Cincinnati arts marketers rely on innovation to drive sales

Just like any other business, arts organizations across Cincinnati rely on research and compelling marketing to drive interest in their product which hopefully turns into ticket sales. But how do these organizations compete with limited marketing budgets and an audience base already inundated with messaging from much larger competitors? The prolonged downturn in the economy has many companies re-examining the resources they do have, primarily their own creativity and sense of innovation which helped birth many of these organizations.

Following tough economic times or a shortfall in contributed income, many arts organizations ironically pull back on creativity and innovation out of fear of losing more of their audience. Risk-taking takes a back seat to safe productions of the past. Many non-profit boards assume paring down performances and cutting labor costs is the only way back to fiscal health. But some local companies are bucking the trend and rethinking their public engagement efforts in hopes of attracting new audiences.

 

Fortunately Cincinnati arts organizations have an ally in the Fine Arts Fund’s Boot Camp for Arts Marketers (BAM!) – a training program administered by the Fine Arts Fund’s Arts Services. Just one of the many programs organized by Vice President of Arts Services, Heather Hallenberg and Associate Director of Arts Services, Mike Boberg, BAM! selects up to four organizations per year to participate in marketing discussions designed to educate Cincinnati arts professionals in the ways of current best practices in the field of arts marketing. Each company gains the benefit of workshops and seminars led by local experts including program administrator Ric Sweeney, the Director of the Business Administration/Marketing program at the University of Cincinnati College of Business.

 

BAM! is a locally developed outgrowth of the National Arts Marketing Project, funded by American Express in Cincinnati and 11 other host sites from 2000-2006.

 

An important component of adaptability in a changing marketplace and strengthening sustainability is identifying new ways to relate to audiences while staying current with ever-changing arts marketing trends and emerging technologies. An artistic group can thrive only by taking strategic artistic risks, investing in bold ventures and communicating inventively to the public.

Success for these companies is more than just learning new marketing tricks, however. “One key to the success of BAM! is that the marketing director and artistic director work side-by-side, with the full knowledge and support of the board, to program performances or exhibits designed to target new audiences and develop a marketing plan around their promotion” says Hallenberg.
   

The Know Theatre of Cincinnati underwent their training a year ago which resulted in their first true marketing plan since its founding in 1997. The comprehensive plan included market segmentation as well as a sizeable investment into new technology as part of their marketing strategy. This took the form of a revamped website, targeted emailing and an experimental use of text messaging.

 

“Multi-media has long been a focus on Know’s productions,” says Producing Artistic Director, Jason Bruffy. “It only made sense that we would incorporate it into our marketing strategy.”

Sophisticated video trailers for each production appear on the company’s site as well as in the theatre before performances and have became a staple component of the culture of the theatre. The latest incarnation takes the concept one step further by creating a series of web teasers surrounding the upcoming 5th annual Cincinnati Fringe Festival. Written by Associate Artistic Director Eric Vosmeier and shot by independent videographer Mike Maney, the first three installments were introduced to Fringe fans over the past few weeks on a variety of local websites. See episode 1 at CincyFringe.com, episode 2 at Cinstages.com, and  episode 3 at CityBeat.com.

 

“We wanted to do something different that also poked fun at ourselves,” says Vosmeier.

“You never know what you’re going to get with the Fringe Festival. It’s not always high art, so we let ourselves have fun with this set of trailers.”

The series centers on Vosmeier’s personal struggle to come up with a compelling marketing message for the upcoming Fringe Festival and the outrageous reactions the rest of the staff has to his seemingly inappropriate decisions. The fourth installment premieres here on Soapbox while the fifth and final segment will air on Thursday of this week at CincyFringe.com.

 

But it’s not just the small companies that are experimenting with alternative marketing efforts. The Cincinnati Opera released their first webisode last season and will follow up with another series for their 2008 summer festival reports Cincinnati Opera’s Director of  Public Relations, Jennifer Bellin. “This next round may even include audience generated content.”

 

Cincinnati Ballet Marketing Director, Barbara Hauser has made ballet webisodes a staple of her marketing campaigns over the past two years. Working with local production company Rosetta Stone Studios, the ballet has used the interactive webisode model coupled with a series of release parties to garner a significant jump in publicity for the ballet company as well as driving interest from a younger audience base.

“We wanted to reach out to the ‘YouTube’ generation that gets their information from online sources rather than traditional media,” says Hauser.
 
The ballet’s newest webisode premiere party is this Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. on Fountain Square and will feature the Xavier University Concert Choir performing songs from Carmina Burana, the final production of the 2007-08 season.

Individual artists are also working to incorporate business concepts in an effort to increase sales. Dawna Boehmer was unhappy with how her career as a portrait artist was going. Despite doing everything she was told to, she wasn’t selling enough work to make a living. That would change after meeting retired marketing executive, Mike Crossen at a seminar offered by Cincinnati SCORE Chapter 34, a national corps of retired executives who mentor fledgling entrepreneurs and small businesspeople. The two began meeting regularly to discuss marketing, expanding her product line, and publicity. 

 

As a result of their partnership, Boehmer adjusted her sales focus from large scale portrait pieces to smaller reproduction print work. “Now each piece has an end purpose and is directed towards a particular market — and I’ve started to make money at it.”