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Volume Two
Issue Six
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Welcome to our June Issue. This month's regular Client Feature highlights the New York City-based Arts and Business Council, whose country-wide affiliate network helps foster relationships between the arts and business communities.
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Client Feature: Arts and Business Council NYC
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The Arts and Business Council has been working with members and organizations from the arts and business worlds, building partnerships between them for nearly 40 years.
As ABC Inc. gears up for its third Arts Marketing Conference, Julie Peeler, Vice President of National Programs, discusses the organization's mission, approach and initiatives.
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Q & A with Julie Peeler
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ArtsMarketing.org - part of ABC Inc.'s
National Arts Marketing Project
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CAN YOU GIVE US A LITTLE BACKGROUND ON THE ARTS & BUSINESS COUNCIL'S HISTORY AND MISSION?
Arts & Business Council Inc. (ABC Inc.) was founded in 1965 as the first organization in the world devoted to arts and business partnerships. The Council's mission is to stimulate partnerships between the arts and business that strengthen both sectors in the communities they serve. Our mission is accomplished through programs that promote voluntarism and leadership, build arts management capacity, gather and disseminate relevant information, and advocate for closer ties between business and the arts.
WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND AND TRAINING? HOW DID YOU COME TO BE WORKING AT ABC INC.? WHAT IS YOUR ROLE THERE?
I first joined our Chicago affiliate (the Arts & Business Council of Chicago) in 1995, as Director of its new Arts Marketing Center. Before that I was in advertising at international agencies like J. Walter Thompson, Foote, Cone & Belding and Publicis, a French company. I worked on new products and marketing strategy for products from Raid insect killer to the United States Olympic training program. But my background is as a dancer and in opera. When this job came up at ABC Chicago, I jumped on it, developing the programs for AMC. Then American Express approached ABC Inc. about expanding the program, and we created the National Arts Marketing Project (NAMP). At that time I joined ABC Inc. as director of NAMP and now, I am vice president of national programs. I assure that the programs are running well at each affiliate and work on ways to measure our impact in arts communities across America. I also help new affiliates get started. We are pleased that new affiliates are operating NAMP in Los Angeles (with our partner there the Center for Cultural Innovation) and in Houston (with our partner the Cultural Arts Council of Houston and Harris County).
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE PROGRAMS AND INITIATIVES THAT ABC INC. RUNS TO ASSIST ITS MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS?
The Council's national programs include the American Express National Arts Marketing Project, Business Volunteers for the ArtsŪ, and the MetLife Foundation National Arts Forums. The Council also coordinates an 18-City national affiliate network and operates the Con Edison Multicultural Arts Management Internship Program, the New York State Cultural Tourism Initiative, the Arts Leadership Institute(SM) (in partnership with Columbia University), and the Encore Awards.
YOU ARE ABOUT TO MOUNT THE THIRD NATIONAL ARTS MARKETING CONFERENCE. CAN YOU TELL US HOW AND WHY THIS HAS BEEN SUCCESSFUL AND WHAT MARKETERS WILL FIND WHEN THEY GET THERE?
The conference is the one and only place where arts marketers and audience development professionals can meet to discuss the latest techniques for increasing public participation in the arts. While discipline-specific conferences are great, they rarely cover marketing and sponsorship. And where else can you be in a room with 500 other arts marketers? This year's conference focuses on all the latest in high tech marketing techniques while reminding us that loyal audiences are built with high-touch methods. Some of the greatest thinkers in arts and for-profit marketing will be there. Plus, I am thrilled to get back to Chicago, which has such a vibrant arts community and where the arts are respected by the government and business communities.
CAN YOU TELL US HOW ABC INC. HAS BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN USING E-MARKETING IN ITS RELATIONSHIPS WITH ITS CONSTITUENTS OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS?
We do not have a marketing director at this time. So marketing is done by the program managers after they are done developing the programs, say, workshops for example, which require determining the learning objectives, recruiting the speakers, coordinating the content, begging around town for a power point projector and ordering the food. In with all that, they have to fit promoting the workshop. Rather than having to develop printed pieces each time, we have converted much of our promotion to e-mail which has also reduced our marketing costs.
E-mail has been a highly useful addition to the marketing mix for many of the programs we offer, particularly with our upcoming conference, where we have seen direct results. Conference registration spikes the day after an e-mail blast and traffic to our website, ArtsMarketing.org, increases after we send an e-newsletter. E-mail also allows us to remain consistent across our many programs, ensuring the ABC Inc. brand is prominent.
Another benefit of e-marketing can be seen in some of our affiliates, who are small one or two person shops. The availability of third party e-marketing software has allowed them to get into e-mail quickly and easily without the monetary expense and staff hours it would have taken to develop an e-marketing program from scratch.
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Visit ArtsMarketing.org
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Learn about PatronMail -- Request a Demonstration
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If you're thinking about joining the nearly 200 arts clients that use PatronMail -- give us 15 minutes and we'll allow you to "test-drive" a PatronMail account. During the demonstration, we'll talk about how the regulations of the anti-spam law are built into PatronMail.
The 20-minute demonstration can be scheduled at your convenience.
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Click here to request a demonstration
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Please watch for our next Monthly Update, coming July 28, 2004.
Our mailing address is: 850 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10019
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