Audience Development

Words Matter

by

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 specific examples where the nonprofit sector could benefit from a similar approach and ultimately arrives at …

Read more

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

by

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 tickets so to that end, the field desperately needs to throw all these old conversations out …

Read more

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

by

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 introspection are most likely to miss it. Nutshell: cognitive bias will erase any gains from deliberate …

Read more

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

by

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 curious, not judgmental” (emphasis added). “Be curious, not judgmental.” In a pivotal moment, Ted faces Rebecca’s ex-husband, …

Read more

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

by

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 entire notion of waiting in a line to pick up printed tickets seems bothersome and archaic …

Read more