The Mission Paradox Blog

Opportunity

What some good news?  Here it is:

1.  For the first time in modern history, an individual artist can put their art directly into the hands of an audience. The author, the painter, the musician, can all bypass the middle man (publisher/gallery/record label).  Anybody that can build an audience can now leverage that audience.  You can also get revenue directly from that group.

I'm sure you know the flipside, building an audience isn't easy, particularly in the fragmented and complicated world we live in.  But the point is that it is possible and that is a good thing.

2.  You have access to the people who can help you accomplish your most ambitions artistic goals.  This is another benefit of technology.  People aren't as hard to find as they used to be.  Need a stage director that specializes in a particular style?  You can find her.  The world has gotten smaller.

Never before has there been so much direct access to audience, the revenue that can come from that audience and the people who can help you achieve your dreams.

What are you doing with that opportunity?

The Pain Point

Things tend to grow organically/naturally.

A start up dance company does a show for a small crowd, maybe just friends and family. Over time, a little buzz happens, a little word of mouth happens, and the audience slowly starts to grow.

50 people in the house becomes 60, then 65. It's all nice and steady.

Here's the question:

What happens when that dance company wants that 65 people to become 130 people, quickly?

What happens when an author wants to triple her online readership?

What happens when an artist who sells one painting a month wants to sell five paintings a month?

What happens when organic growth isn't enough?

That's when you have to start doing things like changing your programming, or more actively marketing your work, or trying to reach different/weird audiences.

I call that moment the pain point because doing all those things can be difficult. It can cause conflict within an organization. Stretching past your natural boundaries is no fun.

But sometimes, it is necessary.

I see so many artists hit that pain point and then stop. They retreat back to doing the same old thing for the same old audience. They settle for organic growth and never seek to find out what could happen if they actively worked to expand their audience.

That can be a tragic choice. It can deny your art to audiences that would really benefit from experiencing it.

Sometimes it's a good idea to push past that pain point and find out what's on the other side.

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Quick note: I'm currently working with two clients to help them improve their arts marketing. I've got room for one more. If you're interested, get more info by clicking here. This will be the only coaching opportunity I offer until the summer so if you want in, let me know.

It's All Good

Disrespecting your artistic competition, or your audience, is a sign of immaturity.

It's easy (and fun) to talk about how everything sucks.

It's easy (and fun) to blame the rigid, old, inflexible audience and make them the reason you can't do anything interesting with your art.

In my experience, however, your chances of success increase when you consider the following:

1.  There is a lot of good artistic work out there.  Maybe it isn't your cup of tea.  But there is a good amount of quality work, made by talented artists, circulating around the marketplace.

2.  For every piece of art, there is an audience.  Yes, that includes what you do. You need to patient to acquire them and maybe the audience will not be as large as you wish/need but there is an audience for even the most edgy, risky work.

How would things change for you if you embraced those two thoughts?

The Magic Formula

Your flight to Chicago just landed. Your friend picks you up and asks "how was your flight?"

"Fine" you reply, and then quickly move on to other - more interesting - topics.

Think about all the things packed into that "fine". A fine flight means that your luggage was effectively moved hundreds (or thousands) of miles. It means that your flight crew was pleasant and competent. It moves that your plane didn't crash, or experience any mechnical difficulties.

In short, a lot of good things happened.

But you didn't notice it. You certainly didn't rave about it (or the airline).

Why?

Because it was expected.

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Here's your challenge (and mine) in a nutshell:

The most effective marketing in the world happens when people rave about your work.

People rave about things when it exceeds their expectations.

The problem: People have high expectations.

To exceed those expectations you have to give them a little more.

Think about the products, movements or causes that have managed to cut through the clutter by offering something unexpected, or delightful, or just plain weird.

Think of Southwest and their pricing policy, or their stance on bag fees.

Think of Zappos and their stance on customer service.

Think of the restaurant that you love where they know your name and (every once in a while) whip up something special for you and your guests.

Now think about all those perfectly good products and services that you ignore every single day because they don't offer just a little bit more.

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There is no magic formula for success in the arts, or any field, but if there was it would be something like this:

Quality Work + A Little Something More + A Little Luck + Good Timing = Success.

The luck and the timing aren't under your control.

Quality work is about putting in the effort, sweating the artistic details, putting your heart + soul into the work and improving over time. If you aren't doing that then you're screwed and no marketing plan will save you.

Then there's the little something extra, the thing you need to exceed the expectations. You should spend some time thinking about what that is. Just remember that it doesn't need to be a big thing, it can be something small.

Here's one example of a small gesture. At my day job we have gotten into the habit of created show specific websites. For an upcoming production set in the 1980's we decided to create a playlist of hits from the 80's and 90's and put it on the web.

Why do we do it? Because we know a lot of people sit at work/school and like to listen to music. Might as well give them something to enjoy. Our hope is that as they scroll through the music they will find a song that jogs a pleasant memory.

Maybe it will make them smile.

That smile is the extra thing.

You expect a website for a theatre to have a production calendar and a way to buy tickets.

You don't expect it to do anything to make you smile.

Get it?

What's your something extra?

The Art is the Marketing

Let's be very clear, the art you create is the marketing.

You can't separate the two.

You can't make predictable, boring, art exciting.

You can't use advertising to make art intended for a homogeneous audience, diverse.

There is no use of social media can turn something safe into something risky.

Marketing isn't magic.

What marketing can do is take quality art and connect it with an intended audience. It can create captivating messages that will help attract this audience.

It can help the audience feel connected to the artist or to the organization.

It can educate the audience and help them learn more about the art.

It can do all those important things.

But it isn't magic.

The art always comes first.

Said versus heard

It isn't what people say, it's what people hear.

You can say "risk" but then keep doing the same limited range of artistic stuff . . . people hear "safety".

You can say "we welcome all" but if your audience looks the same and you keep marketing in the same places, people hear "keep away."

So when I say that the National Arts Marketing Conference is looking for proposals for their 2012 conference, you may hear:

"if you aren't an expert, don't submit a proposal"

or . . .

"If you haven't been working in arts marketing for 10 years, don't submit a proposal"

or . . . 

"If you don't sell millions of dollars worth of tickets and manage a big staff, don't submit a proposal"

Ignore those thoughts.  If you feel like you have something meaningful to offer to the arts world, then submit a proposal.  Don't restrain yourself.  We've heard from all the typically suspects.  

Maybe it's time that we hear from you.

 

The high price of attention

For marketers, the Super Bowl demonstrates the power (and price) of attention.  

Think about it.  Why in the world would anyone pay milliions of dollars for a handful of 30 second commercial spots?

It is because the Super Bowl is one of the few times that we are willing to be interrupted by commercials.  It's one of the few times that we, as a culture, are actively paying attention to advertising.

The advertisers are willing to pay a lot for that attention.

That's how valuable it is.

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Consider your email list.  Your mailing list.  The subscribers to your newsletter or YouTube channel.  Those are people who have given you a small piece of their attention.  

You have the same asset that advertisers are willing to pay millions to get.

It's very easy to forget that.  We get used to counting the number of people in our database and forget the value of each individual name.

200 people who actively listen to you and react to your message is more valuable then 20,000 people who barely know you exist.

You know that.  I'm just reminding you.

I'm also reminding you that the most valuable asset you have as an artist (or arts org) is the attention of your audience.  

Every marketing tool you use, from email, to customer service, to direct mail, to social media should be designed to respect and engage that attention.

Whenever I get my hands on those sorts of tools, I'm always thinking about how I can delight my audience, or educate them, or make them laugh.  

That's the exchange.  You give me a bit of permission and attention and I give you something special.  Or at least I try too.    

Once I've done that, I figure it's ok to "sell" them on a particular artistic event.

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Spend a little today thinking about what are you doing with that incredibly valuable attention your audience has given you?  

It's the most important thing you have.  Use it wisely.

 

Losing Sight

Every few months I like to do a workshop with the staff and board of a nonprofit arts group.

I see the same thing over and over again.

People lose sight of the art. It's so easy for the day to day conversation of the group to focus on finance, governance, politics, etc.

So I always start my moment with the group by talking a lot about the art. I want to know what artistic projects they are excited about. I want to know about the art they love.

When that conversation starts, the energy in the room always changes. People come alive. Laughter begins. You start to feel the energy that made the organization special in the first place.

A lot of the "problems" in arts groups, begin when people forget about the fact that they are an ARTS group. Good financial management, good governance, good human resource management are all important elements of getting the art to happen . . . but it isn't the point of the exercise.

Don't lose sight of what made your organization fun and exciting. Don't lose sight of what got all those board members and funders interested. Don't lose sight of the art.

Eternal battles

Life we go easier if you accept the following:

1. You will always be conflicted about the interaction of art and commerce.

2. You will never find a perfect balance between giving your audience "what they want" and leading them into different directions.

3. There will never be enough money.

4. Organizational politics will always be a part of your life. That's true even if you create the art alone. You'll probably need to partner with others to get that work seen, which means working with organizations, which means dealing with politics.

5. No matter how you do things someone, probably someone close to you, will think you are doing it wrong.

6. Somone will tell you, "it's ok to fail" and then go nuts when you actually do fail. That is their problem, not yours.

7. You will always need to manage your own artistic career. You can have helpers, managers, etc. but you always need to be the CEO of You, Inc.

Getting them to "Hell Yeah"

In 2009, entreprenuer Derek Sivers shared his "Hell Yeah" philosophy to making life decisions. Here's a quote:

"If I'm not saying 'HELL YEAH!' about something, then say no."

I think it's a good way to make life decisions. It also should help inform your approach to connecting art to audience.

The goal to all the "stuff" that you do, i.e. making artistic programming choices, the marketing tactics you use . . . the goal of all of that is to get your audience to say "Hell Yeah, I need to see that".

Not, "maybe I should see that."

Not, "that looks interesting."

The goal is to trigger the sort of emotion response that makes people want to jump up and be a part of your artistic experience.

Is that hard? Of course it is. People (like you) are jaded. They have too many choices. They have been sold a bill of goods far too often.

In spite of all that, "Hell Yeah" is still the goal.

If you approach your artistic and marketing choices with that point of view, then it will help you make the sort of interesting, exciting decisions that are necessary.

I'll give you a case in point. Direct your web browser toward the website my team created for a production.

The whole idea of that website is that if we give our audience enough interesting angles, enough cool pictures, enough nice music to stream while they are working, then it will slowly move them to "Hell Yeah."

Now that's just one approach. There are a lot of good ones out that there that have nothing to do with the web or technology.

Just remember what the goal of all this should be.