marketing the arts – Page 2 – Evelyn Thorne's ePortfolio

Collect and Analyze Materials: Websites

Since we are about to go the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) and I am a long time fan, I decided to look at their website:

http://www.osfashland.org/

OSF has very loyal customers (I’m one of them). People come year and after year, plan vacations around seeing their plays and pay for expensive memberships. I think this is more based on the format of their festival than their marketing, but since so many people are buying their tickets in advance from far away, the navigability of their website is very important.

Their website is pretty confusing, but it is easy to get to the plays. However, since the plays are offered at different times, it can be difficult to plan your vacation. However, you can submit the dates of your vacation and they will tell you which plays are available. Or you can go to a certain play and pick the date to see if it’s available. I think the way OSF handles dynamic seating is smart. They have 4 different categories (A+ to C) and when you go to buy tickets it show you how many tickets are left in each category. It also tells you the comparison to price if you were a member. I’ve never been able to afford a membership, so I always have to buy tickets early enough to get the C price. And the great thing about the cheap tickets is that there is no bad seat in their theaters. So, there isn’t a big risk to buying the C ticket. This is why it’s so important for them to have this information on their website.

Though I think the most important thing about OSF’s website is that they have to have the full schedule for the year up and ready since people are planning far advance for their vacations. This way people can search what plays are happening a week in October or download a PDF of the full schedule. And people who come every year know that you have to buy your tickets well in advance. Last year, we waited till 2 months before and we got the last 3 tickets for many plays. Obviously OSF is doing well.

I impart some of this prosperity to their graphic designer though. I always love their posters and they make you want to see plays you’ve never heard of. I’m super excited for the trip next weekend!!

Collect and Analyze Materials: Posters

When I tried to think of advertising posters that I consider successful, the first one that came to mind was the posters for the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall:

May not be the first poster to come to most people’s minds, but it had an impact on me. I remember walking around San Francisco and seeing these posters everywhere. And then I ended up discussing them: What did they mean? What were they for? Have you seen that poster? This could have been a bad marketing campaign since it was so mysterious, but I think the sheer amount of them made me actually look them up. I then discovered it was a movie and that it looked like it was going to be amazing. I do know these posters didn’t have the best reaction from all audiences. Some people were offended by them, some didn’t understand them, but the movie was a big hit. And now that I’ve seen and love the movie, I remember these posters fondly and the time I spent discussing them.

Another technique I think works for posters is making them collectible. I used to be apart of the San Jose Bike Party: 1000s of people joining up for one epic bike ride once a month and their posters used to be just as epic:

These posters were actually made by a local music legend Benjamin Henderson, which gave them an added prestige, but look at them: they are great pieces of art, even hand colored! Then they sell them as limited edition artwork! I bet they made good money on these. I mean there are literally around 2,000 people who go on these rides and a unique poster could be a great way to remember such a great event. I sure wish I had one of these posters. Bike partay!

And speaking of posters made by the right people. Check out this poster made by Carson Ellis, famous animator and resident of Portland:

Talk about leveraging a name for a community event! Carson Ellis is known throughout the animating world. She’s married to the lead singer of the Decemberists and they’re a well known Portland couple. They were selling these posters at the event and let me tell you: they were popular! I almost bought one mostly because I love the St. Johns Bridge, but I didn’t know it was designed by Carson Ellis till afterwards. They should have been broadcasting that like mad. I definitely would have bought one if I had known that.

Logbook Entry: February 18th

Logbook Entry: Note and comment on the marketing research presentations, listing and describing new information and marketing strategies that interest you.

I really enjoyed listening to everyone’s presentations. It’s always so interesting to hear about what everyone is studying and you get learn about something new in a short presentation! I wish I had taken notes, but I actually remembered everyone’s topics!

One of the ones I found most interesting was Ed’s presentation on transmedia. After hearing him describe how transmedia could be used to market a ballet like Swan Lake, I realized that transmedia is essentially the process of creating a fandom for a product. I had always thought of a fandom as a following of people who are dedicated enough to a cultural product that all of these side projects are born, but I had never thought of creating a fandom through building these side products first. Furthermore, I had never thought of this concept of fandom through transmedia outside of the realm of film and video games. However, after Ed’s presentation, I think this would a great marketing strategy for arts organizations! I mean you could get a new generation interested in classical art through mediums like comic books and games. Obviously this would take a lot of money, but there is definitely an artist pool available.

I also really enjoyed Annie’s presentation on jukebox musicals. I had not heard of that term before even though I’ve been to a ton of jukebox musicals. I had never classified them as a different type of musical, but I now understand why they’ve become so popular. It makes complete sense to create something so expensive like a musical based on already popular music. Now looking back, I realize that I’ve played into that marketing scheme. A musical based on Louis Armstrong? I’m there!

There were a lot more great points brought up in the presentations: Kelsie’s look at dynamic content for Kickstater; Brent’s description of the adjectives used to describe New Mexico; Amy’s comparison of subscription formats. Though I wanted to share one video based on Sarah’s presentation about guerrilla graffiti marketing. I found this when I was researching moss graffiti, though this video is about reverse graffiti. The girl in this video cleaned 350 reasons to act against climate change into an exhaust stained wall. I thought one that this was a really interesting marketing technique: right message with right mediums. But also, I found it interesting that she gets into an argument with a guy accusing her of graffiti. Even after explaining it, he says “I’m sick of people graffiting the street!”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmZVoQynqp0&list=PL76D2A96256A1A0B4[/youtube]

Logbook Entry: February 11

Logbook Entry: List organizational and product stakeholders. Outline and prioritize target markets that you will address in your plan.

Organizational Stakeholders:

Leaders and members of Emerging Leaders in the Arts Network
Arts Administration Program
Americans for the Arts
Emerging Leaders Network
Architecture & Allied Arts Department
Community supporters of ELAN

Product Stakeholders:

All sponsors including:

Ninkasi
Bijou Art Cinemas
Jordan Schitzer Museum of Art
MECCA: Materials Exchange Center for Community Arts
BRING Recycling
Evviva CrossFit
Costco
Safeway
Track Town Pizza
Pegasus Pizza
Trader Joe’s

Other Product Stakeholders:

People who made art for Beats & Brushstrokes (artists)
People who will buy art at Beats & Brushstrokes (patrons)
Eugene arts and culture community
City of Eugene
Attendees to Beats & Brushstrokes
DJ Leftovers

We are definitely focused on the donor market, specifically the sponsorship market. As you can see, we have gained a fair amount of sponsors, but in order to meet our fundraising goal of $2000 it would best to get even more sponsors. We have a sponsorship packet that we have been sending out to possible sponsors that includes a list of reasons why an organization should sponsor our event such as increasing brand awareness and connecting to university students. There are many different sponsorship levels that give organizations different promotional opportunities from social media cross promotion to including their logo on all print materials to a website link on ELAN’s website. I don’t believe we have gotten a highest level donation yet, but we did get an individual donation at level 2 ($200). Perhaps, next year we should focus on individual donors. One way to do this, would be to start a Kickstarter campaign. This would increase the opportunity for individuals to support us rather than corporations. However, it is too late this year to put this plan into action. Though if we do not meet our fundraising goal this year, we may have to start a Kickstarter or another fundraising campaign after Beats & Brushstrokes in order to pay for Arts Venture. All of these questions will be addressed in the “Suggestions” portion of my marketing plan.