The Mission Paradox Blog

Woman Power

Courtesy of the Baltimore Sun, here is an interview with four leaders of Baltimore arts institutions who all happen to be women.  It's a good read.  (h/t to You've Cott Mail for bringing it to my attention)

The Artistic New World Order

The old way:  Nonprofit versus for profit.

The old way:  High art versus mass entertainment

The new way:  Big organizations versus smaller organizations

The new way:  Cater to a broad audience or cultivate a well defined, smaller, niche audience.

The road to death:  Do neither.

Solving the Proper Problem

It's a question I hear often . . .

"How do you convince people that the arts has value?"

Here's the answer.

You don't.

People are either going to believe that, or they aren't. 

Besides, I'm sure if I asked 100 people if they felt like the arts held some sort of intrinsic value, at least 80 would say yes.

The public doesn't have an "arts value" problem.

They may have an "art choice" problem, i.e. the inability to choose from multiple arts options.

Or they may have an "arts relevance" problem, i.e. difficulty believing that a particular piece of art is relevant to modern life.

Or they may just have a good ol' fashioned "time problem", i.e. they just don't think spending an evening with the arts is worth their time.

The good news is that with some creativity and will all those problems have solutions. 

More on Viral Marketing (and other stuff)

Seth lays out some more interesting thoughts.

Plus Simon lays out one of the best theatre posts I have read in a minute.

Have a great holiday.  See ya Monday.

Fake Friends

During a coaching session, a client mentioned her desire to put some clips of her singing on YouTube, Myspace, etc. as a way of drawing attention to her work.

I told her that having video online was a perfectly cool idea but that she needed to remember that just because something is online doesn't mean anyone will actually look at it.

She said she understood, but still expressed her hope that she would create a "viral video", develop a following online and that would be a key to getting her discovered.

This is a condensed version of the marketing plan for many people.  Jam a lot of stuff online, hope something sticks and then try to leverage the audience they get.

The tricky part is that whole leverage thing.

Here's the reality . . .

Having 1,000 Myspace friends, 500 Linkedin Connections, or a popular YouTube page often does more for an artists ego then it does their wallet.

My rule of thumb is that until you get that crowd you have online to actually do something other then accept your friend invite, then you don't have much of anything.

There a huge chasm between clicking a link on your page and buying a CD . . . or going to a concert.

Just because you have a lot of people doing one doesn't mean you'll have even a few people doing the other.

The key to invest the time and energy to build relationships online by sharing a lot of free content, interacting with people, etc.

Once you have their trust and have earned some credibility with them . . . then you can try and get them to buy something.

Excitement Goes Both Ways

As we at the day job proceed with the marketing of our next production, I must admit that I am pretty excited.

I'm excited not just about the show but because of the new marketing tactics we plan on executing.  A bit more online advertising, using street team marketing and a few other things designed to move this 50+ year old institution forward.

I was sharing my excitement with a colleague.  She mentioned that she would love to try a few of the things we are doing at her place, but instead her leaders seem stuck in the old school mentality that the only way to see art is by buying mass medium ads (i.e. newspaper ads, radio)

"This sucks" she told me "Why do the artists get to have all the fun?"

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One of the sad side effects of the seperation of "art" and "business" is that it creates the impression that only artistic people are supposed to be creative.

The truth is that fundraising, marketing, administration, et. al are fields that require a high degree of creativity and innovation if they are going to be done well.

So when administrators are stopped from trying new ideas, it has the same impact as when an artist's creative freedom is limited . . . it holds the entire organization back.

 

Two More Things to Do Today

1.  Subscribe to "You Cott Mail".  Thomas Cott, the marketing director of the Alvin Ailey Dance Company has a profoundly useful service where we emails you the day's top arts related stories.  It's a great way to stay informed.  Click here to go his site and look for the link on the left side of the page.

2.  Take thirty minute out your weekend to watch this fantastic video of Benjamin Zander, head of the Boston Philharmonic.  He's a fantastic presenter and as the video shows, a dynamic teacher.

Year End Case

If you are in the process of sending out year end appeals for people to donate please remember the following:

1.  You're not the only one doing so, expect that your target audience has received at least 5 other appeals from different groups.

2.  People know the economy sucks, but that isn't a reason to give to you.

3.  That fact you may have to close your doors, or not do your next scheduled event, isn't a reason to give to you.

4.  Actually, I would avoid saying point 3 entirely, even if it was true, people don't like desperate appeals.

5.  What is a reason to give is the impact your art is having on the community you serve.  Any impact you can actually measure is best, but even if you can't . . . that impact is what your year end fundraising appeal should cover.

6.  If you haven't done of these yet, it isn't too late.  A lot of people decide to give the last week of the year, so you still have an opportunity to at least make a request via email.

When 7 = 1

Timeout Chicago just published their top ten shows of 2008.  I'm proud to say that my day job landed two of those spots. 

What I found interesting was that the two shows were Caroline, or Change and Titus.

On a purely financially perspective there is no comparison between the two.  Caroline generated seven times as much single ticket revenue revenue as Titus.

From an artistic perspective, however, I could make a case that the big, messy, deeply interesting, Titus did as much to advance the reputation of the theatre as the grand ol' musical Caroline did.

I talk a lot about money on this blog and I don't want to minimize the importance of using marketing to draw resources (financial and otherwise) to your work.

But this is still the art business we are in and it was nice to see a show that was really good but didn't make the cash register hum get the praise it deserved.

I also think having those two shows as a contrast makes a tiny bit of the case why artists should have some sort of infrastructure (i.e. a well built nonprofit org, a smart and fast for-profit) to work within.

Having a strong infrastructure allows you to do the edgy work and manage the consequences of that.  It also allows you to build a bit of a legacy, so that your work as an artist can be considered over time versus just being judged one piece of art at a time.

 

Save Yourself

After the NEA released a studyabout declining audience for non-musical theatre, a lot of interesting conversation was sparked.

Some called for more conversation about how programming fits into all this . . . which is good.

Others had interesting ideas about how federal funding could be used to create theatregoers . . . . which is also good.

But in the midst of all this talk about the shows *we* should be doing or the collective efforts *we* should be undertaking to draw people to the work  . . . I'd like to mention someone else:

You.

To be more precise, your theatre.

Your dance company.

Your orchestra.

Your band.

Your art gallery.

Does your work make people want to see more theatre/dance/art . . . or less?

Because ultimately that is all there is.

I only mention this because sometimes we seem to be ruthless in our critique of what the "other" does or what they should be doing.

Each of us are representatives of the art form we have chosen to pursue.

As each of us make the difficult choices required to be world class at what we did, the art form we represent is improved.

So by all means, mobilize for collective action.

Have your thoughts about what the collective art form needs.

But don't forget your individual part of the story.