momorantings

This Facebook spoof encompasses a useful lesson. If you bother truly to visualise your customers' experience and do so in as exaggerated way as you dare, you may get a feel for what you could be doing wrong.

My one prediction of 2008 is that Juno will be in your top ten list of best movies, so imagine my exasperation when the first TV spot I saw was in the middle of sports programming. What made someone think that the mindset of the audience for live horse-racing would chime with that for a sharp youth-oriented movie that's garnering awards wherever it goes? I know media buying is replete with deals, but the thinking here can only be that of relatively cheap TV exposure and that is box-ticking of the worst sort. If you can't afford more relevant spots, then spend the money in another way rather than do something that shows disdain for the audience and, even worse, disdain for what you're marketing.

Over the past few days, the blogosphere has largely reverted to its primordial incarnation as the playground of the geeks. There have been interesting debate and wonderful acts of humanity not to mention all manner of prescriptive projections of future human behaviour (predicated upon technology of course). However, my ultimate take-away has been a reminder of the rigidity of geek thinking. Perhaps it’s down to their technical detail-orientation, but it’s remarkable to see the virulent reaction of a geek to another person’s argument if it doesn’t correlate exactly with their own worldview. As we move toward marketing 2.0 or the new marketing , the lesson, of course, is that despite their volume, the geeks are not the majority. There’s a lot of inspiration to be gleaned and ideas to be considered, but it’s not the early adopters who ultimately shape the future. It’s the people who use stuff who do that.

Ask people to name their most hated vegetable and it's generally agreed that the answer will be sprouts, yet annual sprout sales in the UK are worth £35m. That's allegedly 47,000,000 units of distress purchase and judging by the supermarket tonight, most of them are bought this week. It's not the season of masochism, so why the paradoxical behaviour? Because people have bought a story that convinces them that sprouts say Christmas like no other vegetable. Because people can joke about them and because people see other people doing it.

Where else in the world would an atheist comedian and the head of an international religion overlap in a radio show, chat without interruption from the host and be recorded on webcam? The BBC can still be remarkable.

Campaign magazine's 2007 round-up awards campaign of the year to the Gorilla and reports 9% year on year increase in weekly sales - (in October I assume) though as I said before the June 2006 weekly sales were down 25% due to the salmonella scare. The same magazine also brings home to me how many smart people I've got to know this year and credits many of them with both great blogs and actual work too. Trebles all round!

Lazy blogging I know, but I wanted to share comments I contributed to two interesting debates on other blogs recently. Marketing isn't any harder than it used to be - it's just that people forgot that it centres upon product development and meeting customer needs and instead got obsessed with pretty words like branding which is all too often skin-deep rather than a reflection of the DNA of a business. No marketing isn't harder, but getting away with sub-standard behaviour very definitely is. (Collaborate Marketing) It’s a myth that most categories are commodified - a myth perpetrated by arty agencies who want to pad their book rather than be a little dull and focus on product attributes. (The Kaiser Edition)

Watching the magnificent Tinariwen the other night, I realised that here were visually spectacular and musically dynamic performers having a real problem in breaking the fourth wall between stage and audience. This was largely because they are a group of Touareg bedouins from Mali who collectively speak very little english. They had a few stock phrases and meant them sincerely but inevitably it wasn't continuous, it wasn't a real connection. The breakthrough came when the previously seated drummer walked to the edge of the stage both to play and encourage a typically passive white european audience. The wall was well and truly broken, but it reminded me that you have to very actively make the connection with your audience even if they've already given you permission to excite them. Think of your marketing efforts in terms of performance and audience and you'll quickly see the tactics that will fall flat and you will save yourself a lot of wasted effort.

At the Table: Making Marketing’s Voice Count in Organizational Leadership Speakers: Jerry Yoshitomi , MeaningMatters , Port Hueneme , CA; Brian Jose and Susie Farr, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD 1. At the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, they implemented several organizational changes after their staff turnover got to be really high. First they learned that a director’s loyalty needs to shift to the success of the organization and the leadership team, rather than being with their individual departments. This meant that each director needed to become more expert in other department activities. The director of artistic initiatives and the director of marketing shifted to become joined at the hip. Decisions were made together by those two and the executive director, and the offices of those two staff members were moved to be right next to each other. 2. Always challenge the prevailing organizational wisdom and make improvements b

Cadbury Schweppes raised forecasts for its confectionery business, saying that revenue at the division would increase more than 6 per cent this year. In some circles this is already being attributed to the gorilla ad . Well let's just think about some other contributory factors. Sales of Wispa have grown from zero to 20 million since October. Trident and Stride gum have gained a 35% US market share. The summer of 2007 was much cooler than 2006. The proof of the ad's effectiveness will lie in the performance of sales of Cadbury's Dairy Milk chocolate and that has not yet been itemised anywhere that I have seen. And when they are, we must remember to factor in the inevitable rebound that would have occurred following the rectifying of the summer salmonella incident which led to a 25% slump in sales in June. The relevant comparison for effectiveness purposes will be the sales trend before that slump. None of this is to say that the ad hasn't been highly effective as well

In our commodified world there are huge numbers of product categories that the majority of people consume. If you're competing in those markets, it makes little sense to focus on the traditional socio-demographic divisions. That's what everybody does. You have a great number of potential customers out there so why not choose your own demographic within that mass market and speak to them about your product. Focus on what they do beyond being consumers within your product category. For example - most people drink beer, so focus on gardeners who drink. That way you can generate small but deeper engagements, lengthening attentions spans and true loyalty. And you don't have to limit yourself to just one of these secondary segments - you can approach as many as you like via a variety of messaging that is linked by a consistent tone of voice. Become niche marketers of a commodity category and you are assured of talking to potential customers. If you just pursue a niche market, the

All the people at my local gym would say they go there to improve their health. But they all do so in different ways and the most intriguing group to me is the non-athletic ones who believe they are undertaking an exercise regime. In fact, they stand around in the pool declaring that swimming is the only exercise their doctor will allow them to do, before slouching off to the jacuzzi or sauna. Actual exercise undertaken - minimal. While debating the value of focus groups in the comments of Northern Planner's excellent series of practical advice, he raised a great point about the importance of paying attention to what people don't say as much as what they do say. Thus when people say they go to the gym regularly, they are not actually saying that they exercise. Everyone can hear what is being said and see what is being done, but the interesting stuff is always found in the spaces between the assumptions.

Riders for Health is a charity that ensures healthcare workers can reach African villages on a regular basis by supplying them with motorcycles and pick-ups and, crucially, ensuring that they work. According to the article I read, they do this by operating, a system of preventive maintenance that would shame any British rail operator. Spark plugs are changed before they stop sparking. Cylinders are re-bored before they seize up. Money permitting, vehicles are replaced before they break down unexpectedly, and no health worker climbs onto his or her motorbike without giving it a once-over worthy of an airline pilot. This means ambulances work, travelling clinics travel, and every community health nurse with “outreach” responsibilities for rural villages has a sturdy Japanese motorbike to take them there. In other words, they focus on the true customer needs (in Gambia, for example, 60% of healthcare is delivered to patients rather than vice versa), anticipate problems rather than react

Having already told you about the magnificence of Ellen Page, I make no apologies for repeating the message. Last night, I got the chance to see a screening of her latest movie Juno which, I believe, opens tomorrow in NY and LA and around the world early next year. My review is as follows - go see it. The production notes point out that the movie is ultimately about relationships between people who would not normally meet or who indeed might be isolated from each other by prejudice and status. The parallels with the connectivity of the online world are obvious and coincidentally (or not) the screenwriter Diablo Cody is herself a blogger. That may explain why the script is so sharp, tight and funny - so much so that you miss some jokes because of the unsubsiding laughter from the previous line. Juno is one of the best movies you will see all year. See! I do like some things. Normal service will be resumed tomorrow.

Anyone considering visiting London will no doubt be fascinated to know that "45,460 litres of urine is at risk of ending up in the city's streets and alleyways through irresponsible and anti-social behaviour." Their proposed solution? "Sat-Lav" - an SMS service for which you pay a subsidised 25p to receive a text that tells you the nearest location with opening times. Yet another example of the public sector acting without thinking and presuming behaviours that have no correlation with reality. There's no mention of co-ordinating times and locations, so you're quite likely to be sent information of a closed convenience and there's no thought given to changing attitudes - just an assumption that people will use the service. But hey, it's got a cute name and justifies a council-sponsored "innovation" competition, so that's alright then.

The viability of the online advertising model (i.e. non search-based) upon which so many 2.0 companies are relying on has always worried me. But I had no data to back this up. However, Danah Boyd has come to the rescue with this post that highlights this research . It confirms that my habit of never having clicked on an online ad is very much the majority behaviour and Danah makes an interesting moral point about online advertisers potentially being seen as exploitative of the less well-off. I wonder too if this will affect them in the eyes of offline consumers who will not want to be associated with "down-market" brands? More than that, while I'm not expecting the demise of Facebook, it is interesting to parse these findings with Danah's earlier report about the class differentials between MySpace and Facebook users. Might that not suggest that Facebook's audience are much more likely to be among the non-clicking majority? If it does, then their revenue estimat

Three marketing tenets and three quotes from a New York Times article . 1) The customer/user is the raison d'etre of any business. “Whenever we innovate and create great new experiences and new features, if they are not well understood at the outset, one thing we need to do is give people an opportunity to interact with them,” said Chamath Palihapitiya, a vice president at Facebook. “After a while, they fall in love with them.” 2) The customer/user dislikes and avoids marketing interruptions. Facebook executives say the people who are complaining are a marginal minority. With time, Facebook says, users will accept Beacon, which Facebook views as an extension of the type of book and movie recommendations that members routinely volunteer on their profile pages. 3) The customer/user decides what is right for them. Late yesterday the company made an important change, saying that it would not send messages about users’ Internet activities without getting explicit approval each time.

1) Founders have a cheap, clever idea. 2) People use the idea because it meets a need, is free and uninterrupted. 3) Founders focus on serving their growing audience better. 4) Moneymen swarm around. 5) Founders claim that business model will emerge. 6) Sales organisations flock to the idea in order to exploit it for their ends. 7) Founders decide that advertising must be the business model. 8) Users begin to resent changes and fail to provide revenue. 9) Founders realise traditional tactics don't apply in a disrupted world. 10) ?????

Last weekend, Sainsbury's supermarkets gave away the reusable bags they normally charge for in the hope of encouraging customers to reduce their use of plastic bags . Today, I noticed a woman using them to carry her shopping from one of their rivals. I wondered how many other shoppers noticed and thought better of Sainsbury's as a result? I wondered if the rival's staff noticed and thought about doing something similarly positive? Coincidentally, (courtesy of today's passiveaggressivenotes ), I wonder why anyone would think this would be an appropriate response and why it's the stance being taken in so many industries? Addendum: To clarify - do you see a customer advertising the competition or do you see a customer?

F acebook digitised college connectivity A cquired lots of users C ollected lots and lots of data E xtended its reach B ecame a media darling O pened up its API O verdid its applications K nows it's at a crossroads.

Heston Blumenthal is a remarkable chef whose cooking will be sampled by some readers in the near future. Mixing physics and chemistry with a search for the absolute perfect ingredients, his is cooking that most would not bother to try at home but as one critic wrote "it's always fun to see someone do something better than anyone else in the world". Interesting distinction there - he searches for absolute perfection but the critic perceives it in relative terms. True creative brilliance involves a search for perfection, but the consumer is more concerned with you delivering something that is markedly better than the alternatives. They don't want "good enough" but equally they (and I) probably wouldn't recognise real perfection either.

Continuing with my theme of facilitating short-cuts as a route to better usability and improved customer experience, it's crucial to ensure that the short-cut in question is actually a short-cut for your users. Tinyurl.com is a very useful facility that reduces unwieldy url's to a manageable length. That is great when you're sending them in SMS form, but it doesn't facilitate comprehension as you can see here . The predominance of emboldened tiny urls in an article about podcasts is certainly a short-cut for the techie writer in terms of printspace. However, from the reader's perspective, having one's scanning eyes drawn to indecipherable urls does nothing positive. The only short-cut this facilitates is that of the reader to the next article.

Direct mail in the New Frontier: Here to Stay or Only a Click Away Speakers: Catherine Carter, Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Ft. Lauderdale , FL; Shelly Felder and Howard Levine, 92 nd Street Y, New York City; Rick Lester, Target Resource Group, Woodland Park, CO; Laura Sullivan, Penn State’s Center for the Performing Arts, University Park, PA In 2006, direct marketers mailed 116 billion pieces of direct mail. Quantity increased by 15% over the previous year, primarily because there is no spam filter to get through or “Do Not Call” list to deal with. Plus many people seem to prefer a tangible, paper offer. Direct mail expenditures in 2006 were $59 billion. National response rate for all offers was 2.15% On a national average, one year lapsed subscribers had a response rate of 3.3%, traded names 0.14%, rented names 0.05%, and current single ticket buyers 2.6%. It was suggested that it is too expensive to mail to rented names. New rule is in place: always step on your offer

Say fish and chips and people generally think cod and chips. But cod has been scarce in the seas lately and catches have been restricted by EU quotas. So what do you do if you're a fish and chip shop and the majority of your customers automatically ask for cod and chips? Well, contrary to my previous advice , you short-circuit their psychological short-cut; take cod off the menu on "No-cod Wednesdays"; and make them focus on the alternatives. Partly a green initiative, but certainly smart marketing for a business that has its own Long Tail .

(via zeroinfluencer )

The advent of file-sharing and broadband has created an environment in which potential customers are fully exposed to media products before they make a purchase decision. The disruption this has caused to those businesses is well-documented, but outside of that arena the mindset is also now pervasive and your marketing approach must acknowledge that. If you wouldn't buy your product/service, there's really no point trying to get others to do so.

Here's an interesting study that suggests that people who use IM and other communication tools are not less productive than others and believe that they suffer from fewer interruptions. In other words, if you keep people in the loop on a constant basis, rather than with intermittent communication, they have a fuller idea of who and what you are and life is easier.

The inestimable Lauren commented on the last post that Corporate Dex-Amphetamine was inevitable. In fact, it's here already. Our perceived ad attention deficit disorder is being tackled by programmes that offer free or cut-price content/services in exchange for compulsory exposure to advertising messages. But in a month when the efficacy of Ritalin has been questioned , it's worth considering whether a course of action/medication that seeks to counter the effects of glitzy, superficial additives/messages is the way to go. It's not just that advertising can be ignored due to technology, the fact that it can is leading to mental conditioning that means enforced advertising may not be absorbed. So, as with ADHD, it's surely better to feed people the right "additives". The marketing equivalent of a healthier diet that allows them to grow stronger and energised, rather than distracted and hyperactive. (Image courtesy of getthejob )

Well I got back from the NAMP conference almost two weeks ago, and I was planning on blogging about all the exciting things I learned. Then I realized I had to move into the house that I closed on three days before the conference. I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to switch jobs and buy a new house all at the same time! Things are starting to get back to normal so I wanted to share some of the notes I took at the 2007 National Arts Marketing Project Conference in Miami. Below are my notes from the Keynote Speech from J. Walker Smith: Keynote Address: J. Walker Smith President, Yankelovich , Inc. Chapel Hill, NC Check out http://www.gethuman.com/ Marketing is now shifting to the intangibles—you can’t market the product, you have to market the experience. Loews theatres has a program for moms and children to see a movie in a movie theatre. They lower the volume and keep the lights on because its not about the movie, it is about the mother/child experience. ¾ of America

Last night. A gathering of PR practitioners seeking to understand how social media impacted their business. They wanted to access bloggers on behalf of their clients. Some of the bloggers present objected to being spammed. The celebrated anti-spam reactions of Tom Coates and Kevin Anderson were inevitably cited and short-hand terms like Cluetrain and conversation were bandied about. As someone who stands on both sides of the divide, I thought this remark by one of the PR people summed up the source of the miscomprehension. "But if I can't send you an email, how can I talk to you?" In the past, clients expected PR to give them coverage - that's no longer good enough. If you want to have a conversation with a commercial undercurrent, it would help if you think about the nature of conversations that you enjoy and try to replicate them. The technology has changed but the issue remains the same. You're trying to gain interest rather than attention. Attention is dead

Satsifaction surveys exist to measure our relative pleasure or displeasure on some sort of sliding scale. So why would the options on a customer survey change from question to question and why would they place acceptable ahead of adequate in the scale of options? Perhaps because it was a survey of customer care in a state-run hospital and unwell patients might not notice that marking down actually improved the rating. Never believe research results if you haven't seen how they were collected. In the private sector, at least, you won't succeed by deluding yourself.

My recent labelling post caused quite a debate and got me thinking about dieting and whether people focus on what's good for them or count up the bad things they can get away with eating each day. I don't know tha answer, but it suggests to me that you really need to know how the people in your marketplace are thinking. Are they focussing on what's good for them i.e. quality or do they know that their choices aren't the best but they figure they can get away with a certain consumption level without having a negative outcome?

I'm repeatedly frustrated by the lack, paucity or complexity of travel directions on business websites. There are lots of new aids (like map programs) to help with this but still people get it wrong. They assume you know the area, they assume they know where you're coming from and sometimes they assume you will so want to come that you'll work it out for yourself. It takes brains to do it this well. (via Ruby ) And doesn't their effort make you think that the shop is worth your effort?

Courtesy of visiting friends, I'm belatedly aware of the New York Times redesign. They've reduced the width (by 1.5 inches) to standard tabloid size while maintaining the broadsheet height. It's a very odd shape. I imagine they assumed that going tabloid would implicitly diminish their stature and reduce their differentiation from existing city rivals the Post and the News. But that's nonsense. The size of the paper is predominantly a usability issue, it is the design and content that differentiates the consumption experience. Seems to me, they're stuck in the mindset of how newspaper professionals view newspapers and not that of how their readers view them.

Funny and creative in and of itself, but check out ( via Iain ) the imitations it's spawned and you might glean some ideas about the best way to deal with unusual customers and the impressions those strategies leave.

Audiences at conferences are amazed by insights that seemed obvious years ago; the digital life remains a mystery to many and buzzwords and received wisdom continues to be spouted and not questioned. So, in spite of the demographic realities, the considerable doubts about the longevity of brand loyalty and the radical changes to daily life that digital technology has wreaked, businesses still repeat the mantra of attracting youth, capturing new users and moulding technology to their traditional way of doing business. Changing marketing thinking in the corporate world is clearly akin to turning round an oil tanker. When they act like they understand that it's the quality of your target customers not their age that matters; when they realise that existing customers are the key to retention and capture of new customers; and when they shape their business to reflect the realities of the digital lifestyle , then the oil tanker will, at least, have stopped.

We've all had the experience I had today. That of repeating a reference number to a series of people on the end of the phone who apparently need that information before they can put you through to the next person who will put you through to the next person who finally inputs the reference into the system in order to look at what you might be calling about. It's crazy - the reference number is designed to be a short-cut to a solution and yet the system is not designed to facilitate that short-cut. Ensuring that your infrastructure and staff facilitate those short cuts is the key to great customer service, to excellent usability and to good marketing because it eliminates frustrations and delays and gets the customer where they want to be as quickly as possible. And as Mike Kruzeniski highlights, it doesn't even have to involve people. All you have to do is make the label the button. Simple, isn't it? But just think how many metaphorical labels your customer has to read

At last - for those of you who weren't there and those of you who were - Dave has tied together most of his slides from Interesting 2007 with a better audio track than I've previously heard. Enjoy a masterful performance.

Food companies are increasingly required to detail the amounts of fat, salt etc that their products contain so that we can work out which ones are, for example, low-fat (i.e. less than 5% fat). If we are quite numerate that is. At a recent client meeting, I noticed that this carton had seemingly facilitated that calculation by providing a breakdown of both the weight of the individual constituents and a percentage figure. But look closer. The percentage figure relates not to the number listed above it but to recommended total daily intake - a calculation one is less likely to be contemplating. Crunch the numbers and you see that the cakes comprise 42% sugar and 15% fat (not the 15% and 7%) you might have assumed. Is this deliberate misrepresentation from Mr.Kipling or just accidentally misleading design? Who knows? But the marketing lesson is obvious, you can't fool all the people all of the time, so don't try. (Also see Seth today).

So here's something to consider buying for the men in your life. Gifts that keep on giving. Marketing that simplifies a technical benefit via metaphor (and pillows). Durex Performa condoms contain benzocaine (a mild anaesthetic), which helps men last longer in bed. To highlight this product benefit we distributed limited edition pillowcases alongside performa condoms at New Zealand’s biggest annual sex expo, Erotica increasing sales by 28%. The pillowcases proved such a hit with the guys that hundreds more were printed and sold in D.vice sex stores as a continuation of the promotion. Via adsneeze .

We all know the ad , but a schools TV documentary entitled Advertising Uncut featured a number of voxpop reactions to it. Most notable for me was the comment from the viewers that they were surprised that real balls had been used. The assumption of this generation (late teens, early 20s) and maybe others is that effects are CGI. So maybe the spectacular is unspectacular (but still beautiful or inspiring); perceived authenticity is limited to the simplest things; and aspiring movie directors won't get their high-concept storyboards approved?

TCG is holding a monthly teleconference for marketing directors from their member theatres. It seems that everyone is talking about how major daily newspapers are losing power with their declining number of subscribers. Lately, I have been noticing something similar in the Washington, D.C. area. The major daily paper is The Washington Post , and according to our sales reps, it is the fifth largest newspaper in the world when looking at circulation. So, you would think that a strongly positive or negative review could potentially determine the success of a production (much like how New York City waits for Ben Brantley to send his word from on high). To be honest, I have seen the exact opposite since I have been at Arena Stage. Arena Stage opened its season with Moises Kaufman's world premiere 33 Variations. The show got a lackluster review from the Post critic but was an immediate hit with our audiences. The second show of the season was Lisa Kron's Well which got an amazing

First off, my apologies again. I have been on sabbatical from my blog for a little over a month. Soon after coming on board as the Director of Marketing & Communications at Arena Stage, we announced our groundbreaking on the Mead Center for American Theater . The company is in an amazing place in its history, and has raised over $100 million towards its $125 million goal for the new complex. But with growth comes growing pains. With that said, when we announced that Arena Stage would be breaking ground on the Mead Center in January, we also announced that the company would cease to operate in southwest DC for 2 and a half years while the building was being built. Instead, we would transfer our main headquarters to Crystal City (a section of Arlington, VA) and perform at a newly renovated, underground theater and at a separate DC location called the Lincoln Theater. And all of this would happen in a matter of months in the middle of our 2007-08 season. So how do we move a quarter

First off--apologies for not writing much lately. As you know, I am in the middle of transitioning jobs which put me in a place where I was working two jobs at the same time for a period of three weeks. Needless to say, that didn't give me much free time (or sleep). Now that I am settling in to my new position at Arena Stage, I am happy to say that I would like to concentrate a little more on writing. Today's topic: the Marketing Silo. I find it interesting the more I work with large organizations, mostly from a consultant stand point, the more I find marketing departments which are functioning almost as a separate entity from the rest of the organization. For some organizations, the marketing department is somewhat of a mystery for people who don't have an external relations function in their job. For most arts organizations, marketing is a critical function. Due to tight cash flow situations, marketing departments are expected to consistently hit their goals while reduci

After almost a year as the Director of Marketing & Communications at Americans for the Arts , I will be leaving the organization to become the new Director of Marketing & Communications at Arena Stage in Washington, DC. Arena Stage is the largest of the six major non-profit professional producing theatres in the metropolitan area. They currently operate three venues under LORT "B+," "B," and "D" contracts and see roughly 275,000 patrons per year. They are very close to finishing a $120 million capital campaign to build the Mead Center for the American Theatre , a 250,000 square foot, three-theatre complex to be opened in 2009-10. I will be responsible for leading their marketing, communications and public relations teams. Most exciting to me is the opportunity I will have to work on some amazing projects at a truly legendary theatre. This is a bittersweet moment for me because I love Americans for the Arts. The organization does some amazing work

In the next few months, I have a couple of speaking engagements lined up. If you are in the area, I would love to see you at one of these events: 2007 Delaware Division of the Arts "Arts Summit" October 1, 2007 Keynote Presentation: "Communicating in a Whole New World," Chad Bauman , Americans for the Arts Other Speakers: Elena Park, Metropolitan Opera; Mark Brewer, President of the Community Foundation of Florida; JD Hixson , Patron Technology; The Honorable Ruth Ann Minner , Governor of Delaware St. Louis Regional Arts Commission Marketing Training August 31, 2007 Presentation: "The Role of Technology in Reaching Generation X & Y"

By now, most people have heard of Second Life , the virtual world sensation that is sweeping the whole world and has attracted millions of visitors. It has also attracted the attention of some prominent artists, including Molly Smith, Artistic Director of Arena Stage , who spoke about Second Life at the TCG National Conference in Minneapolis this summer. The past couple of months have seen some really exciting projects come to "life" in this virtual reality: Second Front Performance Art Group Jeremy Owen Turner, also known as Wirxli Flimflam, is an online performance artist and a front man for Second Front , a group that stages events and performance art pieces in Second Life. Second Front is a pioneering performance art group in the online avatar-based VR world, Second Life. Founded in 2006, Second Front emerged as the first performance art group in Second Life and quickly grew to its current 8 member troupe with artists from around the world including Italy, St. Johns, C

According to marketing guru Seth Godin , all marketers are liars . This is no attack on Seth, as I view him as a rock star in the marketing world, but I am writing this post to simply ask the question, wouldn't we be better off if we weren't liars? As I write this post, I am reminded of a second book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten . We were taught then that lying is bad, so why is it accepted now? We might be tempted to "spin" the truth when things aren't going our way, especially in crisis situations. However with the speed of information these days, the more you spin, the more likely you will be caught and exposed. The role of the citizen journalist has become paramount in the information age, and due in part to the popularity of user-generated content and newer technologies such as blogs, anyone can write an expos'e. So if you are caught in a crisis, avoid the temptation to spin. Tactics for crisis communications: 1. If you have made a

I am a huge proponent of personalizing direct mail so that the recipient feels like the package and/or offer was developed specifically for them. I think the invention of PURL (personalized URLs) technology and digital printing have created great opportunities for personalized messaging. One word of caution however -- If you don't trust all the information in your database, be careful! When pulling information for personlized direct mail campaigns, make sure that the information fields you are pulling from are correct and complete, otherwise you might end up addressing the solicitation to the wrong name or no name at all. In which case, not only did you fail to personalize the package, you have also most likely offended the recipient.

Would you like a very inexpensive way to display your artwork in front of over 7 million people? Can't afford a gallery space in the real world--why not open one up in Second Life . Check out this article in the The Art Newspaper about the art scene in Second Life. For video tours of exhibitions and performances on Second Life, go to: http://www.theartnewspaper.com/www.youtube.com/theartnewspaper .

During a session of the ASAE Membership Marketing Conference, one of the presenters encouraged attendees to keep a close eye on the participation levels of their members. His argument was that membership was about participation, not about revenue. Although I understood his point, membership and subscriptions are about both revenue and participation. Keeping this in mind, I would encourage marketing directors who are responsible for growing membership or subscriptions, to monitor the participation levels of their "members" (for our purposes in this post, I will use the word members, but please note this includes subscriber programs found at most performing arts organizations around the country). I am in the process of building a participation matrix that gives quarterly reports on the participation levels of members. That way, I will know, especially with our important donors and members, how active they are with our organization. Usually a member's participation level is

For the past two days, I have been attending the ASAE Marketing & Membership conference in Baltimore, MD. I went to a session entitled "Brand Image vs. Brand Identity: What do your Members Experience?" The presenter defined Brand Identity as what the organization wants to project--the brand promise that the organization is making. The Brand Image on the other hand is what people actually experience and what they really think of your organization. So the presenter proposed a relatively simple, but very thought-provoking question--is everyone on your staff projecting and living your brand? Now this session was in the morning, and I still had my mind on my experience with the Hyatt Regency Hotel that I stayed at the previous night. I was excited to arrive at my hotel, because I booked late and the only thing I could find was a room a the luxurious, four-star Hyatt Regency Baltimore. I was shocked that the room cost almost $350 but I figured it was a splurge that I rarely ta

The Royal National Theatre in Great Britain launched a YouTube channel recently to showcase trailers for its upcoming productions . We did something similar at Virginia Stage Company when I was there and it is much easier than it sounds. All you have to do is get a stock and standard digital video recorder, capture some video of a dress rehearsal, edit it using a easy to use editor like Adobe Premiere Elements , and tada --you have a trailer. Only warning I have here is that if you are a union house, make sure you are staying within the rules. If you aren't sure, I suggest contacting your bargaining representative or an attorney. Don't expect movie quality in your homemade trailers, but they will definitely be a good enough quality for YouTube and your patrons will love the sneak peak.

I just wrote a blog on my experiences at the recent TCG National Conference on the Americans for the Arts ArtsBlog. I figured you guys might be interested in it as well since it talks about our responsibilities for developing new audiences. Check it out HERE .

I am in Minneapolis for the TCG National Conference and the host theater is the brand new Guthrie. Let me start off by saying that I don't want to rain on their parade. The new Guthrie Theater is absolutely amazing--it has three performance spaces including separate thrust, proscenium and black box theaters. It is situated right on the Mississippi and is a glorious example of modern architecture. Not to mention, they have been fantastic hosts. So what seems to be the problem? As I approached the building, I thought to myself, "what a wonderful place for experimental, new edgy work. I bet it would be fantastic to work here." Then I entered the space and I was surprised to see that their two large productions in June were George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara and the musical 1776 . Neither of which would I consider bastions of modern, edgy or experimental theatre. Future productions include Private Lives, Jane Eyre, King Lear, The Seagull, A Christmas Carol , and Pe

I am writing this blog from Minneapolis, where I am attending the Theater Communications Group National Conference which begins tomorrow. It seems that June is a very popular month for conferences. I just got back from the Americans for the Arts Annual Convention , and when I return to DC, I am off to Baltimore for the ASAE Membership Marketing Conference . Keep an eye on the blog and I will share with you some of my thoughts from these various events. Since I was working the Americans for the Arts Annual Convention, I unfortunately didn't get the opportunity to see most of the speakers (however, they are going to post audio and video of the keynote speaker and the six innovator speakers on their website and blog ). I did get the chance to hear keynote speaker Lyn Heward from Cirque du Soleil . One of the things that Lyn addressed which has stayed with me over the past couple of days dealt with risk taking. She contended that one of the most dangerous things an organization co