Sign-up slip inserted into programs at recent Alvin Ailey performances

You recently executed a very successful e-mail list development drive. To understand where you were coming from, tell us how many names were on your list before the drive and how you collected those names?

When we started this initiative, we had approximately 12,000 names which we had collected in a number of ways:

• At audience development events
• At a sign up "station" in the lobby of our new home
  
• Ticket buyers purchasing tickets on the Web
• Students who attend various classes and events in our theater
  
• Through the PatronMail link on our Web site
  

Tell us about your new drive. What exactly did you do to gather the new additions to your e-list?

We began by inserting an "e-club" sign-up slip into each program for every performance.  Not only did we have collection boxes throughout the lobby, we also had approximately 15 "Ailey Ambassadors" at each performance to collect the slips. The ambassadors, armed with pencils (specially ordered with www.alvinailey.org imprinted on them), extra sign-up slips and a smile, were stationed throughout the theater prior to the performance and at intermissions and each were assigned a section of the house to work.  Each ambassador was instructed to try and speak to every single patron and encourage the individual to sign up for our e-club.

Before each performance, during the "please turn off your cell phone" announcement, patrons were made aware of the sign-up slips in their programs and were invited to fill them in.  This helped to get the message out and encourage the audience members to sign up!

As an incentive, all entries were automatically eligible to win a subscription to our 2006 season. This was made clear on the form: WIN FREE AILEY TICKETS! was in large type. At the end of each night, we counted the number of slips each of the ambassadors collected. By the end of the season, there was plenty of friendly competition between ambassadors to see who could gather the most names in an evening!

What were your overall results, in terms of numbers and were there any major challenges to organizing this drive?

Our City Center performances ran from November 30 to January 1 with an average of 1,500 patrons per performance. During the 39 performances we collected over 20,000 slips, which was far more than we had ever expected! On our most successful evening we collected over 1,000 names - about 46% of the house. In only five weeks our list grew from 12,000 names to almost 32,000 - an increase of more than 165%!

Our main challenge was that we only had the idea to develop the initiative two weeks before we opened at City Center - and we knew that having lots of people to help collect the names and encourage people to sign-up was going to be the important key to the success of the drive. We also knew that recruiting them would be tricky - could we really get 15 people for each performance? 

We started by speaking with students at The Ailey School, some of whom asked their friends. We contacted students from area schools and from lists of people who had participated in other audience development efforts. Each ambassador was paid and received a free ticket to see the performance. In the end, we were able to recruit over 60 people for the program!


What did you learn from this process and what advice can you offer to your colleagues who may be considering doing something like this? What might you do in the future to improve these results?

Planning, planning, and planning!  This type of initiative really needs good organization, not just for the collection itself, but for the follow-up and maintenance of these names.  Although we planned the collection drive during the two weeks prior to our opening, we did not have enough time to strategically plan for all of the details of an immense collection drive like this. When the slips started to come in, we were still researching and developing phase two of our plan - the data entry and communication to these new patrons.

Next year, to make sure the drive is as effective as it can be, we'll have a plan in place for data entry and communication during the season, instead of after.

Now that your list has tripled in size, how will your e-marketing strategy change?

Truthfully, we are only just starting to analyze and assess how these names can be used and we are developing our strategy accordingly. We need to begin by assessing how effective our initial communication is to these patrons. We are planning a fundraising campaign and, of course, we want to see if future communication translates into ticket sales.  As we track open rates, click-thrus, etc., we will evaluate our plan. 

Just as technology advances every day, we're realizing our strategy must be targeted, yet flexible, to keep up with the times and maintain effective communication with our audience.