|
|
4.26.2005
|
Volume Three
Issue Four
|
Welcome
to our April Monthly Update. This month we visit Phoenix, Arizona,
where Alliance for Audience Executive Director, Matt Lehrman, explains
the importance (and success) of collaborative marketing on the web. Read
on...
|
|
|
|
Client Feature: ShowUp.com
|
|
Matt Lehrman and Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano at the launch of ShowUp.com, November 15, 2004.
|
PatronMail Client Since: November, 2004
Starting e-list size: 0
Current e-list size: 1,600 and growing...
In the fall of 2003, the Greater Phoenix region launched a collaborative marketing venture for the area's arts and cultural activities. Alliance for Audience, as it came to be known, is now a fully operational non-profit association serving as a "convention & visitors bureau for the arts." Its mission is to engage new audiences while dramatically raising awareness of the breadth of the region's arts and cultural offerings.
On November 15, 2004, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano officially launched ShowUp.com - Alliance for Audience's flagship project - by purchasing from it the first pair of discount tickets (and she actually attended the show, too!).
Matt Lehrman, Alliance for Audience's Executive Director, explains that ShowUp.com provides three important services intended to interest and activate residents and tourists alike:
1. A comprehensive calendar of the region's arts and cultural events. (accomplished thanks to a licensing agreement with Artsopolis.com in San Jose, California)
2. An online Ticket Marketplace that sells half-price and other discounted tickets. (Consider this Arizona's version of New York's famous TKTS booth in Times Square - but conducted totally via the Internet!)
3. A personally-tailored e-mail subscription service called "You've Got Shows" which uses the PatronMail service to inform prospective audience members of upcoming events of interest.
In the Q and A that follows, Matt describes the origins of Alliance for Audience and why it was so necessary for Phoenix to expand its collaborative arts marketing practices.
|
|
Q & A with Matt Lehrman, Executive Director for Alliance for Audience
|
|
Logo for Alliance for Audience's "flagship" program, ShowUp.com
|
To begin, tell us a bit about your background. How did you come to start Alliance for Audience?
In 1995, following years as a Bank marketing director and previously as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., I was named Director of Marketing for the Scottsdale Cultural Council where I became immediately immersed in the full spectrum of arts marketing - the performing arts of the Scottsdale Center for the Arts and the visual arts of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. For eight and a half years, I experienced the thrills and frustrations that are common among all arts marketers - passion for a worthwhile mission challenged by the reality of too few marketing dollars.
For years, the marketing directors of many of the arts and cultural organizations throughout the Greater Phoenix region have kvetched about the challenges of marketing their shows, exhibits, tours, festivals, concerts and more. Our community comprises multiple municipalities and venues and events are spread over a wide area. We're the 5th largest city in the nation - having just made it on the list at number 10 when my wife and I moved here 17 years ago! So, our population does not have a long history with specific venues and arts organizations and we all have to work hard to attract attention and earn loyalty.
I certainly didn't invent the idea of collaborative arts marketing - organizations had been finding ways to work together for years before I arrived on the scene. But - especially in the months following 9/11, the imperative of finding efficiencies intensified. Interestingly, it was in the Spring of 2001 that leaders of the region's arts and cultural institutions first began to realize and talk about a shared need to rethink our processes for informing, educating and conducting commerce with the public.
Alliance for Audience was born of that process.
So, tell us how Audience for Alliance eventually took shape.
Beginning in 2001, the Arizona Commission on the Arts and the Phoenix Office of Arts & Culture convened an informal group of arts marketers which soon became known as the Ticketing Tactics Task Force (aka Tic Tacs). The Tic Tacs invested more than two years in research and dialogue among the breadth of the region's arts and cultural organizations, including a panel session attended by representatives of more than 60 organizations at which representatives from Pittsburgh, San Diego and Los Angeles shared how similarly intended collaborations had been undertaken in their cities.
These meetings introduced us to the Association of Performing Arts Service Organizations (APASO) a national coalition of similar-missioned organizations whose members' willingness to share insights cut years from our learning curve.
By April, 2003, following a year of research and consensus building, the Tic Tacs announced plans to pursue a comprehensive and collaborative strategy among the region's arts and cultural organizations to engage the participation of new audiences. And we incorporated just 5 months later as Alliance for Audience. I became the full-time Executive Director in February, 2004 as we received a $250,000 start up grant - and got to work immediately.
Were there any pivotal moments or situations in getting things started?
For Phoenix, it was the aftermath of 9/11 that demonstrated the power of collaborative arts marketing. Like everyone, by late October, 2001, we were still glued to our televisions and filled with questions and fears and all of our "plans" for the season had long ago been tossed aside. At a basic level, we arts marketers all realized the imperative of finding ways to invite audiences back into our theaters and galleries. We asked (and The Arizona Republic immediately agreed!) to donate a full page ad in the Sunday A&E section to print a "universal 2 for 1 coupon" to which all of the region's arts and cultural organizations would participate. The ad leapt from idea to execution in 5 days.
To this day, we still don't know how many coupons were redeemed - or whether we brought in new audiences or cannibalized existing ticket buyers. But the truth is, it didn't matter. This really wasn't a marketing campaign. This was an expression of our organizations directly serving our community. We invited people to turn to the arts & cultural community for solace in difficult times - and they did, indeed, turn out!
I'm sorry if this sounds melodramatic. But it's true. More than anything, that single experience demonstrated the power of organizations working together - and created a bond that fuels us to this day.
Obviously the Internet plays a central role. Can you elaborate and perhaps speculate your vision for the future?
Here's our great challenge: How do you communicate to 3.5 million people in a region that doesn't have a single downtown destination or even a cohesive mass-transit system? And how do you bring attention to the daily offerings of more than 300 arts and cultural organizations?
For sure, the Internet is the mechanism by which this information is conveyed - and at www.ShowUp.com we've created the definitive calendar of the region's arts and cultural events and activities and also launched an innovative Ticket Marketplace that sells discount tickets (we tell folks it's just like the TKTS booth in New York - but totally via the Internet!).
But I'd actually argue that the Internet is more of a "means" than an "end." It's the essential mechanism by which people can access information. It's the very beginning to how we fulfill the promise of delivering arts & culture - but it's only a tool. The real power comes from creating a brand that represents arts participation, and we're creating that with our flagship project, ShowUp.com. The name itself, which is of course central to the brand, highlights the main points of the project and the website...
It's a Great Question! Just as people plan their leisure time by asking "What movies are out?" or "What restaurants are around?" this brand intends to get them asking: "What shows are up?
It's an Important Statement! Recognizing the national trend that audiences are increasingly making their decisions at the last minute for how to spend their leisure time, the brand transforms what has often been considered a threat into a strength - by reinforcing that even at the last minute, it's okay to just "show up" and take advantage of what's going on today and tonight.
It's a Command! There's something deeply satisfying about telling the public precisely what is expected of them: Show Up!
How successful has ShowUp.com been so far? Can you share some of your results with us?
We're a true start-up in every respect. In March, we attracted more than 10,000 unique visitors and 36,000 total visitors to ShowUp.com in the month of March - nearly double the levels we attained in January. That means that nearly 1,200 people are visiting ShowUp.com every day. We're also attracting PR attention and new sponsors. I'm now a regular guest on our city's most popular morning television show (which happens to be the one that is locally produced) and do a weekly "ShowUp.com segment" on "things to do" this weekend. Truly, success seems to breed success!
In many cities, arts executives often express interest in doing collaborative work to build audiences yet few actually are able to do it. What's your "secret sauce" for making it work in Phoenix and is that "exportable"?
That's a really good question and I'm not sure I know the answer to it. The collaboration that's occurred throughout Greater Phoenix is very special - and I believe it's grounded in the unique culture of the Southwest and the fact that people here are warm (figuratively and literally!) and friendly.
If there is something "exportable," I hope it is this: that we are able to create more than just a collaboration of motivated organizations - but a viable business plan that sustains the work of developing audiences for arts & culture.
I'll tell you honestly that we're in the midst of trying to make that business plan work, and it ain't easy! But the level of support we've received from the business community, local media, and the region's convention & visitors bureaus has been overwhelmingly positive. And the support of the arts community has been impressive. Ask me again next year and I expect we'll have those answers!
|
Click here to visit ShowUp.com
|
|
|
How Does Your E-Mail Look?
|
|
It's tough to handle e-marketing in-house. If you're using Outlook, your mail probably looks like the first image - not exactly the kind of professional image you'd like to project.
In addition, you're probably having to handle opt-out requests and bounced e-mail in your inbox.
If you're feeling that you'd like to move up from your in-house method, but don't want to spend a fortune, we'd welcome the opportunity to demonstrate PatronMail to you.
With PatronMail you can:
* Create and Send professional looking e-mails without knowing HTML
* Track & Compare your results with other arts organizations
* Build your list automatically on your web site
* Comply with the CAN-SPAM law, and "remove" requests automatically
We invite you to schedule a free 15-minute phone demonstration to learn more about how cost-effective PatronMail could be for your organization.
And, if your list is under 1,000 names, ask us about our special "starter" pricing plan.
|
Click here to request a PatronMail demonstration
|
|
Please watch for our next Monthly Update, coming May 24, 2005.
Our mailing address is: 850 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10019
|
| |
