't experience real financial growth then you are probably not only stuck, you are going backwards.

In this business some sort of growth (even if it is careful managed, slow growth) isn't an option . . . it is a necessity.

 

An oft overlooked point

Marketing isn't sales.

Perhaps that seems obvious to you but to many folks it isn't so it needs to be pointed out.

Marketing isn't selling.

Marketing is about creating connections and generating emotion.

Sales is about moving that emotion into an actual purchase.

So if you have an artist handling your marketing and she hates it . . .

But that same person could convince anyone to see the work if they talk to them long enough.

Then maybe the smartest move you could make is to make that person your mobile box office and let her sell, sell, sell.

Many Thanks

Over the past two years you (yes YOU) have turned this blog from something where 10 hits in a day was a reason for celebration into a blog that gets thousands of hits a month and (much more importantly) has sparked interesting conversations between people from all over the U.S. and Canda.

It's a honor to host a place where those conversations happen.

Thank you so much for making it happen.

Perhaps the Truth is Finally Best

This link will take you to a NY Times article on "Advertising in a Post TV World", the whole article is worth at least a skim, but I want to point out a powerful quote in it.

It comes from an ad strategy guy that has worked with lots of big names, XBox, Coke, etc.

We used to joke that advertising was “lying for a living.” We got away with that back then. We can’t anymore. And now, if we get caught in a lie, we’re in trouble.

Now the cynical among us may deny that statement, but I think we can acknowledge it is certainly more true now then it was before.

For those of us in the arts that statement implies both a tremendous threat and a huge opportunity.

Here's the threat that it implies:

It is becoming harder and harder to say things that aren't true.

Don't get me wrong, a big name arts institution can still talk about quality, then deliver something else . . . for a while.

But for you and me i.e. smaller groups or individuals with a much different budget . . . we don't have the history or money to cover our deception for too long.

So if you consistenly (not just one art exhibition, or one play) promise one thing and deliver another then eventually the tech weapons like Metromix, or Yelp, or someone's influential blog are going to spread that message.  Then you got trouble.

Here's the opportunity:

Now, probably more then any other time in history, your good art . . . well marketed has a chance of connecting with an audience.

Not a guarantee.

But a chance.

And yes it's going to take time and skill and a bit of luck, but still, there is a chance.

That's because the truth of your work, the quality, the passion can be spread by your audience (via technology) if they feel as strongly about your work as you do.

Replacing the Pillar

I'll tell you a secret . . .

The declining subscription numbers and aging audiences that are the status quo in the theatre world (and dance, opera, etc.) scares the hell out of a lot of people in the field.

What scares them is not the problem.  It's a problem the more observant ones in the field predicted a decade ago.

What scares them is the solution.

Because the solution, whatever it may be for the individual orgs, is almost certainly going to be painful.

Look at the subscription model for example.  For almost every major arts institution that has been built over the past 50 years the subscription model was a pillar of that growth

And when a pillar of your growth is on a slow spiral of collapse, things get a bit weird.

So to avoid the pain that would inevitably come with any serious, long term solution to the problem they do a fatally flawed thing.

They wait for somebody else to reveal the perfect solution in the hopes that they can copy it.

They want someone to take the risk and then hope they can swoop in and show they bosses the solution they "know" will work.

But that's the problem when it comes to alternative models to funding the arts . . . in the beginning, they all suck compared to the status quo.

Or to quote my man Seth "If you need the status quo to be better then the alternative from the start, you'll never begin."

That creates a situation I hear a lot of arts marketing directors are faced with, i.e. their bosses want them to create a new subscription model . . . but don't want to lose any money in the process!

So they want the reward without the pain.

The washboard abs without the sit ups.

This never works.

The smart orgs (of any size) will figure this out, take the pain and move on to the other side of it.

The other ones will wish they had.

Have We Hit the Wall? (Updated)

Kris Vire put up this post asking this question:

Have we hit the a cash ceiling for the number of [theatre] companies [Chicago] can support?

You can replace theatre for dance, Chicago for New York, or your town . . . or whatever.  It's a very valid question.

So let's think about this:

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I think one of our problems is that we get too caught up on the word "art".  Here's what I mean.  Imagine if I said this:

I want to start my own law firm.

I want to grow the business at my coffee shop.

And then I asked you for some advice.  What would you tell me?

Being fully aware of all the competition in both worlds, you would probably tell me that if I wanted to start or grow my company I would need to make some pretty creative business decisions.

Maybe I think about a way to reduce my overhead.

Maybe it's about thinking of a way of generating multiple sources of revenue.

But if I told you that my plan for building my law firm was to emulate the business model of bigger, more resourced firms then you would be skeptical.

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It's no different in the arts world.

If I took the business plan for your theatre and it looks exactly like the business plan for my day job . . . then you lose.

Do you get that?

So if you start your theatre company today and tell your team . . . "look, we are going to work every day to find a business model that is unique to us and not be satisfied until we do" . . . then now is as good a time to start your theatre as any.

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(brief update)

See I think part of the challenge is that when I tell an artist they need to think creatively about their business, they narrow themselves to just thinking creatively about their "product" i.e. their stage production, or their dance routine.

That's important, but it's not the whole story.

Running an artistic organization is a fully creative enterprise, which means that your marketing, or fundraising, or whatever has to be as creative as your work.

So again, if your plan is to start or grow a fully creative arts org. then I believe the arts marketplace will expand to make room for you.  That's as true if you start it now or start it later.

 

 

 

 

Narrow It Down

A few weeks back I did a one day marketing workshop for my friends at the Chicago Cabaret Professionals (want me to do one for you?  Email me at mission.paradox@yahoo.comand let's talk)

The workshop was awesome.  They were a great audience, we all worked hard.  It was a good day.

After the workshop many of them had two feelings:

1.  A feeling of being excited about how they can become effective marketers

2.  A feeling of being completely overwhelmed by it all.

I get that response from people who read my blog . . . the feeling that effective marketing involves so many things that it is impossible to get started.

Here's what you need to remember.

Picking one thing, even a small thing, and working on that is so much better then not getting started at all.

It's a perfectly acceptable outcome for one of those singers I worked with a few weeks back to say:

I'm going to spend six months building my email list and making sure I deliver good content when I email my audience.

You may say:

I'm going to spend three months improving my direct mail advertising by making sure I write really good copy that describes my work.

Don't let the myth that you have to do everything perfectly stop you from working on doing one thing really well.

Wasted Talent

I've been lucky enough to work with a lot of very talented artists lately.

Working with these folks makes me incredibly jealous, but not for the reason you may think.

What's incredible about working with these people is that many of them have tremendous marketing instincts that they just don't feel comfortable unleashing.

When I work with them, most of my job is coaxing that inner marketer out and giving it some direction.

So what makes me jealous?  Because I know when their skills are fully honed (if they are willing to let that happen) they will be far better marketers then I could ever be.

Easily misunderstood

More and more people are talking about the use of social media (blogs, email, video) etc. as "the next wave" of marketing.

It isn't.

It's just a tool.

It's just a really nice hammer.

Effective marketing is ultimately about connecting people around central ideas. 

Technology allows that connection to happen quicker then ever in human history.

But only if that connection has some sort of purpose.

And only if the idea you are trying to use technology to spread is worth spreading.

So don't fall in love with your tools.

If you don't use them properly they are pointless.