Web site for Seattle's contemporary performing arts organization, On the Boards

Jerry, for those that don't know you, can you describe your practice?

As an independent consultant I focus my practice on finding the best new methods and practices for increasing participation in the arts which I make available to my clients and workshop participants. I try to do this for them in digestible chunks and in ways they can use immediately.

For example, a lot of my work involves arts and cultural organizations who know they need to broaden, deepen and diversify their audience participation (attendance, ticket sales, donations, etc.). I also find that there is a need to demonstrate to the wider, general public the personal benefits and public value of arts participation.

Part of my mission is to encourage personal and organizational innovation and change within arts organizations particularly in the context of using cost-effective technological innovations to advance our work.


Are we in the arts ahead or behind in the use of new technology?

We are way behind. But with services like yours (PatronMail) and others, we have the opportunity to catch up and get ahead. Costs are decreasing and the availability of online tools is increasing. The major barrier right now, however, is the lack of understanding by leaders of my generation about the effectiveness of these tools.

Unfortunately, many times, people who are hired to implement technological solutions are hired by people who do not understand the problem; they're neither able to hire the right people nor able to evaluate the resulting work.  They don't understand the strategic use of these powerful resources. The biggest challenge for the leaders of the arts community is to first understand the potential of these tools and then to encourage their use.
 
Furthermore, many arts organizations are still in a "print publishing" mode with their Web strategies. Many still retain an "authoritative" voice on their sites and in their publications. We're at the stage now where we should be changing that by actively encouraging an "audience voice" and pushing our web strategies further.


Can you give us an example of what you mean by encouraging an "audience voice"?

The most significant recent online innovations have been those that have encouraged new interactive behaviors. For example, Meet-Up (www.meetup.org) is one that has changed the nature of social gatherings by allowing many people with similar interests to meet in the real world, and find each other online.

Online donations software has changed fundraising significantly by encouraging small donations from large numbers of people. Online polling allows organizations to hear easily and cost-effectively from their patrons.

Another example of the effectiveness of encouraging an "audience voice" is Blog the Boards created by Seattle's contemporary performing arts organization,  On the Boards.  They ask two or three well-known artists, arts faculty, critics etc. to write pre-event commentary as well as a review that gets posted the night of performance.  After seeing the show, patrons can visit the blog and add their own comments.  Others read the blog and decide whether or not to attend the performance.

The next innovations will increase interactivity, peer-to-peer marketing (invite a friend, etc.) and customer management of their own arts-going database, including preferences for what they're hoping to attend in the future. The costs of doing this are a fraction of what they were just two years ago and the revenue implications are significant enough to offset and exceed the declines we're seeing in subscription sales.

How does e-mail work in this context? Where do you see it fitting in to the principles of increasing audience participation?

Of course, e-mail continues to be an important and significant tool to encourage audience communication and involvement. Especially considering how cost-effective it is.

A great example is Sara Billmann at the University Musical Society at the University of Michigan. She recently sent an e-mail to attendees on opening night of a four-performance run asking for audience comments.  By the next morning, they received back 15 ecstatic quotes about the production which were then sent out in an e-mail newsletter to 5,000+ people.  Recipients then forwarded the e-newsletter to others, creating a buzz throughout Ann Arbor.  Ticket sales jumped following receipt of the e-newsletter...25% of the revenues for the four-night run came in after sending the e-newsletter.

The e-newsletter wasn't the only thing that encouraged the buzz, but it certainly helped.  Having that tool available paid for itself from just that one e-newsletter!

What advice would you give marketing directors working in organizations with old world thinking?

This seems to be a problem throughout both the business and non-for-profit world and there's been a lot written recently. Both Leading Without Authority in Leadership Without Easy Answers by Ronald Heifetz, and Leading Up by Mike Useem are excellent resources. I would also recommend taking one of my workshops on innovation and change where these topics are discussed! The next one will be in Los Angeles on October 19!  Click here for more info.

The theme of both the books and my workshop is that it's the responsibility of all people in an organization to "lead-up" - to demonstrate to your superiors why these tools must be implemented. As with any change process, start slowly with a small initiative. Find ways to implement new resources and build revenues. The availability of ASP's like Survey Monkey for online surveys, PatronMail and PayPal, etc. make it possible to develop online tools without html skills for less than $100 per month. 

My advice to my colleagues is try something for three months and see how it works. I'll bet they will be successful in increasing participation and revenues and will be able to gain the support of even those who don't understand the technology.

We were thrilled with the response that we got for our summer seminars in New York, LA, Chicago and Washington. For those of you that attended, we hope your e-marketing is getting off to a great start. 

We were very pleased with the positive response -- and here's just one example:

"I've learned more in this one day seminar than in the two years I've been trying to find my way into e-mail marketing. I finally have a simple road map to plan a successful launch of our new website (currently being revamped) and building our e-mail list so that we can start pulling money from traditional, expensive, UNTRACKABLE media. I'm so pumped up-I can't wait to get going!"

~Chris Sharrow, Director of Marketing and PR, Milwaukee Ballet Company

As a result of reactions like this and the many inquiries we've had about future seminars in other cities, we are indeed planning to offfer more in the coming months.

We're always looking for hosts for these events, so if you'd like to bring one of these seminars to your city, please write to Michelle Paul and let her know.

And, of course, please keep checking our newsletters as we are marketing all the seminars entirely online!