So I once again lived a situation I described in an earlier entry about how if a show sells out, it is due to the artistic decisions, but if it goes poorly, it is marketing’s fault for not pushing it hard enough.
I thought perhaps I had escaped that situation given that I am the one making the artistic decisions and overseeing the marketing. Ah, but I discovered you don’t need to officially answer to someone for them to expect to answer for yourself.
For our 30th Anniversary, we had put together a really good slate of famous Hawaiian performers that I could never have gotten on my own, but thanks to the connections of an alum, was able to pull together very cheaply.
In the last week or so, I had come to the conclusion that people just simply weren’t interested in seeing the show. We had promoted it every which way including a powerful concentration of radio spots. However, ticket sales for a show at the end of November by a middlingly famous group which we hadn’t promoted at all outside of in our brochure was easily outstripping those for the 30th.
Though it wasn’t originally planned as such, the university foundation decided to make it in to a donor cultivation event. When the event planner from the university called to ask how it was selling, I told her not well and she began to grill me on my techniques. (Did you do…, how about….) Then I got a call from the college fundraising officer with the same questions. Then came someone from the university department of external relations who absolved me of blame by confirming that they couldn’t help me because I had done everything they would have suggested and more.
However, then word got to the vice-chancellor who emailed the marketing director for the college from the middle of a meeting (the vice chancellor later got me in his office during another meeting, though to his credit took my word for it that I did everything I could. This was good because it was getting hard to contain my resentment).
The marketing director of the college actually held my job at one time so if anyone had the ability to tell me “ya shoulda done this…” it was her. However, having done the job, she knew what it was like and said exactly what I said in the entry I refer to above–“when it sells out, it is the choice, when it don’t, it is marketing’s fault.”
I really appreciate her role in getting me acclimated which to this point has meant answering my questions and then butting out. Now granted, this is probably due to the fact she is just too dang busy to pay attention to how much I am screwing up her baby, but is also due to the fact she can empathize.
Now I will admit, some of the grilling I got was a result of people wanting to help. But the problem is that their concept and understanding of publicizing an event is as a numbers game rather than as a process of identifying who you serve and want to serve and making your plans from there.
They mailed out stuff on my behalf willy-nilly to every name on their email list. There were people I was sure never heard of my theatre and people who were affliated with groups I didn’t even know existed.
Although I couldn’t track where people who bought tickets at the door that night heard about the show, I feel I can say based on the phone and internet orders I got through out the week, it wasn’t from any of the lists they emailed to.
Marketing and press relations are something that has to be planned and worked at. I will readily admit that my efforts in these areas have suffered from lack of available time. I can say that I am making an honest effort to adhere to and pursue the values I have espoused in this weblog.