ARTS MARKETING AUSTRALIA

Just look at smartphone growth

In designing a website for a Arts company the responsiveness of the landing page to mobile phone usage is vital.

Most booking nowadays are taken via the internet, so having an easy to access page is vital.

The Belvoir St Theatre’s website would have to be one of the most efficient in delivering customers to the ticket sales.

In times past theatre companies tended to overload their sites with images and information, Belvoir has moved right away from those notion. Those who do want to find out more about the company, can still do that, but its primary aim is to quickly drive uses to ticket sales.

This is in response to the customer desire, the client can easily, thanks to search engines, find out information about a show, but to buy tickets, especially mobile customers.

Belvoir’s site and the shrink test

Belvoir’s is a fully responsive website, ie can be easily read on mobiles, tablets and desktops. So when I’m in a cafe in Darlinghurst I can easily check out what’s on a Belvoir St. This is not the case for several other notable theatre companies.

You need your site across all forms as the graph shows the growth in smart phone use.

I easily chartered my way through the ticket payment system on my phone.

To check out the responsiveness of a website simply shrink the window on your browser to that of a phone, if it shrinks, its responsive, if not, they have a non responsive website.

The Hero says Goodbye

For the second time this week effective arts social media marketing has drawn me to the Australian Ballet Facebook page.

This time its about the use of the image. I have focused on the posting of an image relating to Lucinda Dunn’s retirement from the Australian Ballet after 23 years with the company.

There are three important points to consider when posting an image.

1. Choose an easy to recognise structure: In this image with have ballet dancer wishing farewell. This is a icon of the sad, amazing farewell, with a smile on her face and tear in her eye, also with glow of the athlete.

2. Develop a strong hero: Here Lucinda is a legend with the company, a perfect focus with her 23 of dance service. The artists farewell is the climax of a long journey.

3. Add details to make your story real: This farewell image has been built up my social postings all week of “Luci” in rehearsal, being farewelled by her colleagues. In this week long posts the Aus Ballet has also promoted hashtages for other social media platforms. This image is the climax of a social media narrative.

The image promotes affection for the dancer and the company, as dancers know that to sustain a 23 year career with one company is amazing.

With over 1600 likes, 73 shares and over 40 comments in 12 hours this is a wonderful post that celebrates dance, the individual and the affection the audience has for her.

Video streaming is a very effective way of marketing your arts company.

So how do post effectively on YouTube.

I thought I’d have a look at the Sydney Dance Company YouTube site

Firstly, the quality of the video needs to be considered. Video production can be expensive, lighting, sound, shot quality are all considerations. This means your video footage needs to be seen by a sizeable to be cost effect. The 1300 odd that saw this video covers that target.

Also a video may be part of both your pre &  post production engagement, which are both important for building audience. My article on the arch of audience engagement explains that around 80% of people wanted to do some level of preparation before they see a production and 25% do post production analysis. This post productions explanation can be vital in forms like dance where the ideas are not always clear to even an intelligent audience.

The video for the Interplay #3 for the Sydney Dance Company was one of a series made by Peter Grieg for the production.

The video effectively explain the subject matter of the show, displaying how the narrative and emotion of the dance was drawn from the music of Bach. Rafael Bonachela’s, the choreographer, lively explanation of his work through compelling voice overs make for lovely communication of the production’s creation. The dance sequences give enough of the show to tease the potential audience

The length of 4 1/2 minutes is enough to explain the show for post viewing analysis. The explanation by the sexy Bonachela gives the post production video viewer a discussion point with their partner, or other dance goer. An insight shared post production over a glass of wine by two patrons is like gold for arts marketers as it could signal return business.

The point of a video is that it is not an advert, it is a conversation starter, to fill in knowledge on the show, so people can take the small information bit into a conversation about Bach, dance or life. All links back to the show.

The SDC video is certainly worth a look at for video social sharing.

Effective social media marketing

So many times I read a post for a Arts website and I think what is the purpose behind this post.
Where is the relevance to what you are selling.
I ask myself three questions in all posts:
1. How does this expand the companies like-ability?
2. Is this interesting, engaging or informative?
3. What is the direct / indirect call to action?

Looking at this effective post by the Sydney Theatre Company you can see the photo grabs your attention by its use of puppets.

The call to action is clear: inviting you to the workshop and asking you to tag the social image.

It invites you to be part of the creative process in the most friendly of tones.

This lovely tone is followed through in the comment posts by both audience members and a STC social media staffer.

Every facebook post is a valuable part of your companies advertising budget. Effective posting gets your artists publicity and drives the audience to be part of your show.

Check out the Sydney Theatre Company post here http://goo.gl/uXSzId