Home Page

Why Didn’t You Advertise This?

March 7, 2006

by:

Joe Patti

As I continue to ponder and decipher what people are really telling me on their audience surveys, I came across this entry on Neill Archer Roan’s blog, How Audiences Use Information to Reduce Risk.

In his entry, Neill says:

An effective info-mediary must anticipate the informational needs their customers require, then provide it: on-demand. Effectiveness in this role requires not only substantive and informational expertise, but also a clear understanding of the form in which consumers want the information delivered and the channels through which the information feels most accessible and credible.

(He also makes a lot of other valuable observations so go read it. I am just focussing on this idea though.)

Neill’s point here cuts right to the heart of a comment I am trying to figure the answer to-“Why Didn’t You Advertise This?” Now given I get this comment most from people who have attended the event for which they are bemoaning the lack of advertising, obviously something worked to get them in the door.

Often they did see/hear an ad or a story or heard about the show from a friend. The problem they have is that they learned about the show close to performance time and had such a great experience, they are concerned that having almost missed it, they will lose out on something equally great in the future.

I usually try to find out what communication channels are best for reaching them. I ask it on the survey and of course also interview the commenter in my lobby. Many times I discover they read the newspaper/listen to the radio station where the ad ran but they missed it amidst all the other ads and stories in the paper or because they were concentrating on driving or talking on their cellphone when the radio spots ran.

What the patron wants is to have known about the show earlier. The problem is, most of my audience doesn’t make a decision until the last minute so it doesn’t make sense to spend money to promote it earlier. (I often suspect that is the method the worried patron uses as well, but if giving the benefit of the doubt will sell tickets earlier, I am all for it!)

The free publicity opportunities, like calendar websites, I take advantage of in July and list my whole season. The information has been available there and in my brochure since then. The newspapers have also had my calendar listings since around then too, but they don’t list the events until closer to the date when it is actually news. Because the information is categorized so well, people often get information there first even if they missed the ad on the page before.

So how do I communicate effectively with the highly interested person who is not on my mailing list? I have no definitive answers.

It appears my efforts at using opinion leaders in the community as word of mouth advertising has been slightly effective since attendance has been nudging up slightly. But I admit, it is a precarious situation. It is the method I can exert the least control over (which means it probably has the highest level of credibility with the public) so I can’t direct who is reached.

My marketing campaign for my last show was almost entirely word of mouth supported by ticket giveaways on radio shows that played the genre of music of the group I was presenting. I figured I would sell it out so I didn’t plan any print advertising.

We were doing a pretty steady business based on the brochure and word of mouth from August to January. Nothing big, but a steady trickle. Things got better in mid-January when the radio giveaways started. Based on this surge, I expected the show to sell out a week or so before the show. A week out we were only half sold and there were days where almost no one was buying.

Now what I think happened was all the folks who planned ahead had gotten their tickets and the procrastinators were holding true to form. I panicked a little and took out a print ad in the free alternative weekly.

As you might imagine, I need not have bothered. In the last couple days we were deluged and then had people turn up early the night of the performance in hopes some seats would open up.

Just as the word of mouth method was precarious, but ultimately rewarding for me, it probably seems even more so for the person who hears about it at the last minute and fears missing out in the future.

It is upon such fears large mailing lists are built. I still don’t have a dependable channel to reach the other heretofore unreached people to let them know what they might be missing. I am pretty sure no one does or they would be trying to sell it to me. I suspect each community is different so the best solution is cobbled together from existing technologies and methods.

Audience Relations

No Comments

Giving In To The Inevitable

March 6, 2006

by:

Joe Patti

Though I have railed against the screening of blog entries in the past, I have activated the requirement that commenters register today. I had 600 comments this weekend, most of which were advertisements for any number of services both mundane and erotic.

In the course of deleting them, I accidentally erased a new comment (I don’t know from whom it was, sorry about that.) So in order to save my readers from my blunders, I instigated this measure which I hope will cut down on the garbage.

General Musings

No Comments

Struck Down By Artist Visa Problems

March 1, 2006

by:

Joe Patti

I guess it was just a matter of time before it happened. You hear about it happening to someone else–and you hope it stays that way. Yesterday I received confirmation that because of problems getting travel visas, one of the foreign performance groups for my season won’t be making it this year.

My partners and I are scrambling to figure out if we can reschedule them for next year since we have already paid hefty airline ticket prices and hope to use them. We are also looking into whether the fees and other paperwork we have completed can be applicable to a trip next year.

I have spent the last two days implementing contingency plans–namely figuring out how I will refund all the ticket purchases and publicize the cancellation in a way that doesn’t alienate my audience for next season.

One semi-fortunate element of the timing is that the news came just a day or two before the ticket purchases would have really picked up due to our promotional efforts (which had to be cancelled as well, of course). Had we found out a week or so from now we would have quite a few more tickets to refund. (An order did sneak in over the internet just as we were changing the web page and disabling the order functions though.)

It is amazing how many people have to be contacted when something is cancel even in addition to the audience members. I had to inform my staff, caterer, the car rental place, the hotel (we almost got hit with a penalty for cancelling because it was less than 30 days out), the print, radio and television advertising reps, the print, radio and television media who were going to do stories and calendar listings.

One of the people I forgot initially was the company providing the sound equipment and backline. Thankfully my tech director remembered to ask. I also had to break the disappointing news to a student group who were preparing a big welcome for the performers.

It is too early to determine what problems, if any, will come of this since so few people know about the cancelation. One of the things I am watching with interest is the way my partners announce the change. Currently, the alteration in their seasons hasn’t appeared on their websites. They are telling customers it is cancelled because a woman called to see if the show was cancelled at my theatre upon learning that the group wouldn’t be appearing near her.

State of the Arts

No Comments

It Helps Them Too

February 28, 2006

by:

Joe Patti

I had an experience this weekend that showed me a value to arts funding I had never come across before. It isn’t going to convince foundations, arts councils and the federal government to necessarily pour more money into the arts and humanities, but it does go to show just how much good the money is doing.

This weekend we hosted a performance of Nrityagram Dance Ensemble, a traditional dance group from India. They are really a remarkable group based on their process alone. Every 6 years 6 women are chosen to enter the world’s only dance village. For these six women, every cost is taken care of. There are day students and week long seminars that are periodically conducted. Those people have to pay, but those chosen for the residential program have all their needs attended to..sort of.

The life they lead is somewhat akin to monstastic. There is no vow of silence and there are days off to go into town. However, the day runs something like: wake up, dance, help make breakfast, dance, help garden, study Sanskrit, have lunch, dance, etc.

The thing I found out this weekend though is that there is almost no written record of the classical dance forms. Everything was passed by word of mouth. One of the group’s projects is to assemble a library of material because right now they have to consult materials in the New York Public Library on their annual trips to the U.S. All the photos and other records of performance in India are held by families who are very resistance to sharing.

There is a classical text on Indian dance that is rather complete. An Indian woman has apparently made it her life’s work to translate and annotate it but almost no one uses it. One of the dancers commented on the irony of meeting a white, male Asian Studies student here that was more familiar with the book than most of the dancers in her country.

Another thing that surprised me was that there is apparently no tradition of dancing as a group in India. If there are 4 women dancing somewhere they are essentially each doing solo performances. The road manager told me that one of the biggest hurdles they have had to overcome is instilling a sense of performance discipline in the members of the group so they work in unison and ignore things like a flower falling from another dancer’s hair. Everything the Nrityagram Dance Ensemble has learned about spacing, coordinated complementary movement and interaction with other dancers they have learned from Western choreographers.

One of the group leaders was overjoyed to learn that a respected dance teacher from the local university was attending the show and had come backstage to visit. The professor in question had recorded Indian dance before in one of the dance notation forms and the dancer wanted to consult with her on how it was accomplished and the suitability of the notation style to traditional Indian dance.

Now one might argue, perhaps correctly, that if you are codifying a form that has not been and adding group choreography where none ever existed, you are no longer performing the dance traditionally. Honestly, I think that is a discussion for another entry and perhaps another blog.

It seems to me that if a group is trying to record and preserve cultural traditions which have nearly been lost a number of times due to sickness and disasters killing off gurus, that is a laudable goal. Indeed, some of their measures are actually doing more to preserve elements of performance. They periodically video tape themselves so that when they notice they have somehow started doing something differently, they can go back and see where the change started creeping in.

What seems incredible to me is that arts and humanities funding in the US is providing the references, resources and trained expertise to aid this group in the discovery and preservation their culture. It is common to hear about foreign entities consulting with our scientists, corporations and government in order to make their lives better and solve problems. It is easy to forget that our artists have some useful advice to provide too.

General Musings

2 Comments