The Cycle: A Practical Approach to Managing Arts Organizations

2 | Programmatic Marketing: Putting Butts in Seats

24 2 programmatic marketing Putting Butts in Seats There is no question that excellent, vibrant programming lies at the heart of any successful arts organization. Without strong productions, exhibitions , presentations, educational programs, or service offerings, no arts organization can achieve its mission or maintain fiscal strength for an extended period of time. However, simply producing quality artistic and educational programming is not enough. If one mounts a stunning new ballet and no one comes to see it, has the mission really been achieved? In fact, most mission statements are, at least in part, audience focused. We are creating work to entertain, inspire, educate, or influence people. Without an audience , art-making is rarely satisfying. This unhappy prospect is more likely when we undertake to develop lesser-known, new, or more risky projects. We must work even harder in these instances to convince audiences to join us down an unknown path. In most cases, these risky, transformative, mission-driven moments force us to reach well beyond our current audience pool and build alliances in new communities. Programmatic marketing is the process by which we build this audience . It is a structured, multifaceted approach to creating demand for the programming of the organization. In order to create demand, we must do the following: understand the customers and their needs This is the central requirement for any marketer, but it is challenging territory for the arts marketer and separates for-profit and not-for-profit enterprises. For-profit corporations will happily adjust their product to meet the needs of the customer; in fact, that is how products evolve over time. By selecting some offerings over others, customers indicate which options they value most; this information is then used in future generations p r o g r a m m a t i c m a r k e t i n g 25 of product design. The evolution of the automobile is a good example. Over the past century, car design has changed substantially, but virtually every company offers similar features—the ones consumers have said are valuable to them. The missions of not-for-profit arts organizations are very different; this has huge consequences for program development, marketing, and audience development. Like any other not-for-profit, arts organizations are established to fulfill a need or deliver a viewpoint unmet by the market . Therefore, they rarely aim to simply sell the most; they almost always aim to sell what their artistic leadership believes is the best or most lacking in their communities. Of course, there are aspects of the product we are happy to change. For many arts organizations, for example, performances now start earlier . Subscription packages are far more flexible now, and people can buy tickets online. Significant experimentation is under way in the delivery of artistic endeavors outside traditional settings (including online). However, only rarely will we allow our audience to determine what is put on stage or on our walls or in our classes (apart from the occasional “audience choice” program or crowdsourced special project). So understanding the customer is not a tool for product design, but rather a tool for segmenting our base and targeting others who are most likely to enjoy our offerings. We need to understand what different consumer groups are looking for so we can decide if that segment is an appropriate target for a particular project, learn to speak their language, and determine how they prefer to receive their information. This is essential to minimizing the cost and increasing the efficacy of marketing. For, unlike Coca-Cola, we cannot afford to market effectively to everyone ; we have limited resources and need to focus on marketing to those consumers most likely to buy tickets for a specific project. In my work, I tend to focus the vast majority of my marketing resources on the “marginal buyer.” This is the buyer who might possibly buy a ticket—because the content of the program appeals to their demographic or cultural background—but may just as well spend discretionary time and money elsewhere. I do not focus on my core audience as much—those who have shown repeated interest in the type of work we present; they should be easier to engage with a modest marketing effort. Social media, e-blasts, and periodic self-published magazines or newsletters—either hard copy or online—are very useful tools for t h e c y c l e...