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An Old Arts Marketing Joke
A publicist, a marketer and a salesperson walk into a bar where they see three gorgeous women sitting across the room. The publicist asks the bartender to send them a round of drinks and say, “The...
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Five Outdated Marketing Ideas The Arts Must Abandon Immediately
With audiences in steady decline, ticket sales-dependent arts organizations are destined to shrink or go out of business. The question isn’t whether this will happen, but how many it will happen to,...
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Taking a Cheap Shot at Community Engagement
In my last post I took a cheap shot at community engagement and I’d like to make amends for that here. I began by saying that community engagement is not audience development and that arts...
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A Great Day to be Irish!
Speaking as an O’Donnell, I’d just like to say how proud I am to be Irish today.
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A Museum Branding Horror Story
I was once hired to help a struggling museum generate an increase in weekday admissions. It was a simple process of doing some qualitative research, dusting off a few under-exploited opportunities and...
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American Orchestra Enjoys a 36% Increase in Classical Ticket Sales
I’ve mentioned Jason Nicholson, Director of Marketing at the The Austin Symphony, in previous posts. A few days ago Jason wrote to tell me that The Austin Symphony saw a 36% increase in ticket sales...
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Amateur Marketing Cripples Another ‘Professional’ Opera Company
Vancouver Opera announced last week that it was transitioning to a smaller festival format in 2017 because it doesn’t know how to sell enough tickets to sustain a full season. Regular readers of this...
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Hartford Symphony Fails “Gal-in-a-Starbucks” Test
I read yesterday that Hartford Symphony was having financial difficulties: “The orchestra says it’s “severely undercapitalized” and struggling with annual deficits of more than $1.3 million, a...
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Things Hartford Symphony and Pittsburgh Symphony Have in Common
Today I read that the venerable Pittsburgh Symphony is suffering a precipitous drop in ticket sales for their classical concert series. So I went to their marketing materials to look for signs of...
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Where I Spent $50 in Boston (Not at the MFA)
Had I done my homework, I’d have learned in advance about the Museum of a Fine Arts’ exorbitant admission fee and saved a trip over there. My husband and I were in Boston for the first time in many...
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Why Amazon is Soaring and Traditional Arts Organizations are Sinking
I read a fascinating NY Times article on Sunday about the work culture at Amazon. It directed me to a list of “Leadership Principles” the company distributes to new employees and publishes on its...
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Two Ways To Design A Classical Music Brochure
Here’s one way to design a classical music sales brochure based on a survey of season brochures from America’s top orchestras: Use a cover image that appeals to industry insiders (i.e. your conductor)...
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New Audiences Are Like Fairies
When arts professionals use the phrase “new audiences” I like to ask them who they’re referring to, and the response usually goes like this: “You know, younger and more culturally diverse.” It’s an...
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Churn, Learn, Love and Earn
This repost fits perfectly with a series of posts that Doug Borwick and Amelia Northrup-Simpson are featuring this week on the relationship between engagement and marketing. FILLING THE EMPTY SEATS...
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Is Churn Driving You Crazy?
Been a bit busy with projects in Palm Springs, but thought this re-post would also add to the conversation Doug Borwick and TRG Arts are having about the relationship between engagement and marketing....
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Philadelphia Orchestra Fails the Gal-in-a Starbucks Test
We read last week that the venerable Philadelphia Orchestra is losing audiences. Attendance in 2014/15 was down by 7,000 paid listeners from the previous season and off goal by 36,000. When board chair...
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Who’s Your Senior-most Outside Sales Executive?
Doug Borwick has a great post over at Engaging Matters where he makes an interesting connection between engagement and sales. Check it out. I know the question in my title will be confusing for most...
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The Impotence of Being Important
Arts leaders who believe that art is important spend a lot of time telling the world how important their art is. These executive decision makers tend to believe that telling people how important...
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A Miracle at San Diego Opera
I’ve been a bit tough on San Diego Opera in the past. Especially here, here and here. But the other day I got a brochure that contained a miracle. San Diego Opera actually published photos of audience...
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Donald Trump: A Model for Arts Marketers
Arts marketers who can’t sell enough tickets should pay attention to Donald Trump. He’s a surprisingly effective persuader. Trump talks simply about things his people care about. He knows that...
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