momorantings

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...