Here we are at the end of the first day ... pre-conference "sponsorship" day ... at the NAMP Conference. It was a decidedly mixed bag.
The case studies, while interesting, would have been tremendously more helpful had they actually covered how the organizations actually went about making their sponsorship contacts and the process they went through in obtaining those sponsorships, whether cash or in-kind.
The "sponsorship boot camp" was good information, but could have been more effective had the presenter been more able to stay on topic and on time.
However, the key note speaker at lunch was fantastic! Brenda Andonlina, Director of Public Relations and Brand Markeitng at
Fisher-Price, was informative, engaging, and inspiring. Her short presentation packed more useful tips about what corporations are looking for and how they want to be approached than most of the rest of the day put together. She was the perfect choice for today's lunch.
I have to say, though, that tonight's dinner made the whole weekend worthwhile. Americans for the Arts arranged "dine-arounds" for tonight & Sunday. A number of presenters held informal dinners at area restaurants. I went to the one on using social networking websites, lead by Chad Bauman from
Arena Stage in Washington, DC. There were ten of us in all at a really fabulous restaurant called
Grass (truly amazing mahi-mahi). We had a very relaxed, nuts-and-bolts conversation about what is going on in the Web 2.0 world and what each of our orgs are doing about it. I went as an admitted novice to the whole online phenomenon beyond websites and HTML emails. I was excited about the opportunities out there, I just didn't know how to use them or which ones to pay attention to. We talked about everything from MySpace and Facebook to YouTube to Yelp.com. fascinating, fascinating stuff! Of course, I want to dive straight in tonight and explore all the possibilities, but I have to get up and do it all over again tomorrow. After tonight though I am exponentially more excited about the fact that Synchro got its own YouTube Non-Profit Channel ... oh, the things we will do! :-) If ya'll have experiences on any of these sites, please share them ... and watch for our new PSA, to be premiering on YouTube in the near future!
'night, 'night.
Well, I've arrived safely in Miami and am all checked in for
the conference. The schedule looks excellent and I'm looking forward to a number of the sessions that are planned. And, I see lots of familiar names on the participant's list ... it is exciting to build a network of colleagues. Collaboration brings us all higher.
Tomorrow is the pre-conference on sponsorship. Who doesn't need help with finding corporate sponsors?? We (at Synchronicity) have had a smattering of them in the past few years, but we could definitely do better. We are partnering with
Georgia Reproductive Services on our spring show -
Expecting Isabel by Lisa Loomer. We have hit the partnership jackpot with them because Mark Perloe, MD is not only a doctor, he is also an avid theatre practitioner, patron, and advocate. He is going above and beyond to help us spread the word on the show through this sponsorship.
So, how do we find the other folks out there in corporations who, like Dr. Perloe, have a passion for and an intrinsic understanding of the value of the arts? These are the champions we need for sponsorships to do everything they are capable of doing.
Tomorrow begins with a three-hour Sponsorship Bootcamp ... I'll let you know how it goes. If anyone out there has any best practices or things to avoid in seeking / fulfilling corporate sponsorships, I would love to hear them & discuss.
Interestingly, Dr. Perloe is also going to be in this year's class of Atlanta Arts Leaders with me.
Ok, work to be done ... more tomorrow!
This post is from my reply to an email from Mike Wein of Wien & Associates regarding ideas for collaboration within the Atlanta arts community. Click here to read Mike's original email.
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Thanks for including me on your thoughts, Mike. I've been talking about many of these same things with others in the community. Having moved to Atlanta from New York City about seven months ago, I have been amazed at the collaborative spirit and willingness to share among those in the theatre community here in Atlanta. This is the opposite of the NY community and it is such a welcome change. I wanted to let you know some of the initiatives that members of the theatre community have in place and are currently working on.
You may (or may not) have heard of Take 5 (http://www.take5atlanta.com/). We are a group of ten Atlanta theatres who have come together to help bring in new audiences through and introductory package to the public. In partnership with ACPA we offer the Take 5 Pass which, for $50, gives the holder a ticket to five of the ten theatres. We are currently looking for new ways to publicize our pass so that more potential patrons can take advantage of it. Our group also meets once a month or so to trade marketing ideas and share our upcoming productions in hopes of finding partnership opportunities.
At Synchronicity we are implementing a couple of ideas that go right along with your notes. Knowing that the world of group sales is an alternative steady income stream when subscription sales aren't high, we are working on getting connected with those same corporate human resources departments you mention. While working on my master's degree, I met with group sales professionals from Live Nation and learned about their group bundling program, which I am adapting for use at Synchronicity. It is simply a way to offer group pricing to corporations without the companies taking on the burden of organizing, collecting money, or distributing tickets. The companies are given HTML emails including a promo code which they distribute to their employees. The employees use the promo codes on our website in order to get the group prices. The companies can choose whether they want to offer the code for an individual performance, a series of performances or the run of the show. They guarantee a certain number of tickets sold depending on the level of flexibility they want. This could easily be adapted for collaborative use, especially now that AtlanTix is offering online ticketing.
We are also running a new initiative with our next production, Angela's Mixtape, in an effort to specifically reach out to the black community. We will be contacting organizations that support mentorship within the black community (sororities, fraternities, Coalition of 100 Black Women, Black MBA, etc) to offer a 1/2 price ticket for a mentee for every mentor ticket purchased for two Thursday performances and one Sunday evening performance.
Both of these initiatives are new, so I don't have any hard data on them yet, but I'll let you know how they go.
Thank you again for your thoughts, they are quite inspiring!
All the best,
Amy Wratchford
This post is from an email from Mike Wein of Wien & Associates regarding ideas for collaboration within the Atlanta arts community. Click here to read my reply.
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Good afternoon,
I am writing you because I am not sure who I should be writing and hope you will review my comments, give me your thoughts and pass it on to the appropriate people.
I attended the ASAP meeting on Friday. I am not sure why I was invited or who invited me, but I was there and glad to be there. I learned a lot about the arts in Atlanta and found the information to be very informative.
As I have no idea, why I was invited, I also have no idea of what the expectations were. So, in the spirit of community involvement, I am going to assume I was there to help the different organizations think strategically about collaboration. So here are some semi-random, semi-organized thoughts that I hope will encourage more thinking and discussion on the subject.
Ken Bernhardt opened the marketing session by making an important point from the world of retail. Retail stores have learned that by working together, a group of stores can attract more business than individual stores promoting independently. And he suggested that we should provide the same concept to the Arts. I agree.
We also learned that while Atlanta has attracted a large and diverse number of organizations in the Arts world, that awareness for the variety of outlets is not very high. That sounds to me like an important call to action. So here are some thoughts that will hopefully stimulate some additional conversation within the Arts Community of Atlanta.
First, most of the Arts organizations in Atlanta have similar objectives:
- Attract more people to their venue ("butts in seats.")
- Build their base of members/subscribers
- Nurture potential donors/financial supports
Second, I believe for the sake of simplicity, we can divide the market into five market segments:
- Existing members/subscribers on at least on organization
- Young professionals who are not currently member/subscribers
- Other residents who are none of the above
- Visitors who have come to Atlanta to attend a meeting or convention
- Visitors who are tourists in Atlanta
Third, the area of greatest need within most Arts organizations is to build higher levels of awareness for their organization and thereby expand their audience. To develop effective ways to reach out to people who are currently not connected. To motivate people to become connect, to participate, to be inspired, to celebrate, and to enjoy what the artistic community has to offer. While there might be some hesitancy from the more mature organizations to share their customer base with others who may be competing for the same share of the wallet, there should not be any concern for joining together with "competitors" to try and attract new supporters and increase the overall universe for everyone.
This leads me to believe that community wide non-threatening collaboration could take place in three areas; attracting young professionals currently not associated with an arts organization, attracting visitors on business and attracting tourists. Since developing programs for the visitors is pretty straightforward and easy, let me focus my thoughts on young professionals. Specifically how does the Atlanta Arts Community inspire the young professionals to become more passionate, active, and involved in supporting the Arts? The answer is by coming together with this common bound to build this new audience and enrich the lives of so many.
Let's consider joining forces and developing programs or promotions that appeal to this new audience on a number of different fronts:
- Social - meeting people
- Education - exposure to new venues
- Community Involvement - volunteer opportunities
- Value - "Trial Size" offer to reduce first time risk
- Networking - meeting potential clients or referral sources
To give this concept more focus, let's pick a very specific target to start with - young professionals (Single and couples) between the ages of 30 and 40. We can reach many of them by starting with the human resources directors at the major law firms, accounting firms, commercial real estate companies, consulting firms and major corporations. They all have a vested interest in improving the quality of life in Atlanta and making this city a great place to work. With an attractive program and a core base of participants, we can encourage this group to help spread the word and attract a larger audience.
While I am not presumptuous enough to suggest the offer to attract and inspire this new group of future patrons, I am willing to suggest some ideas to further discussion
- Develop a combined menu that promotes each venue. This could be in the form of a printed brochure or a web site. It should also include special offer to encourage trail.
- Offer a number of sample packages that provide a significant discount for trying at least three new venues.
- Host a joint event at one location that features samples from five to 10 different venues. The samples might be short segments from performances, a discussion of an up coming play by the director or writer, or an exhibit of some of the works of art.
- Promote a "club night" exclusively for "members" of this target group that is not promoted to the public, is discounted and includes a back stage tour or a cocktail reception, or a guest lecture about the performance or works.
- Launch a formal organization that encourages young professionals to become active in the arts. Membership would require paying dues, participation in fund raising events to raise money for the arts, volunteering as man power to help some of the benefiting arts organizations. In return the Art organizations would annually provide one free event to educate and inspire members to become more involved. This might be a performance and reception days before the show opens to the public. This is not an original idea. It was a successful program in Dallas, Texas 30 years ago. The name was The 500 Club I believe.
As I said at the beginning of this message, I hope these random thoughts help to stimulate more creative ways for the community to come together to help each organization build new audiences, subscribers and passionate donors. If we can do that, we will all be enriched.
Mike Wien
Wien & Associates LLC
Fresh Perspectives for Profitable Growth
Office: (770) 518-0711
Cell: (404) 232-0058
E-mail: mike.wien@wien-associates.com
Web Site: www.wien-associates.com
I'm just getting the chance to write about the Atlanta Arts & Culture Symposium that happened back on Friday, October 12th ... still trying to get in the rhythm of blogging regularly. The Symposium was very informative, especially for someone new to the Atlanta arts scene. It was called to introduce us to a new organization - ASAP (Arts Supporting Agencies Partnership). I must commend the partners within ASAP for doing their best to save money, paper, and man hours by forming this group! It is exciting to see folks breaking through bureaucracies to do what is truly best for all concerned. The partners are: Metro Atlanta Arts and Culture Coalition, Fulton County Arts Council, Metro Atlanta Arts Fund, Georgia Council for the Arts, Brand Atlanta, Atlanta Convention and Visitor's Bureau, and City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs.
I, naturally, went to the marketing session in the afternoon. While there I met Mike Wien of
Wien & Associates (http://www.wien-associates.com/index.html) - a smart and engaging gentleman in the marketing field who has a passion for the arts. After the symposium, Mike sent out an email with his thoughts on where we should go from here ... I think it contains lots of good ideas and
have posted it (and
my response) in its entirety as a separate item. Check them out and post any comments!
Welcome to my new blog! I'll be writing about what I see going on in the arts marketing and management fields, what we're experiencing here at Synchronicity, and anything else that happens to be on my mind while I'm typing.
To give a little background, I'm a relatively new transplant to the Atlanta area. I joined Synchronicity as managing director almost eight months ago. Before that I was working and living in New York City as actor, director, producer, and, at various times, student. After 13 years in the city, a BFA (Acting - NYU), an MFA (Arts Mgmt - Brooklyn College), and the birth of my two babies (Kurt - 3.5 yrs, Maggie - 16 mo) it was time to move on. Atlanta, as a city and as a theatre community, has been more welcoming than I could every have imagined. If you are looking for a truly livable city with a fantastic theatre scene, I recommend Atlanta highly!
I've worked in theatre, film, television, radio, print, retail, dining, hospitality, and (peripherally) investment banking. Every single bit of that experience plays into how I market a play and how I manage a theatre. More on that as the days go on, no doubt.
Here's what I've got coming up in the next few months: Oct 12: Atlanta Arts & Culture Symposium, Nov 1-5: Americans for the Arts' National Arts Marketing Project Conference in Miami, Nov. 5: the Suzi Bass Awards (Synchro is nominated for 12!), Nov. 7: orientation/reception for the 2007-2008 class of Arts Leaders of Metro Atlanta (of which I am a member), Nov 19: first rehearsal for
A Year with Frog and Toad, and Dec 7:
Frog and Toad opens.
I'm also participating in the TCG Marketing Directors Teleconference Series, so I'll be reporting in on that too. It is going to be an exciting fall! I'll type again soon.