Andrew McIntyre, Morris Hargreaves McIntyre and Vicki Allpress Hill, The Audience Connection
Andrew McIntyre and Vicki Allpress Hill challenge the way that Orthodox Arts Marketing has hijacked and distorted the conversation between our organisations and our audiences, turning what should be rich, rewarding relationships into mere grubby transactions.
The big idea is to build communities rather than just service 'customers'. But that requires our organisations to be more porous: we need to truly engage, involve and even co-create with our audiences.
Andrew and Vicki see great potential for a digital revolution that is truly personal and personalised but warn against just digitising bad analogue practice: we are in danger of replacing bad letters with bad, one-size-fits-no-one emails.
New Zealand is a leader in audience insight. Creative New Zealand's adoption of Culture Segments as a national audience segmentation system and its pioneering work on the Optimise digital programme gives New Zealand organisations a unique head start for the coming revolution.
What Andrew and Vicky are describing is the brave, new post-marketing world in which audience engagement is everyone's responsibility and far too important to be delegated to someone who happens to have 'marketing' in their job title.
Orthodox Arts Marketing is dead. Long Live Audience Engagement!
Celebrating the Best Years of Your Life!
Fabulously 50 is a luxury lifestyle magazine designed exclusively for the most affluent men and women 50 years of age and older. Fabulously50 has been designed to inspire and capture the interests of the most sophisticated readers providing intelligent and informative articles focusing on beauty, fashion, health, fine dining, lifestyle, travel, trends and nostalgia. All articles are intensely researched and written specifically for the most savviest of readers. Fabulously50 is distributed and circulated throughout all of Palm Beach County Florida and Nationwide with controlled circulation that reaches the most influential residents.
Fabulously50 is continually expanding our readership to the 3.8+ million baby boomers living right here in South Florida as well as Nationwide. Fabulously50 magazine is in both print as well as the online version that is specifically designed and targeted to the luxury lifestyle in South Florida and the local 50+ community.
Talking to Audiences About Art
Rhana Devenport,
Auckland Art Gallery
Rhana Devenport, Director of Auckland Art Gallery will share some of the art world's latest attempts to talk to audiences about art, from the groundbreaking approach of MONA in Tasmania to Alain de Botton's belief that art offers us powerful solutions to our everyday personal problems, demonstrating its relevance in understandable ways to the widest possible audience. What does this mean for the role of the 'expert', the kind of interpretation we choose to offer and the visitor experiences we design?
Celebrating the Best Years of Your Life!
Fabulously 50 is a luxury lifestyle magazine designed exclusively for the most affluent men and women 50 years of age and older. Fabulously50 has been designed to inspire and capture the interests of the most sophisticated readers providing intelligent and informative articles focusing on beauty, fashion, health, fine dining, lifestyle, travel, trends and nostalgia. All articles are intensely researched and written specifically for the most savviest of readers. Fabulously50 is distributed and circulated throughout all of Palm Beach County Florida and Nationwide with controlled circulation that reaches the most influential residents.
Fabulously50 is continually expanding our readership to the 3.8+ million baby boomers living right here in South Florida as well as Nationwide. Fabulously50 magazine is in both print as well as the online version that is specifically designed and targeted to the luxury lifestyle in South Florida and the local 50+ community.
Talking to Audiences About Art
Rhana Devenport,
Auckland Art Gallery
Rhana Devenport, Director of Auckland Art Gallery will share some of the art world's latest attempts to talk to audiences about art, from the groundbreaking approach of MONA in Tasmania to Alain de Botton's belief that art offers us powerful solutions to our everyday personal problems, demonstrating its relevance in understandable ways to the widest possible audience. What does this mean for the role of the 'expert', the kind of interpretation we choose to offer and the visitor experiences we design?
Taki Rua Kaitiaki, Esther Roberts, takes a look at how the concept of whānau has informed her work in audience development alongside Taki Rua’s Te Reo Māori Season – National Youth Tour.
During this session participants will learn how the company established its Whānau Performance Pilot and take part in practical exercises that explore how the whānau approach can be used as a framework for growing meaningful relationships with audiences and communities.
This session will appeal to arts managers, producers and artists who are;
• Interested in diversifying their work / programmes to engage communities;
• Passionate about building meaningful relationships with communities;
• Looking for new frameworks / approaches to develop audiences.
You are encouraged to bring along case studies, questions and examples around community outreach that you can work during the session.
Our shared human experiences are the true connection points between our art and our audiences. The opportunity for conversation lies in our willingness to share these stories with each other, utilising the digital tools that are enabling us to do so more easily and more widely than ever before.
In this thought-provoking and practical workshop session, Vicki Allpress Hill will facilitate a discussion about ways that we can invite, curate, create and distribute digital content in the form of text, images, video and audio in order to share our stories, and those of our audiences, opening the way for conversation as a result.
Vicki will draw on her current work in the area of content marketing with arts organisations here and internationally to present examples of the ways artists and arts organisations are now using digital content to generate audience engagement. As part of this session, you will participate in a creative brainstorming session with your peers to unearth the stories that exist within and around your own organisations.
If you are responsible for developing website, social media, video, email, media or publication content in your organisation, and/or your role is focused on audience development and engagement, this session will be of interest to you.
Nurturing the Big Conversation Digitally Using Culture SegmentsCreative New Zealand
Nurturing the Big Conversation Digitally using Culture Segments
Ginny Cartmel,
Morris Hargreaves McIntyre
In this session Ginny will start by look at some recent trends in social media engagement followed by a brief introduction (or re-familiarisation) with the Culture Segments system.
She'll then explore data collected through a range of different studies that helps us to understand how the different Culture Segments engage with social media - what kind of interactions they seek and what this means for arts organisations and cultural venues. Using real examples, you’ll discover how social media messaging can be practically differentiated and optimised through applying Culture Segments, ultimately helping us to achieve a deeper relationship and bigger, more relevant conversation with our audiences.
The session is aimed at anyone who is interested in how segmenting audience can help refine messages and will be particularly relevant to those working in marketing. By the end of the session attendees will have an understanding of how Culture Segments can be applied when developing messages for and engaging with audiences online.
Starting a Conversation: Using video to engage potential new audiencesCreative New Zealand
How do we begin to have a conversation with people who have no idea who we are and what we do? How do we introduce them to an unfamiliar artform in a way that resonates? Candice de Villiers (Marketing and Communications Coordinator) shares a case study on how Chamber Music New Zealand (CMNZ) used video to start a conversation with potential new audiences through the Creative New Zealand’s Optimise Coaching Programme in 2013. The goal - to answer the question...‘What is chamber music?'
The case study will explore how CMNZ approached the challenge of introducing chamber music in a new and accessible way, utilised existing audiences and networks to create and share content, and used Facebook and Google targeting to engage with specific culture segments.
Differentiating the Message
Meg Williams,
New Zealand Festival
The New Zealand Festival attracts around 72,000 people to purchase tickets at more than 70 unique arts events. When every show is different and every person is different – how do you match them up with your messaging?
Festival Marketing and Development Manager Meg Williams will look at ways to differentiate the message for a range of audience segments, using examples from the recent 2014 New Zealand Festival and give frank feedback about what worked and what didn’t. Meg will provide tips on creating relevant content, the power of endorsement and recommendation, being active in your communities and personalising the arts experience.
This session would be relevant to anyone who is working on targeted plans to attract audiences to arts events. This is an interactive breakout which you’ll leave with a number of methods to put into practice in your organisation as well as a takeaway planner.
Building digital engagement: Live streaming and whole of organisation engagementCreative New Zealand
Building Digital Engagement: Live Streaming and Whole of Organisation Engagement
Stuart Angel, Lee Martelli and Christine Young,
Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra’s session will focus on two aspects only of their digital strategy:
• the importance of a cross-organisational strategy and how that has been manifested particularly in APO Connecting
•Building relevance and engagement with audiences of all ages through moving online, with specific reference to live streaming of concerts.
You’ll also hear about the development of the APO’s digital strategy – the process and how all parts of the organisation were involved, from staff to Board, the impact of the live streams and the impact on their audience reach. Aimed at general management, marketers and educators, you’ll leave this session with:
• Insight into the 6 key areas of the APO’s digital strategy
• An idea of the live stream planning process
• 12 learnings in education
The Digital Organisation
Michael Adams,
Auckland Theatre Company
In this conversation Auckland Theatre Company’s Michael Adams, will talk about the strategy the company is developing, entitled Bridging the Virtual and Real Worlds, as it prepares to open its new theatre on Auckland’s waterfront as well as positioning itself as a 21st century company. He will discuss their first milestones towards this major digital overhaul including auditing and mapping the current situation and preparing requests for proposals for the underlying business systems that will support greater audience facing goals.
While a project of this kind may appear daunting and the learning curve steep, the key to success is determining the best place to start and breaking the overall project down into manageable parts. You’ll leave this session with tips and skills for your digital project, irrespective of its scale. You’ll also receive:
• Useful tactics for visually representing your digital organisation.
• Tactics for auditing your current situation to reveal the digital areas which are essential to work on in order to realise that goal.
Keeping the Conversation Alive
Lindsey Schofield,
Festival of Colour
Ever wondered how a biennial festival can maintain engagement in between festivals? It’s a bit like a long distance relationship with intense bursts of activity and then long periods of silence. Facebook is the perfect medium however to keep the conversation going and enable both sides to feel involved and connected when it sometimes feels like there’s not much to talk about.
The Festival of Colour has developed a unique way of approaching content using ‘content buckets’ to keep conversations meaningful and relevant.
In this session Festival of Colour General Manager Lindsey Schofield will show how she approached this dilemma, and why Facebook was the right medium for this in all the plethora of social media channels. She will outline what their initial goals were and how they implemented them with some step by step practical advice on how to manage Facebook content, how to navigate your way through the minefield of Facebook advertising and will share the best practice that she has developed for this biennial festival.
Never afraid to show what didn’t work as well as what has worked this will be an interesting and entertaining session ideal for anyone who faces a challenge of engaging with their audiences with a small budget, little resource and sometimes feeling like they’ve got nothing to say! Ideal for festival, production company, and venue management and marketing staff.
Nigel Borrell, The Auckland War Memorial Museum
Auckland War Memorial Museum is currently engaged in the challenge of how to better reach audiences and communities in ways that are meaningful and that create value. The Museum strives to be responsive, flexible and share experiences (both successful or otherwise) that helps us to refine what we do. But how do we improve on this in order to better reach groups and meet their interests more directly?
During this presentation you’ll gain insight into some of the current practices and approaches that the Auckland War Memorial Museum is involved in with source communities, stakeholder groups and community in general. You’ll also have the opportunity to evaluate how your organisation might be addressing this. Nigel will share a range of current projects including;
• Outreach: Te Ahu visitor centre and Ngāi Tūhoe Deed of Settlement
• Future Pacific Access Project
• Hotunui meeting house Preservation project
• Te Awe – a window into our taonga Māori collection
• Contemporary artist collection projects: Neil Pardington and Michael Parekowhai.
• Working towards a co-development and co-production framework
This session is aimed at Curators and arts and cultural organisations involved in similar challenges.
Ginny Cartmel, Morris Hargreaves McIntyre
In the final presentation of the day we will celebrate some examples of cultural organisations that are stimulating big conversations with audiences - covering practical examples that will inspire organisations and give people confidence on how audience dialogues can be transformed.
Popularity is a theme very close to our hearts – in fact it’s in our DNA.
‘We don’t make brands famous, we make them popular’, that’s the Leo Burnett philosophy. We’ve been looking deeper into our belief that Popularity is an essential ingredient for a brand’s enduring success. In fact, straight from the smokin’ abacus of Mike Treharne, our Head of Doing Nifty Stuff With Numbers, we’ve done some brand new research into where brands sit in a lifecycle of popularity, and what drives that popularity. We’d be delighted to talk to you more about the study – just let us know. You can read a bit about it within this Frisk, along with plenty of other stuff that neatly complements it – a piece from Canvas8 on brands being your BFF, some wise thoughts on Popularity from our Planning department, and a big chunk of celebrity endorsement stuff thanks to our in-house retail mogul, Sarah Leccacorvi.
Breakout session at #CNMAC11, October 15 2011: "Discipleship encompasses our whole life, but how can we continue to be whole life disciples in the online space?" Ideas & Conversation... what better way to spend 40 minutes!!
See http://digital-fingerprint.co.uk/2011/10/talking-about-digidisciple-at-cnmac11/ for associated Creative Commons licence.
Taki Rua Kaitiaki, Esther Roberts, takes a look at how the concept of whānau has informed her work in audience development alongside Taki Rua’s Te Reo Māori Season – National Youth Tour.
During this session participants will learn how the company established its Whānau Performance Pilot and take part in practical exercises that explore how the whānau approach can be used as a framework for growing meaningful relationships with audiences and communities.
This session will appeal to arts managers, producers and artists who are;
• Interested in diversifying their work / programmes to engage communities;
• Passionate about building meaningful relationships with communities;
• Looking for new frameworks / approaches to develop audiences.
You are encouraged to bring along case studies, questions and examples around community outreach that you can work during the session.
Our shared human experiences are the true connection points between our art and our audiences. The opportunity for conversation lies in our willingness to share these stories with each other, utilising the digital tools that are enabling us to do so more easily and more widely than ever before.
In this thought-provoking and practical workshop session, Vicki Allpress Hill will facilitate a discussion about ways that we can invite, curate, create and distribute digital content in the form of text, images, video and audio in order to share our stories, and those of our audiences, opening the way for conversation as a result.
Vicki will draw on her current work in the area of content marketing with arts organisations here and internationally to present examples of the ways artists and arts organisations are now using digital content to generate audience engagement. As part of this session, you will participate in a creative brainstorming session with your peers to unearth the stories that exist within and around your own organisations.
If you are responsible for developing website, social media, video, email, media or publication content in your organisation, and/or your role is focused on audience development and engagement, this session will be of interest to you.
Nurturing the Big Conversation Digitally Using Culture SegmentsCreative New Zealand
Nurturing the Big Conversation Digitally using Culture Segments
Ginny Cartmel,
Morris Hargreaves McIntyre
In this session Ginny will start by look at some recent trends in social media engagement followed by a brief introduction (or re-familiarisation) with the Culture Segments system.
She'll then explore data collected through a range of different studies that helps us to understand how the different Culture Segments engage with social media - what kind of interactions they seek and what this means for arts organisations and cultural venues. Using real examples, you’ll discover how social media messaging can be practically differentiated and optimised through applying Culture Segments, ultimately helping us to achieve a deeper relationship and bigger, more relevant conversation with our audiences.
The session is aimed at anyone who is interested in how segmenting audience can help refine messages and will be particularly relevant to those working in marketing. By the end of the session attendees will have an understanding of how Culture Segments can be applied when developing messages for and engaging with audiences online.
Starting a Conversation: Using video to engage potential new audiencesCreative New Zealand
How do we begin to have a conversation with people who have no idea who we are and what we do? How do we introduce them to an unfamiliar artform in a way that resonates? Candice de Villiers (Marketing and Communications Coordinator) shares a case study on how Chamber Music New Zealand (CMNZ) used video to start a conversation with potential new audiences through the Creative New Zealand’s Optimise Coaching Programme in 2013. The goal - to answer the question...‘What is chamber music?'
The case study will explore how CMNZ approached the challenge of introducing chamber music in a new and accessible way, utilised existing audiences and networks to create and share content, and used Facebook and Google targeting to engage with specific culture segments.
Differentiating the Message
Meg Williams,
New Zealand Festival
The New Zealand Festival attracts around 72,000 people to purchase tickets at more than 70 unique arts events. When every show is different and every person is different – how do you match them up with your messaging?
Festival Marketing and Development Manager Meg Williams will look at ways to differentiate the message for a range of audience segments, using examples from the recent 2014 New Zealand Festival and give frank feedback about what worked and what didn’t. Meg will provide tips on creating relevant content, the power of endorsement and recommendation, being active in your communities and personalising the arts experience.
This session would be relevant to anyone who is working on targeted plans to attract audiences to arts events. This is an interactive breakout which you’ll leave with a number of methods to put into practice in your organisation as well as a takeaway planner.
Building digital engagement: Live streaming and whole of organisation engagementCreative New Zealand
Building Digital Engagement: Live Streaming and Whole of Organisation Engagement
Stuart Angel, Lee Martelli and Christine Young,
Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra’s session will focus on two aspects only of their digital strategy:
• the importance of a cross-organisational strategy and how that has been manifested particularly in APO Connecting
•Building relevance and engagement with audiences of all ages through moving online, with specific reference to live streaming of concerts.
You’ll also hear about the development of the APO’s digital strategy – the process and how all parts of the organisation were involved, from staff to Board, the impact of the live streams and the impact on their audience reach. Aimed at general management, marketers and educators, you’ll leave this session with:
• Insight into the 6 key areas of the APO’s digital strategy
• An idea of the live stream planning process
• 12 learnings in education
The Digital Organisation
Michael Adams,
Auckland Theatre Company
In this conversation Auckland Theatre Company’s Michael Adams, will talk about the strategy the company is developing, entitled Bridging the Virtual and Real Worlds, as it prepares to open its new theatre on Auckland’s waterfront as well as positioning itself as a 21st century company. He will discuss their first milestones towards this major digital overhaul including auditing and mapping the current situation and preparing requests for proposals for the underlying business systems that will support greater audience facing goals.
While a project of this kind may appear daunting and the learning curve steep, the key to success is determining the best place to start and breaking the overall project down into manageable parts. You’ll leave this session with tips and skills for your digital project, irrespective of its scale. You’ll also receive:
• Useful tactics for visually representing your digital organisation.
• Tactics for auditing your current situation to reveal the digital areas which are essential to work on in order to realise that goal.
Keeping the Conversation Alive
Lindsey Schofield,
Festival of Colour
Ever wondered how a biennial festival can maintain engagement in between festivals? It’s a bit like a long distance relationship with intense bursts of activity and then long periods of silence. Facebook is the perfect medium however to keep the conversation going and enable both sides to feel involved and connected when it sometimes feels like there’s not much to talk about.
The Festival of Colour has developed a unique way of approaching content using ‘content buckets’ to keep conversations meaningful and relevant.
In this session Festival of Colour General Manager Lindsey Schofield will show how she approached this dilemma, and why Facebook was the right medium for this in all the plethora of social media channels. She will outline what their initial goals were and how they implemented them with some step by step practical advice on how to manage Facebook content, how to navigate your way through the minefield of Facebook advertising and will share the best practice that she has developed for this biennial festival.
Never afraid to show what didn’t work as well as what has worked this will be an interesting and entertaining session ideal for anyone who faces a challenge of engaging with their audiences with a small budget, little resource and sometimes feeling like they’ve got nothing to say! Ideal for festival, production company, and venue management and marketing staff.
Nigel Borrell, The Auckland War Memorial Museum
Auckland War Memorial Museum is currently engaged in the challenge of how to better reach audiences and communities in ways that are meaningful and that create value. The Museum strives to be responsive, flexible and share experiences (both successful or otherwise) that helps us to refine what we do. But how do we improve on this in order to better reach groups and meet their interests more directly?
During this presentation you’ll gain insight into some of the current practices and approaches that the Auckland War Memorial Museum is involved in with source communities, stakeholder groups and community in general. You’ll also have the opportunity to evaluate how your organisation might be addressing this. Nigel will share a range of current projects including;
• Outreach: Te Ahu visitor centre and Ngāi Tūhoe Deed of Settlement
• Future Pacific Access Project
• Hotunui meeting house Preservation project
• Te Awe – a window into our taonga Māori collection
• Contemporary artist collection projects: Neil Pardington and Michael Parekowhai.
• Working towards a co-development and co-production framework
This session is aimed at Curators and arts and cultural organisations involved in similar challenges.
Ginny Cartmel, Morris Hargreaves McIntyre
In the final presentation of the day we will celebrate some examples of cultural organisations that are stimulating big conversations with audiences - covering practical examples that will inspire organisations and give people confidence on how audience dialogues can be transformed.
Popularity is a theme very close to our hearts – in fact it’s in our DNA.
‘We don’t make brands famous, we make them popular’, that’s the Leo Burnett philosophy. We’ve been looking deeper into our belief that Popularity is an essential ingredient for a brand’s enduring success. In fact, straight from the smokin’ abacus of Mike Treharne, our Head of Doing Nifty Stuff With Numbers, we’ve done some brand new research into where brands sit in a lifecycle of popularity, and what drives that popularity. We’d be delighted to talk to you more about the study – just let us know. You can read a bit about it within this Frisk, along with plenty of other stuff that neatly complements it – a piece from Canvas8 on brands being your BFF, some wise thoughts on Popularity from our Planning department, and a big chunk of celebrity endorsement stuff thanks to our in-house retail mogul, Sarah Leccacorvi.
Breakout session at #CNMAC11, October 15 2011: "Discipleship encompasses our whole life, but how can we continue to be whole life disciples in the online space?" Ideas & Conversation... what better way to spend 40 minutes!!
See http://digital-fingerprint.co.uk/2011/10/talking-about-digidisciple-at-cnmac11/ for associated Creative Commons licence.
The market research industry is broken. We think spending more and real time with people, researching those never researched before and talking to people with a story tell might just save it.
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Fashionista Chic Couture Maze & Coloring Adventures is a coloring and activity book filled with many maze games and coloring activities designed to delight and engage young fashion enthusiasts. Each page offers a unique blend of fashion-themed mazes and stylish illustrations to color, inspiring creativity and problem-solving skills in children.
Hadj Ounis's most notable work is his sculpture titled "Metamorphosis." This piece showcases Ounis's mastery of form and texture, as he seamlessly combines metal and wood to create a dynamic and visually striking composition. The juxtaposition of the two materials creates a sense of tension and harmony, inviting viewers to contemplate the relationship between nature and industry.
This tutorial offers a step-by-step guide on how to effectively use Pinterest. It covers the basics such as account creation and navigation, as well as advanced techniques including creating eye-catching pins and optimizing your profile. The tutorial also explores collaboration and networking on the platform. With visual illustrations and clear instructions, this tutorial will equip you with the skills to navigate Pinterest confidently and achieve your goals.
Explore the multifaceted world of Muntadher Saleh, an Iraqi polymath renowned for his expertise in visual art, writing, design, and pharmacy. This SlideShare delves into his innovative contributions across various disciplines, showcasing his unique ability to blend traditional themes with modern aesthetics. Learn about his impactful artworks, thought-provoking literary pieces, and his vision as a Neo-Pop artist dedicated to raising awareness about Iraq's cultural heritage. Discover why Muntadher Saleh is celebrated as "The Last Polymath" and how his multidisciplinary talents continue to inspire and influence.
2. ANDREW
This morning we’d like to start a big conversation about the big conversation between
our institutions and our audiences
2
3. Artists have been stimulating big conversations with and within their audiences since
art began. And it’s in those exchanges that the meaning and value of art can be
found. But the rise, some thirty-odd years ago, of Orthodox Arts Marketing has
interrupted, stifled, controlled, chanelled and stylised that vital free-flowing
conversation. And in its place we’ve had... copywriting.
3
4. Orthodox Arts Marketing holds that artists are great people but that they’re not that
great at talking to the audience. This, the argument
goes, is a task best left to professionals. Copywriting’s purple prose is surely required
to entice the notoriously ticket-shy audience to the box office and to frequent our
museums and galleries. Copywriting claims that it’s just like our own words, only
better, in a different order and with cooler adjectives. It’s more eloquent than us,
wittier, more self-assured and far more persuasive. Copywriting always knows the
right words to say, and when. It finishes every sentence before starting a new one. It
anticipates the next question and answers it without missing a beat.
4
5. No wonder, then, that it sounds nothing like a real conversation. Now, don’t get me
wrong. I love a bit of copywriting. It’s like an Olympic sport with marks awarded for
style; spin; and technical virtuosity. But, be honest. It all sounds, well, just so…
5
7. It’s got so bad that I’ve been receiving versions of the same, tired old direct mail
letter for the past 20 years. Delete opera, insert ballet. Rinse and repeat. Why am I no
longer surprised that the New Zealand Herald or Otago Daily Times loved it so much
that the type for their quote suddenly triples in size? But if snail mail is looking tired,
if anything, those templated MailChimp emails seem even more cloned. And we all
know what we mean by ‘brochure copy’. Heck, we could all write it on auto-pilot. It’s
a style that’s become its own genre. Upbeat, perky, ever so-slightly breathless,
packed with nods and references to previous triumphs and relying on a central list of
hackneyed phrases. Why is it that dance is always so exhilarating?
7
8. And we all know what we mean by ‘brochure copy’. Heck, we could all write it on
auto-pilot. It’s a style that’s become its own genre. Upbeat, perky, ever so-slightly
breathless, packed with nods and references to previous triumphs and relying on a
central list of hackneyed phrases. Why is it that dance is always so exhilarating? Of
course, even though Orthodox Arts Marketing is still perpetuating the old idea that
the audience is a mass of fickle, would-be non-bookers who might just be won over
by a compelling headline and a smart turn-of-phrase, the reality is somewhat
different. The audience is far, far smarter than that. Many have given up reading our
re-worked, over-polished but thinlydisguised sales pitches altogether. Our brochures
go straight to recycling and our emails are routinely trashed or sit unopened. Those
who do read our heavily copy-written offerings do so with their ‘bulls**t detectors’
on full alert.
8
9. Think about it. We’re all audience members ourselves. We all get sent these same-
old, same-old brochures and emails. And we don’t believe a word of them. We know
the game and we read between the lines. So, let’s ask ourselves. I mean, really ask
ourselves, why would our intelligent, media-literate, clever audiences not be doing
exactly the same? A few of them work in marketing too! It’s time we recognised that
audiences don’t want to receive a letter signed by a Marketing Manager, no one
wants to read anything that sounds even vaguely like it’s been written by one. I know
this. That used to be my job title and it used to be Andrew’s too. Thousands, literally
thousands od these letters I have “signed”, mass printed and stuffed into envelopes in
my time. My stepson took his girlfriend to an arts performance when they were first
dating a couple of years ago. They loved the experience and yes, he confirmed, he’d
like to go to another one. Somehow he ended up on the organisation’s postal mailing
list. Now, about once every two months, religiously, a letter arrives. Without fail, he
glances at the letter concerned and puts it directly in the recycling bin. I keep thinking
of that poor Marketing Manager steadfastly sending his or her letters hopefully into
such a vacuum. Gen Y are like canaries in the mines for testing bad, adjective-ridden
copywriting. They’re skeptical and they can spot that templated “written by a
marketing manager” bullsh*t from a mile away. Watch them closely. In “Marketing To
Millennials And Other Skeptical Customers?” writer Micah Solomon “Understatement
is one of the secrets of branding, marketing, and advertising in our post-credulity,
social media-saturated, millennial (Gen Y) -influenced world.”
9
10. If the task is to bring artists and audiences closer together, then we are not really
succeeding any more via Orthodox Arts. If anything, it’s potentially created an opaque
layer between the creatives that make the work and the audience they’d love to
engage – and who would love to hear directly from them. We are in an age where
promotional messages are being filtered out at best and viewed with outright
suspicion at worst. We are in an era of “content marketing” – delivering valuable
information to build trust and strengthen relationships, not sales messages. A recent
article in Forbes.com articulated it beautifully: “While consumers continue to tune
out traditional, intrusive marketing communications, they increasingly crave the type
of genuine, customer-focused information that content marketing delivers.”
10
11. So, if we are to have any hope of dialogue with our audience, if we want them to
engage with us, then we’re going to need to take a step back from the clichéd
copywriting. Many of you we know have already stopped – today we’re going to see
some really smart examples of real connections between art and audiences, but let’s
ALL vow, here and now, to never send(in a rushed or thoughtless way) another one of
those emails or write any more of that brochure copy. We’ll feel better for it, and the
audience will be thankful. Filtering the bulls**t is a soul-destroying task when all you
crave is a genuine, meaningful personal connection with someone who has made,
curated, loves or has breathed life into the work.
11
12. About a week ago Australian Ballet posted a stunning image on Instagram of their
current Bodytorque: DNA season – their showcase of emerging choreographic talent
from their ranks. The images for the season are so glorious, by the way, words are
scarcely needed, but I loved the real and human way in which they talked about the
season in the image caption: “Bodytorque:DNA took our breath away last night!
Were you there? What did you think? And who’s going tonight?” And so the
conversation began: “It was simply amazing.... What I loved the most was the two
male dancers on variations of the same classical piece of music. Greetings from a
Spanish here in Melbourne.” No cliches. Honest enthusiasm.Not an “exhilarating” in
sight – maybe a little breathless but believably so. And an immediate response from a
real audience member.
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13. We all have to sell things – tickets, donations, musical scores, recordings,
programmes... Some times a clear, strong and confident call to action is what’s
needed. But we need to remember that when we send a sales message, it reinforces
that the audience member is a ‘customer’ and that we are seeking a transactional
outcome. That’s going to be necessary sometimes. But is it all we want? And if it’s
the only way we ever communicate with our audiences is that really going to build
the kind of relationship we aspire to have with our audiences? Is it going to make
them feel close to our art? It’s like that friend who doesn’t realise she’s doing it, but
who only ever phones me when she wants something from me. If just once she called
to say “hey I was just checking in to see how you are going” orto say “wow, that was
fun last night?” . emailed me with “this useful resource I saw that might be of interest
to you, it would make all the difference. It could transform me from having my slightly
suspicious guard up and avoiding taking the calls to feeling appreciated and wanting
to give back something. Isn’t it the same with our audiences?
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14. When all we ever send our audiences are ticket offers and requests for donations,
they’re going to feel kept firmly in their place: at arm’s length. And it’s really hard to
embrace at arms length. We need to be applying the principles of building
relationships with our friends, to building relationships with our audiences. Instead of
building what we see as databases full of customer sales leads we need to be building
real communities of engagement and support around our institutions and our work.
Sure, we’ll need to use a database and a segmented CRM system – we’re
professionals, not luddites – but we need to remind ourselves it’s the human
relationships we’re interested in, not the kilobytes of data. Our audience member is
not Database Record No. 2-4-3-6-1, it’s Kate, who organises all her family and friends
to visit us.
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15. And we’re fortunate. Cultural experiences are amongst the most personal, powerful
and memorable we can have. Every encounter, real or virtual…is an opportunity to
make a really powerful connection with an audience member.
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16. Relationships are not difficult, audiences are pre-disposed to them and we are,
actually, naturally very good at them. Every time we welcome someone into a venue,
every time they have a shared experience in a performance or a hosted moment in
museum or gallery the bond is strengthened.
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17. All our communications need to evoke the experience of a one-to-one encounter
with the creative fanatic behind the work. We need to share more than just the
details of what’s on. We need to convey our inspiration and our heartfelt desire to
share the experience with them, personally. We need to share our humanity. And
when we ask audiences for their opinions, collect their feedback and listen to their
stories it’s like adding rocket fuel to the relationship, especially when we act on what
we’ve heard. This dialogue is personal and our responses are personalised. All this is a
long, long way from the one-way, downward push of Orthodox Arts Marketing.
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18. Some cultural organisations have gone much further. They’ve invited their audiences
to create, to produce and to co-create work. International Audience Atlas data
suggests six in ten audience members would like to co-create with us. From the
audience dramaturgy of theatre-in-development programmes like Toronto-based
Theatre Passé Muraille’s ’Buzz’ and London-based Battersea Arts Centre’s ‘Scratch’ to
the increasing number of museums routinely using formative evaluation to pre-test
exhibition concepts, plans, titles and prices, audiences are becoming stakeholders in
the work.
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19. Of course, while we should make the most of every real-world, face-to-face contact,
no cultural organisation has the resources to truly personalise every communication
and to deal with each individual on a one-to-one basis every time.
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20. That’s where Culture Segments comes in. Segmentation is a good compromise
between the incredibly ineffective one size fits all and the impossibly inefficient one-
to-one. New Zealand Culture Segments classifies people into meaningful and
practically useful groups within which people share deep-seated values, beliefs and
propensities. Understanding these Culture Segments, consciously targeting them and
differentiating your messaging, presentation and the experience you’re offering
makes every one of your communications far more relevant and valued.
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21. By simply ‘tweaking’ the communication between versions for different segments,
you can quickly build out a ‘mass personalisation’ campaign, increasing audience
response and building brand trust. You can differentiate your communications
whether or not you have a direct marketing database. Even when using ’broadcast’
channels such as posters and advertising, messages optimised and for specific Culture
Segments will find their target far more reliably than messages optimised for no
segment. Understanding these Culture Segments… makes every one of your
communications
far more relevant and valued. And using Culture Segments media insights, those
messages can be carefully placed in particular chosen titles and channels where your
target segments are most likely to see them and have the greatest propensity to
respond, forward, click or book. Increasingly, organisations are ‘screening’ their
database members on joining – and via updates – to collect answers to Culture
Segments’ short ‘Golden Questions’ together with other ‘relationship’ data like Brand
Equity that profiles an audience member’s levels of loyalty, trust, risk taking, sense of
belonging and propensity to join, to donate or to volunteer. A database holding this
kind of rich relationship profiling is a very powerful tool indeed.
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22. As a sector, we really need to put down that Digital Megaphone.
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23. The advent of digital communications should, by now, have revolutionised our
audience relationships.
You would think so.
We have the means at our disposal to segment, target and personalise.
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24. The web and the devices we carry have such rich relationship tools… While some
cultural organisations are deeply digital, adoption rates in others are positively glacial.
And while the rest of the internet is brim-full with authentic, opinionated,
wonderfully idiosyncratic user-generated content (reviews, ratings and
recommendations), most of our websites by comparison read like tightly controlled
brochure marketing sites. We’re so guilty of taking the adjective-rich brochure copy
we already wrote and pasting it into our website pages, promo email templates and
even Facebook status boxes. And even when audience members see past our cliches
and speak to us right where we could be be having a conversation; where comment
boxes reside on social media and blogs - we’re sometimes not even responding And
take email. It’s cost-effective, we can segment by characteristics and we can deliver
fast and relevant communications that include images, video, quotes and links. We
can speak in direct ways to our current audiences but also so easily target the
infrequent, lapsed and lapsing audiences that make up such a huge and forgotten
proportion of our databases. Yet we’ve all been guilty, and many still are of sending
undifferentiated, impersonal email ‘blasts’ wrapped in garish HTML graphic templates
that scream ‘generic web advert’ not ‘personal message’. Instead of using email to
finesse our relationship messaging, we’re talking (even shouting) at them in “one-size
fits no-one” style. It’s never been easier to make all our messaging carefully
differentiated and powerfully personalised. Yet, the danger is that instead of moving
beyond old-fashioned Orthodox Arts Marketing into a new, post-marketing world of
genuine audience engagement, we simply end up importing its flawed tenets, wrong-
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27. But the world of digital communications offers us myriad ways to connect, engage
and build communities around our institutions and our work.
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28. Digital content can be richer, more intimate and more readily available in real time
than anything we’ve had before. We can upload or stream our actual creative work
to the web or even syndicate it to cinemas. Thousands now watch operas from the
Met in New York, plays from the National Theatre in London or enjoy a personal tour
of the latest British Museum exhibition with the Director as the guide. Rather than
cannibalise the ‘live’ audience, digital distribution both extends the market and
creates a stronger desire to make a real-world visit.
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29. We can also share the process of making our work in ways that the audience find
completely compelling – a peek backstage…
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30. …a fly on the rehearsal room wall, conversations with the performer, artist, writer,
curator, director or choreographer. All these ramp up anticipation and increase
audience’s readiness to receive.
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31. But the ultimate impact of digital content can be found in user-generated content and
in user-shared links to our content. It’s like deputising half your audience as members
of your communications team. Word of mouth has always been invaluable. Word of
mouse is multiplying the effect. To extraordinary levels. When we calculated the
collective friends of Facebook fans of the 38 organisations taking part in our
Optimiser online benchmarking pilot here in New Zealand we nearly fell over.
31,442,741 - 31,442,741 people are just one click away from the people who
love these organisations enough to be connected to their Facebook pages. And
what’s so great? We can track this word of mouth. It’s has always been notoriously
difficult to track- and do we trust those surveys really? But word of mouse leaves
digital tracks that can be followed, collated and analysed to give us unprecedented
insight into audience responses.
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32. We live in a fabulous age rich with opportunities for audience engagement and
genuine real-time conversation. We can remove that opaque layer whenever we
choose to. And we’re blazing a trail here in New Zealand. Creative New Zealand’s
Optimise online marketing capability building programme is producing inspiring
initiatives that are facilitating this connection with our audiences. And 38 deeply
brave and forward thinking organisations have opened the bonnet on their online
analytics and let us in to find the trends and insights that will move us forward as a
sector. Every time we throw a communications stone into the audience pond, digital
tools can help us to choose a better stone and track all the ripples it makes. Rather
than just broadcasting our messages and hoping that they find their mark, we can
now trial different approaches and accurately track every response from opening an
email, clicking on a content link, sharing on social media, forwarding to others and
booking a ticket. We know that the closer the contact with the work and its makers
the more the audience lights up in response. We can now see and even measure that
response by event, communication and segment.
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33. We stand on the threshold of a completely new era. Change is afoot and there are so
many examples of great new practice in our sector. And New Zealand is pushing its
way to the front. Many of these examples are digital, but many are good old-
fashioned analogue: face-to-face is still by far the most personally powerful medium
of all.
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34. This Big Conversation gathering is about sharing that great practice with each other
so that we can all start an even bigger conversation with our audiences. What’s clear
is that building genuine audience relationships is not about digital technology. It relies
much more on our desire to share our creative inspiration with the audience, our
willingness to make our organisations personal, porous and transparent and our
insistence that audience engagement is everyone’s responsibility from the board
room to the tea room. It’s far too big and important a task to simply delegate to
someone who happens to have ‘marketing’ in their job title.
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