The future of arts marketing is journalism

We have become very good at marketing.  

We have a grasp on social media, some more than others.  We know how to buy ads.  We know how to maintain websites.  We know how to do promotion via email.

In fact, we have become so good at those things that we have gotten the max out of them.  We all feel the diminished returns.  It's so hard to break through the clutter.  All the arts marketing out there is so clean.  So competent.  

In fact, our arts marketing has become so good that it's damn invisible.

The issue, of course, is that the needs that created marketing in the first place still remain.  Tickets still need to be sold.  Exhibitions still need spectators.  The market still awaits.

To go from invisible to visible we have to go to the future.

The future of marketing is storytelling.

Wait.  Did you just roll your eyes?

Can't blame you if you did.  I know you've heard that marketing is storytelling stuff before.  Now every product you see is inviting you to "join our journey" and "hear our story". 

That's because we are still learning the difference between storytelling and spin.

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Let me tell you a story.

Those are powerful words because they make you want to know what happens next.  If you already think you know what's going to happen next, you aren't interested in the story.

So if your story is about how great every show is, how wonderful all your artists are and how beautiful life in the arts is . . . that's not a story.  That's spin.

For a story to work, the storyteller has to have some credibility.  I think the way to get that credible space is by adding a journalistic element to your marketing.

As an example, let's look at what Coca Cola (!) has planned.  Check out this article in the NY Times.  They are revamp their web site and restructuring their digital marketing team to look "more like the editorial team at a long lead magazine".  They have even expressed a willingness to publish content which may not look upon the brand favorably, i.e. an article by NYC Mayor Bloomberg talking about his size ban on cola.

They are hiring 40 freelance writers and journalist and telling them to act as "newshounds".

Now maybe this will not all pan out.  Maybe they will not gain the credibility they need to pull this off, but we should all look carefully at what they are saying.  It goes back to the point at the beginning of this post.

Coke is great at marketing.  Hell, they damn near invented modern marketing.  And they are saying that it isn't enough.

They need journalism, storytelling and credibility to sell sugar water.

Maybe we need more of it in the arts.

 

Comments

[Leonard Jacobs]

There is a difference between an attribute of journalism (e.g., the skill to tell a story) and appropriating an attribute of journalism in the service of selling a product. If Coke wants to appropriate an attribute of journalism, that's fine; that's probably a savvy move. But to suggest that journalism itself is represents the next great idea in marketing is to try to redefine what journalism is. For marketing is not journalism and journalism is not marketing. The definition of journalism includes reporting that is unbiased, uncorrupted, unaffected by market vagaries and untainted -- or at least, at the very least, unbought. In the real world, there will always be some fraying of these edges. (Repeat after me: "product placement.") But when people read journalism (online or in print), they have every reasonable right and expectation that what they are reading has not been purchased by a corporate entity. Coke can buy all the journalists they want; it's admirable that they say -- they say -- they'll offer "reporting" on their site that is not censored or automatically favorable. But at the end of the day, this is not journalism. It's the appropriation of journalism in the service of a product. Not to call it what it is is fundamentally misleading. And that is the truth.

[Stephanie Kulke]

Brilliant post Adam - thanks for pointing out this NYTimes story. I think Coke is very smart to focus the new website content on the customer rather than sales pitches and corporate spin -- no matter how artful marketing is - the end result is sales - and the traditional path is to position the company in the best possible light. Hence the spinning is hard to get away from.

I think marketers (whether we work for an arts org or other) could benefit from spending more time inviting and listening to input from customers, and openly sharing online reviews and stories from the customers point of view. You may get a mixed bag of brilliant testimonials and calling out flaws or shortcomings compared to the competition. But it's info the host company can learn from, and I would imagine the content is more authentic, fresh and interesting for customers to read.