Need to know

It’s a tough old world out there and everyone is feeling edgy. Is it business as normal or time to be doing something else? What do we need to know? The economic downturn is having a clear effect on ticket sales, with most organisations admitting a drop in advance sales and some adding that ‘on the door’ purchases are not bridging the gap. Stephen Birch, Audience Development Officer at The Theatre, Chipping Norton, comments, “Live shows and films with a real feel good factor are doing particularly well at the moment, but people are cherry picking the shows that they come and see. They need to escape from all the bad news around at the moment into the fantasy world of theatre and film. I have been careful with our front of house displays not to mention any price freeze, credit crunch special prices or anything like that as I feel that it is giving the wrong message. When people come to theatre they want to leave the real world at the door and enter into a magical happy place.”
Free museums and venues are making the most of the value they offer. People are choosing cheap but wholesome leisure experiences such as gardening, evening classes, museums and galleries. Claire Hyde, Head of Communications at the National Maritime Museum, reports a 21% increase in visitors in 2008. She says, “It’s vital to maximise the ups and downs of the ‘leisure year’, get everyone in the organisation to understand whatever market segmentation you choose and keep selling the whole experience, not just individual events or products.”
New technology is preoccupying many arts marketers. Julie Aldridge, Executive Director of the Arts Marketing Association (AMA) comments, “The AMA is seeing huge interest among the arts sector with regard to digital media and the new opportunities this opens up for arts marketers. Some are excited about the prospect of getting stuck into new, creative techniques which enable them to get closer to their audiences and visitors. Many are daunted by the range of new tools available and are unsure where to start.” Ruth Eastwood, Chief Executive of Leicester’s new Curve Theatre, observes, “The number of people here who are booking online and printing tickets at home is amazing. Arts marketing has changed but not for all segments. There’s a danger that new technology can make us forget that we are selling our wares in small towns and villages and not just a city.”

Social networking
Many arts social networking sites are obvious publicity tools. The most successful are where the technology genuinely meets a need or brings interest groups together. Paula Hammond, Director of the Merlin Theatre, Frome, reports, “People want to pick up our brochure in the health food shop. Frome is not a viral community. It’s a real community. But the Facebook page for our community panto has worked fantastically. There’s 137 cast and crew. Social networking is the best way to communicate, but we can use it for marketing as well as saying when the next rehearsal is.” Jenny Phillips, General Manager of the Aberdeen Festival, adds, “Our social networking site connects festival participants and local young audiences. It provides a good way for the international participants to link up and chat to the local participants before they get to Aberdeen, and also helps local audiences to get more involved and therefore more likely to attend.”
Understanding audiences will always be critical. There is wealth of data and resources to help, and new technology can provide faster and cheaper feedback. Yet many arts marketers are too wary of web 2.0’s potential for interactivity, choosing to edit comment and feeling defensive, rather than welcoming engagement with visitors and customers. Robert Miles, Director of Somerset’s Brewhouse Theatre and Arts Centre, comments, “I am very keen on growing relationships which give control to the customer over when and how they engage with us, and keen that participation is seen as a key marketing tool. For example, free participatory events in our café have grown main house and studio audiences for genres such as family shows.” Lisa Head, Marketing Assistant at Cardigan’s Theatr Mwldan, offers, “The killer information which gives you a competitive advantage is to know how customers want to be contacted: email, phone, sms, post, etc., as well as what are their likes and dislikes.”
Face to face
Many marketers hide behind their computer screens and rarely engage face to face with their audiences. We know society is changing but sometimes in the arts we don’t really recognise those changes. We work funny hours and we don’t do normal things. Yet, in some ways, culture is closer to normal life than ever before. Programmes such as ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ show that the population wants to engage with the arts – it’s just that no-one talks like that. I’m disappointed when marketers are unwilling to make those connections for audiences because they either don’t understand them or they think they will be dumbing down. We may have developed our tastes now, but we all began with ‘Carmina Burana’, ‘Grease’, the French Impressionists or pantomime. Eastwood argues that “What marketers need to do is bang the drum. Don’t just talk about segmentation, go out and find those segments.” Miles believes “We need to sell the overall benefit of ‘live’ performance, both the risk and the reward.” Hammond says, “We pay our Assistant Director to work as a community director as well work in our venue. She attends ‘am dram’ meetings and gets involved across the community. We put value on that and it pays back in audiences.” Aldridge concludes, “Many of us are hearing nagging voices … about all the digital techniques we haven’t tried yet!”
The reassuring news is that we don’t necessarily all need to use all the tools available. With our limited budgets and limited staff time, picking the right communication tools (traditional and new) for our organisation, for our audience development plans, and to suit our audiences, is essential.” It’s important that marketers, in a difficult economic, social and technological environment, know themselves. Marketing is a massive job and you can’t manage everything. My advice is to try and assess which aspects you are good at and what interests you. Then find some way or someone to do the bits of marketing you can’t do, or aren’t interested in. Know your own strengths and weaknesses. Few folk are expert at all aspects of marketing. As Alan Partridge says, the key is, “Knowing me, knowing you.”