Archive for June, 2010
Any Landing You Can Walk Away From…
Posted by: | CommentsResilience. In the arts & cultural sector, there is no more valuable quality.
As today marks the end of the fiscal year for many organizations, let’s observe that there are measures of success even MORE important than a financial statement’s bottom line. Any landing you can walk away from IS a good landing. So today, let’s take a moment to celebrate that we have endured!
These are surely some of the toughest times we have faced: in our families; our careers; our organizations and companies; our sector; our communities; our State; and our Nation.
Yet every day, those of us who work in the arts and cultural sector rise with strength, tenacity and incredible passion to advance the missions of our organizations and to provide valuable services to our communities.
Even in the best of times, we understand that success isn’t linear. ”Three steps forward; two steps back” is an expectation we have all known for a long time. Yet, in recent years we’ve learned to persevere – even when progress is measured as “Two steps forward; three steps back.”
Many years ago, (in a time before computers, when I received a daily paper ”target report” that showed the day’s & season’s ticket sales) at the end of a particularly frustrating and disappointing year, we held an outdoor ceremony and BURNED the final target report of the year. It was, truly, a liberating experience - to let go of the old season. To unburden before taking on new challenges.
However your fiscal year is ending, let me invite you to raise a toast – or just take a breath.
To my colleagues among all Alliance for Audience member organizations: I applaud you. Hug you. Respect you. Admire you. Love you. The very last line of Sunday in the Park with George returns the audience to the artist’s perpetual renewal: “Blank, a white page or canvas. His favorite. So many possibilities.”
Tomorrow, we have the great privilege to start again.
You’re Invited to a June 24th Forum: Toward an Audience List Collaborative
Posted by: | CommentsAll Alliance for Audience member organizations are invited to attend an exploratory presentation and discussion:
- Date: Thursday, June 24
- Time: 8:30 to 10am
- Place: Playhouse on the Park at Viad Corporate Center, 1850 N. Central Avenue, Phoenix (just North of McDowell) Parking is accessible from Palm Lane on the North side of the building and will be validated!
- Welcome: Marketing Directors, CEO’s & General Managers, Box Office Managers, Development Directors, Board Members and everybody else from your organization who may be interested.
- There is NO COST to attend.
- Please RSVP all participants by registering here: http://audiencelist.eventbrite.com
Are you interested in growing your audience mailing list – and making it work more powerfully for you?
The arts and cultural communities in many communities – Denver, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia (to name a few) have organized list collaborative efforts – sometimes also called “list co-ops”, “community databases” or simply “big lists”.
The time has come to explore how such an effort might work here in Arizona – and how it could streamline processes between organizations that already exchange mailing lists – while significantly enhancing efforts to preserve list privacy and security. Of even greater significance, such an effort should be able to provide macro-level reports that reveal the full extent to which the arts and cultural community serves resident households and help individual organizations better understand who are their own “best” leads.
In an effort to move this discussion forward, (and with the gracious help of Vincent Vanvleet of Phoenix Theatre) we have arranged for Will Lester of Target Resource Group (TRG) to meet with whoever may be interested to explain HOW such an initiative would/could work. (Marketing, Box Office, Development and Executive staff and Board Members will find this especially interesting – and you’re welcome to bring everybody else from your organization might be interested is WELCOME to attend.)
(As a side benefit, Will has also agreed to stay for an extra half hour (from 10 to 10:30am) to speak with anyone who is interested in learning more about TRG’s work with arts and cultural organizations in “Dynamic Pricing” – by which ticket prices can rise and fall based on demand.)
For additional information – or to receive NOTES from the meeting if you’re unable to attend, please contact Matt Lehrman at MLehrman@allianceforaudience.org.
Please also note that this “list collaboration” discussion will continue at the Southwest Arts Conference. Be sure to register! More information here: http://www.azarts.gov/swac/program/
###
Chase Ticket Marketplace Scores a Hit!
Posted by: | CommentsAZCentral.com just recently awarded a “Critic’s Pick” to ShowUp.com’s Chase Ticket Marketplace as the BEST PLACE FOR DISCOUNT SHOWS.
Of course, we love the recognition! But there are a couple of “behind the scenes” statistics that leaders of arts & cultural organizations who care about audience development should find even more interesting:
- Within the last 12 months, the Chase Ticket Marketplace has filled over 18,000 seats that would otherwise have gone empty – and generated more than $270,000 in revenue for participating arts and cultural organizations that would otherwise have been lost.
- Since ShowUp.com’s launch in November, 2004, the Chase Ticket Marketplace has generated nearly $900,000 in ticket sales for the arts & cultural community and attracted audiences who filled over 63,000 empty seats.
Going forward, let’s note that there remain two very profound questions (and not just here in Arizona, but in EVERY community that has a collaborative discount ticket-selling function.) During the next 12 months, we look forward to working with member organizations to research what’s going on here in Arizona – aiming to address two key questions:
- What % of discount ticket buyers are NEW to the organizations that sell them? Clearly, we are all more interested in attracting NEW audience members than in ”cannibalizing” full price ticket sales; and
- Should discount ticket buyers be expected to “evolve” into full-price ticket buyers – or is the discount market a distinct and persistent sub-market?