Drew McManus on the Orchestra business | est. 2003

Audience Development

Words Matter

Wed, May 5, 2022
Joe Patti published a fantastic article on 5/3/22 that examines labels attached to common nonprofit circumstances, like using “give” when communicating with patrons about donations. We’ve all encountered this at one point or another; retail stores frequently call customers “guests” and to a large degree, those changes are driven by expectations. Patti presents a few

It’s Time To Change up The Conversation On Concert Attire

Mon, May 5, 2022
Over the weekend, I ran across a Facebook discussion about what patrons wear to the orchestra. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it followed all of the well-worn paths about what everyone thought was acceptable or not and it stuck me just how much those talking points are out of touch. Artistic excellence is inconsequential if you aren’t selling

I’ll See Your Introspection And Raise You A Cognitive Bias

Wed, Mar 3, 2022
Several weeks ago, arts marketer Ruth Hartt posted a thought-provoking post at LinkedIn designed to get arts managers thinking about how they measure relevance. It’s an excellent perspective and you can never really have too many reminders about getting outside of your bubble. My only additional thought is the stakeholders who would benefit from this

When It Comes To Our Audience, Are We Curious Or Judgmental?

Fri, Sep 9, 2021
There’s a great article by Whit Honea in the 9/23/21 edition of The Washington Post that examines the value of Apple TV’s Ted Lasso. It’s a fabulously reflective post about an equally wonderful show but the part that jumped out was toward the end when the author highlights one of the show’s underlying points: “Be

Will Call And Other Things That Should Go Away Post-Pandemic

Tue, Sep 9, 2021
Nearly a decade ago, I published an article asking why the field still relied on using “will call” as the preferred name tracking prepaid tickets. Since then, not much has changed but that doesn’t make it any less of a barrier for ticket buyers. For anyone used to buying event tickets on their smartphone, the
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