Up Close: John Sallot

We continue a new weekly feature of UpWords – interviews with leaders of marketing, communications & audience development efforts from throughout Arizona’s arts & cultural community. 

John Sallot
Director of Marketing
Desert Botanical Garden

    
In one sentence, describe your job.
I communicate the Garden’s message to our members and our community in an effort to drive admissions and event ticket sales.

How did you come to live in Arizona?
My partner works for Gannett Co. and was asked to move to Arizona by the then publisher of The Arizona Republic. It was hard to leave our life in California behind and especially a job I loved, but it has been an adventure that I would not have missed. When I was leaving my job at The Palm Springs Desert Museum, the curator of natural science mentioned that the Desert Botanical Garden had just completed major renovations and expansion and that I should look into working there. I began volunteering and eventually was hired in development.

What major projects are you working on right now?
Last summer we launched a new Garden Website (dbg.org) designed to improve our online marketing and sales efforts and we are still doing a series of small experiments to test and utilize the functionality. Looking forward, I am leading an assessment of our print products and their effectiveness with our members. We hope to have a refreshed publications plan ready to role out in the 2011/12 fiscal year. We are also gearing up for spring and with the recent rains we hope to have an abundant wildflower bloom – which means we will be busy with visitors and the media.

What skills are most necessary for a person in your position?
Fifty percent of this job is the ability to establish and maintain strong relationships with journalists, advertising representatives, graphic designers, printers, peers, etc. Obviously, you need to know how to communicate effectively through the written word and through imagery. Marketing concepts don’t really change, but the platforms do so you really need to be able to continually learn and adapt.

Where do you look (books, seminars, magazines, etc.) for knowledge and inspiration for how to do your job even better? 
I look mostly to early adopters for new information. We hired Off Madison Avenue/ Mighty Interactive to teach the Garden how to be effective in social media and to develop our new Website. They continue to advise us on the best way to use new social media outlets– or to not use them. The whole area of social media has been a learning curve for me. You don’t necessarily have to hire Off Madison Ave/Mighty Interactive (even though they’d like you to) as many of their staff members participate in forums and workshops around town. Arizona Interactive Marketing Association (AZMIA) hosts monthly forums and online learning opportunities (http://joinazima.org/). I also read Ragan’s Daily Headline (Ragan.com), MediaBistro.com and Romenesko/Poynter (http://www.poynter.org/category/latest-news/romenesko/). I’m also a magazine junkie and read them not only for fun, but to see new ways to reach the public. I keep a file that is stuffed with ads that inspire me. It can be content, color, and images, whatever. Magazines are a good source of ideas that are usually very contemporary and allow you to take the pulse of the reading public. There are so many ideas out there that can be adapted to what we are doing in our sector.

What was your first job ever in the arts & cultural sector?
If you want to go back to the dark ages, right out of college I worked for Mary Tyler Moore Studios in production work. I was there from 1986 – 1991 when they produced Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, Remington Steele and Newhart – along with a lot of other shows that didn’t last long. I’m not sure if working in television is really counts as the arts and culture sector but to some people TV is art. A decade later, I worked for The Palm Spring Desert Museum (now The Palm Springs Art Museum) as the communications manager.

At work, what gives you the greatest thrill or sense of accomplishment?
When I receive positive feedback from members, volunteers or visitors about what they are seeing in the community about the Garden. Not just advertising, but also in the press and the overall awareness of the Garden. It means that we are succeeding and that people are listening and responding.

What is the greatest marketing challenge your organization faces today?
Under the excellent leadership of our board of trustees and executive director, the Garden continues to set a path for growth in membership, paid attendance and community participation. As I look forward I see an enormous amount of work that will need to be done and we are spending the remainder of this year preparing for it. There won’t be more hours in the day so we need to use the ones we have more efficiently.

If, today, you had an extra $10,000 which you HAD to spend on advertising immediately, how/where would you spend it?
Oh, man…can I make it $100,000? I’ve not yet found success with targeted online advertising so I would use it to test opportunities like Reach Local that allow you to target online users. Cox Media has some interesting opportunities as well and I’m intrigued by Clear Channel Outdoor’s dynamic content digital boards.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to do what you do?
There are so few marketing positions in the arts and culture sector so if at all possible, I’d volunteer or an internship. My first job at Mary Tyler Moore Studios was offered to me as I finished a college internship. That led to working there for five really exciting years. When I first moved to Phoenix, I volunteered at the Garden and later got a job writing grant proposals. Eventually the marketing manager position opened and I was hired and later promoted to director. If you are already working in the field, make an effort to get to know marketing staff at the various organizations. Thanks to Matt Lehrman and his efforts in organizing the Valley’s arts and cultural marketing community, I’ve gotten to know many of my peers and would look to them for suggestions to fill any position I had open.

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