How do we market artistry without losing the art?
It’s that time of the year, when artists and marketers butt heads over adjectives, verbs, and commas in hopes of creating the magical brochure blurb that will seamlessly represent the artists’ vision AND entice new audiences to fill the theater. This is no small task. Lengthy negotiations between the artist and the marketer often lead to a boring and unsatisfactory statement about the work.
There must be a better way. With ticket sales down 15%, we need to find a way to work together to approach new audiences in a language that does not intimidate and does not read like a text book. By this I DO NOT MEAN dumbing down the work, I mean collaboratively finding a more conversational way of talking about dance and artists’ vision. I truly wish this wasn’t such a struggle, particularly as everyone has the same goal in mind – to engage people in dance. However, with artists’ (I myself am one) fear of misrepresentation, we can’t seem to get past go.
Take this for example: in addition to contributing brochure copy, we’ve asked the artists we’re presenting to answer 10 questions about themselves and their process. These questions will be used online, and in the brochure if room allows, with the aim to lighten things up and provide access points for those unfamiliar with contemporary art and artists. Some are silly, some serious, but all are harmless. Unfortunately, this tactic has caused a bit of a stir, and some artists are refusing to answer the questions. I admit that I do not know if this approach will work, but I would like to try it.
As an artist, I understand the desire to hold your cards close to your chest, to want total control over everything related to your work. Yet as an administrator charged with the task of bringing new eyes and ears to our art form, I want to shout out from my office window “Just work with me!” Let us at least be bold enough to try to speak to those outside our community.
smaxfield (May 30th, 2008 at 3:52 pm)
Sing out, Louise! People, listen to this woman. She is trying to help you. She is you.
Eva Yaa Asantewaa (May 30th, 2008 at 5:52 pm)
I’ve heard from dance artists that they’d really like potential audiences to know more about them as people and as artists. I don’t know what DTW’s list of questions contain, but I would hope that this initiative will be a true a step in that direction.
Eva Yaa Asantewaa
InfiniteBody dance blog
http://infinitebody.blogspot.com
Megan Sprenger (May 30th, 2008 at 6:20 pm)
Eva and Smax - Thank you for getting involved so quickly. It is easy to point the finger at this years particular issue, but honestly this is an industry wide problem that goes way beyond the example given above. All artists have difficulty with the idea of marketing their work. So then what is it about marketing the arts that feels “dirty” or “wrong” - like we are selling out to sell our art?
smaxfield (May 31st, 2008 at 9:20 am)
I think part of the problem is that we artists want to have it both ways. We want to be recognized by the press, audiences, and venues, but we don’t want to admit that we then become part of a market. We’ve convinced ourselves that the “real” artists don’t have to. Somehow, the market revolves around them, and they never compromise - ever. This damaging myth puts extreme pressure on artists and venues alike, as does our post-Warhol obsession with branding. I think as artists we need to take responsibility for our relationship to the market, and challenge its grip on our society without acting like bratty children throwing our angry tantrums at the very people who are trying to help us. As administrators, I think we need to look past the frustration and continue to brainstorm new models for framing the work we present.
Azaro (May 31st, 2008 at 3:54 pm)
Some people are just dour, recalcitrant, pompous, and/or ungenerous. Add some nifty dance ideas and voila! A career that never quite happens.
Doug Fox (June 1st, 2008 at 6:35 am)
Megan, reaching new audiences for dance is clearly a huge challenge.
I’m not sure that taking new text-based approaches will have a significant impact. Although I do think that, from a marketing perspective, dance could be written about in different ways that would make more sense to new dance audiences.
I think that video is a much better, more compelling way of engaging new audiences - especially videos where choreographers and dancers talk about their work, their creative process and share a bit about themselves and their motivations.
But the best opportunities for expanding audiences, I believe, is to go vertical. As in targeting audience segments based upon the subject matter and themes of a dance work. Traditionally, this type of segmentation was not possible and art has been generally promoted to an arts audience. But with the Internet, artists/arts organizations can market to topic-specific audiences.
For example, in my blog The Kinetic Interface, I’ve been covering examples of interdisciplinary collaborations between dance artists and academics/researchers/practitioners in various fields. One of the collaborations I find especially interesting is between Wayne McGregor and his Random Dance Company, and neuroscientists.
Imagine that a dance company here in NYC were creating a new dance work that dealt in some manner with the broad area of neuroscience. One of the most effective ways to promote this work is by reaching out to the large neuroscientist community in NYC. This can be done through the Internet (neuroscience-related websites, blogs, social networking sites, video channels and other possibilities) and through off-line channels (contacting associations, research groups, hospitals and others involved in this area).
The above approach offers a way to bring dance completely beyond the traditional dance-going audience. I just gave an example above of neuroscience. But the same vertical-marketing approach can be done for any field of interest. So if dancers deal directly or indirectly with architecture, design, fashion, medicine, the environment, computer gaming, entertainment or many other fields or disciplines, there are many new audiences to cultivate. And these new audiences can lead to new types of sponsorships and new types of bookings as well.
Those are my thoughts for a Sunday morning. Look forward to what others have to save about above and this topic.
Carleigh (June 3rd, 2008 at 4:53 pm)
artists: please participate in dtw’s marketing experiment and answer the bloody questions (megan, you know I’d love a copy of them ;-).
answer them with words, a video, or a drawing, just respond. it will not cost anyone anything, it will not demystify, nor obscure, nor take the place of the work. we are trying to make marketing as creative as the work it represents - marketers, too, need some room to experiment. ciao for now.
Jessica (June 3rd, 2008 at 5:10 pm)
I’d be interested to read the questions!
Sarah A.O. (June 3rd, 2008 at 5:12 pm)
Meghan,
I think that this is an interesting problem, and one that isn’t (or shouldn’t be) so easily brushed off as people being “dour, recalcitrant, pompous, and/or ungenerous”. This past year especially, I have felt more and more of my fellow artists voice reluctance to engage head on with the idea and action of marketing themselves, voicing the opinion that what’s most important is “the work”, as if the veiwership and economy necessary to make art will suddenly appear once “good art” is being made.
I agree with Doug that video offers an innovative and eye-catching way to showcase the artist’s individuality and, for lack of a better term, “put asses in seats”. If a picture is worth a thousand words, than a video is surely worth the choreographer’s weight in gold. However, many choreographers don’t have access to film collaborators or their own equipment. Even when they do, the result is not (and will never be) the same as performance. So how do we convey the essence of an artist, a performance, a style, with something that is not the original medium (words, questionares, video)?
While there is certainly no easy answer, i think that the thing that needs the most focus is the attitude and understanding of the makers. Working with the system to present your work in the best way possible IS NOT SELLING OUT. It does not cheapen the work, it does not make it any less original or artistic, and it does not take so much time and energy that the dance itself falls by the wayside. To me, even the idea that marketing artistry would “lose the art” seems odd. Marketing is an art in itself, and the sooner artist not only realize that, but begin to artistically embrace it in to their administration, their actions, and even their work, the sooner we will be rid of the (i think false) marketing versus artistry schism.
Robin Staff (June 3rd, 2008 at 5:27 pm)
I am just reading all this exciting commentary. Bravo Megan for getting this moving forward with some great new ideas to introduce who we are and what we do to the public out there that just has no clue about the many different voices in dance. I must say that I am in total agreement with Sarah A. O. … Marketing is an Art and I think that artists should start to embrace it, make it a real part of the overall process and not fear it as something that labels who they and their work are. More and more we are being asked to clearly define ourselves and I think this is a powerful lesson for artists at all levels. I am not sure what your questions were, and that does not really matter to me, but I think that when we take time to question /interview ourselves we learn more about our work and our goals. This is a process that should be on-going as we are always evolving and if we are not, we should reach for that.
Robin
Fernando Maneca (June 3rd, 2008 at 10:23 pm)
The following is a bit of preachiness from a dual citizen … dance and advertising …
A successful direct marketing campaign has three main components. In order of importance, they are:
1. the list (who the piece is being sent to)
2. the offer (what is being sold)
3. the creative (the words, graphics and design of the piece)
For the most part, we in the dance world send our marketing devices to lists that are made-up predominately of practitioners and patrons of our art form. This means that we can be as poetic as we want to be in our postcards, brochures, newsletters, etc., because we are selling to a niche market … our own … and, for the most part, we understands each other.
Now, if our goal is to reach those “others” outside our community, then FIRST we need new lists.
Only then can we come up with strategies to target them.
There’s an old saying in direct marketing: “You can’t hit a target you can’t see.”
Having said all that, buying lists is problematic … for one, they’re expensive.
But this is another conversation. And as I attempt to balance family, art-making, and the dreaded day-job, sleep is too often the victim.
So … to be continued … good-night.
Fernando Maneca (June 3rd, 2008 at 10:30 pm)
PS. I would love to see these ten questions. Are these only available to artists being presented at DTW? Or can anyone see them?
Fernando Maneca (June 3rd, 2008 at 10:33 pm)
PSS. Megan, keep up the good. I’ve been creating marketing pieces for choreographers for over ten years… I know how frustrating this can be.
Doug Fox (June 4th, 2008 at 7:22 am)
To follow-up on Sarah A.O.’s good points about art vs. marketing:
I think that if video and the Internet are used successfully to build new and larger audiences, then there does not have to be a conflict between art and marketing.
If anything the artwork that is being created should be very much at the heart of any and all marketing efforts.
Good, compelling dance videos can be created very inexpensively. Yes, it does cost some money but it does not require anything fancy.
Personally, I think dancers would benefit from considering new approaches to writing about and describing their work — especially, if the goal is to reach new dance audiences. I think that many of the descriptions I come across - flyers, websites and blogs - do not do justice to the work that is being promoted.
The Hip-Hop Dance Conservatory (June 4th, 2008 at 10:43 am)
Megan you’ve hit the nail on the head. This is the very question that we sit down and ask ourselves twice a year. In the beginning we attempted to hire a company to handle our marketing efforts, but a majority of well known agencies have no clue as to the needs of the artistic community or they just don’t care and create campaigns that become contrived and senseless. Since we are the only conservatory for hip-hop dance in the country, we were always given the brick wall/graffiti look. We would explain that we are attempting to elevate the art-form by removing it from the confines of street personification and bringing it to a wider audience that understands the value of dance and motif.
So now our marketing is in-house and it’s great, because we have complete autonomy over our image and the impact that we make locally and globally.
Something that we should keep in mind though is that many dance companies do not have the funds to create and develop marketing campaigns. If we all pooled our resources, it would make for a level playing field amongst smaller companies that don’t have large marketing budgets. We are more than happy to lend out our marketing department to other dance companies in need of marketing support by the way.
Creating campaigns that speak to the greater population is an arduous road, but one that is necessary to traverse if we plan to facilitate long-term survival. The key is crossing genre lines and boundaries to work together and strengthen the dance community at large.
Safi Thomas
Artistic Director
The Hip-Hop Dance Conservatory (June 4th, 2008 at 10:45 am)
Our website is http://www.hdcny.org
Megan Sprenger (June 4th, 2008 at 5:52 pm)
I would like to wait until the fall to share all of the questions with you. I will say they range from personal nonsense like “What is your cell phone ring tone?” to more practical questions such as “Where to do you rehearse?”. Again I will reiterate - the tension that this particular example highlights has existed for years and is less about the particular ten questions we came up with but more about the concept of having to market art.
Doug - I completely agree that strategic collaboration can help leap across genre borders. However as a presenter Dance Theater Workshop does not dictate what artists must create and who they must create it with. Also many companies have attempted this to no avail, lets just use me as an example: my last work commissioned by PS122’s ROOM program - which is designed to directly do what you are suggesting by encouraging artists to work with non dance collaborators - attracted very few non dance audience members. I believe this is because while the content may have been interesting to those outside our field, we did not know how to effectively communicate with them.
Sarah A.O – Video is definitely part of the answer – but again it is about getting that video out to a greater mass. YouTube is a possibility but who can compete with a dancing cockatoo or an amazing teenage breaker. Are then talking about making video dance “commercials” that would get millions of views as advertising for our more ephemeral performance art?
Christopher Pelham (June 4th, 2008 at 8:22 pm)
All art is an attempt to communicate something to someone. So, of course, you have to have something compelling to communicate or no one will pay attention. If your work is not great, spend more time getting feedback from mentors and peers and discovering how to make great work–and then come back and try to find a public audience.
The work can only speak for itself once it is engaging an audience. To attract an audience, you need to advertise the work. It’s competitive out there. You chose to go into an extremely competitive field (entertainment/enrichment). Accept it. If you want me (or anyone else) to see your work, you have to convince me that that would be the best use of my time and money. That can take time, especially if, best on my prior experience, I may doubt that I will enjoy your work (I am speaking generally, not about any specific work). There is a lot of uninspired dance out there and it undoubtedly scares some people away from seeing work they might actually enjoy.
Since artists are such creative communicators and problem solvers (theoretically), they ought to be able to do a better job of solving the problem of how to attract an audience to their work. Everyone one DTW’s list gets several dance postcards a week in the mail and many of them could be interchangeable, different names but the same blah design and minimal information about what the experience of seeing the show will actually be like. I tend to think that blah cards mean the show will be blah. If that’s your only 5 seconds to convince me to see your show, you better give me some compelling reason to think it will transform my life and burn itself into my memory forever. Otherwise, it’s going straight into the trash. In NY there is so much to choose from that most people only see shows they think will be great…or that the feel obligated to go to because they know someone in it or their significant other insists you see with him/her.
If you keep making great work and maintain a great attitude and enjoy every opportunity to share or promote your work, word of mouth will spread.
Christopher Pelham
Director
CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing)
123 4th Ave, 2nd FL
New York, NY 10003
212-677-8621
http://www.crsny.org
Fernando Maneca (June 4th, 2008 at 10:14 pm)
How you describe your work must to be tailored to the recipient of your marketing piece.
If you are sending your cards and emails to choreographers, dancers, and patrons of dance, then your language and your images (still or moving) has to engage them.
For the most part, this is what we do. We do it fairly well. I am on every NYC dance list and am often impressed by what I get in the mail and in my inbox.
If we are truly interested in reaching an audience that is outside our community, then, we need to identify these potential audiences, get to know them, get their contact information, and send them materials that speak to them… ie. written in the manner that everyone is talking about on this blog.
However, and I can not stress this enough, without the appropriate lists, all we’re doing is finding new ways to speak to ourselves. At best, sub-genres will expand their audience to include a greater portion the entire dance community … which is GREAT … but it is not reaching those “others.”
We need to identify groups of people who do not see dance but are likely to see dance. Then we convince them that our beloved art-form is worthy of their attention, their time, and their money.
Peace,
Fernando
Doug Fox (June 5th, 2008 at 9:02 am)
Megan, thanks for feedback about strategic collaborations.
While I don’t doubt the challenges of reaching out to non-dance audiences, I still think that given the possibilities of engaging large Internet audiences in new ways, that there are unexplored avenues along these lines.
I would be very interested to learn about such past collaborations. How were such works created? How were non-dance audiences engaged at different points during the creative process? How were these audiences marketed to? Was the Internet used for these marketing purposes?
In my Kinetic Interface blog this week, I’ve offered a number of specific examples of how this gap might be bridged when discussing dance works that address issues ranging from theoretical physics, chemistry and neuroscience. I’d be delighted to get feedback on these suggestions.
And if choreographers and dancers are currently looking to reach out to non-traditional dance audiences, I’d like to learn about your projects and how you’re looking to communicate with these audiences.
Modern/contemporary dance has been too disconnected for too long from larger audiences. I don’t think this isolation is necessary and I look forward to helping figure out how to solve this challenge.
Fernando Maneca (June 5th, 2008 at 9:07 pm)
Doug — Absolutely, new internet services such as YouTube offer great possibilities.
I wonder, for example, how would the “hard bodies” performers reach their audience (2.5 million viewers) if they were to take their show on the road?
If you go to the poster’s channel, you’ll notice they have 336 subscribers. Presumably, by sending them an email and a new video, they might spread the word … and depending on the subscribers geographical location etc etc … they might get a decent showing.
This is an interesting challenge. I wonder if there’s a way to refine this process. So that the buzz can be timely and geographically targeted. hmmm
There’s something here.
Peace,
Fernando
Doug Fox (June 6th, 2008 at 6:56 am)
Fernando,
That’s good question about bringing “hard bodies” show on the road.
These are my quick answers - clearly, many approaches could be taken:
Using YouTube, you can communicate with your subscribers and friends through messaging and bulletins.
Before I started promoting upcoming performances, I would engage the audience in a direct competition of some sort so that more people submitted videos and all of these videos could be accessed directly from my channel page on YouTube. Right now, it just so happens that many people posted video responses, but these responses and others can be incorporated into competitive framework to build a larger audience.
YouTube by itself is just one channel. I’d also set-up a blog, a Facebook page and other social networking profiles. Plus, I’d create email newsletter with a simple subscription form that included a zip code field so that you would know where everybody is located.
I’d make everything about the online and in-person experiences very participatory. This video is really made for fostering creativity and involvement from everybody who’s interested. Maybe a performance would consist of the creators and five other contributors whose videos are selected as the best by YouTube voters. So the live performance would attract the local friends of the performers wherever this event took place.
And maybe the cities/towns of the performances are simply based upon where there is the most demand. By tracking zip codes and using demand service such as Eventful, you simply go to the locations where you have the largest built-in audience.
Those are just some initial thoughts. Fernando and others, what do you think about viability of this approach?
Kevin Gay (June 6th, 2008 at 8:25 am)
Art by its very nature defies description. It comes form the heart, the soul and taps into the divine nature of ourselves evoking a visceral response that is often elusive and inexplicable, yet memorable. Can you describe that first kiss with someone? It’s very difficult to do well, so I agree that “marketing” art is in itself an art form. The question is how do you tap into that same emotional spark in your audience that has inspired the artist without actually having the piece present? Advertising attempts this (buy car get girl, look pretty, etc.) by going to the surface (read ego) desires that are often accepted as substitutes for true emotional fulfillment. We can go deeper, however, and as resistant as artists are to be defined (myself included), there must be cooperation with those attempting to get our work seen - we do exist in a physical world and are not yet sentient enough to communicate emotions across space, so we must use words and images.
The only advice I have in this respect is “integrity”. Do we want to attempt to be popular or true? I resist the current mainstream of “hot” and “sexy” as these may touch a part of ourselves that evoke an emotional response, but it is far less truthful than the origin of art itself - heart, soul, spirit. Tap into that truth, show people how amazing they are, move them, and the doors will have to be bolted to keep them out. Or not, but at least we’ve done so while respecting both ourselves and the nature of creation.
Karl Cronin (June 8th, 2008 at 2:15 pm)
In relation to the “What is Being Sold” in Fernando’s description of direct marketing, I would love to see marketing material reflect stronger representation of the audience/participant’s experience of witnessing/engaging with the work.
As an audience member, I approach marketing material with the intent of figuring out what my experience might be, and do not always get a clear sense of that from artist statements and descriptions of work.
What will I see?
What will I experience?
What did people experience during your studio showings?
Video is great, yet YouTube clips can fail to capture the magic and poetry of live theatre. Words, and especially words from trusted friends, have the potential to augment those video clips and convey some of the truth of what it is like to be there with the work.
Karl Cronin (June 8th, 2008 at 10:20 pm)
I just read the following quote in the Effective Executive (Peter Drucker), and while yes, choreographers are not necessarily executives (although many are), the call to responsibility for making understandable that which we as artists do is relevant here:
“The man of knowledge has always been expected to take responsibility for being understood. It is barbarian arrogance to assume that the layman can or should make the effort to understand him, and that it is enough if the man of knowledge talks to a handful of fellow experts who are his peers.” ” If a man wants to be an executive –that is, if he wants to be considered responsible for his contribution–he has to concern himself with the usability of this ‘product’–that is, his knowledge”
Sarah A.O. (June 9th, 2008 at 11:09 am)
I’m especially interested in the youtube discussion that’s started to pop up here, and thanks again to Meghan for this great topic.
Meghan, you wrote: “YouTube is a possibility but who can compete with a dancing cockatoo or an amazing teenage breaker. Are then talking about making video dance “commercials” that would get millions of views as advertising for our more ephemeral performance art?” Additionally, Doug and other artists spoke to the benefits of youtube to give viewers a first taste or preview of the work, but also called on a need to utilize and expand its networking abilities - creating a discussion about what is being shown rather than continually creating output after output.
At the risk of being too self-serving, i think it’s time to bring an idea that i’ve been working on for the past year into the conversation: Hypermedia.
Aside from what Hypermedia actually is or can do, i think my point is this: while YouTube is blessing or a curse depending on your use of and feelings towards it, it’s time for dancers to think about (as many of the artists here are doing) what works in that system, what doesn’t. And most importantly, what system could we create that would be our perfect system for showing/sharing/marketing/educating - whatever you want to call it - dance?
We are in an extremly exciting time, in that technology is in our lap. If a system is unsatisfactory, we can make another. Already, online versions of social networking sites (most prominently http://www.dance-tech.net) are propagating. Why not program and propagate our own technology (whether it’s a site, a DVD, a game, etc.)- completely new, competently self-designed with which to market our art?
There’s no easy way to explain all the details of this Hypermedia thing that i’m building here, but i’m posting a mini-lesson on my blog (www.urgentartist.blogspot.com) for the next fourteen days - check it out if you’re interested!
Again, the first step is embracing the need for education/advertising, so it’s very exciting to see so many artists voicing their views on how to do so here!
Fernando Maneca (June 10th, 2008 at 5:39 am)
Wow, there are some great ideas here.
Certainly various combinations of web and print, each written and designed to target a specific audience (or potential audience) will increase the chance of greater attendance.
This is exciting. Perhaps some organization (hint hint) could organize a gathering to first solidify some of these ideas, and then put together an action plan that artists and arts organizations could follow or modify for their own purposes.
Peace,
Fernando
Megan Sprenger (June 12th, 2008 at 2:43 pm)
Would a couple of you be interested in gathering and discussing some of the ideas above? Perhaps a focus group of sorts?
Christopher Pelham (June 16th, 2008 at 7:28 pm)
I agree that video promotion seems to hold the most potential for communicating what a dance work will be like, for pulling in new audiences and for reassuring them that the work will, indeed, hopefully be enjoyable. But I’m not sure it will work in all cases.
Is anyone afraid that putting video online will spoil the surprise for the audience? I have also known some choreographers to be wary that someone might copy them. Then again, people go to see Hello, Dolly! over and over and over…again, even though they know exactly what’s coming.
How do we make enticing videos or video commercials for work that is about, for instance, the elongation of time? that are thoughtful but not, perhaps, “catchy”? Or how does one represent improv? In a video the “content” (for lack of a better word) can so easily overwhelm the sensitivity of the performers and the of connection between performers that gives rise to the content. And that content may never be repeated.
Marc Kirschner (June 18th, 2008 at 12:36 am)
Having looked at some of the above posts, I think it should be reassuring to some that many of the theoretical questions asked above do have real and practical answers and these capabilities will be part of the TenduTV platform. Some thoughts:
Fernando: you had raised the issue of geographical targeting. Through our partners, we will be able to recognize/target viewers in a particular geographic area (I’m not sure off the top of my head exactly how granular we’ll get, but definitely on a state-by-state basis), and inform them of upcoming performances in their area.
Karl: You’re right about YouTube and the video quality issues. Somewhere within the dance-tech forums I posted some basic thoughts on this issue, including a few (of the many valid) reason why the industry has been a bit slow on the uptake. To your second point, yes, many choreographers are executives, but from an outsider’s point of view, many of the choreographers who are executives tend to be significantly less effective at both roles. There are exceptions, but not many.
Your quote is particularly relevant as well. There are a few company descriptions that can be found online where the work or company’s mission is described in such patently absurd language that it’s almost comical. If a dance company describes their work as “transcending the ephemeral boundaries of the fluidly effervescing human condition as the spirit travels across the planes of time and space” they need some serious communications help.
(PS, the above description doesn’t really exist, although I’m sure we’ve all seen something much too close)
Megan: You nailed the issue of video right on the head when you said “it’s about getting that video out to a greater mass.” There is a general (and patently false belief), that posting something on YouTube is reaching the greater mass. Doug had asked my thoughts last week one of the videos on YouTube that he felt should have found a greater audience than it did. In this case, the choreographer never gave it a chance to find a larger audience, due to outright horrible metatagging that prevented a potential audience member from having any chance of stumbling over the video without looking specifically for it. We’re putting a significant amount of effort into enhancing “discovery mechanisms” that will bring the incremental viewer to the artform, rather than trying to continually upsell the same audience member whose attention every company seems to be competing over.
Finally, as far as the integrity of the work is concerned, everyone should make the work that they want to make. You may not have the largest audience, but at the least we like to think that we can help you reach the audience does exist.
Cheers,
Marc
Jessica Danser (June 20th, 2008 at 2:18 pm)
Karl Cronin, your insightful quote (“The man of knowledge… etc”) hit on the head what I was thinking throughout reading this. I think that many strategies of marketing outlined here are intelligent, and I think one of the main problems we face as artists in NYC is that there are seemingly infinite opportunities for entertainment, and building an audience when one has only a small budget for advertising is difficult in a city where certain high budget events are advertised to death. And that we continue to fill a house at all in the age of TV shows which enable people to see virtuosic, if not often enough artistic, dance without leaving their couches, is no small feat. All that being said, the overwhelming vibe I get from many others in the field is that being accesible to an audience (and god forbid, maybe an arts-ignorant audience) is unnecessary or compromising, and I think this attitude does us all a huge disservice. If we want to fill seats, we can’t only preach to the choir. We have to get outside the studios and look at the reality of the MANY communities we live among, if not in, in the city. And we have to realize that any show might be someone’s first dance experience, and how sad if that experience were so opaque it turned out to be their last.
CULTURIST » I went to the theater, and all I got was this lousy bobblehead doll… (June 20th, 2008 at 2:32 pm)
[...] The folks at Dance Theater Workshop are having an interesting conversation about this on their blog; As Megan Sprenger wrote in the discussion’s opening editorial, “There must be a better [...]
Doug Fox (June 21st, 2008 at 8:29 am)
So many great thoughts above that it’s difficult to know where to start, but…
Megan, great idea to have gathering to continue discussion of these and related ideas.
Kevin, following-up your thoughts about art marketing and integrity: One of opportunities, I believe, with better quality online dance videos is that the video itself can play a much greater part in the marketing — this means that the actual work of an artists is speaking for itself to a much larger degree than ever before. The old adage in marketing is sell the sizzle not the steak. On the Internet there’s no reason that the steak cannot speak for itself — apologies to the vegetarians :), but I do think that the online medium does change how we think of marketing and communication. And we don’t always have to focus on the intangibles when we can highlight the creative work and explorations.
Karl, the testimonial approach your recommend, if I can call it that, can be very effective. On the websites for dance companies I never really see what Karl is recommending. Often there are quotes from dance critics praising the company. But I think it would be very helpful for us to explore different, effective approaches to including a range of viewer experiences (text or video) that will be compelling to people who are considering going to dance performances.
Sarah, I’m going to try to spend time at your series of posts this week in which you explain your concept of hypermedia - I’m very interested to learn what ideas you are exploring and what you’re recommending.
Christopher, it strikes me that nobody has really done a systematic analysis of what works and doesn’t work in terms of online dance videos, especially when considered as marketing tools to cultivate new and larger audiences. And how, as you mention, do you convey some fairly abstract notions?
Marc, your imaginary description of an indecipherable, esoteric dance company description reminds of of Mel Brook’s History of the World Part I’s famous line of a standup comic describing his occupation: “I coalesce the vapors of human expression into a viable and expresable form.” (I’m a bit off, but something like that).
There’s definitely a need, especially on the Internet, for dance companies to explore new approaches to writing about their companies and their specific works.
I’m very interested in seeing what”discovery mechanisms” you create that will help online dance viewers locate videos that they will find of interest. And the same goes for the geo-targeting tools you are developing. As things stand now, there is no service one could go to that would answer the question. “Show me all dance videos of dance companies that will be performing in a specified city in the month of July.”
Finally, I agree with Marc that many dance companies are not putting enough care into how they upload, describe and tag their videos. Videos will not be found if not enough time is taken to properly configure the video’s profile information.
Jessica, there’s definitely need for artists to promote themselves, however much some do not care at all for this process. But, I think that good news is that there are some false dichotomies floating around. I don’t really accept notion that there has to be a conflict between being authentic and being accessible. Or that marketing by definition is selling out. If done properly as I mention above, dancers can speak directly through their art.
Fernando Maneca (June 24th, 2008 at 10:23 pm)
It seems to me that a multi-faceted approach is required here. Putting videos on YouTube (or the like) should be but one component of a marketing strategy.
If our goal is to entice new people to attend dance concerts… then… how we describe our work, what our videos look like on YouTube, how great our postcards are designed… is irrelevant if we keep sending our marketing tools to the same people over and over and over again.
We need to explore the “general” population to find those who are likely to see dance.
The YouTube initiatives described above are great first steps at gathering lists of potential dance-goers … however, these seem to be “individual” approaches to this mission.
As a community, we need more.
We need a larger initiative. One that cultivates long-term relationships with potential dance-goers.
This has to be a community effort in order for it to work. Individual artists and companies are too “self-focused” (as they should be) to undertake such a large mission. We need a centralized community organization to take on the initiative and share the resulting lists and strategies.
Lastly … yes, I would be interested in joining a focus group to discuss these ideas.
Peace,
Fernando
Jennifer (July 1st, 2008 at 10:10 pm)
This is a great step toward addressing a very important issue. Having recently relocated to Texas after living and working as performer in New York City for almost eight years, I’ve found myself in an environment where arts education and arts appreciation is lacking. The exposure to dance is very limited and the audience even more so.
As an educator I find that it’s important to not just teach the “how” but also how to “communicate” what’s behind the movement. In Texas where football rules all, the questions are “Why should I care about dance, how does it affect me?” “What is modern anyway?” “I went to that other show last time and I didn’t like it” These are all statements that I’ve heard.
Marketing departments are calling other performers asking how to market a show for people such as Savion Glover….WHAT!!! In this situation I definitely think that the marketing department is falling short. The other extreme being the independent artist performing in front of an audience in a forum that has been designed to experiment and test new works and have live feedback from the audience, and the artist not being able to articulate the meaning or story behind the piece, any type of intention or even process of creating. This is definitely where the artist falls short.
I think that this initiative is necessary and I hope that the two worlds ca work together. If they can it will truly be a win-win for everyone, especially those that would rather watch reality tv than experience “real” performance and all it has to offer.