Friday, December 22, 2006

Off for the holidays...

I am heading back to Missouri for the holidays. I am spending a week on the family farm which doesn't have cable, internet or cell phone services. So, no blogging for the next week. However, I am bringing Joanne Scheff Bernstein's new book "Arts Marketing Insights: The Dynamics of Building and Retaining Performing Arts Audiences" with me. ArtsMarketing.org has asked me to write a review of the book. So when I return I will share my thoughts on the book with you. Have a great holiday season!

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Time Magazine's Person of the Year

You are Time magazine's "Person of the Year" for the explosive growth and influence of user-generated Internet sites such as YouTube, Facebook and MySpace. You were chosen over Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, North Korea's Kim Jong Il and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Congratulations.

Check out the entire article from CNN here.

I know that I have been focusing on less traditional, viral marketing applications lately. So, my next post will be some advise on direct mail marketing. I am studying several large direct mail campaigns for Americans for the Arts, and I what I am learning, I will share with you. Hope everyone is doing well.

Friday, December 15, 2006

If your marketing isn't working in real life, try second life...

A colleague I work with forwarded this onto me from Andrew Taylor's Arts Management blog:

A good prospect for a (virtual) board member, perhaps...

Anshe Chung has all the elements of a good prospect for your nonprofit board -- she's a millionaire, a real estate mogul, and an innovative entrepreneur with an eye for design and aesthetic value. While it's true that she's not technically a real person, but an avatar...an on-line character in the virtual world of Second Life...her influence, and her money, is real.

<>Chung is the construct of a Chinese-born language teacher living near Frankfurt, Germany, who has been developing virtual real estate in virtual worlds for a while now. The practice is well established in multi-user on-line environments, where users can not only buy ''land'' but create and sell ''objects'' to other users. The difference with Second Life is that the virtual currency used in the on-line universe is convertible to U.S. dollars (at about 250 to 1).

Chung amassed her millions by buying up islands and exclusive areas of the Second Life universe, developing them with mansions, landscapes, and other such virtual amenities, and imposing strict zoning rules to keep the riff-raff out and the paying customers in. The CEO of the company that produces Second Life describes Chung as ''the government'' for her sequestered islands and continents (more details in this Wikipedia entry, and this Business Week article).
Strange and brain-bending stuff, to be sure. But a glimpse, perhaps, into the multiple worlds -- on-line and off-line -- where creative individuals and entrepreneurs will be creating their work. And if you think this doesn't apply to the lively arts, think again. The proposed New Globe Theater in New York already commissioned and opened a virtual version of the venue in Second Life. Says their overview of the effort (scroll down the page to the August 14 news item):
Since opening its doors, the New Globe has become the rock star of virtual destinations and the it-stage for cultural and intellectual exchange. In-world guest speakers on the stage have ranged from the Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine to the Governor of Virginia. The opening performance featured actors from around the globe who had never met in person ... though time difference for rehearsals did prove a REAL problem!

The real governor of Virginia held a virtual town hall meeting in that virtual performing arts space back in August. Is the world weird enough for you yet?

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

SAVE THE DATE

National Arts Marketing Project Conference
News Announcing the theme for the 2007 Conference:
Flourishing in the New Frontier: New Media, New Audiences, New Opportunities
November 2-5, 2007Hyatt Regency Miami, FL

You asked for it, you got it! A survey of arts marketers showed you wanted a conference focusing on technology and new audiences. You’ll learn about new media from RSS to pod casts, from blogging to texting, and optimizing e-mail and e-commerce to reach every segment of the marketplace from Millennials to Boomers, and from first generation Hispanics to third generation Asians. But the conference won’t forget the basics. We’ll cover direct marketing, branding and relevant messaging as well. Watch for the Call for Session Proposals, coming soon! It’s the conference for arts marketers by arts marketers!

Sunday, December 03, 2006

New Arts Marketing Book

Co-Author of Standing Room Only publishes new arts marketing book.

Arts Marketing Insights
The Dynamics of Building and Retaining Performing Arts Audiences
by Joanne Scheff Bernstein

published by Jossey-Bass, an Imprint of Wiley, November 2006
Arts Marketing Insights offers managers, board members, professors, and students of arts management the ideas and information they need to market effectively and efficiently to customers today and into the future. Joanne Scheff Bernstein presents concepts and strategies that address the changing lifestyles, needs, interests, and preferences of current and potential audiences. She helps readers understand the mind-set of performing arts attenders and how to provide excellent customer service. She demonstrates that arts organizations can benefit by expanding the meaning of "valuable customer" to include single ticket buyers. She offers guidance on long-range marketing planning and explains how to leverage the Internet and e-mail as powerful marketing channels. Arts Marketing Insights is replete with vivid case studies and examples that illustrate the author's strategic principles in action from organizations large and small in the United States, Great Britain, Australia, and other countries. This book combines the best of proven marketing wisdom with viable new ideas and approaches that arts marketers can adopt to help their organizations thrive while realizing their artistic missions.