AMAAMA conference conference 2003 2003

ConferenceConference report report

© Arts Marketing Association, July 2003

1 Contents

Foreword...... 4

Keynote Address...... 5

The Culture of Communication Media, Networks and Brands ...... 11

The Importance of Effective CRM ...... 18

Audience Builder: The Art and Science of Persuasion ...... 28

“The Map is not the Territory.” Exploring Stakeholder Discourses and the Diffusion of Ideas: The Case of Emotional Intelligence ...... 32

Speaking With One Voice ...... 34

Creating Mass Communication ...... 38

Overcoming the Decade of Forgetfulness: Reviving the lost arts of communication to embrace the new opportunities of the 21st Century ...... 42

STAGETEXT...... 52

The Brand Key ...... 55

Producing Effective Print...... 59

Click Here – Content and Copywriting for Websites and Emails ...... 65

Audience Builder – How to do it ...... 71

A Short Introduction to Arts Ambassadors ...... 79

Hitting Home ...... 83

Keynote Debate ...... 87

Access All Areas ...... 91

Show me the money! ...... 94

Early Adopters and Trend Setters ...... 97

In Yer Face! Some NLP techniques and how they can be used for successful, face-to-face communication...... 106

Txtm8: An introduction to the effective use of SMS...... 110

2 Get Creative...... 118

Round Tables...... 125

Speakers’ Biographies ...... 128

Exhibitors’ Directory ...... 135

Delegate List ...... 139

3 Foreword

Have you ever wondered how to get customers really interested in your message? Try sending them an email, text or fax that says “Sorry - for legal reasons it is imperative that you ignore our previous message”.

Unfortunately, these sort of tactics only work once so the Arts Marketing Association’s 2003 conference Message in a Bottle, in partnership with the Guardian, Observer and Guardian Unlimited, and sponsored by Tickets.com, focused on the art and science of communication.

Much has changed since the AMA was founded ten years ago, not just the technology by which we communicate but also our markets and messages. Over four hundred conference delegates debated these issues, and revisited some of the basics of communication. Delegates were particularly reminded that it is often too easy to get wrapped up in communicating the features that we think are important, rather than the benefits that the customer is looking for.

So, while I could point out that this report includes seven keynote presentations, fifteen seminars and four appendices, perhaps I should say that, no matter how many years you’ve worked in the industry, the presentations in this report will offer you inspirational ideas and useful examples of innovative practice from which you can learn and apply to your everyday work and thinking.

Everyone who works in the arts has a role in mediating between arts and audiences and as marketers we have a responsibility to take control and ensure that the messages that we put out, and that audiences receive, are honestly persuasive. So, what are we waiting for?

Debbie Richards

4 Keynote Address

Peter Hewitt – Arts Council England

The AMA conference was officially opened with a keynote address from Peter Hewitt, Chief Executive of Arts Council England.

When I was a young boy, my family lived for a while in Ireland, just south of Dublin. I went to the local primary school. Homework every night included Gaelic but, recognising that I was there for just a few months, the teacher – Miss Quigley – realised that there was no point in me doing Gaelic. Instead, I had to learn a poem every night, and recite it to the class next morning. Many of the poems were challenging for a nine year old and I just learnt them by rote (or on occasions failed to learn them!). One day, I was given Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “Inversnaid” to learn. Its first verse begins like this:

This darksome burn, horseback brown, His rollrock highroad roaring down, In coop and in comb the fleece of his foam, Flutes and low to the lake falls home.

It is a simple poem about a mountain stream. Not one of Hopkins’ most sophisticated. But nevertheless one that had a dramatic impact on me, the nine-year-old English boy in Ireland. In reading it, for the first time in my life, I recognised – in the true sense – poetry. Of course, I couldn’t articulate it as such but I heard rhythm, alliteration, word play of a different nature to anything I had read or heard before. It was a magical moment. Looking back, it probably altered the course of the choices I made in my education and, in due course, my career. I leave with you the relevance of this anecdote to what I go on to say today.

Let me first say how pleased I am to have been invited to speak to you today at the Arts Marketing Association conference. This is an important time for Arts Council England and you are an important audience for us. The AMA is one of the few organisations that crosses all art-forms, and bridges the gap between the subsidised and commercial sectors. Importantly, the AMA also reaches across organisations supported by Arts Council England and many other parts of the cultural sector. I am conscious that many delegates here are from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and that you have your own Arts Councils. The UK Arts Councils talk to each other a lot, and in any case, the arts are genuinely internationalist. The Arts Council in England increasingly so – we’ve just opened a desk of our own in Shanghai. And the UK is, in so many ways, a cultural crossroads. So I hope that much of what I have to say today will have resonance outside England's borders.

Your work, the work of arts marketers, is at the interface between the creation of art and the public's engagement with art. I don’t need to tell you that if nobody is creating a buzz about the work of artists and arts organisations, then no tickets get sold and no work is seen or heard - and the case for public funding of the arts disappears. The vitality of the arts in this country is dependent on the ability to engage with audiences.

5 I was asked to speak to you about marketing and audience development in the new Arts Council England. I will turn to that in a moment or two, but my central thesis today will revolve around the following claim and its relevance to making the case for the arts in this country. My claim is quite simply this:

We are dealing in the arts with something powerful, inspirational and capable of effecting deep and positive change in people and in places. The arts indeed have the power to transform individuals, communities, places.

I want to explore the implications of this claim at greater length in this speech but, before doing so, I just want to interject some thoughts on the positive political and media profile enjoyed by the arts in recent months because I can’t remember a time, in my career, when the profile of the arts, and interest in the arts, was higher than this recent period.

In recent months, we have had the discussion generated by Richard Florida’s book ‘The Rise of the Creative Classes’ in which he posits that artists – along with other innovators, and tolerant and engaging attitudes to difference and diversity – are more important factors in creating economically vibrant cities than money alone. Then we had Charles Clarke and Tessa Jowell on the same public platform powerfully advocating the centrality of arts and creativity in education and society more generally. We had the enormous buzz created around Capital of Culture, and the huge opportunity not just to transform Liverpool but build on the positive platforms in all the other cities, generated by the competition itself. And we even had John Prescott the day after the Capital of Culture announcement spending the first ten minutes of his keynote speech to the Core Cities advocating a powerful case for culture in regeneration. All of this would not have happened five, ten years ago, maybe even twelve months ago and we must take advantage of it as we look forward to 2008 and, if we win the bid, the Olympic Games which, as well as being a sporting jamboree, will of course have a nationwide world class cultural component in the years up to and during 2012.

So why, I ask myself, are the arts achieving such a high profile? It is, in part, because of the power of the arts to contribute positively to a wide range of social agendas. I’ve talked about education and, of course, we have our own ‘Creative Partnerships’ programme. I could talk about Newcastle/Gateshead and especially the Tyneside riverscape as an example of an area revitalised, indeed transformed, through cultural investment. And I could talk about projects in health promotion, crime reduction, community development and other social settings.

But let me say this. The contribution of the arts to such social or economic or regeneration agendas is, in my view, wholly dependent on that same intrinsic power to effect change and to transform people that I referred to earlier. Without one, you don’t get the other. Regardless of where the arts are enjoyed, experienced or participated if the arts don’t have those qualities, then the experience is diluted, sterile and without impact.

I have no problem with government taking an increasing interest in the arts because of its contribution to meeting broader social, economic and regeneration goals. Certainly, there can be a downside. With that interest, inevitably comes a whole process of performance measures, political scrutiny - and the need to

6 provide evidence about “what works”. Some welcome this as entirely proper in a democratic society. They see accountability as a rightful consequence for a distributor of public money. Indeed, they see dialogue that takes place around mutual aspiration between government and the cultural sector as a force for good in generating greater respect and understanding. Others see it as bureaucratic and intrusive, as counter to the creative impulse, as likely to distract people and resources away from core purposes, compromising artistic integrity and creating outcomes of lesser quality than would otherwise be the case. But, whichever position you take, it is factually undeniable that this government's record in support of the arts is better than any of its recent predecessors. So there can be, in my view, no justification for alienating government.

We need to find a way of reconciling these potentially contradictory attitudes about the so-called instrumental and intrinsic value. You may already have seen ‘Ambitions for the Arts’, the document we produced last year as the manifesto for the new Arts Council England. It sets out our priorities but, I hope, goes further than that – to articulate a vision for the arts that can get beyond sterile arguments about excellence versus access, intrinsic versus instrumental. One based on a modern definition of the arts. One that is open to current trends and emerging arts practice, for example, in arts and technology, cutting across boundaries between art forms and between the arts and other disciplines. And the starting point is what we call the “transformational power of the arts”. We are passionate about the arts having the power to change lives.

We argue that experiencing the arts can have a lasting and transforming effect on people – that is people as individuals, neighbourhoods, communities, regions and, indeed, entire generations. Good art causes change. And I believe, it doesn’t matter where it is encountered – classrooms, waiting rooms, galleries, concert halls, opera houses, public houses – it doesn’t matter where it is encountered if it causes change.

I bet everyone in this room can point to those times in our lives when as a result of reading a poem, or experiencing a piece of theatre, or encountering a sculpture, or seeing a film, or hearing a piece of music, something inside you, big or small shifts, and with that shift you are not the same person but have changed. That’s what I’m talking about. And this, it seems to me, might be our new rallying cry.

Our case is simple. Good art, deep art, troubling art, fun art, dangerous art, exciting art can be transformational, in whatever context it is experienced. This is how we shall persuade people of the importance of the arts. This is how we can justify our funding. And this is the yardstick by which we should be very content to be measured.

Let me now turn to another aspect of ‘Ambitions for the Arts’. I want to talk about the portfolio of recurrently subsidised arts organisations and our ambition that more of them are ‘thriving’ not just ‘surviving’ in future. Too many people still regard the cultural community as lacking in leadership and managerial acumen. A few high-profile instances of managerial failure, seized upon by the media, can have an extremely damaging effect on opinion. I strongly believe that, as the sector grows, it needs a new cadre of high quality leaders and managers. This will be partly helped, in time, by initiatives like the Clore Fellowships. But even now the cultural sector is populated by many highly skilled, necessarily extremely versatile senior managers and leaders, as well as some superbly run, artistically effective organisations

7 and initiatives which have proved successful in volatile circumstances - and which do not receive the profile which they should.

I am interested in what more the cultural sector can do to both tackle its leadership and managerial 'deficit' and to tell the stories of leadership and managerial successes more effectively? At the Arts Council, I have started to talk about the “21st Century Arts Organisation”. I would like to draw up a blueprint for the 21st Century Arts Organisation. Not to impose in a ‘one-size-fits-all’ sense but as a focus for debate with the arts community. And as a model from which certain characteristics could be extracted and applied here or there as appropriate. My 21st Century Arts Organisation is collaborative; resourceful; it understands its public and its audience extremely well; is conscious of changing social and cultural trends; has a board and staff that reflects current day demography; believes in artistic risk; has a forward plan; respects talent; has financial reserves to protect it from the changes that are inevitable in today’s volatile world and, crucially, is customer focused. I invite the arts community to have a debate about this – the 21st Century Arts Organisation - to help define it and then to apply the prototype, selectively, inevitably, to their own reality.

What will marketing look like in the 21st Century Arts Organisation? Good marketers have to be unashamedly outward-looking. For any business, day-to-day operations; motivating staff; assuring quality – these things are crucial for success. For arts organisations this is doubly so. The product depends so completely upon people giving of themselves, of their creativity; their ideas; their commitment to a performance or an audience. So leadership is enormously important in our organisations. And the unique contribution that you bring to that leadership is the perspective of the customer.

It is easy to talk about “audiences” as though they are something abstract: figures on a balance sheet; a performance indicator; a market segment; an income stream. In your profession, you know that it is important to keep in mind that audiences are made up of people, people with their own individual motivations, values and reasons for coming. This is important for commercial reasons. The day that any business stops understanding and relating to its customers as individuals, commercial failure will not be far behind. But for arts organisations, there is something else. Our audiences are not simply “consumers”. Brands and labels have “values”; and supermarkets care about their customers. But these are not the same thing that we offer. Our customers are not passive recipients. Fundamentally, we are selling a connection: with the performer; with the writer; with the object; with the work. And by engaging, the audience is a participant, too. So it is vitally important to keep in mind the perspective of the customer – because the relationships which our organisations have with customers is a richer one than in any other business I can think of. And the quality of the product depends upon a deep understanding of our audiences.

So what do we know about audiences? Arts Council England has worked with the sector to understand audiences for many years. For instance, we have financed business-planning tools such as BMRB’s Target Group Index (TGI) since 1986. More recently, we have invested twenty million pounds in New Audiences, a programme of action research designed to bring new art to audiences - and new people to the arts. Case studies from the programme have been a feature, I know, of every AMA annual conference since 1999. We have a New Audiences website with details of projects on a searchable database, so that

8 the lessons can be widely shared. I am delighted that we have just finished surveying Black and Asian people about their experience of the arts. This will enable us to build on the success of Arts Council England’s “Decibel” project, which seeks to support black and minority ethnic artists and performers in gaining access to arts venues and getting into the market. “Decibel” was launched with a fantastically successful performing arts showcase event in May this year, and I am sure that many of you will have been with us for the event. The report we publish later this year will complement this with a focus on the needs and expectations of Black and Asian people as audiences.

Together with Re:source, the Arts Council published ‘Arts in England’ in October last year – probably the most complete – and certainly most up to date – audit of people’s engagement with the arts: their attitudes; attendance; and participation. This report tells us a lot about audiences. The most striking thing is the sheer scale of participation. Seventy-nine per cent had attended at least one arts event during the previous year – an enormous number. And more frequent visitor numbers are high, too. Those attending in the four weeks before the survey – arguably the core audience for arts venues – are most significant. Some examples: Art, photography or sculpture exhibition – six per cent; plays or drama – five per cent; Classical music – three per cent. If you extrapolate these figures, they suggest a regular gallery audience of 2.4 million people, and a theatre audience of around 2 million people. And I stress – these are the “regulars”.

There is in fact massive public support for the arts. Seventy-three per cent of the public agree that the arts play a valuable role in the life of the country, and seventy-two per cent say that arts from different cultures contribute a lot to this country. Almost everybody believes it is important that school children should have the opportunity to participate in the arts. Particularly heartening – from where I sit – is great support for public subsidy. Seventy-four per cent agree that arts and cultural projects should receive public funding. And I could go on.

But perhaps the most important thing about research like this is what it tells us about the public’s personal commitment and passion for the arts. Three quarters of the public believe the arts play an important part in the life of the country – but interestingly only around a half of that number believe the arts play an important part in their own lives. This is a crucial and fascinating gap. Reports like ‘Arts in England’ give a valuable perspective on who is not in the audience: where they are, age profiles, barriers to entry, like health, cost, and transport, and, therefore, important clues about how to engage with new audiences more effectively.

As any association, the AMA will have a clear focus on professional development for its members, and this is a priority for us too. Arts organisations need highly skilled marketers, so training is very important and is something we have always taken seriously, for example, through our involvement in the TMA courses Druidstone and Walking the Tightrope. For the Twenty-first Century Arts Organisations we want to see develop, management capability is really important – and nowhere is this more the case than in marketing. So – for example – this autumn we shall be publishing marketing handbooks on a range of topics: using ambassadors to develop audiences; managing websites; and marketing to disabled audiences.

9 But practical, tactical skills will never be enough on their own. The Twenty-first Century Arts Organisation we want to see is consciously strategic. I am delighted that we have been able to work with the AMA to commission Stephen Cashman to write ‘Thinking Big, A guide to strategic marketing’. As it is published today, may I take this opportunity to encourage you all to buy a copy and to “think big” in your own organisations because, as I said earlier, marketers have a key strategic role to play.

And I think we do need to get seriously strategic, if we are to drive organisations that are genuinely transformational. Because we need a long-term big picture perspective, we need to be very sure what works, and we need to measure the impact we make. We must research and evaluate our work in sophisticated ways. The transformational power of the arts – as a rallying cry – is not an excuse for woolly thinking about why we programme the work that we do. Research into the characteristics of the truly impactful arts encounters, interventions and experiences is sorely needed. If we are claiming to change lives, we had better be sure we understand the process by which that happens.

We are pleased to have been able to join forces with our colleagues at Arts Council Wales and the Scottish Arts Council, and, together, to commission Catalyst Arts to look at uses of audience data across three nations to see what you are currently doing with this information and how better use might be made of it by working together, collaboratively and strategically.

So, to close: my job is to argue the case for the arts across government. But I can only do that based on the quality of the work you do, the clarity of your message, and the impact that you and others deliver. This time next year the Government will have decided on funding for the arts to 2008. Between now and then, it’s one of my jobs to make the case.

Two questions to leave you with:

Firstly, have we or have we not got a new and potent rallying call in the transformational power of the arts? Secondly, should we make our case alone or should we forge alliances across the cultural sector embracing a broader agenda with colleagues in museums and the wider heritage sector?

Whatever happens, and as I began by saying, Arts Council England will continue to play a different role from that of its predecessor body. Yes, we will still work with all our partners to inform and shape a strategy for the arts. Yes, we will still be the vehicle through which much public funding for the arts is delivered. Yes, we will speak up for and with the sector and make the case for the arts. And the central case, I believe is the power of the arts to transform lives.

10 The Culture of Communication Media, Networks and Brands

Tamar Kasriel – The Henley Centre

This presentation focused on the rise of personal networks and the evolution of brands in the desire economy.

Recent experience in the area of fast-moving consumer goods suggests that these products are encroaching on the space traditionally occupied in the arts. On the one hand this is a potential threat for the arts but it also gives us some lessons that can be applied in arts marketing.

The story I’m going to tell today is about engagement and desire. What we have seen over a number of years is a gradual decline in trust in traditional institutions and the rise of personal networks. Personal networks have always existed but what is different is the way that people are now using these networks. People are using and relying on their personal networks more. This means that when you are communicating with a potential customer you’re not necessarily just communicating with them: you might be communicating to a much wider network of influence than may be apparent initially.

The second interesting thing is the evolution of the desire economy. This is a way of describing an advanced consumer economy where supply is no longer holding the upper hand. There is more “stuff” out there than we can ever need and we can switch suppliers whenever we want. Suddenly, what we want becomes far more important than what we need. What this means in the desire economy is that if you want to give people what they want then you have to think a bit more about the way they operate and what they are using brands and products for. It also means that they are going to be communicated with in slightly different ways. The FMCG threat is that these commodities are quite desperate to get close to the kind of emotional bond that, as I understand it, the arts can command in consumers’ hearts and minds. And actually sometimes they are being quite successful. So if you have a theory that people limit the number of emotional bonds they have, in constructing their identities using brands and the experiences they have, then we need to understand more about these emotional drivers and how the brands are using them, because perhaps they can teach us how we can improve what we are offering.

This is a textbook definition of marketing:

“The management process responsible for matching resources with opportunities, at a profit, by identifying, influencing and satisfying consumer demand.”

What tends to come out of this is the impression that the process is quite easy because you identify something that exists, satisfy it and then know it is satisfied. What is interesting in the desire economy is the idea that actually none of us are really satisfied. Those with concerns about consumerism and the advance of a consumer society suggest that in fact it is just an endless treadmill of dissatisfaction as we keep being forced to realise that we don’t have enough stuff and that we need more. At the Henley Centre we describe this feeling as “a-happiness”. This is the sense that you’re not happy, but you’re not unhappy

11 and somehow happiness is within tantalising reach but you just can’t quite grasp it. And you suspect that other people have managed it better than you.

Some of you may be familiar with the term “Risk society” coined by a German sociologist called Ulrich Beck.

Risk society begins where tradition ends… the more risks the more decisions and the more choices we have to make. Society has become a laboratory where there is absolutely nobody in charge.

“Risk society” describes a situation where trust in traditional institutions has been declining over a relatively long period of time and we’ve seen this reflected in consumer surveys time after time. Suddenly people are being forced to make decisions, really life-changing decisions about their health, about their children’s schooling etc. They are forced to make these decisions themselves whereas previously they could rely on governments or health authorities to make these decisions for them. So it is quite an anxious and tricky world that we have to navigate.

“Everything changes so fast, things just disappear. There’s so much innovation and so much progress you don’t know where you are anymore.” (France, 20-30 year old)

This is not unique to the UK but all over Europe we’ve seen a decline in what we can call a society typified by command, where you do what you’re told. Now, we want to understand why we should engage with these products, these institutions and what they have to offer us. Consequently there has been a rise in personal networks in helping us to navigate these difficult decisions.

At the Henley Centre we were very surprised, for example, to find that even when it came to products that have a high quotient of expertise, such as financial service decisions, people actually trust their friends and their family more than people with expertise in the area like financial institutions or banks. This means that personal networks, including friends and family, are becoming much more important in decision-making processes.

People are very concerned about having to make all these decisions and their reaction is to say that what they need is more information. We found that two out of three people said you can never have too much information. At the same time there is so much information out there that 51% of people say they don’t have the time or energy to sift through all the information that they are insisting on having. You can see this, for example, with food packaging and labelling. People say that this is information that they really want but actually most people don’t understand what it means. There was some quote in the press that most people thought that the acronym RDA, which stands for “Recommended Daily Amount”, stood for “Royal Dramatic Arts”.

So, we’ve got all this information bombarding us, and what we’re finding is that traditional marketing is losing a lot of its power. The website www.adbusters.org, for example, has send-ups of Calvin Klein ads, Coke ads, etc. What is interesting about this is that the billions of dollars that these organisations pour into

12 their marketing is then twisted and used by consumers: we instantly understand when something is a Coke send up because we have become familiar with the colour and the font and the logo. This behaviour is actually more extreme in the UK than in other markets: it does seem as if the UK consumer is more sophisticated, more marketing savvy than consumers across Europe. UK consumers expect to be entertained. If something is entertaining as an advertising message then it might get through the radar and it might even be passed on to somebody else in the network. If it isn’t entertaining then it isn’t worth our time, our energy, our investment and people can become hostile quite fast.

There has been a huge proliferation of media that are bombarding us with commercial messages. For example, the number of television channels increased by 564% between 1992 and 2002. Statistics suggest we now receive 1,600 commercial messages a day, meaning we don’t even notice them any more. This has led to a rise in ambient media, for example, which is about putting messages on the floor and on the ceiling and they’re proud of the way that the McDonalds sign, for example, goes over the arch of the tube say and points out the way. There is no space that is sacrosanct any more because as there are more messages the marketers become more desperate to try and cut through.

As we are increasingly faced with a bombardment of messages we find a significant increase in the number of people who say: “When I find a company or product I like I recommend it to others”. The figure has increased from 79% of people in 1999 to 89% of people in 2002. Importantly, people also act on these recommendations: 75% of people often choose a product because friends or family have recommended it to them.

We can see how marketing has developed from the concept of the mass brand to the network. Initially, marketing was about communication, about a mass brand that tried to appeal to everybody with a scattergun approach and hoped that some people would pick it up. As the market starts to get more sophisticated, supply increases and you start to segment out the market and develop niche brands designed to appeal to specific segments. With the rise of technology organisations find they can have a one to one relationship with individual customers, not just segments, collecting data through Nectar cards and so on. With the growth of the internet there was the development of the idea that brands could be at the centre of the community. We can see some iconic brands who manage that successfully such as Harley Davidson and Nokia but lots of brands seem to have this dream that they will put up their website and it will become the centre of the community. In fact, people don’t operate that way. There are some exceptions: the Pot Noodle website has become a huge cult, for example, and people voluntarily post things up, but this was surprising to Pot Noodle themselves – they neither engineered it nor expected it. What is interesting is when marketers try to engineer becoming the centre of the community. My favourite example is a drink called Raging Cow, produced by Dr Pepper/7-Up in the US. What they decided to do was to get the five popular web bloggers to put a link to a site called ragingcow.com. The site didn’t talk about the drink but just had lots of funny and entertaining stories. It was only by clicking on a small privacy statement icon that you would see the site had anything to do with Dr Pepper/7-Up. They thought this strategy would ensure the words Raging Cow would enter the lingo paving the way for the drink as people would already be talking about the brand. However, it all went wrong as people discovered what they considered to be a fix and the web community turned against them saying that nobody should buy the drink. The way they expressed themselves explains concept of the network: effectively the community

13 was saying that it is our arena and if brands want to get into it they have to play by our rules. So, apart from a few iconic brands this is very much how brands have evolved and how they now interact with communities. It is the communities that are established and the brands can’t be so arrogant as to think they can be at the centre of the community: they have to get permission from the community. So while viral marketing and network marketing are very exciting, you have to be selling something more powerful than the idea that people can rotate around you.

Mobile phone penetration is now 70 or 80% in the UK and the mobile phone is attached to the person not the place. There are some fairly significant social changes as a result of this technology. This is unusual because normally we believe in technology facilitating an existing social need rather than creating change. For example, in the age of the fixed line, one had to go through Mum or Dad to get to the kids. Now that kids have their own phones they have their own empire, their own network.

The different networks of individuals also have different natures so the mobile phone, for example, can help us to click in and out of our different networks. We might have a different ring tone for a parent, another for a colleague and so on. We can slip out of a meeting and go into friend mode and then slip back into meeting mode again. This means that when we’re talking to customers we have to think about which mode they are in and which network they might be connecting to because people turn to different networks for different things: emotional support, information, companionship and so on may all come from different sources.

Technology also allows shopping decisions to be more multi-lateral then they used to be. I’m sure everyone has been in a supermarket and you’ve seen some bewildered person in front of a shelf of stuff and they can’t choose or don’t know what to get and so they call someone up. This means it’s a Who Wants to be a Millionaire World – you can phone a friend for advice or you can ask the audience by looking on the internet. This means that rather than a purchase decision being made by one person at one point in time it may actually be being made by a network.

The people who are at the hubs of these networks are known as “super-peers”. These people are perceived to be more influential than others within the social network but identifying them and getting them to influence their peers is not easy. It is made more difficult because while people may be the super-peers in one area eg the opera expert, different people may be the super-peer in relation to another area eg the wine expert. This means that, while it remains as something to aspire to, pinpointing the super-peer is quite rare.

A final point to make in relation to the mobile phone is that it makes you live life in real time. There used to be a much more “solid” state of rigid plans, where things had to be organised. Now, there is a “liquid” life of ongoing dynamic co-ordination and re-negotiation. Instead of planning and appointing a meeting place in advance, for example, meetings tend to be a gradual approximation where you get closer and closer to one another and eventually you meet up. There is an interesting project in the US called the mob project where people randomly phone, text or email people they know and arrange to meet in the next hour at a particular, random and arbitrary place eg near a particular carpet in a particular department store and then they just disperse. People are playing with this technology, which means that people have become more

14 opportunistic. I’d be interested to know, when it comes to decisions around arts, if there’s been an impact of people leaving it more last minute because we now expect that flexibility in what we do.

I’d now like to move onto to discussing brands and the desire economy. In the desire economy there are lots of examples of consumer irrationality. This is something we’ve become interested in because consumers have so many choices that if suppliers don’t pander to consumer desires then their customers will go elsewhere. Here’s one example of irrational consumer behaviour. How much would you pay for a half-eaten piece of French toast? Not very much, I presume. But University of Wisconsin student Kathy Summers paid $1,025 because the toast was half-eaten by Justin Timberlake. I personally don’t think it’s worth it but clearly she made the decision that it was. From then outside it looks truly irrational but for her there was something that made her value it to that extent.

So how can we explain these irrationalities? Are these people crazy? Well, generally people aren’t crazy. Consequently there has been a development of behaviour economic theory. This tries to get away from traditional economic theory that has us as very rational human beings who weigh up the cost and the benefits of every single purchase decision. It recognises that consumers are irrational and tries to factor in some of that emotion, some of that consumer reality. Most people agree they have all the material things they need and so if they have all the things they need then what you have to sell them is stuff that they want and there is a strong body of thought which believes that consumers are positively colluding in all of this: they know about brands, they know about marketing and actually they’re quite happy to be marketed to if it is entertaining or if it is offering them something. And what they’re increasingly looking for, and the good news for the arts, is exclusive experiences:

Consumers are no longer satisfied with the ‘manufactured’ status enhancements that branding has produced. Instead, they seek experiences… where supply of status is not so easily created by innovation.1

So we end up with consumer desire as the new driving force behind the economy: it is desire that now drives value. To illustrate this, we can think about the emotional value that money has. There is the rational idea that a pound is a pound is a pound but there have been numerous experiments which show that emotionally people don’t think that way. One such experiment took two equal sized groups of people and said “I’ve got a ticket to a fantastic new play, would you like to buy one?” One group had been told that earlier this week you spent $40 to go to a football game while the other group had been stung for $40 on a parking ticket. So which group went for the play? Well, even though both groups were $40 down, if they’d been to a football game they were less likely to say they wanted a play ticket. Effectively, the mental pot in which they took out their leisure and entertainment budget was already empty and so they were much less likely to make a purchase. This starts us thinking about the competitive set that we might be operating in. Timeshare, for example, have done this very effectively. Timeshare is actually incredibly expensive if you think about it as a hotel but incredibly cheap if you think about it as a home investment:

Vacations are supposed to be paid for out of ‘current income’ while holiday homes are mentally accounted for under a separate ‘investment’ category.2

1 Peter Martin, A Homely Challenge to Branding, Financial Times, 4.7.02 15

And there can be some surprising competitors: the biggest competitor for De Beers diamonds, for example, is not so much other jewellers as the cruise market. When we think about brands and desires, rather than simply products, we start to restructure what we think our competitors are and what the brands are tapping into.

So what determines the nature of our desires is our sense of identity. This means that if you are trying to shift shampoo you have to do rather a lot more push to get people to think that they might want it rather than in the arts where the customers may have an emotional attachment. But there’s a lot of academic thinking around brands which suggests that brands are not owned by companies but by consumers: people buy brands not because they are obsessed with the brand itself, but because it allows them to be true to what they believe in:

If you use a product, you should believe in it. I guess that maybe it’s not necessarily being loyal to the product that is at issue, but being loyal to myself by consistently buying it. You’re true to what you believe in.3

So people aren’t necessarily blindly following the brand but there is something that resonates, that makes sense to them: we don’t necessarily have any feelings for brands but we do have feelings for what brands can symbolise for us.

Brands, and what they do for us, can be crudely divided into three types: reinforcement; projection and evolution. So with reinforcement, brands can reinforce who we are and what we do, serving as a visible reminder of identity, particularly in times of self-doubt: a nappy like Huggies, for example, can remind someone that she’s the best mother that she can be and is really doing the best for her child. With projection comes the idea that brands can be used to control how others perceive us, so somebody who puts an exotic type of cigarettes on a coffee table, for example, is saying to people that they are interesting and different. Evolution suggests that it is possible to borrow the values and attitudes of a brand to help manage transitions in life, that brands have effectively replaced myth in our society. So, while we do share brands, we don’t necessarily sit around and tell stories any more. And there are certain brands at certain times that can fulfil the role that maybe myths did in the past. For example, a brand like Lynx may, at some times, be about helping somebody move from boy to man, enabling them to borrow the confidence and the sexuality that Lynx gives.

Finally, the key thing is thinking about what are you offering and what are you tapping into in terms of the brand. A good example is Betty Crocker, an American cake mix brand. Originally when it was produced all you had to do was add water and out would come this cake. It didn’t sell as well as they hoped so they took out the dried egg so that customers had to add water and “Simply add an egg”. As a result it did fantastically well because adding water was nothing whereas adding an egg was cooking! As a result customers could say “I cooked” and it tapped into mother roles rather than being easy, fast food. There are lots of these cues that it is possible to tap into and while they may not be that obvious they are worth

2 Steven Pearlstein, And the new thinking about money is that your irrationality is predictable, The Washington Post, 27.1.02 3 Susan Fournier, Consumers and their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research, 1998 16 considering. So in the desire economy we must focus on creating demand: as commodity products are beginning to compete on the emotional territory that traditionally belongs to the arts, it’s time to borrow from the lessons they’ve learned in order to remain one step ahead.

17 The Importance of Effective CRM

Professor Adrian Payne - Cranfield School of Management

This presentation focused on creating greater value for the customer and for the organisation.

There has been a lot of discussion about customer relationship management in recent years. CRM is sometimes called cost reduction management when people get it wrong: there’s a very famous high street bank that thought it was doing CRM, as in customer relationship management, and all it was actually doing was cutting costs by stopping its customers calling the branch. As a result customers, particularly the high net worth customers, left in droves.

So what is CRM and what do we need to know about it? Well, I think it’s important that we do have an understanding of CRM from a strategic and customer perspective, as opposed to the technology perspective as I would argue that effective CRM is going to help us to be successful. Therefore, I’m going to briefly overview the evolving focus on marketing; define the role of CRM; provide a simple framework for CRM, which should be modified according to your own circumstances; present the five key processes in effective CRM and the ‘ACURA’ model for maximising customer value; give some examples of best practice; and explore the dangers of current focus and the importance of trying to think in an innovative way about future opportunities.

The focus of marketing has evolved through a series of phases. These phases don’t last ten years exactly but certainly marketing in the 1950s was developed around consumer goods marketing and much of the literature is focused on FMCGs even today. It was in the 1960s that people recognised that a business-to- business context was different from consumer marketing and there started to be focus around industrial marketing. In the 1970s people started to look at how the principles of marketing could be applied to the not-for-profit sector (“societal” marketing). Sadly the momentum in this area that was generated in the 1970s has not been so strongly sustained as it might have been, but there were some fantastic insights as a result of looking at organisations outside the traditional mainstream of business. The thrust in the 1980s was around services marketing. In fact, few universities had talked about services marketing even though 70% of the British economy was wrapped up in services. Then the 1990s arrived and the emphasis was placed on relationship marketing, recognising that it’s not enough to acquire the customer - we need to think about how we can keep the customer and strike the right balance between acquisition and retention marketing. From this point, increasing emphasis was placed on CRM, asking how IT could be used to apply relationship marketing, and I think there have been a number of trends that have a profound impact on us being able to practice better from a marketing point of view using information. So, what are the sorts of shifts that are occurring? These are obvious, but worth stating:

• The power of computing has increased enormously; • The cost of computing power has dropped dramatically; • The storage capacity of computers, databases, data warehouses etc. has increased almost exponentially – a MB of storage of data twenty years ago was a very expensive commodity; • The cost of storage capacity and data warehousing has become more affordable over the last decade; 18 • New developments in data mining enable us to analyse data more cleverly, although many organisations have not made the distinction between having the data and utilising it. • Innovation in e-commerce and, as a result: • The affordability and introduction of one-to-one marketing, particularly in an online environment.

So the confluence of all these different factors is having a profound impact on marketing in general and on CRM in particular.

Traditional marketing has been a process of functional orientation as opposed to a process orientation – it is a set of activities carried out in a marketing department. For me, the distinction between old-fashioned marketing and CRM is thinking about the processes that, together, link the organisation to the customer, right across the different departments of an organisation. Effective CRM depends on the following five key processes:

• Strategy Assessment Process. This consists of asking questions and linking your business strategy or organisational strategy with your customer strategy to ensure they are aligned. • Value Creation Process. Firstly, how do we create value for the customer? Secondly, how do we get value back from the customer to enable us to continue to exist as an organisation and to grow, develop and innovate? • Channel Management Process. What are the ways in which we can get to customers and they can get to us? • Information Management Process. How do we use the information that we have? • Performance Assessment Process. How do we know that what we’re doing is appropriate and how are we getting the feedback?

These are the processes I’d like to explore, but firstly, here is a definition of CRM:

CRM is concerned with achieving our strategic objectives through the development of appropriate relationships with customers. This requires an integration of people, operations, processes and marketing capabilities. It is enabled through superior: information, technology, and applications.

It is important to emphasise here that technology is the enabler, not the main event. So, with that framework for thinking about CRM, there are a number key questions to explore that relate to the five processes.

Strategy Development Process

The strategy development process asks: • Where are we at present and what do we want to achieve? • Who are the customers that we want and how should we segment them? I’m going to focus later around this issue of segmentation because I’ve yet to see any business, except in the very early stages of an organisation, where segmentation is not appropriate.

19 Value Creation Process

The value creation process asks: • How should we deliver value to our customers? What constitutes value? • How do we maximise the lifetime value of the customer?

Multi-Channel Integration Process

The multi-channel integration process consists of asking: • What are the best ways for us to get to customers and what are the best ways for the customers to get to us? • What does an outstanding customer experience, deliverable at an affordable cost, look like?

Information Management Process

• How do we organise information on customers? • How can we “replicate” the mind of the customer where that’s appropriate?

Performance Assessment Process. • How do we achieve our objectives? • How do we measure our results, set standards and improve our performance? If we haven’t got the right sort of measurement systems in place, we won’t know how we are doing on an ongoing basis. The organisations that I’ve been involved with in the not-for-profit sector over the years are not particularly good at measurement, as a generalisation, compared to best in class businesses.

So, to begin with a couple of observations about the strategy development process, I want to particularly focus on the importance of segmentation. The old-fashioned view of segmentation, which focuses too heavily on characteristics rather than on behaviour, is limited because, while customers might seem to be the same, you only have to drill down a little way to see that their behaviour is markedly different. Here is an example of segmentation based on behaviour called the “Life – be in it” campaign. This was a programme initiated by the Australian government. It was concerned about the total social cost to the nation as a result of people being unfit. The programme undertook a segmentation study and as a result implemented a campaign encouraging people to engage in exercise and activity. The programme identified five main segments:

• The Drifters – 60%. This group was turned off by traditional stereotypes of working hard to keep fit, preferring to listen to a record or go out to dinner. However, this group understood the benefits of activity, even though they were not active themselves. And therefore were open to persuasion if the right proposition was put to them. • Tuned Out – 19%. This group contained many who were “failures” at school as far as physical activity was concerned, with strong feelings of incompetence and embarrassment. • Tuned In (self improvers) – 11%. This was a relatively active group because of “looking good” and “getting on”. • Tuned In (self convinced) – 6%. “Fitness fanatics”, incredibly supportive of physical activity. • Super Tuned Young Lions – 5%. Typically younger and unconsciously active. 20

As a result of the segmentation exercise, they identified a target population of 60% of people (the drifters) where, with the right sort of message, they could fundamentally change attitudes and behaviours and was a profoundly insightful programme in helping understand those people who are open to persuasion and using the right sort of communications messages where they can have most effect.

There’s an electricity company I’ve been dealing with and they are quite interesting because they sent every customer seven mail-shots per annum. Having looked at some data, it was possible to identify a number of different segments. I called the first group the “struggling, empty nest, super-loyals”. They cost £110 to acquire and made the electricity company £6 per annum. This group were “struggling”, in the sense they did not have much money and “empty nest” because the children have left home (most of these people were pensioners in their sixties, seventies and eighties). Now the question is how long does it take you to break even if you are making £6 per annum and they cost you £110 to acquire? The academic answer is 18.6 years but the reality is never because most of them die before they break even. So why send these people seven mail-shots every year? On the other hand, the “filthy-rich, mansion- owning, non-greens” spend more money on electricity than a lot of companies. As a result of behavioural understanding you can identify the potential in terms of value for your organisation and determine the focus: to forget, maintain, acquire, build or defend:

The first step in CRM is around the strategy and understanding what sort of customers you want and how you should focus on them.

The second process is the Value Creation Process, with its two key component parts: the value we create for the customer and the value we get back. Organisations often spend too much time thinking about the money they’re going to extract from the customer and not enough time thinking about the value. And the value has to be defined in terms of the rapport and the impact on the customer, so everything has to be seen from the customer’s point of view. Over the last ten or fifteen years we’ve seen more organisations try to drill down and explain what this is. Does anyone here drive a Volvo station-wagon? This is a great 21 example of the value proposition. I’ve got a friend who drives one and he is the perfect customer because every three years he clocks in and gets a new one. He’s on about his seventh. He’s a middle class executive who lives in Newbury. He has one boy and one girl, one cat and one dog, and is very conservative. He gets very upset when there’s a model change where the car looks different and he always has the same colour. He is safety conscious and, for him, durability and safety are the key benefits. He pays a hefty price premium for the belief that it is the safest, most durable station-wagon. Volvo have thought very carefully about establishing that position of being the safest car in the marketplace in that class.

It’s important to start to go back to fundamentals and ask: “what is our value proposition?” It is important to define it clearly so that all the staff in the organisation are focused on delivering that value to the customer. Why? Xerox interviewed 480,000 people and identified the fact that a person who is very satisfied (ie 5 out of 5 on a scale of satisfaction as opposed to 4 out of 5) is six times as likely to buy a Xerox machine. So this means that satisfaction is not enough: we have to move people to the state of being very satisfied. A classic example is First Direct bank (whereas the bank I mentioned at the outset of this presentation is the bank in the bottom left hand corner)4.

First Direct bank is like a beacon: they’re way, way, way ahead of the next closest bank which is Co-op and you can see that the people who are very satisfied are also more likely to recommend. So this issue of trying to understand what drives satisfaction is critical in terms of the value creation process.

Having got the right sort of value for the customer, we should then think about how should we get the maximum value for the organisation. In commercial organisations we think about five levers “ACURA” which stands for:

4 MORI 22 • Acquisition • Cross-Sell • Up-Sell • Retention • Advocacy

This is not done in a brutal way of flogging stuff to the customer - we’re trying to add value and we do it in a systematic way where and when and where it is appropriate. Dominos Pizza in the US apparently have a training programme where they ensure staff see every new customer in terms of their lifetime value, rather than in terms of buying an $8 pizza. So they have this saying that whenever I see a new customer walk in through the door I see $10,000 burned into their forehead. So what would you do if someone walked in to your pizza parlour and said may I have $10,000 of pizza? You’d get to know the customer and start to respond on a more one-to-one basis with them where it is appropriate.

So what about cross-selling and up-selling? While I must confess to not being the greatest fan of this product, I am an admirer of the way that McDonalds manage to cross-sell and up-sell. You walk into McDonalds to buy a hamburger and the conversation goes something like this:

“I’d like a hamburger.” “Will that be a Big Mac?” “Yes, please.” “Would you like some fries to go with that?” “Yes, please.” “Large fries?” “Yes, please.” “Drink?” “Diet coke, please.” “Large diet coke?” “Yes, please.”

What we’ve seen is a systematic process of acquisition, up-sell, cross-sell, up-sell, cross-sell, up-sell in about four nano-seconds and, if that doesn’t impress you, it impressed me when I learned that the up-sell from small fries to large fries in today’s terms is worth about £8-10 million on their bottom line. And, of course, that’s £8 million in the UK, £10 million in France, £14 million in Germany, £22 million in Japan, £64 million in the US, before you even get to China. And that’s a low margin up-sell compared to the soft drinks. So, have you got products that you can sensibly cross-sell that add value to the customer? To what extent are policies implemented in a systematic way where appropriate? McDonalds success doesn’t depend on one person with a good store manager having a good day, but on everybody in the organisation doing it in a systematic way.

American Express offers an interesting example of up-selling. What happens when they sell you a Gold card? Perhaps you get a bit more prestige and a higher credit limit, but they’ve also got an interesting programme aimed at the businessman or businesswoman who uses this card. What they do is they give 23 something that is enormously valuable to that particular segment that doesn’t cost them very much. They enable the customer, with eight different airlines, to buy a business class ticket and get another one free, for your partner, child etc. Alternatively, you can get a free upgrade from business class to first class. This costs American Express nothing because they do it on a deal based on volume. So, what can you do for your customers to give them an enormous amount of value that doesn’t cost you too much but can take them up the satisfaction scale? Up-selling should also be about retention and retention is extremely important as we know. The profit stream in a commercial enterprise from increasing the retention rate from 75% to 80% per annum has a profound impact in terms of the profitability of the organisation, ranging from 40-50%. American MBNA had a retention problem some years ago and they set out to improve it from around 80%. Systematically, over an eight-year period, they got it up to over 90%. As a result, profits went up by over sixteen times over.

As the final step in ACURA, what can you do to build advocacy among your customer base? Again, First Direct bank is a great example with nearly 70% of customers “very likely to recommend” them. Advocacy is powerful because it has high credibility and because it doesn’t, as a rule, cost us anything.

The Multi-Channel Integration Process looks at the ways in which we interact with customers and we can usually identify about eleven different channel options, including phone, face-to-face, internet, text, digital TV, post, fax and so on. Of course we may not choose to use all of them. We need to ask ourselves what is the typical customer experience and what is the perfect customer experience within one channel and across channels. I deal with Easyjet and on the phone they are an absolute disaster: they offer an appalling customer experience because they’re trying to migrate you on to the internet and they now have 90% of people booking through the internet. They’ve made a studied decision to do this and it is quite appropriate for them. However, this is an unusual philosophy but, despite that, I’ve got a sample of about 5,000 people and the question I asked these 5,000 people was “I’d like you to think about the last four to six months of your experience of ringing a call centre. How many times, out of ten, did you have a perfect experience and how many times was it poor, average, mediocre or terrible?” The average is one out of ten. Then think about the customer experience in an online environment. What happens when you go onto a website? Do you ever get broken links or poor navigation? I spent an hour and a half trying to find a product on the Sony website. The website was very smart, very expensive and a total disaster. I actually found the product I was looking for after an hour and a half purely by accident – most people would have given up after five minutes. When I’ve asked “How many times out of ten when you go online do you have a perfect customer experience and how many times is it poor, terrible, mediocre or average?” the answer so far is about 2 out of 10. So, do these companies that are the one out of ten or two out of ten have superior technology? Have they got a special relationship with the customer? Of course not. It’s a question not of what you’ve got but how you use it.

There’s a notion that we call the emotional reservoir of goodwill with customers. This reservoir can be added to gradually, depleted gradually or a major occurrence can completely shift it. For example, I bought my wife a subscription to Country Life magazine and it was the best £60 I ever spent in my life. Every time it arrived she would tear off the plastic cover and smile at me, put it down and read it that night. And she was still doing this after four years. You also have to put this in context because there are all these other magazines we subscribe to sitting there with their plastic covers on, piling up, not opened.

24 Then we decided to try and find a house. There are very few affordable houses in Country Life magazine but occasionally they’re there and we started looking in the magazine and occasionally saw something and we’d ring up and every time it was sold. We didn’t blame Country Life but then someone suggested we should go on the website. I hadn’t even thought of them having a website because they’re a pretty old- fashioned sort of magazine. Anyway, twice we went on the website and both times were a total disaster. We went on one night at ten o’clock and we were still trying to make sense of it two and a half hours later. The net result was that the emotional reservoir of goodwill plummeted and my wife got really angry. I noticed a few weeks later that the magazines didn’t have the plastic cover off any more and they started to back up with all the other magazines we haven’t got time to read. Then, last Christmas, I asked if I should re-subscribe and my wife said, “No, I’m a bit sick of it”. It was only later that we unpicked how that had come about, with the depletion of the reservoir of emotional goodwill. So, think about all the points of contact you have with customers, and ensure they offer a really good customer experience, complementary to the other channels of communications and brand integrity. A good example of this is Woolwich Open-plan, in terms of the consistency of look, touch, feel, and brand image across all its channels.

The Information Management Process is important because one of the best things an organisation can do to retain and grow customers is to have the same, or better, memory than the customer has which is used appropriately where possible. Recognise that customers are inherently lazy and set in their ways so if you make it easy for customers to do business with you then they will. Here’s a quick example from First Direct:

A customer rang up First Direct bank and said, “I’m going to the States with my family and I’d like $1,000 in travellers’ cheques please.” The operator said, “Sure. May I ask where you’re going?” The customer said, “I’m going skiing in Vail.” The operator said, “I’ve just put Vail into my computer and I’ve noticed there are two automatic teller machines where you can access your money in your account. It’ll cost you less money in charges to get your money in this way and it might be more convenient than carrying around a great wad of travellers’ cheques.” The customer said, “Fantastic”. The operator said, “Do you still need $1,000?” The customer said, “No send me $250 and I’ll use the card.” Three weeks later the customer is back from his holidays and talking to someone different and,m after asking the customer whether he had a nice holiday, they say, “I notice you were talking to my colleague about the ATMs in Vail. Did you find them?” “It was fantastic. It was actually quite difficult cashing travellers cheques so it worked superbly well, thank you.” First Direct not only use the past memory trail but they also use icons so an operator knows whether someone likes to chat a bit or whether they are very business oriented and want to get the transaction over and done with quickly, so they customise the relationship accordingly.

25 Finally, some observations in relation to the Performance Assessment Process. I thought you might be interested to see what represents best in class industry5:

Imagine you have this information at a high level for the whole organisation. You know what your customer retention rate is and what your level of customer loyalty is; you’ve got a rating for your advocacy, in terms of the number of customers who are recommending you and the relative impact; you’ve got the value of existing customers and a notion of their lifetime value; the average revenues per customer; the new customer acquisition rate and the total number of customers. Not only that, but the magnifying glasses enable you to click and view the information by geography, market segment, sales person etc.

To finish, let me raise the issue about the dangers of current focus and the need to look for new value opportunities. My first observation is that there are two ways of finding ideas – finding them yourself and using your customers to give you ideas for value opportunities. You need to pursue both options but, historically, more ideas have come from the customer than an R&D laboratory. A good example of looking for new value opportunities is a Starbucks initiative. In August 2002 they introduced the T-Mobile hotspot service that offers wireless internet connectivity. They now have a significant number of customers who not only pay up to $5 for a cup of coffee but who also pay $49.99 for a wireless internet connection. The beauty of this is that the average network customer comes in and stays for nearly an hour and 90% of the time they spend there is outside peak time: they are filling non-productive space. Not only that, but as these people are coming in for an hour or more, they buy more products, as well as creating additional revenue streams in terms of the internet connection.

5 Neely/Accenture/Telewest 26 In summary, CRM needs to be interpreted for each organisation in order for it to focus on the elements with the potential to make a difference. CRM is about customer relationships, not technology, and we need to think about value for both the customer and the organisation. We need to be proactive in obtaining the right information and using it intelligently, as well as checking that the systems are in place to measure satisfaction and to ensure that we are adding value.

27 Audience Builder: The Art and Science of Persuasion

Andrew McIntyre - Morris Hargreaves McIntyre

This presentation offered audience builder as a methodology for combining the science of segmentation with the art of persuasion.

Every hour 685 tickets for the arts are left unsold. That’s 16,500 every day and 6 million every year. There are acres of empty galleries and museums. Audience builder, which is the culmination of several years work, does what it says on the tin. It is not a piece of software or a service but an idea, an approach, a philosophy, a way of thinking and a way of working. This presentation will set out how your organisation can harness this philosophy.

Let’s start with what doesn’t work.

• Sales-focused marketing. “What’s wrong with that?” you might ask. Well, the problem with sales- focused marketing is that it is a short-term strategy that is efficient in terms of the marketing cost per sale, but means that we are simply selling tickets on a show-by-show basis to the usual suspects. Most venues hold thousands of records of people who attend irregularly or who have lapsed. Their lack of attendance makes it uneconomic to mail them. This lack of communication makes them even less likely to attend. Or worse, many theatres “clean” these potential attenders from their lists and concentrate only on those who are already proactive. • Brochures and advertising aren’t working. While 70% of customers may suggest that the brochure was part of their reason for deciding to buy, this probably still only accounts for 20% of the brochures you actually printed. The brochure attempts to be a one-size fits-all but generally the size is designed to accommodate the usual suspects, who know what to look for and can interpret the opus numbers, references to directors and so on. As for advertising, we did some research at the Bristol Old Vic which identified that only 4% of customers had seen the ad in the local paper, and half of these people saw it after they had purchased their tickets. For every £1 spent on advertising the box office return was £1.29. Given that the marketing budget needed to generate £10 income for every £1 spent it was clear that a better return on investment was needed and could be achieved by investing the money on other marketing activities. • Ignoring the numbers. Arts marketers have never had so much data or less knowledge. A box office system can tell us how long someone has been a customer; what type of shows they like and what they avoid; how often they come; how many people they normally attend with; whether any of them are children or senior citizens; where they like to sit; how much they pay and how far in advance they book. This information on past behaviour means a venue can predict future behaviour and tailor their communications to meet the different needs of customers but, beyond targeting past bookers for particular types of show, most venues do not exploit this rich source of information. • Imagining the ideal buyer – selling to ourselves. Sometimes we make the mistake of assuming that the customer has our knowledge: we use phrases like “Following last year’s production”, which assumes they know something about the previous production and which, to the majority, says “If you didn’t come last time. It’s not for you”.

28 • Even the usual suspects don’t buy without reminders. If the brochure is so effective, why do we then need to send follow-up mail-shots? • Audience under-development. Direct mail myopia is preventing us from genuinely developing the whole audience.

Ok, so what does work? Well, here’s the science bit:

• Understanding the audience. This means we have to stop seeing the objective as selling. • Segmenting the audience. We have to stop assuming that one size fits all, without expecting we can go so far as to offer an individually tailored communication for everybody, and find ways of consistently communicating with everybody in a way that is relevant for them. • What do we want them to buy? We should know the answer to this question for each segment of our audience. If we don’t know what we want them to buy, then why should we expect them to know the answer out of a whole brochure of possibilities? • 20,00 personal development plans. “Audience development” is a common term. We can pretty well define “audience” but what about “development”? Are we seeking to develop knowledge, experience, confidence, loyalty, risk or taste? Let’s think about “development” in terms of personal or career “development”. If we have a career appraisal, then we put a training plan in place, we identify any problems, look at the resources and support we might need and agree a future review. What I am suggesting is that the audience need personal development plans. And if you don’t have that in place then you need to ask how you expect to develop the audience – via a self-help manual?

So what about the art?

• Firstly, we have to stop trying to sell to customers and start helping them to buy. We need to write direct mail that is benefits focused not product focused. We need to go to the person who has a passion for the product and get right to the heart of why it is special. • We need to identify why customers might not buy. At Bristol Old Vic we sat in a room and brainstormed all the reasons why someone wouldn’t come and then systematically went through them all and presented arguments to overcome customer objections to prevent people from receiving the print and thinking of reasons not to go. This offers the customer a service and builds trust in recommendations even if, as a result, they decide to go to something else instead. • AIDA. The classic model of Attention; Interest; Desire; Action. Too much print is focused solely on Attention and Action. To stimulate interest you need to communicate the benefits and how there might be a match with the customers’ needs. To stimulate desire, remember that people buy tickets as part of a deep psvchological decision: most print is dry and disconnected from the passion, focusing on the features or on bare facts such as who the director is. If you can quote the fanatic (the director, curator, writer, actor or artist who really believes in the project) then what inspires them will inspire the audience. • At the RLPO we started to use really personal direct mail. And by that we mean “personal from” not “personal to”. People are now accustomed to receiving direct mail personally addressed to them. To make a letter stand out it should not simply be personalised at the top but should talk to them in the first person, in this case from Gerard Schwarz. People buy from people. So customers tried 29 something new because Gerard Schwarz asked them to. We started telling stories about the composers to interest people and used their first name. We also introduced simple personal communications like writing to subscribers to say thank you. • Really personal service. The subscription form carries a message from the box office manager, with a picture of him and his team, encouraging customers to call if they require any assistance. Fear or concern about calling is reduced because they have been invited to do so.

Audience Builder offers a way of managing strategy; campaigns; budget; audience and brand all in one go. It plots two variables, identified as the primary defining variables of a segment, against one another. Across the top is frequency of attendance:

Down the side the audience are given a ranking which relates to the highest level of difficulty or risk of work that they have attended, where A is the most difficult work available and E is the most accessible.

The Audience Climbing Frame then takes the two primary defining variables and sets them against each other on the axes of a matrix. The combination of the two variables produces a number of discrete segments. Bristol Old Vic’s Audience Climbing Frame looks like this:

30

By using the Audience Climbing Frame, it is possible to target prospective bookers according to their past behaviour. It is more than a simple table as additional behavioural information can then be looked at for each segment. The aim is to gradually move the audience further towards the right and higher up the climbing frame. Tailored messages are sent to each segment to take the next step, whether it is up one square or moving to the right by one square or both. Further detailed case study information on audience builder can be found in the seminar on the subject in this report.

31 ‘The Map is not the Territory.’ Exploring Stakeholder Discourses and the Diffusion of Ideas: The Case of Emotional Intelligence

Margaret Chapman – University of Hertfordshire

This keynote looked at the importance of “talk” and the importance of selecting the right discourse for any given audience.

What is discourse? It is perhaps important to begin by recognising that we live in a time where there are no “grand” narratives. The notion of discourse is rooted in post modernist philosophy, which argues that we construct our own identities and constantly strive to make sense of our own universe. This means our reality is socially constructed as a result of our experience and interaction – and language is the primary tool of interaction. Language is therefore important in shaping our understanding, as our attitudes are constructed through discourse, or discourses that exist within a particular social context. So, how is discourse defined?

“A set of connected concepts, expressions & statements that constitute a way of talking or writing about an aspect of the world; thus framing and influencing the way people understand and act”6 “Ways of thinking and talking about issues”7

So what are some of the key principles involved that we might choose to accept the idea of discourses in shaping our realities?

• Emotion/Cognition Public. The idea asserts that emotions and mental processing are about being in the public arena, rather than residing in mental processes • Stake and voice are central. This principle asserts that we must consider language to be central in the construction of reality, and that ‘talk’ is not neutral • Discourse is rhetorical. It serves a purpose and thereby positions us in certain ways • Talk is where the action is, this assumes that verbal interchanges are central to enabling understanding of how identities are constructed • Description is construction. If we accept this principle of the role of discourse, then it gives us greater flexibility in recognising that there are multiple discourses and reality is not fixed • Discourses drawn from culture, and are thereby resources upon which we can draw to create and re- create our reality

Underpinning these principles it is important therefore to ask such questions as, what are the metaphors that people use? What images and symbols are being portrayed? What stories or clichés do we use? In other words, what are the discursive resources that different discourse communities draw, to make sense of and construct their (and our) realities?

So, what about discourse in action? In order to explore how discourses operate, the concept of emotional intelligence was used a way to illustrate discourse in action. Originally conceived by Salovey and Mayer in

6 Watson, 2002 7 Phoenix, 2002 32 the 1990s the coined term to describe the identification, use, understanding and management of emotions. The concept was in relative obscurity, however, until it was popularised by Daniel Goleman in 1996 in his publication “EQ: Why it can matter more than IQ”.

Outlining recent research that used focus groups and interviews, an analysis of the discourses, revealed that emotional intelligence is used in a number of ways by different groups, or discourse communities:

• Personal Development. For managers on the receiving end of emotional intelligence training, this represented an opportunity for self development • Performance Technology: For those working in HR or in management development, responsible for implementing emotional intelligence programmes, the discourse is about enhancing performance in the workplace, specifically enhancing leadership competencies • Development Consultants. For this group, the discourse is about selling emotional intelligence, which was just another product in a wider portfolio of services. For this group, EQ provided a useful label for advanced soft skills training. • Academics: Here the discourse adopted a critical perspective, suggesting that emotion had been commodified, to serve corporate goals, rather than truly challenging the ways in which organisations are managed

So what lessons can we take from the case of EQ?

Most importantly, the research suggests that ideas need to be timely, to gain the attention of the audience, and relevant, in order for them to be engaged. These ingredients are crucial in ensuring effective communication and dissemination. Some of the more detailed lessons for the way in which ideas are taken up and used include:

• The importance of using appropriate media; • The need to ensure that the idea taps into and addresses the concerns and anxieties of the discourse of the intended audience • That the idea is made concrete, i.e. anchored in some way of what they already know • Engaging hearts and minds in equal measure.

People who create and disseminate ideas and thus provide discursive resources that become adopted within particular discourse communities are knowledge entrepreneurs. What is that we do that will enable an idea to take hold? Are we succeeding?

“Knowledge entrepreneurs are those who create, process & disseminate concepts that inform discourse and practice. They are important for fashioning thinking and action by using the right vocabularies and telling the right stories, stories that reach into the very hearts and minds of different discourse communities. Effective communication therefore requires arts marketers to act as knowledge entrepreneurs, and to use, in equal measure, both cognitive & emotional intelligence to ‘sell’ their message and to recognise that the map is not the territory”8

33 8 Chapman, 2003 Speaking With One Voice

Sue Hemmings - The Open University

This keynote considered the merits of mass communication.

Peter Hewitt’s speech struck a chord. There is a real similarity between the current debates in the arts and those in higher education. The arts can be transformative: the Open University’s current marketing slogan is “transform your life”. Not only this, but both industries operate in a pseudo-market rather than a real one: income from funding bodies demands a focus on targets and outcomes. We share the problem that retention is cheaper than recruitment. Well this is all very well: in higher education if you want to retain then ensure you recruit white, middle class women living in the South East. The same may be true for the arts. But if art and education have something valuable to offer then surely we should offer it to more people and widen participation so that traditionally under-represented groups form new audiences.

So, how do we do this? This presentation is called speaking with one voice, but, in fact, it should be called speaking with many voices. It suggests the merits of mass communication but I will argue that we are no longer engaging in mass communications but in multiple communications. Multiple communications speak to a variety of experiences and use a range of registers for talking to different audiences. What this presentation will argue is that we have shifted away from the idea of mass communication, as visualised by Orwell in “1984”, to the idea of multiple communications that we discover in today’s Big Brother. We have moved from the mono-cultural to an expectation of differentiated cultural engagement. The shift to multiple communications is also emblematic of the way that an idea can circulate in culture: more people are aware of the idea of Big Brother or Room 101 than there are people who know or care that it derives from a novel written after World War II.

One of the reasons that the term “mass” communication is misconceived is because it implies that technologies or techniques are reaching all, or most, of a given population. This, in turn, implies the concept of a “massified” audience. The third assumption made by the term “mass” communication is that the reception of communications is always unproblematic. Now we know that often the simplest of communications go wrong and that sometimes people receive different messages from that which we intended. So the concept of mass communications has three problems: technologies, audiences and messages.

There are lots of different ways of classifying technologies. “Techies” want to classify them in “techie” ways, thinking in terms of the technological component rather than how they help in terms of communications. But we need to look at what it is that technologies actually do in terms of communication. One way of categorising them has been offered in the work of John Thompson, as:

• Face-to-face • Mediated • Quasi-mediated

34 These terms consider the extent to which the technologies are interactive; the extent to which they offer opportunities for feedback and the extent to which the communication can be modified as it proceeds. In face-to-face conversation, for example, we pick up cues from facial expressions, body language and so on. Where communication is mediated fully, such as in the writing of a letter, the communication is sent out and there is no means of knowing what happens to it and how it is received, or of adding to it or amending it after it has been sent. The message and its reception are separated by time and place. The classic example of quasi-mediated technology is the telephone conversation: it is possible that the message can be amended during the course of the conversation, although the communicator doesn’t have all the cues they would have in a face-to-face situation. It seems to me that with the growth of new communications technologies, it is quasi-mediated communication that is on the increase.

In terms of categorising what various media do we can consider the following schema:

• Hot mediums versus cold mediums; • Writerly versus readerly texts; • Discursive versus figural.

The concept of hot versus cold mediums is the notion, drawn from the work of Marshall McLuhan, that some mediums promote passivity because they do everything for you, such as television. Radio, however, requires more active input because it requires the person being communicated with to engage their imagination, intellect and emotions in a different way. It is this latter type of engagement that both art and arts marketing seeks.

The comparison between writerly and readerly texts is derived from later academic work such as Roland Barthes. The concept cites the difference between trying to close down communications, where a single precise message is being communicated that is not open to interpretation and open communication that does not seek to close down a final message but which operates as enabler, allowing people to make it to mean different things. It is, if you like, the difference between science, which aims to identify a single claim to truth, and the humanities, which aim to open things up to interpretation. It accepts there can be no, final single meaning of a text. That meaning is constantly 'up for grabs' and in terms of arts marketing, as Peter Hewitt suggested, 'what they [potential audiences] take out is more important than what you think you put into it'.

The third concept, taken from the work of Scott Lash, is the shift from discursive to figural, which claims that we are moving in a society where:

• Words matter less than images; • The formal qualities of arts matter less than the juxtaposition of ideas from the everyday; • Rationalism is in decline; • People no longer ask “what does this mean?” but “what does it do?”; • We no longer embracing the ego but hand ourselves over to the primary processes of the id; • Instead of promoting a cool, distancing appreciation we are seeking immersion in experience.

35 So, taken together, we have new technologies that promote quasi-mediated communication that can be cool, writerly and figurative. For those wedded to ideas of the rational Enlightenment subject this may be seen as a shame, but it is the truth of the culture in which we are seeking to place messages about the arts.

The idea that popular culture is debased through being pre-digested and promotes a mindless massified , audience became popular in cultural studies in the 1940s. This idea of ‘pap for the masses’ suggests that, somehow, popular culture promotes a passive and undifferentiated audience. Many students are quick to accept this idea pointing to examples such as “Pop Idol”; “Fame Academy”; “Big Brother”; “Changing Rooms”; “Location, Location, Location”; and “House Doctor”. This approach talks of “pseudo- individualisation”, of making things appear different when really they’re the same – all the decorating programmes are really the same, they just have a different hook. And also of “part-interchangeability” – you could move the contestants from one reality show to another and it wouldn’t make a difference. But what this misses are a few simple joys that point to the active rather than passive appropriation of these cultural texts. People are very adept at playing with genre. Everyone knows, for example, that you should never be the fourth person on a “Star Trek” away team. Inter-textuality is played with in the identification of sampled sources in music or, as in a recent episode of “Midsummer Murders” the knowing look at the camera by the actor who played Bergerac when Jersey was mentioned.

Like other commentators of the 1940s, with whom in other ways he shared little, Orwell held to an elite vs. pap view of culture. In 1984 he offers the following popular song lyric, composed by the versifying machines of the Party:

It was only an ‘opeless fancy, It passed like an Ipril dye, But a look and a word an’ the dreams that they stirred! They ‘ave stolen my heart away.

That he sees this rather bad lyric (bad in that it is a poor pastiche) as sweeping through prole society, says rather a lot about his views on the subject of popular culture as opposed to art, the elite as opposed to the masses. So if art is for the elite and pap is for the masses then we would have to recognise the paradox that subsidy is falling disproportionately on the middle classes. This view, however, fundamentally misunderstands 'the masses'.

So what about audiences in the world of multiple communications? One way of looking at audiences is in terms of demographic groupings. Demographics are used for the purposes of statistics and can be useful in demonstrating the distribution of resources to various groups. However, grouping audiences in this way would suggest, for example, that there is such a thing as art for men, as distinct from art for women. Of course we have the ‘chick lit’ phenomenon, but this literature is creating a particular audience and identity for young women, not simply capturing a pre-given demographic. We don't live our lives in single demographic dimensions. Lifestyle profiles, developed in the advertising industry from the 1980s onwards, seek to identify different kinds of consumers by grouping together consumption patterns with consumers' social attitudes and personality types. Again, these categories can be seen to create as much as capture

36 the identities the purport to describe. These approaches also tend to focus upon the individual rather than the network of relationships within which lives are lived. Research centred on the individual suggests that brand loyalty is derived in part from a desire to be 'true to myself'. Sociological research would suggest that equally important is being true to the groups of which I am a member. For this reason, I want to suggest that we need to think not in terms of demographics or lifestyles but in terms of 'authorial communities'. Different authorial communities communicate different messages and different ideas, create different worlds of meaning, and we are part of these communities with our family, friends, colleagues and with people “like me”.

What about the messages themselves? We can hope that our messages will be read in the way that we want them to be, that this will form the “dominant” reading. However, studies into media as diverse as news broadcasts, teenage magazines and Coke advertising show that different groups will make sense of them by judging them against their own life experiences and the salience of the message in their social networks. Some will read them against the grain (“counter” readings). Others will collectively construct a meaning, or shifting constellation of meanings, for the text through ongoing conversations. New cultural texts and artefacts become incorporated by groups as part of the techniques through which groups distinguish themselves from other groups, sustain and bolster belonging and identity.

So, from mass to multiplicity. The huge diversification of technologies means that we can no longer reach the whole population at once even if we wanted to. Social fragmentation means that the old demographic categories are no longer a reliable basis around which to plan. The 'massified' audience was never wholly achieved and the conditions that promoted it have changed. People get messages from different places, linked to the communities of which they are a part. The idea that the meaning of a communication lies within it, as an inherent characteristic of the message has to be rejected. Meaning is made by active audiences as they hold a rolling, collective conversation feeding into that information derived from a range of sources. This is the shift from the passive, mono-cultural vision of Orwell to the interactive audience communities of Big Brother. There are multiple sites of meaning making and different meanings will be created. As intermediaries between the art and its potential audiences it is necessary to accept the openness and multiplicity of communications, to resist the desire to close down the meaning of communications in order that more communities can make them meaningful within their own conversations.

In the act of shifting modalities between the spoken and the written various things can happen to a text. This summary contains far fewer asides, puns and anecdotes than the keynote as it was delivered on the day. It has become a more closed, readerly and discursive. I would encourage its readers (or is that authors) to take what they can from it, to play with some of the ideas, invent your own examples and see where it takes you.

37 Creating Mass Communication

Dave Cobban – A Vision

This presentation offered tools for thinking about brands

Mass media is dead. Big commercial television audiences are in decline. BARB figures for ITV show that in 1995, there were 42 programmes with over 15 million viewers, 7 of which had over 20 million. By 2000 there were only 15 programmes with over 15 million viewers and so far in 2003 there have been just 4 programmes with over fifteen million viewers (including the Corrie killer episode, Bashir’s interview with Michael Jackson and the Millionaire Major) and none with over 20 million. “Coronation Street”, films, documentaries and game shows all used to regularly hit 15 million viewers. It was “water-cooler television”: psychologically it felt wonderfully inclusive to be one part of a massive audience watching the same show. It replaced the old feel of community, where everyone knew what everyone else was doing. Not only is penetration down, though, but so is the length of time people spend watching a week, down from 3 hours in 2002 to 2.8 hours.

Part of the challenge results from the massive proliferation in channels. To quote a few examples9:

• In 1980 there was 1 commercial television channel: there are now over 300. • In 1980 there were 1600 magazines: there are now 2672. • In 1980 there were 20 commercial radio stations: there are now 246.

Clearly the proliferation in channels has taken its toll. No wonder the single mass audiences have disappeared. However, the proliferation of channels accounts for only part of the problem. Additional complications arise from the evolution of marketing. We now live in a world of community or network marketing as distinct from, say, mass or niche marketing. What is unique about the new community or network marketing, where brands or brand ideas are exchanged within communities, is that it is idea-led, not advertising-led. What this means is that “markets are conversations”. This phrase comes from the “cluetrain manifesto” which is a US anarchic anti-capitalist polemic. Conversations are “mass media” as we have thousands of conversations everyday, including coffee conversations, corridor chats, emails, phoning home, texting, over lunch, in the shopping mall, planning a party, questions at work, daydreaming, dinner time downloads, drunken offerings, whispered rumours, beer fuelled boasts, arguments, agreements, socializing and showing off. The power of conversations is what governs awareness and overall brand reputation. One example of becoming part of conversations is Agent Provocateur (for the ad check out http://www.kylie.com). This ad was banned but nevertheless developed a reputation through being passed around in conversation. Of course, you don’t have to be Agent Provocateur: the power of conversation can work on very local levels but can still have the same powerful effect if people are talking about you.

9 Carat Media, 2003 38 So what is it that creates conversations? Well, market-leading brands are “rewarding brands” which inspire, educate, inform and entertain: they are brands which give something back to the customer. Good examples include Nike, Absolut and Sony Playstation. What these brands do is lead and nurture conversations and connections between people and communities. For this reason, retail environments are evolving to create more social and cultural value. Consider Selfridges or Colette (the Selfridges of France): “The idea is that the shop, which is also a venue for art, performance and photographic displays, is a place to socialize as well as to shop.”10 The brand is no longer simply about selling goods but also about selling style, design, art, culture and social experiences. A rewarding brand idea inspires conversation and so, as organisations, we need to develop a rewarding brand that the audience can identify with and belong to. A rewarding brand is one:

• Which is true, relevant and which differentiates. For example, the British Rail slogan “we’re getting there” worked against them because it wasn’t true. • Which is internally reinforcing (people to people) not “another marketing message”. • Which is enthusing our target to pass on “special signals”. • Which is in the language of the target market. • Which each person can interpret and use individually. • Which educates, inspires, entertains and informs.

The Agent Provocateur ad was entertaining and so it was passed round but a brand can also be an idea that stems from experience eg Nike Scorpion Football. The Nike Scorpion football was born out of the fact that Adidas owned the world cup football so Nike took the idea of the football at its basic level of kids playing on the streets.

Sourcing rewarding brand ideas comes from marrying brand and cultural insights. The source areas for brand insights can be broken down as follows:

• A product or service truth. This is growing increasingly difficult as there are not many unique brand truths left. One example is the Stella Artois brand truth that it is more expensive (“reassuringly expensive”). This suggests the idea that it must be worthy of sacrifices to have it. • Consumer problem solved – Tesco ‘Every little helps’. • Corporate Vision – Richard Branson and Virgin with his consumer champion idea or Stelios and Easyjet. • Market opportunity – the Automobile Association repositioned itself as the 4th emergency service.

Sourcing cultural insight is more difficult but we need to start by asking: “What are we selling and what is the world buying?”

We are making a long-term shift from a system based on manufacturing goods to one based on the selling of cultural experiences.

10 Vogue 39 Global travel and tourism, fashion, food, sport… are fast becoming the centre of an experiential economy that trades in cultural resources.11

What are these cultural experiences? “Culture fuels and ignites us. It is the driving force for everything we do. By culture we mean the artistic and social pursuits, expressions and tastes valued by our society.” The answer, therefore, comes from thinking about the audience. Think about the things they do on an everyday level (“my contemporary culture”). This can provide the binoculars onto a bigger world (the wider cultural context):

One example is Nike Run London. The cultural insight was that people like to be encouraged to get fit (ie people are lazy and need to be pushed); the brand insight was that Nike loves sport and so the brand idea was that Nike challenged people to Run London. They would motivate you to do it and because there would be 25,000 people participating there would be no need to be embarrassed.

Another example is Channel 4 Cricket. The cultural insight was that we are beginning to recognise that the UK is a multi-cultural society and we should be proud of it; the brand insight was that Channel 4 are showing India versus England Test Cricket and so the brand idea was Channel 4’s Indian Summer.

Once you have your brand idea you need to think creatively about how you can use it. What partnerships can you make with other organisations or trade bodies? Are there icons (people who are respected) who will promote the brand idea? Are there possibilities for developing deeper, richer environments from the single idea you have? How can you encourage people to engage in viral marketing?

11 GfK, Hopes & Fears, 2000 40 In summary, the, the traditional mass media is dead: conversations are the new mass media. Rewarding brand ideas are conversation starters and come from marrying brand and cultural insights, especially if we take brand ideas to a bigger world by using more channels than just the traditional media.

41 Overcoming the Decade of Forgetfulness: Reviving the lost arts of communication to embrace the new opportunities of the 21st Century

Stephen Cashman

This seminar looked at the development of arts marketing over the last decade and argued that marketers may be in danger of losing sight of what lies at the roots of effective communication.

The basic premise of this presentation is that arts marketing has come a very long way over the last ten years. We’ve got excited with new technology and new opportunities. In fact, I think we’ve got so excited by the sophistication of these new techniques that we are running the risk of forgetting what basic communication is really about. This means that we run the risk of not being able to take advantage of the new technology and new opportunities.

Let’s start by considering how we’ve got to where we are now, and where we’ve been because I think we’re currently facing a wonderful new dawn for arts marketing. We’re standing quivering on the brink of a brave new world that is packed with exciting opportunities. But to understand how we’re going to embrace those opportunities we firstly need to understand how we’ve got to where we are now. There’s a sense that marketing has been developing, and that it has developed by adding additional purposes. Consider this timeline12:

First of all there’s what we call consumer (FMCG) marketing. Fast-moving consumer goods are things like bleach, washing powder, toothpaste etc. Then in the late 1950s and early 1960s people started doing industrial or b2b (business to business) marketing. Then something epoch changing happened in 1969. Two American academics, Philip Kotler and Samuel Levy, wrote a seminal article called Broadening the Concept of Marketing. In it they proposed that consumer marketing and b2b marketing could be broadened and used in relation to different sorts of organisations that didn’t necessarily have a for-profit or money-making purpose. As a result of the article people started thinking about applying marketing to not- for-profit organisations, which is where the roots of arts marketing comes from. Not only that, but it led to the realisation that we don’t just have to apply marketing to tangible products: it can be applied to services, and experiences as well as “things”. Then, over the last two decades we’ve seen the rise of relationship marketing and customer relationship management.

12 After Christopher, Payne & Ballantyne (1991) 42

It is important to be clear that the development of marketing represents evolution, by adding purposes, rather than progression. In other words, each new stage of marketing overlays the previous stage rather than simply replacing it. It is, if you like, a sedimentary model with additional layers coming in over the decades to build up the broad swathe of what is now included in marketing. What has enabled this development to happen is a change in the philosophy underpinning the practice of marketing, as the basic units that we use to think about and analyse our markets have got smaller and smaller. Consider the same timeline with a parallel curve:

In the 1950s marketing was all about selling by yelling: talking very loudly to everyone with no distinction made between them. Then people realised that this was wasteful and counterproductive and that they needed to think a bit more carefully about who they were talking to and identify markets. At that stage, identified markets were very broad in nature and not particularly well defined: men, mothers, professionals etc. The next big shift came at the end of the 1970s with thinking about segmented markets where identified markets were broken down into smaller markets on the basis of things such as demography, life- stage, age, economic circumstances or geographical location. This meant we were getting more definition and precision, or an intensification of focus.

We then witnessed a range of factors coming into play that would enable marketing to move on one stage further. The key factor was the democratisation of computing, in that the introduction of the IBM PC was the IT equivalent of the introduction of the Model T Ford. A technological change becomes a social change when it has an impact on people’s behaviour. By introducing the Model T, Henry Ford made motoring available to everyone. By introducing the PC, IBM were moving away from the days when computers were big boxes in sterile rooms being tended by men in white coats and suddenly, thanks to the PC, everyone had power on their desks that was actually greater in terms of memory processing speed and storage than was in one of those big cabinets. Thanks to that democratisation of computing we were then able to take marketing one stage further, and one stage narrower in terms of the units of marketing we were working with: it wasn’t mass markets or identified markets or even segmented markets, but individuals and that’s where we, as fourth generation marketers, are now.

While all this change has been going on there have been changes in arts marketing as well, in that we have seen the development in the sorts of arts marketing jobs that there are around. I’m going to use a shorter timescale now and go back to the 1970s:

43

What’s interesting here is that what is underpinning development is an increasing reliance on our use of data, knowledge and information. In other words, jobs that have come in to being are being done on a more and more informed basis. In the late 1960s there weren’t any arts marketing people: all we had were publicists who sent a message out loud to as many people as they could. Then, in 1979, Mrs Thatcher was elected Prime Minister and suddenly there was this notion coming out of government that the arts needed to be more business-like and needed to adopt best practice from the business sector. All of sudden there were initiatives from the then Office of Arts and Libraries, now DCMS, such as the marketing initiative scheme. The resulting message from Whitehall was that, for arts organisations to become more business-like, all they needed to do was to start introducing marketing. So, just as audience development has become the “buzz” word these days, in the late 1970s the thing everyone wanted was to be able to say, “I’ve got a marketing officer”. Unfortunately it was a bit of a con because arts organisations turned jobs into marketing jobs just by changing the job title. So what we really had were “disguised” publicists – publicity officers with a different job title.

Of course, the development of arts marketing jobs is another sedimentary model because some organisations didn’t even bother to change the job title. But, thanks to the democratisation of computing, we started using data in a more sophisticated way and so we started to see the rise of data-driven marketing managers who enjoyed crunching numbers. Now we’re starting to see the emergence of strategic marketing directors who are at a very high level in the organisations’ management; who are involved in long-term, “big picture” decisions; and who use the data and knowledge available to them to inform broad marketing and directional notions about what the organisation should be doing. Of course, it is still a sedimentary model so we now have all these layers and I’m sure we could all identify some organisations with publicists and some with disguised publicists, as well as some who have strategic marketing directors.

As a result of this progression we can start to see the shift from “old” to “new” marketing. To try and condense the differences13

13 After Brookes (1998) and Rapp & Collins (1990) 44

Old Marketing New Marketing Bombard the market Build relationships Mass marketing Highly targeted marketing Short-term payoff Long-term payoff Measured by activity Measured by response Driven by tactical goals Driven by strategic goals Based on hunch and received wisdom Based on data and its applied usage

Old marketing was very much about mass marketing. Unfortunately, it was focused on the short-term payoff, so it was a sale for a particular show, exhibition or event that mattered. The way in which people tended to measure old marketing was by how much they were doing, “We’ve had x number of ads and y number of poster campaigns”. The idea was that we must be doing something right just by measuring and evaluating the activity. Decisions were based on a hunch rather than any systematic analysis. Now we’re on the brink of introducing new marketing to the arts. New marketing is about the long-term pay-off, not single sales: it’s about the lifetime value of the customer. We have that notion in terms of customer service: when things go wrong don’t save the sale but save the customer and do whatever you need to do to get them to come back again, even if that means giving them a refund. While old marketing was measured by how much activity you were doing, new marketing is measured by the response or by the payoff you get from your marketing activity. New marketing is driven by strategic goals, because it is informed by the use of data and its application to decision processes.

We’re doing some of new marketing already, we’re on the brink of introducing more of it and there’s an added bonus because we’ve now got all sorts of interactive channels available to us, so it’s a very special moment of opportunity. Let’s go back to the 1960s again. What happened then, in terms of promoting and communicating what was happening in our organisations, was we did publicity driven promotion - nice signs with interesting messages. In the late 1970s and 1980s direct marketing techniques were introduced to the arts so we started using direct mail to stimulate bookings at the box office or by telephone. Now we have an integrated interactive future with two-way communication. Part of the Newcastle/Gateshead Capital of Culture bid contained a vision of what we might be using in the future. The bid included the notion of creating an interactive box office system on Tyneside that enabled us to join up all the arts facilities in the two locations and we were going to use all the available channels available. So the vision included having a 24 hour, 7 day a week call centre; SMS to promote and to take bookings; smart cards on which people could store up money and store purchases, so the card becomes both a ticket and electronic wallet. So we thought about moving to a range of integrated and interactive facilities and it’s a vision that I believe offers enormous potential. But to make the most of that potential we’ve got to get our communication right and I think that with all these exciting developments we are at risk of forgetting the basics of good communication.

45 So I have three propositions:

• We have forgotten some of the essentials of effective communication; • Because of that, we may not be well-placed to make the most of this moment of opportunity and the new ideas that go with it; • If we are going to make the most of integrated, interactive communications channels this may mean going “back to basics”.

One of the things that convinced me of this occurred when I was Chief Executive of Developing Audiences in the North. DAN is the audience development and arts marketing agency for the Northern region of England. It builds and uses data and information about arts and audiences and to inform audience development initiatives for organisations in the region. Two years ago we were commissioned by the National Dance Agency in Newcastle, Dance City, to do a qualitative piece of research because their artistic director had had a tantalising idea. What she wanted to do was to investigate what should be done to create a piece of market driven dance. In other words she wanted to do market research in order to come up with a specification that could then be given to a choreographer. The project was called Ask The Audience, because it was at the time when Who Wants to be a Millionaire? was taking off, and we used three focus groups.

• Core dance attenders • Social dance participants (Would do flamenco or Latin American but didn’t go to see dance) • Attenders for other arts events who did not attend dance

We spoke to them before, during and after a process of exposing them to contemporary dance. What we did in terms of exposure was got them all into a bus and took them round the North of England to nine different dance performances and tracked what their reactions to the work and to the experience. One finding isn’t really part of this presentation at all but I’m going to share it anyway because I think we discovered a new tool of audience development. Has anyone heard of the Stockholm effect? The term comes from a bank robbery that happened in Stockholm where the hostages were all held in the vaults of the bank. It was observed that as a result of being in mutual jeopardy those people bonded and became a community. What happened with the Ask the Audience focus groups, because we couldn’t afford three buses, was that we put them all on the same bus and they contaminated each other. They went from being three groups to being one group. Somehow the core dance attenders changed the opinions of the other two groups and the people who went dancing changed the opinions of the core dance attenders and what we discovered by chance was a new tool for audience development. If you actively recruit a group of different people and put them in a particular situation (it doesn’t have to be a jeopardy situation!) they will bond if you create circumstances where they can come together and help one another to interpret and unpack the experience. This “attendance circle” is, if you like, the parallel to the reading group and I think it would be really interesting to see what would happen if arts organisations used that as a technique.

At the same time our focus groups told us a lot about things to do with communicating about contemporary dance. Some of the key issues revolved around:

46 • Comprehension • Communication • Engagement

Comprehension related to difficulties around understanding what was being said to them, what they were seeing and what they were experiencing, because given the sort of copy, visuals and experience they were being shown they didn’t always have an idea about what was going on. This meant, in turn, that communication was very important, both in terms of communication between them and the promoting organisation, but also between them and the artists on stage, in that they felt that it was self-contained rather than coming across the stage and reaching into the audience. This created the lack of engagement as the audience didn’t feel involved or feel that they were being communicated with.

We asked them about communication methods and all the groups were concerned at what they saw as the limited ability of the visuals and the copy to convey what the performance was going to be like and what it was about. Not only were they bemused as to know what to make of it before they went but they found that some of the pictures that they’d been shown before they went, in brochures and print, didn’t give you any sensation of what the experience would be like.

So here’s a set of recommendations that came out of the project that are specifically to do with communication.

• Communicate more on content & emotional feel/ambience (rather than who is in it, what the plot is and what the title is). Content should be unpacked so they can begin to interpret it and understand it. • Don’t mislead or misrepresent (whether deliberately or inadvertently) and beware hype or describing things in superlative ways that the performance won’t fulfil. • Consider a ‘Campaign for Plain English’ in dance copy (beware dance jargon phrases like “eclectic fusion”) • Use more visual content • Offer up-front print and marketing materials that assist with interpretation and offer guidance as to likely reactions • Customise communications to suit differing target markets

On the latter point, it was clear that these three groups had different needs and that we needed to customise communications to suit those target markets, and that’s one of the basics of communication that I’m talking about. We’ve become more sophisticated about segmenting our audiences but we still just do one leaflet or one letter rather than tailoring it to suit different markets

So even before we start talking about technology there are ways in which our communication could do better. And then there is a whole range of new ideas about marketing coming into play. Consider the following texts:

47 • Relationship Marketing & CRM (Christopher, Payne & Ballantyne [2002]) • Communicating in a world of multiple interactive channels (Gabay [2000]; Osenton [2002]; Wind, Mahajan & Gunther [2002]) • Market share + customer share (Osenton [2002]) • Convergence marketing and the rise of the Centaurs (Wind, Mahajan & Gunther [2002])

A lot of these ideas are about using things in combination, which I’ll come back to, because some of the basic challenges of communicating in the multi-channel world are awesome. One thing that strikes me is that the whole idea of interactive communication isn’t new, but really old. If you think about communication, one of the first media was letters as a two-way communication for getting a message form one person to one other person. Then we lost interactivity with media like books, newspapers, and magazines, all of which were “one to many”. In the Victorian period there was have brief glimmering of interaction again with the telegraph and telephone. Then we lost interactivity again with television and radio, but with the rise of e-marketing and online facilities we have an interactive tool available again14.

The introduction of new communications media and the rate at which they win people over is getting faster and faster. While it took radio 38 years to acquire 50 million users worldwide, it took television just 13 years and the internet just 4 years.15 At the same time we blithely talk about people online as if it was just one sort of person but some research done by McKinsey’s found that it is possible to identify different sorts of people who use online services. They have come up with a typology of web users:

• Connectors: people new to the net who use online services to connect with rest of the world and communicate; • Samplers: light users who explore multiple domains; • Simplifiers: people who use the internet because it makes life simpler and is more efficient or convenient; • Routiners: light users who go online for information, not to shop; • Surfers: heavy users who spend the most time online; • Bargainers: people who use the net for price comparisons and to get products at a cheaper price; • Funsters: people looking for information, especially in a few entertainment domains.

14 After Osenton [2002], © Customer Share Group LLC 15 School of Information Management, University of Berkley CA, cited by Osenton [2002] 48 The McKinsey/Media Metrix online consumer typology offers the beginning of an approach to segmenting the web audience. The study also provides statistics of what proportion of web users fall into these different categories. They effectively form two clusters: 72% are connectors, samplers and simplifiers (each accounting for around a quarter of all users); with the other four smaller groups comprising the remaining 28%.

Nevertheless it is clear that if people want different things from the internet then we’re going to have to talk to them in different ways, and with internet and web page resources we’re able to do that more and more on a one to one basis.

Then next challenge is that, thanks to that acceleration and proliferation of media, people are increasingly being inundated by messages and information. Here’s an interesting fact: in the next 3 years humankind will generate more original information than was generated in the last 300,000 years. As a result there will be a fog of messages that we’re going to have to penetrate to get our messages through.

Tom Osenton is suggesting that, as a result, it’s time to move on from just fighting for market share. He argues that we now need to combine that with a fight for customer share, a fight for the share of someone’s mind. This means fighting to be the organisation, brand, or product that predominates in someone’s head when they’re thinking about serving a leisure need. So, not only is it about acquiring customers but about acquiring permission from customers to communicate with you. These permissions are a cornerstone of customer share marketing and he suggests that communication in the world of customer share marketing needs to be:

• Relevant to the individual you are communicating with; • Requested – it’s not about cold contacts; • Respectful to what the customer wants.

There’s another notion of combination: convergence marketing and the rise of the centaur. The idea here is that centaurs are a new breed of people who do things both on and offline. What this notion suggests is that to market to these people we’re going to have to adopt a very new way of working that encompasses both what works online and what works offline, rather than thinking about traditional consumers and cyber consumers separately.

The key approach for centaurs is based on “customerization”, as distinct from personalisation or customisation. Customerization is about using online resources: what people tell us about themselves online and what we store on their computers about them using cookies so that we can craft and define their own experience. This means that it is not about customising the message or the experience to them but actually giving them the opportunity to build their own experience online of your product or offering. Now I don’t know where that will stop or start with the arts but one logical extension could be that someone could go online and build their own production with the cast of their choice, so when they turn up it’s the people they wanted to see in performance. It could certainly enable people to build their own experience in terms of the peripherals such as when they have a meal, drinks and what information they want in the

49 programme. But let’s bear in mind that it’s not just about marketing mechanisms – we’re not just talking about people customerizing their own leaflet, but about people being able to build their own experience.

While customerization is good it is important to keep our approach relatively simple so that we don’t have too many choices. The key here is going to be gaining an understanding of what the customer really wants and we can learn that from how the customer relates and interacts with our online resources. But we also need to have that integrated view of the customer online and offline in order to understand how they behave. It takes us right back to that notion of targeting. Imagine going on a wildlife photo shoot. What things would you need to know before you could go and take a picture of a particular animal: where they gather, what they do, what they like, etc. This is a parallel for how we need to understand customer behaviour to target customers. So in terms of treating customers as centaurs we need to be able to have a clear-sighted, integrated notion of how a customer is likely to behave and if we’ve got that then we can personalise messages and offerings on the basis of careful observation.

If we are going to make the most of these opportunities we need to have a reality check and remind ourselves of what makes good communication, regardless of what channels we are using to make that communication happen. Here is a basic, generic model of communication, originally developed by the telecommunications industry, with some very interesting implications:

What this says is that when a communication happens you’ve got two players – a sender and a receiver. The message starts off in the head of the sender and in order to get that idea into a form they can communicate to someone they have to turn it into a code, some sort of language or a visual representation. Once you’ve done that it is transmitted and the receiver gets the message, but they have to roll the process back in the other direction: they have to decode the message to enable them to understand in their head what is being said to them. If the communication is working effectively you’ll get some sort of communication in the form of feedback.

There are complicating factors that make the communication and transmission of messages. Environmental noise refers to the other things going on in people’s lives that takes their concentration away from the message you’re trying to send (the phone ringing or the kids needing attention). This means that you can’t guarantee that you’ll get universal concentration on the message while it is being decoded. At the same time, you’ve got psychological noise inside people’s heads, both as the messages

50 are being encoded and decoded. We do it a lot, concentrating on something when our minds wander off and start thinking about booking in the car for an MOT or booking a holiday. There are all sorts of other things going on in people’s heads that get in the way of communication and that has all sorts of implications for how we communicate.

• Because the lynchpin of communication is the initial encoding process it means that the person in control is the sender not the receiver so it is the sender’s responsibility to ensure effective communication. This means the sender has to use a code that the receiver will respond to. • We need to monitor and learn from feedback so that we can adjust our communications to ensure our messages get through better next time. • We need to think about who we’re talking to and what they want to hear. We need to adjust the content, media and message according to the nature of the segment. • We have to do whatever is possible to reduce psychological noise by increasing the attractiveness of the proposition from the customer’s point of view.

Finally, here’s a list of things we might remember to take advantage of old channels and new channels, thus overcoming the decade of forgetfulness:

• Take full responsibility for clear, customer responsive communication. • Talk in a way that customers will understand and respond to (get rid of the jargon!). • Direct mail: don’t write what the writer wants to write but what the reader wants to read. • Emphasise benefits rather than features and the emotional rather than the intellectual. • Customise and “customerize” your messages for different segments. • Understand the segments’ needs and go for its “hot buttons”.

51 STAGETEXT

Anna Castle

This seminar explored best practice in making theatre accessible for people with a hearing loss.

One in seven people have some form of hearing loss in the UK. That equates to around 9 million people. There are three different kinds of hearing impairment:

• Loss of hearing • Deafness from birth • Cochlear implant users

We can see the impact in figures for television subtitles16:

• 1 million people use subtitles “whenever possible” • 5 million people use subtitles “frequently”

So, we may wonder why don’t the arts offer the same facilities? Currently, theatre surtitles (as distinct from captioning, which we’ll come on to) are:

• Used for opera/plays in foreign languages (although the Royal Opera House now also use them for opera in English); • Intended for hearing audiences; • Edited versions of the text (sung or spoken); • Not giving information such as character names or details of sound effects.

Some steps to address audiences with hearing loss that you may be familiar with include sound enhancement (loop, infrared etc.) and sign language interpretation. Sound enhancement is useful to those with mild hearing loss, although it can be of variable quality. Sign language interpretation is useful to those who understand sign language, which doesn’t include everyone, and many actually want to access “hearing-culture” plays in English.

The solution to these difficulties is what is known as “open captioning” which offers universal access. Imagine hearing a muffled extract of speech. If you hear it again with captions it becomes much easier to understand. As a result we can bring a new audience to the theatre. Open captioning is useful to everyone (disabled and non-disabled), assuming it is displayed where everyone can benefit from it. There are a number of other benefits. It is lightweight and simple to install; can be obtained at relatively low cost; can be used indoors and outdoors and creates awareness of disability and fosters inclusiveness. Primary concerns about open captioning are usually aesthetic and artistic related and these can be addressed by

16 NOP and the Broadcasting Audience Research Board 52 finding the best position for caption unit(s) in relation to the set and the actors: merging the caption unit(s) into the set often works well.

There is another alternative, known as the Simultext PTN (personal text network). This works on a screen located in the back of the seat in front of you, as used in Sydney Opera House. The downsides of this solution are its cost and the continual moving of your head from screen to stage.

STAGETEXT offers captioning services for arts and entertainment venues, including consultation and training services (STAGETEXT can train someone in a theatre to be a captioner). Open captioned productions to date have included everything from Shakespeare to opera, children’s shows and musicals and have taken place in a wide range of venues, from community halls to leisure centres, arts centres and the West End.

So how does it work? Although larger units are available for indoor and outdoor use, the caption unit usually offers:

• An LED display with 3 or 4 lines of text with 35 characters per line in 8 colours; • Characters that are 50-75mm (2-3 inches) high; • An interface from a laptop computer containing the software to the unit that can be cable or wireless. • The opportunity for a unit to be stand-mounted or flown.

So what do people with a hearing loss think?

• Inclusion: “It was fantastic to come and be able to follow everything. I didn’t have to ask my companion to explain anything. I could follow it all independently and laugh when everyone else was laughing.” • Access: “Great to go to a play with my hearing fiancé and have equal access and enjoyment. We went away talking about the play itself (brilliant) instead of how we could follow it” • New audience: “First time I’ve been to a theatre and understood the play. I feel equal to hearing people.”

The results are that hearing impaired audiences are satisfied and empowered and no longer feel excluded.

So what do hearing audiences think about open captioning? They say that open captioning helps:

• To identify the characters early on in the play; • To pick up any missed words or phrases; • To understand the language: “I appreciated the addition of the text especially as Shakespeare’s language is not so immediately understandable to 21st century ears”; • To understand difficult accents: “An American friend was having trouble with the dialect and she found the captioning very useful”; • To enjoy theatre with deaf/hard of hearing friends and family: “I enjoyed the show more knowing that my (deaf) partner was enjoying it too”. 53

What do people in the theatre think about it?

“It has really changed how we view our access policy, because I think in the past we thought we were doing everything we could, but we were excluding more people than we were including and we would like to become completely inclusive in the future. Open captioning is going a very, very long way to making that happen.” (RSC)

As a result of the satisfaction of all these parties STAGETEXT captioning has grown considerably. In the first year there were nine open captioned performances in seven venues. By the third year, there were 78 captioned performances in 38 venues. For further information on topics such as the position of the caption unit; marketing a captioned performance and formatting and outputting the script consult the STAGETEXT publication, funded by Arts Council England, A Good Practice Guide to Open Captioning.

54 The Brand Key

Dave Cobban – A Vision

This seminar offered the brand key model, originally used by Unilever, for defining the external and internal workings of a brand.

The brand key summarises all the elements of a brand’s identity on a single piece of paper and is comprehensive, thought-provoking and easy to use.

On the next page the report includes a blank brand key for your own use, followed by a completed brand key that explains each section of the key with examples from well-known brands. As a case study example, the report also includes the Lycos brand key.

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58 Producing Effective Print

Tracy Cochrane - Audiences Yorkshire

This seminar explored the principles of producing effective print, copywriting and the strategic elements of print production, with case study examples.

However much marketing moves on, print is the one thing we still get asked to talk about, and it’s the one thing that most of us still produce. However much we are told that other communication tools and technology are taking over, what we seem to end up with is the new tools and technology and the print as well.

For some organisations, print is the only or the main “marketing” that they do. Although it has a very important role to play, it is part of a much bigger strategic framework to communicate about your organisation and before we talk about print production, we need to look at the context in which it will be produced. Ultimately print has a job to do. You might produce the most beautiful leaflet in the world, but if it doesn’t get people to attend, raise awareness or change perceptions it is a waste of time and money. In other words it is important to consider the needs of your target audience in relation to the marketing mix - are you offering the right product, at the right price, through the right channels (place), communicated in the right way (promotion) - before you begin to think about whether you’re going for A5 or 1/3 A4.

When thinking about promotion, it is important to view the print as one of a number of options available. The five main promotional areas are:

• Direct Marketing • Direct Selling • Sales Promotion • Public relations • Advertising

This is the Communications Mix. Print broadly falls under the Direct Marketing Heading. In order to achieve the right communications mix you need to ask yourself:

• What do I want to achieve? • What are the needs of the target audience? (Can I reach them with print? What are their preferences, interests, lifestyle? What information do they need? Are they likely to respond?) • What resources do I have (time, money, in-house facilities)?

Having answered these questions it should then be possible to ask yourself whether print is the right tool to use?

59 Copywriting

Copywriting underpins just about everything you do and so it is important to know your audience and target your copy accordingly. Here’s an example of why. Try writing two or three sentences about the house or flat where you live (without trying to be an estate agent!). Having done that, write two or three sentences about the house or flat where you live, imagining that you are trying to sell it. Finally, write two or three sentences about the house or flat where you live imagining that you are trying to sell it and the potential buyers are a young professional couple with a small family and a dog. Hopefully this gives a practical demonstration of the difference between firstly, just listing features; secondly, focusing on the benefits in order to sell and thirdly combining features and benefits in a way that focuses on the target audience and their needs. A simple but useful template for copywriting is “AIDA”:

• Attention (headline grabs attention) • Interest (interest is captured) • Desire (desire is stimulated) • Action (allows the reader to easily become a customer by converting interest and desire in to the action of purchase)

There is also a standard process to go through when writing copy:

• Gather information about the product to ensure you have all the interesting facts about what you are trying to sell. • Make a list of the practical information you need to get across (Ticket information and prices, Venue and travel information, services for those with disabilities, dates and times, funding credits, health guidelines, etc.) • Define your target audience(s) – young people, schools, families, subscribers, potential new attenders etc. • Define your objectives – to sell tickets, gain newspaper coverage, help newcomers understand an exhibition or performance etc. • Decide on the unique selling point – what are the features that are strong enough to persuade customers that the product is more suited to their needs than rival offerings? • Translate these features into benefits (eg if “small studio space and audience sits in the round” is the feature then the benefit is ‘intimate surroundings means you are never more than a few feet away from the actors and can really soak up the atmosphere’). • Medium – choose your means of communication.

You then need to think about the copy from the perspective of your audience:

• Think “open to persuasion” – most people are looking for familiarity and reassurance, not risk, so how much reassurance do people need and are you doing enough to persuade, particularly for new or unfamiliar work or new attenders? What will really persuade your potential audience – the name of the lighting designer?

60 • Don’t preach to the converted – are you assuming a level of knowledge that your target audience doesn’t have? • A real star needs no introduction – knowing someone has been in The Bill isn’t enough. • There’s usually a reason why pieces are “rarely performed” and “unique” must be the over-used word in arts copywriting.

Here are some copywriting top tips:

• The average reading age is around 12. • KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). • Use short, everyday words and short sentences (only 4% of the population can read sentences of 27 words). • Use short paragraphs and one idea to a sentence. • Make it personal – say “you can book your tickets”, rather than “tickets are available”. • Conversational style is usually more appropriate than a formal one. • Avoid jargon. • Use design and layout to make your copy easier to read – it should help the copy, not hinder it. • Go back to your copy a day later and edit it - cut out unnecessary adjectives. • Get someone else to read your copy for you – a friend who doesn’t work in the arts. • Remember that the better you know your audience/target group, the more targeted you can be and the more appropriate the message.

The design and print process

The first stage in any design process is to write the brief. For a re-branding exercise, or if you are working with a new designer, the brief will be very full and is likely to include information on the organisation’s background; product information; target audience information; style/tone of voice; usage information; format, size and colour details; quantity; content (amount of copy, available images); timetable; budget and credits. If it is a regular piece of print with the same designer then the brief might just be list of bullet points. A brief is useful to:

• Clarify thinking and help focus: what do you want to achieve? What are your expectations and ideas? • Enthuse the designer: you need to sell the idea to them, to get them on board so that they can find creative ideas to meet your needs. • Save time – the designer won’t have to keep coming back to ask questions. • Ensure you haven’t missed any vital information such as logos or credits. • Explain your thinking to colleagues and enthuse them.

The following process is useful if you are starting from scratch or working with a new designer:

• Who is going to be involved in the design process? Draw together the internal team. • Visual audit – what currently works and what doesn’t, what do you want to keep and what will you change? Consider issues of consistency and brand. 61 • Find possible designers. Get recommendations, look at things you’ve seen (always keep a print box for reference), don’t be afraid to look at bigger companies – they may give discounts to arts organisations because they like to have the work in their portfolio (kudos of company) and decide whether they need to be local or not (this probably depends on how you like to work). • Review designers’ portfolios. • Choose a few to see (depending on the size of job and level of investment) and from the ones seen, choose those you want to go further with. • Send the design brief to the chosen few or give it to them as part of a meeting to discuss, having decided what you expect in response. You may also consider offering a tender fee. This is dependant on the size of the job and is good practice for bigger deals. If you are not paying a fee you should tailor your expectations of the amount of work the designer will do to tender without payment. • Evaluate responses against the brief – does it do the job? The work needs to fulfil the task, not just appeal to you. Do they really understand your organisation and show an interest and enthusiasm for what you do? Also consider their approach, relevant work, professionalism, price, sympathy with what you’re trying to achieve and ability to respond to your needs. Warning signs of problems ahead include defensiveness and not listening. • Agree a contract with a designer. Ask about timetable and about how amends will be charged for. Agree protocol. • Work through the design to the printing stage: ensure there is one person to liaise with designer for consistency and, if it is a big agency, ask who will handle your account and whether there is an account manager or one designer assigned to it.

When planning your print schedule it is important to work backwards from the time you need the print to be in the hands of the target audience, without forgetting how long it will take to mail/distribute. As a general rule, six weeks is probably the minimum lead-time and twelve weeks is good, depending on the size of the job. Don’t expect the designer and printer to constantly work to unrealistic deadlines and remember to build in time for proofing, corrections and for getting to mailing house. Also remember to build in spare contingency time as printers are notoriously late. Also allow time for someone else to proof for you as one person can miss obvious mistakes. Here are some printing top tips:

• Non-standard sizes cost more but can make an impact • Are you handling the print management or is the designer (consider charge versus convenience)? • Different printers will be cheaper or more effective for different jobs (depending on whether you need a two colour press, full colour, small print runs, digital etc). Again, ask for recommendations. • Always order a few more than you need – reprints can be very expensive. • Printers work to round numbers – don’t ask for 5331 of something. • Don’t always go for the cheapest printer – look at the quality of the work and get recommendations. If you spend a lot of money on the design, don’t allow the printing to let it down. • Consider where and how you’re distributing – make sure your mailing house can handle the print and that it will fit and not get lost in racks. • If you don’t know – ask! • Consider different weights, folds and finishes – ask your own printer for a selection. • Don’t go for the cheapest, thinnest paper – this is usually a false economy as they flop over in racks. 62

It can be difficult, but here are some suggestions for evaluating the effectiveness of your print:

• Use the box office to find out more about the people who are booking. • Ask customers which communication tools they have been aware of and which particularly encouraged them to book. • Find out where your leaflets are being picked up from by checking the outlets or asking your distributor for a list. • Offer an incentive on your leaflet or in your direct mail letter (eg free drink, discounted programme) and ask respondents to bring the voucher with them. If you code them you can find out who responded. • Check box office figures regularly to help you relate them to particular activities.

Here are some cautionary tales from customers. Ask yourself, have you got the basics right and are you doing enough to persuade? It can be surprising how hard it can be to navigate round print, and to find the information you need, if it’s there at all. Problems can includes the clarity of design and information:

“I wanted to come and see The Snow Queen and it took me about 10 minutes to figure out when it was on” “I think my eyes are going… it’s very difficult to focus” “I like to come but quite often I can’t find what I want to see. It doesn’t excite me, when it comes through the door I groan”

Having ensured clarity, don’t forget to make an impact. Try attention-grabbing headlines (“Are you Bizet tonight?”). Alternatively be creative – Northern Ballet Theatre sent out boxes of garlic with their press release on Dracula.

Remember that customers are looking for reassurance so be careful with your adjectives and ensure you communicate what it will be like:

“What I don’t like… you see so many of these ‘spellbinding, mesmeric, enthralling theatre’ themes… every other leaflet has got something of that kind on… they’re not going to send a leaflet out saying this is boring” “I’ve read the blurb and I still don’t feel like I know what it’s about” “Somebody who has been in two episodes of Casualty… I don’t want to know about them”

Another cautionary tale is that of Phoenix Dance who hit the headlines recently when a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority was upheld. Phoenix Dance were promoting three different pieces, none of which had been made when the print was commissioned. They wanted to produce images that were fairly generic as the company operates with small budgets and they hoped to use the images beyond the tour. The decision to use nude dancers was made in order to show off the technical skills of the dancers, convey emotion and have a raw, immediate feel. Although it was made clear to all tour venues that dancers would be clothed, the information was not always communicated to customers by box office staff. Neither was this made clear on the print. Focus groups agreed with the complainant – an image of naked 63 dancers on the print gave them a clear expectation of nudity in the performance. The lesson is that people take print literally.

If you want to develop a culturally diverse audience it is important to appear inclusive. Arts Exchange was a project aimed at developing audiences for South Asian arts, including new audiences from the South Asian communities. The project worked with a number of theatres, galleries, touring companies and undertook research which identified that arts organisations need to look at the overall branding of the organisation, ensuring it generates a sense of familiarity and welcome. This includes taking an honest look at the print: it’s one thing getting print in front of your target group, but unless they perceive it as being relevant, it’s unlikely to be picked up or read. For example, all core print including the season brochure needs to:

• Use inclusive imagery and text that the target audience can identify with, eg photographs of Asian people in the audience, in the staff and on stage. • Give equal weight in print to any Asian events. • If you’re targeting a new audience it is even more important to ensure print is clear and gives comprehensive information about events, the venue and how to buy tickets. Don’t assume a level of knowledge or familiarity. • Consult members of the target group and involve them in the process. • Consultation with Asian families identified the Leicester Haymarket brochure as the most popular: “you can see there’s an Asian couple on it and they’re having a good time”.

The West Yorkshire Playhouse produced a piece of print for a production called Hijra that they thought would appeal to young Asian audiences. Unfortunately they hated it! They thought it was too classical and sent out the wrong signals. It actually appealed to non-Asian audiences who thought it looked really funky. To target the Asian audience the theatre produced a postcard instead which was funnier and included more information. On the positive side, at least the theatre consulted with their potential Asian attenders, recognised their mistake and put it right. On a similar theme, family focus groups always identify the fact that people want to see pictures of kids on the front:

“We were looking to bring the children to more productions… I couldn’t always work out whether it would be suitable”

So what about new attenders or even those with less knowledge? The West Australian Symphony Orchestra is very audience focused, offering ‘great classics’ for those new to classical music and a ‘masters’ series for the ‘true connoisseur’. The copy guides people to appropriate concerts that are packaged together so they can be identified. Rather than assuming a level of knowledge and just stating “Mozart: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (15’)” they make concerts sound exciting and hit the emotions without being patronising:

“Set your senses on fire… taste the passion – for a truly glamorous night out, take in a Great Classics concert’

64 Click Here – Content and Copywriting for Websites and Emails

Hans De Kretser – M+H Communications

This seminar considered why you should think twice before re-using copy and content created for print in your emails and on websites and focused on the differences of writing for online use.

So you’ve invested in the technology, you’ve got your website and you’re quite pleased with it. But maybe it’s more than technology that’ll get you to marketing heaven: maybe it’s your message that’s going to get you there.

There are some key “relationship” moments when a customer shares your online presence with you. It might be their decision to subscribe to your email list, to click through to a special offer or to buy tickets online. It is important to manage these moments carefully. This seminar is all about the copy and content that you might use on your website. It considers the differences in creating copy online, compared with offline copy such as your brochure.

The main consideration with which to begin, however, is the same online as it is offline. We need to ask ourselves, “What is our message?” You need to know what it is that you are trying to communicate. It is only when we ask how we communicate it online and consider how people process information differently online that we need to start thinking beyond the traditional copywriting rules.

So what is our message? One of the “buzz” phrases in new media currently is “repurposing content”. When we talk about “repurposing content” we are talking about using existing assets for different media. As marketers we’ve been doing that for a long time, repurposing content for our brochures, leaflets, direct mail and so on. What we tend to do is to take copy and use it in a slightly different way: we make the copy a little more timely or targeted in a direct mail but we still use exactly the same adjectives. We do that a lot online as well: when you’ve got resources already there why wouldn’t you just reuse them on the website? Well, there may be nothing wrong with that as a starting point, but hopefully this seminar will also offewr some thoughts about how you can add value and offer a richer experience for people who come to your website.

Having thought about the message it is important to consider how people are going to interpret that information and process it online. Jakob Nielsen is a guru in website usability and does a lot of work on how people interact on websites and online. He did a particularly interesting piece of research that aimed to find out how to write copy for the internet. His hypothesis was that copy needed to be:

• Concise • Scannable • Using hyperlinks • Objective

65 One of reasons for his hypothesis was the issue of screen resolution. You might think that if you have got a website you can simply include as much information as you can, unlike print where you are restricted by the costs of adding extra pages. However, because screen resolution is low, it’s tiring reading on screen. In fact, it is 25% slower reading online. How often do you print off information to read off-screen? This is why it is important to keep information concise. “Concise” doesn’t just mean making 25% less copy (given that it’s 25% slower) either as other issues come into play like the fact that people don’t like scrolling.

Not only is concision important: when people go online they “scan” read a lot. Tracking how the eyeball looks at the screen identifies that a lot of people will concentrate on the main focus of the website, ignoring a lot of the detail like menus, banner ads, images and so on. It is possible to make pages more scannable by using, for example: clear headings; small paragraphs; making it clear at the top of the page what the information is about and hyperlinks to direct people through to mini-sites with more information on particular topics. It’s worth, occasionally, changing hyperlinks and moving them round the page to see how many times people click on them (ie what works most effectively). Hyperlinks are very important because when people come to the website they are focused on what they are looking for: they don’t want to read lots of information in order to find what they are looking for. It’s only once they’ve found what they want that they then want a quantity of information. So part of the key to a successful website is to have all the information available but in such a way as to ensure people can cut through it quickly.

Nielsen undertook some tests to try and prove his hypothesis. He used websites and set people tasks and timed how long they took to complete. Here are his findings:

So, for example, by making the copy concise Nielsen was able to increase usability by 58%. By making the text more scannable usability increased by 48%. When all the elements of his hypothesis were combined, usability increased by 124%.

When I first learned about copywriting I learned the AIDA acronym (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action). This proved useful in reminding me of the elements to consider to when writing copy. The online version, which runs alongside AIDA, is CRABS:

66 • Chunky: use small digestible paragraphs (or “chunks”) and ensure the key information is in the first sentence (when people scan read they look at the first sentence and then decide whether to continue or skip on to next bit) • Relevant: (context is king) • Accurate: (particularly ensure information is up-to-date) • Brevity • Scannable

In order to play to the strengths of the internet it is also important to think about what makes a successful website as well as successful online copy and content. Here are the four golden rules for encouraging people to visit frequently:

• Quick to download. This doesn’t mean you can’t have content that takes a little while to download but it does mean that the homepage should be quick. You can then explain that people may need to wait a while for particular content. • Quality content. • Easy to navigate. Sites should have consistent and clear navigation. Site maps or site search facilities can help people to get to the information they’re looking for. • Frequently updated.

The homepage should not just be quick to download but should also help the visitor to understand what the site is about. Think about making it clear to people on the homepage what the unique value proposition is.

These simple strap lines help people to know immediately what the website is about and help to set expectations.

It is, of course, important to get the basic information right about events, how to get there and so on: often it can be the simple things, like seating plans, that people really value, as we discovered at Sadler’s Wells. But online we can also look at extending what we offer in our brochure or leaflet. The first three options below are “experience” based and the second three are based around expanding the knowledge of the audience:

• Galleries. On the web you can use lots of images for a show or exhibition to communicate what it will be like. • Video and audio clips. With www.worldwidedanceuk.com we made video clips an important feature and audience feedback suggested that this was a great way to communicate the style and movement. 67 Video clips have come a long way over last few years in terms of effectiveness: they are now more commonplace; more people have broadband and more people see the benefits of watching clips online. • Animated trailers. These can work in a viral way as well as getting the message across in an interesting visual way. They can help to create an experience with moving imagery and music that is hard to put across in text. • Previews and reviews are easy and cheap ways to expand the knowledge of the audience. • For www.worldwidedanceuk.com we got a dancer to write a diary while on tour – he emailed it from his laptop and we posted it up. We also created a blog (a web log) that meant visitors to the website were able to add their comments, feedback and support to the diarist. • Q&A sessions. At Sadler’s Wells we would invite people to email their questions and about a month before the production we would pass them on to a visiting artist or guest who then answered them and we posted up the answers.

There are other interactive ways to build relationships and provide content for the website.

• Online surveys are a great way of generating quick content (and capturing data) that you share the results of with visitors. • Competitions have been successful in the past, not only for collecting data but also for driving traffic back to the website at the end of a competition by emailing contestants to suggest they visit the website to find out who inner was. Also, if winner gets a prize like a backstage tour you can then follow-up and include information about the winner’s experience afterwards. • Online chats are fun things to do for content in addition to what we find in brochures and leaflets, not only for the online chat itself but because afterwards you can copy and paste the transcript up on the website.

So, what about email content? It is important to think about why people might want to read your emails: it’s worth remembering to write what people want to read and not what you want to write. With email marketing, if you’re trying to build up a subscription list and trying to get people to read regularly, ask yourself, “What’s the bait?”17 We found incentives were a successful approach: we offered free tickets and did partnership deals such as tickets to gallery private views. As these are all things that people know are unique to your emails it means that they want to read your emails as well as other communications.

So, what about email format? A lot of people start by sending plain text emails. It’s cheap and easy and you know that what you send out is what gets delivered and that people will be able to read it. I have also seen some recent research that said that 25% of people opt in for plain text. However, research has also shown that html can be more effective. It’s not difficult to understand why. Compare the same email in two different formats:

17 Permission Marketing, Seth Godin 68

When you start to include imagery and use different fonts it suddenly becomes quick to scan read and if people find the emails usable it should be possible to build up regular readers.

As another example, the Tate start their bulletin with a list of contents which are hyperlinks to the relevant parts of the email so that people can scan read the top and jump straight to the bits they’re interested in.

At the moment we are exploring video emails where the video is embedded into the email. The technology can detect what kind of connection to the people have to the internet so if they have broadband they receive the high quality version and if they have a 56K modem they receive a shorter, smaller file that is equally quick to download.

Response rates are no different in online marketing: each campaign attracts a different response rate according to its merits. However, the following graph illustrates the effect that an email can have in terms of driving traffic to a website:

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The website has hits of 2,500 per day until you send an email when it peaks above 12,500. You then witness the gradual decay of numbers again as the campaign wears off over almost a week.

Having talked about the message; how people process information online and how we can add value to content and differentiate what we have offline, it is important to consider keywords and search engine marketing. One of the things we might do to drive traffic to our website is increase or improve our listings on search engines. Keywords are the words that you think people might search for on a search engine to get to your website. Keywords might be the title, in the copy, the alt tags for images, menus – all these are strategic places that search engines look to see what words the site is using. When the search engine sees similar words coming up they start to understand that that’s the theme of your website. So, when you are writing copy start to think about bringing out keywords in key places. Here’s an example from Sadler’s Wells where I instituted a keyword policy before I left. When I typed “Carols Acosta”, an event currently on at Sadler’s Wells, into Google today, I was pleased to see that the Sadler’s Wells website came up on top – even above Acosta’s own fan site.

Did you realise that legislation is in place that covers the accessibility of websites? RNIB are currently undertaking some test cases where people haven’t delivered accessible websites. Copy can be made more accessible – think about alt tags for images and labels as these are all things that can help where text readers are used to interpret a website to understand what an image is about, for example. I talked earlier about video clips and the recommendation here is to offer transcripts. Don’t forget to use plain English as some visitors to the site may not have English as their first language. Also, be careful if you choose to use animation and flash as these create accessibility issues as well.

40% of emails sent are spam emails and this is predicted to go up to 80% by 2004. There’s new EU legislation and big players like AOL and MSN are working on combating the problem. So how do we avoid being seen as spam? Try and send bulk emails consistently so it is always clear they are from your organisation in the “from” address. Also be careful of the words you include in the subject line. The subject line is important copy to consider because it is what attracts someone to open your email. However, you should be aware of “buzz” words in spam – you may think “sex” sells but that is exactly the sort of word that people are beginning to set up filters to filter out.

70 Audience Builder – How to do it

Helen Dunnett, Phil Gibby & Andrew McIntyre

This seminar looked at Bristol Old Vic and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra as audience builder case studies.

This presentation looked at “why people don’t come to our events and how to persuade them”. Normally a seminar focuses on one element of marketing but audience builder is about a whole philosophy with a series of interlocking marketing techniques.

Bristol Old Vic adopted the philosophy because audiences had been declining for a generation. The theatre had blamed a variety of reasons over the years but basically the audiences were disconnecting: they were coming less frequently and in smaller groups. Focus groups had identified that the marketing materials were not giving people reasons to attend: the theatre needed to address this issue and develop a strategy around the theme of reconnection.

Like Bristol Old Vic, the RLPO’s audiences had been in decline for a number of years. The RLPO also began to develop a new marketing strategy to halt the decline, stabilise sales and ultimately develop existing and potential audiences for the future. The reasons for decline included: aged audiences not being replaced; a shift away from high frequency subscriptions; a lack of corresponding flexible subscription offers (until 2002/03); national decay in employer-based group visits; the failure of the orchestra to address perceptions of irrelevance and inaccessibility and over-reliance on narrow database marketing, rather than reaching out to wider potential audiences.

The guiding principle underpinning the new strategy was to make the RLPO more audience focussed. That meant achieving a “better fit” between the orchestra’s artistic vision and financial objectives and the audiences’ needs. The process began with extensive consultation and research with both existing and potential audiences that produced clear market intelligence about their attitudes, motivations and un-met needs. Four clear marketing objectives developed: to retain existing audiences; to increase their frequency of attendance; to encourage crossover between orchestral genres and to attract new audiences. As a result, the RLPO have differentiated programming, audiences and their needs in order to address these four distinct objectives.

The RLPO’s new strategy is based on CRM. The engine that drives it is segmentation: by defining, profiling and differentiating the marketing mix for our segments we can optimise the offer to meet audiences’ needs and sell more tickets. The default for most organisations is focusing on the people “in the know”. This is easy to do because they are the best targets. Our task, though, is to persuade the less knowledgeable to come, or to come more often. Having segmented attenders the RLPO found:

• 24% come once or twice a year; • 9% come 4 or more times a year; • And a staggering 66% were lapsed attenders, dating back to 1998. 71 Bristol Old Vic discovered some similarly alarming statistics:

• 87,000 people were on the database; • 40,000 of them had been inactive since 1996; • 17,000 of them had not been active since September 2000; • Only 30,592 had booked since then and of these only 6,574 had booked more than once – that was just 7.5% of the database.

This meant that Bristol Old Vic was maintaining a relationship with a narrow, diminishing group, hence the importance of reconnecting. The theatre didn’t decide not to look for new audiences, but it was clear that it had a big enough job to do on lapsed and infrequent attenders. The theatre adopted the audience builder philosophy as a strategy for moving forward.

So how was the audience segmented? The segmentation began with frequency of attendance:

Originally it was thought that frequency could be plotted against art-form attended, but if you’ve ever tried to break “theatre” down into categories you’ll realise that you’ll come up with a very long list which will be difficult to make consistent. So audience builder settled on degree of difficulty, where ‘A’ represents the most difficult work and ‘E’ the most accessible:

The categorisation for Bristol Old Vic can be broken down as follows:

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A New writing; obscure playwright; outside the mainstream. B “Serious” drama: Ibsen, Chekhov, Shakespeare histories. C Mainstream work and well-known plays like A Streetcar Named Desire or Look Back in Anger, or known actors like Pete Postlethwaite, Tara Fitzgerald or Neil Pearson. D Accessible work: Godber, Ayckbourn, Coward. E Family shows.

For the RLPO the categorisation looked slightly different although it still uses perceived difficulty from an audience perspective, rather than artistic judgements.

A CHALLENGING and consists of new music, or little known works where the perceived risk is very high. B TRADITIONAL and more than half the programme will probably contain lesser-known works from mainstream repertoire. C CLASSIC and will be standard symphony repertoire such as Beethoven, Haydn, Brahms that most people will know and have heard of. Perceived risk pretty low. D FAMILY concerts. Aimed at parents and children, the orchestra dress in t-shirts and the concerts are themed. E SPECIALS – Themes from the movies and TV, Opera night, Halloween night and likely to be conducted by Carl Davis or someone similar. Lighting effects and talk to the audience.

Relative accessibility, from A to E, can also be seen to relate to how easy a work is to sell (and therefore to buy).

Below is the RLPO climbing frame segmentation. Bookers are graded according to their frequency and the type of concerts they have attended. The climbing frame includes lapsed attenders right through to the most loyal subscribers and group bookers. Bookers are allocated to the highest category of difficulty that they have attended (so someone who has attended and A concert and a C concert will be allocated to A), and are then placed in the box pertaining to their annual frequency of attendance. A booker can therefore only be allocated to one segment. The aim is then to develop each group e.g. moving those in D2+ into D4+.

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Lapsed attenders are split into categories of most recent (attended in 2001); previously lapsed and very lapsed (have not attended since 1998). The column with 6+ is in red because Flexi subscriptions continue to be sold throughout the season so this number can vary much more dramatically than the others. The climbing frame is updated once a year.

The climbing frame focuses on existing audiences but the RLPO has also run imaginative new audience campaigns with partners such as Classic fm and the Liverpool Echo & Post, which have already produced over 1,000 new attenders. 20% of these have already returned for a second concert and second time attenders have just been target with a special flexible subscription offer.

Below is the Bristol Old Vic climbing frame. Those in the 6+ column are the season ticket holders:

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Again the general aim is to move people towards the top right hand corner, increasing frequency or difficulty.

It is also possible to drill down into each segment in the climbing frame. For example, here is what the Bristol Old Vic knows from its box office data about segment A4-5:

• 80% book shows ranging from A to E. Only 6% attend A only so they are open to a range of offerings. • 60% book more than 6 weeks in advance. As a result, last minute offers will be ineffective. • Two-thirds book 2 or 3 tickets per transaction but one-fifth book 4 or 5. • One third spend more than average per ticket. • They account for 1.2% of customers and 10.5% of box office income.

Here is a cautionary tale from the RLPO. Before the RLPO had its microscope report, outlining the behaviour of each segment, they sent out a 2 for 1 offer ten days before a concert. It resulted in virtually no bookings. This was because the RLPO didn’t really know whether the people they mailed typically booked late or early, what their spending patterns were and even whether they attended in a group of 2. The microscope has helped the RLPO to offer the right things, at the right time, to the right people and at the right price because they can look at each segment’s behaviour in terms of what they book and when they like to book and tailor the offers and newsletters accordingly.

The RLPO can also pinpoint each concert, look at the number of bookers and how the audience is made up in relation to the climbing frame segments. The table below is an example of how we would analyse an individual concert in terms of the segment types that have attended. It shows the audience make-up for an E (very easy) concert:

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As you can see, in terms of difficulty type, the percentage spread is fairly even, apart from the ‘D’ Family type attenders: 20% are A attenders, 31% B attenders, 23 % C attenders, only 1% D (family) attenders and 25% E attenders. If you look at the make-up in terms of frequency, though, 72% of the audience have attended between 1 and 3 times whereas the number of 4+ subscribers attending this type of concert accounts for only 27%.

The numbers mean that it is possible to start using the climbing frame as a predictive tool. Knowing where the sales came from for this type of show (the number of people in each segment and how much they spent) means that we know who is most likely to attend this type of show in future. In terms of development, it is then possible to decide where to put the investment.

The RLPO have developed a number of Excel planning sheets. The example below shows the type of campaign planned and which segment each element is targeted at. Others include:

• the type of campaign planned and the month/date when it will be done; • a results timetable mapping out the campaign and when the results are due for analysis; • a learnings sheet; • a marketing toolkit sheet.

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Bristol Old Vic did an evaluation exercise of their marketing tools and identified that every £1 on advertising was generating only £1.29 back. As the marketing budget equated to 10% of target gross box office, every £1 spent needed to make £10. As a result the theatre reinvested its advertising spend.

So how do we send more effective messages? Here’s what the RLPO did when it developed a series of newsletters:

• The letters were all a personal message from our Music Director Gerard Schwarz, with his photo right at the start and quotes such as ‘Why not try something new”; “Choose a Great Night out from these three concerts”; “Great concerts for every occasion and you’re invited”. • They picked out 3 or 4 particular concerts each time aimed at a targeted segment of our climbing frame and made them personal recommendations from Gerard Schwarz. • They used Jerry’s enthusiasm, endorsement and passion to gain people’s confidence that the concerts recommended would be good and that if they booked their money wouldn’t be wasted. • The style was conversational and familiar – written in the first person eg “I’ve picked three of my favourites”, “I’ve chosen three pieces”, “I think this piece is”. • They used the first names of the composers to bring them alive as real people who lived real lives and to break down the formality (especially the dead ones), which is contrary to usual convention. Strangely many of us use first names only for composers who are still alive. Here are some examples:

“When Dmitri unveiled his 9th Symphony, Stalin was incensed. It’s jaunty and tuneful, even burlesque. But it is also beautifully crafted and thoughtful. Whenever I hear it I think of Stalin’s face!”

77 “Would you like to discover some more Vivaldi? I’ve chosen six short pieces from the many hundreds he wrote - four enchanting concertos, one beautiful mood piece and a glorious finale with the choir and full orchestra.” “Samuel Barber was born in 1910. Modernists at the time thought his style was too Romantic. But Samuel didn’t care what they thought. He wrote some wonderfully dramatic and melodic music.”

As well as the Newsletter approach to encourage crossover and repeat attendance, the RLPO also developed easy to use subscription material. A season brochure had clear and up front information about the Flexible Series subscriptions and how to book them. It also included recommendations that “If you like this.. then you like a similar type of music in 3 months time”. An easy to use booking form was included with the friendly face (literally) of the box office on the outside giving a box office help line and step by step instructions on How to Book.

Bristol Old Vic developed a four-side A4 “facts about the show” sheet. The front page would have an interview conveying the passion. Page two would be backstage information such as design sketches or a “behind the scenes look” at what the audience would see. This was designed to offer reassurance about the product. Page three would have something like “six things you might not know about the play” to stimulate interest. Page four was always the same: a “rough guide” with information about booking, transport, where to eat etc., designed to overcome all the reasons why someone might not book. As a result, direct mail campaigns for Bristol Old Vic increased their response rate from 5-7% to an average of 13% (ranging from 7.5% to 22%, depending on the production being promoted).

The results for RLPO so far have shown that their new approach:

For a campaign to Segment A1, B1: • Triples income – compared to a control group; • Triples tickets bought; • A typical return on investment is that for every £1 spent we get £4.67 back.

And to segment “recently lapsed” • Doubles income; • Double tickets bought; • Typical return on investment is that for every £1 spent we got around £5.40 back.

For the newsletters, the expenditure is very small (photocopying/stuffing costs) and therefore the return appears to be even higher, e.g. for every £1 spent, the return is around £17. The strategic, structural and tactical campaign changes are beginning to deliver increased ticket sales, increased retention and new audiences.

78 A Short Introduction to Arts Ambassadors

Mel Jennings

This seminar was based on Arts Council England’s practical “Guide to Working with Arts Ambassadors”, written by Mel Jennings, which will be published later in 2003.

What is an Arts Ambassador?

An Ambassador is someone who acts as a communication bridge between two parties. The word comes from the world of international relations and is another term for a diplomat. In the Arts Council England Guide, the term Arts Ambassador is used to mean: “A Community Networker with the objective of spreading the word about arts and cultural events and/or representing the views and aspirations of a target community.”1

What’s so special about them?

Usually, an Arts Ambassador is in some way representative of a target audience or is closely connected to a specific community. Their primary goal is to stimulate positive word of mouth. They may also generate ticket sales, promote good PR or even gain information about the audience. These days, word of mouth also includes ‘word of mouse’ (e-mail) and SMS text messaging. Whatever form the medium takes, the important distinction is that a message is passed on in a personalised way and that the Ambassador is motivated out of genuine personal enthusiasm, even when paid to do so.

It is this personal endorsement that gives the Ambassador technique its effectiveness, offering an immediate, live and direct form of communication. A skilled Ambassador can address many potential customer concerns on the spot, and is able to overcome some of the key barriers to arts attendance2:

• Cultural/representation barriers • Emotional barriers • Barriers to participation in decision-making • Barriers to access to information

The power of word of mouth

As a marketing ‘tool’ Ambassadors sit along side other “below the line” activities, e.g. promotion, direct selling and PR. In the wider marketing world individuals who act as Ambassadors are known by a variety of names, including: “opinion –formers”, “connectors”, “champions”, “lead users”3 and “community advocates”. Whatever you call them, when the energy of social networkers is managed for marketing purposes, the effect can be powerful.

1 Based on a definition created by the Arts Ambassador Unit, Manchester 2 From a list of 9 barriers identified by the UK Arts Councils

79 Who uses Arts Ambassadors?

Currently, a variety of different arts organisations work with Ambassadors in the UK, including venues, promoters, touring companies and audience development agencies. In theory an Ambassador can promote any artform. The research for the Guide has found good examples from, amongst others, the visual arts, rural touring theatre, community carnival, contemporary and classical music.

What do they do?

Arts Ambassadors are employed for a range of activities, for example:

• Increasing attendance through word of mouth promotion • Selling and distributing tickets • Raising awareness, interest and support • Helping attenders to feel comfortable during a first time visit • Informal consulting with target communities • Offering advice and input on programming and other aspects of operation • Following up a visit: gaining feedback from attenders

What are the pros and cons ?

Ambassadors have been employed by arts organisations in the UK for well over two decades now. As a marketing tool the Ambassador approach can be highly dependent on personalities and relationships. As such, a critical success factor is the ability to manage these elements well. You may find yourself suddenly having to manage an extra team of 30 people who are calling you daily or, caught between an arts organisation resistant to change and a community calling for development action. The Guide offers information on some of the challenges and also advice on how to design a scheme and recruit Ambassadors to help prepare you.

So, it is important to plan ahead but don’t be put off. There are many enthusiastic arts marketing managers offering positive testimonials in the Guide, e.g.:

• Effective promotion. Arts Ambassadors Unit, Manchester: 43% of respondents to a survey conducted during the project cited the Ambassador as being their primary motivation for attendance. • Increased attendance. Pioneers in the field of Ambassador work, the Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) set up a District Sales Assistant (DSA) scheme in Brighton and found group attendance quickly rose from 8% - 15%. Across the seven regional venues, DSA’s account for over 25% of all group visits across ATG regional venues and approximately 35,000 visits per regional venue per year are achieved through the DSA network. • New Programme: New Audiences. In 2000, 23% of attenders to Birmingham Repertory Theatre’s presentation of The Ramayana were first-time visitors. Of these 55% were of South Asian origin. This presentation was part of the Networking project run by Birmingham Arts Marketing aimed at developing Black and Asian audiences.

80 What’s in it for us?

Many arts organisations find Ambassadors to be an effective and ‘live’ promotional tool. Benefits include:

• Direct and ‘live’ targeting • Ambassadors speak the language of the target market • Access to hard to reach communication channels and networks • Ambassadors bypass customer cynicism about marketing messages • Ambassadors’ communication cuts through a barrage of arts and entertainment choices • Ambassadors respond at the moment to customer objections or queries • Support in developing databases • Last minute sale of otherwise empty seats • Support in sourcing and engaging with community networks • Feedback from the target market on service, programming, marketing

“Hairdressers [our arts Ambassadors] are in the talking business. People can be in there from an hour to a whole day so hairdressers often have the time to have proper conversations with them” (Frontliners Scheme, Edinburgh)

The Guide also talks in detail about what audiences get out of Ambassador schemes and why Ambassadors choose to become involved.

Choosing an approach

There are many ways to work with Ambassadors and several models of working with Arts Ambassadors. For simplicity the Guide offers a definition of two of the most common approaches:

• The Promotion focused approach where Ambassadors function as a promotional tool. In this model, a team of community promotion and sales workers aim to target new attenders and increase attendance. The Ambassador is primarily a sales representative for the arts organisation. • The Audience Development approach where Ambassadors function as a two-way bridge between arts organisations and audiences, often within a wider arts development programme where their effect may be felt across the whole organisation. In this model, a partnership aims to develop arts organisations, audiences and communities through an integrated range of activities including targeted training, programming and commissioning. The Ambassador is an advocate for both the arts organisation and the target community.

Which model should I choose?

In reality the division between the Promotion and Audience Development approach is not a sharp one. Although the promotional tools may be the same for both models, the key difference is that taking more of an Audience Development approach generally requires that your arts organisation forms a much deeper relationship with the target audience and is able to show a greater degree of responsiveness.

81 It is important to note that one model is not more worthwhile in terms of audience development than the other but they do reflect different objectives and will require a different approach right from the start. Whatever your approach, remember that an Ambassador project sets up a highly personalised and intimate dialogue with your customers. Anyone who has run a Friends Scheme will know this approach can bring with it a number of challenges. Your Ambassadors may have expectations that challenge your way of doing things. In addition you may find you need to learn about things you hadn’t even considered.

It is this insight that can make working with Ambassadors a learning experience. To be sure that you really are open to re-assessing your own approach, you may need to revisit your definitions of ‘quality’ and assumptions around culture for example. While being clear about your organisation’s boundaries, don’t be too quick to dismiss new ideas. As one venue Manager put it, “Their value is that they are not me”.

Whether working with Arts Ambassadors becomes a blessing or a steep learning curve is partly down to preparation. Before recruiting a team of Ambassadors, spend some time thinking about what you are trying to achieve, what the target market might expect from you and whether you will be able to respond.

To support you, the Guide sets out some of the pros and cons of the two approaches and looks in more detail at questions you could ask yourself when planning. Bear in mind that even if you start out with a ‘Promotion’ approach you may find it evolves into an ‘Audience Development’ approach in order to respond to the needs of your audience.

82 Hitting Home

Tamar Kasriel & Robert Stanier – The Henley Centre

This was a practical seminar that looked at communicating with consumers using the principle of modal targeting.

Modal targeting recognises that the same consumer can be more different on two separate occasions than two different consumers on the same occasion. It suggests that we can use the occasion or mood of the consumer to target them with appropriate offers, rather than relying on demographics. There are two ways to use occasion to market effectively: activity and mood. Consider activity, for example, in terms of when might be the best tie to advertise toothpaste. The common answer is when someone is brushing their teeth, so maybe radio might be the best medium for communicating this message at the right time of day. Another example is that Rob received a text message asking him if he wanted to receive the premiership scores. If he had been sent this message at 4.30pm on a Saturday afternoon he might have been receptive as that was when he was in the right mode. However, the message was sent at 11am on Monday when he already knew all the results, was at work and was just irritated by the message. There was no cost difference for sending the message on Saturday: they had the option to use the right mode and failed to do so. Henley Centre research for Capital fm, which involved people keeping diaries, identified that people have different “modes” during the day:

• Coming to • Clock-watching • Winding up • Planning • Task-focused • Life window • Social window • Pottering • Winding down • Closing down

The time of these modes vary – e.g. clock watching for one person will occur when they’re trying to get the kids off to school; for another it will be near the time they have to leave for work and for another when they are trying to get to a meeting in the evening. Being aware of modes means that you can be creative with the message you are trying to communicate in terms of the media you will use and the timing of your message in thinking about when a particular segment are likely to be most receptive to it.

Delegates were then split into groups and each group was allocated two consumers and a budget with which they needed to attract their consumers to an event at their venue in two days time. Following is a summary of how the groups applied the principles of modal targeting in their communications. Groups had some information about their consumer’s activities and media contact during the day:

83

Media Barbara – Activities Media Maria – Activities Contact Contact Radio Coming to: Alarm goes off, gets up 6am Coming to: Alarm goes off, gets up 7am- 7.30am Newspaper Winding up: breakfast 8am Radio Frantic: gets kids up, breakfast for family, takes kids to school 7.30am-9am Arrives at office (voluntary work) at 9am Mail Relaxes, then pays bills, goes through mail 9am Poster Task focused: Errands 11am Radio Goes supermarket shopping by car 10.30am Poster Lunch with friend 12.30pm Radio, leaflet At home, tasks, telephone calls 12pm Radio Relaxed: goes home 2pm Newspaper, Meets friend for lunch 12.30pm TV Gardening 3pm Mail, online Housework 2pm TV Tea 4pm Radio Drives to pick children up form school, 3.30pm Supper 6.30pm Radio Stressed: care for children and dinner preparation, 4pm Poster Clock watching: attends local Liberal Dinner 6.30pm Democrat meeting 7.30pm TV Goes home 9pm Puts children to bed 7.30pm Goes to bed 10pm TV Watches TV 8pm TV Relaxes: talks with husband 9pm Goes to bed 10.30am

Media Michael – Activities Media John – Activities Contact Contact Radio Coming to: Alarm goes off 6am Radio Coming to: Alarm, shower and breakfast 7am Radio Clock watching: shower and breakfast Newspaper Clock watching: takes train to work 6.30am 8.20am Radio, Commutes 7am Online Task focused: arrives at work, checks Poster emails 9am Task focused: Arrives work 7.45am Newspaper Coffee break, chats with work colleagues 11am Online Life window: mid-morning coffee Online Lunch break 12.30pm 10.30am Poster, Business lunch 1pm At work at his desk 1pm leaflet Work 2pm Leaves work 5pm Online At work, plays on internet 5pm Radio, leaflet Winding down: pub with friends 6pm Continues work 6pm Newspaper Train home 9pm Radio, Commutes home 7pm Relaxed: plays Playstation 9.30pm poster TV Winding up: grabs bite to eat TV Task focused: does ironing 11pm Meets friends in pub 9pm Goes to bed 12am Out to casino 10pm Goes home 1am

84 Group 1 Consumer: Michael, age 40, divorced, two children, full-time solicitor. Has a mobile phone and internet at work and home. His interests are Manchester United and the casino. Consumer: Maria, age 32, married, two children, part-time work in a call centre. Has a mobile phone and internet at home. Her interests are painting and assisting at a local children’s group. This group had a moderate budget. They decided to hold a family event as both consumers have children. They decided to stage a football opera, opened by David Beckham. Michael sees his children at the weekend and so he is planning what to do with them two days beforehand. He hears the radio on his way to work and Maria hears it when taking the kids to school. The message is “Stuck for something to do with the kids?” to hit Michael in the face and as a more subliminal message for Maria as she is busy coping with the children. Michael is life-planning mid-morning when he receives an email from David Beckham prompting him to go online and book. A TV ad offers reassurance (showing lots of kids having fun). Maria also gets reassurance from a newspaper ad and her friend.

Group 2 Consumer: Barbara, age 61, part-time voluntary worker, separated, two adult children and one grandchild, uses mobile rarely, likes the internet and reads the newspaper thoroughly. Her interests are politics (Liberal Democrat) and rambling. Consumer: John, age 25, single, no children, full-time IT worker. Has a mobile phone, internet at work and reads tabloids. Interests are computer games and Radiohead. This group had a large budget. Their event included a celebrity name. Their campaign included general ambient radio ads, one using the celebrity. They ran two different ads – one for the broadsheet and one for the tabloid and got an editorial interview with the celebrity to reinforce the message. They had three lots of posters and emailed John during his lunch hour (as he was busy in the morning). They targeted a TV ad at Barbara when she was watching Countdown and a leaflet drop at the pub in the evening to reinforce the message for John. And they didn’t manage to spend their budget!

Group 3 Consumer: Michael, age 40, divorced, two children, full-time solicitor. Has a mobile phone and internet at work and home. His interests are Manchester United and the casino. Consumer: Barbara, age 61, part-time voluntary worker, separated, two adult children and one grandchild, uses mobile rarely, likes the internet and reads the newspaper thoroughly. Her interests are politics (Liberal Democrat) and rambling. This group had a limited budget. They decided to entice their consumers to attend with their children and decided to run a treasure hunt round the gallery on the Saturday morning. They communicated their message with a radio advert at 6.30am; posters and one email pointing to their website sent at around 9.30am.

85 Group 4 Consumer: Maria, age 32, married, two children, part-time work in a call centre. Has a mobile phone and internet at home. Her interests are painting and assisting at a local children’s group. Consumer: Barbara, age 61, part-time voluntary worker, separated, two adult children and one grandchild, uses mobile rarely, likes the internet and reads the newspaper thoroughly. Her interests are politics (Liberal Democrat) and rambling. This group also had a limited budget. They decided to start their campaign with a radio ad at 7.45am when Maria was in the car with the children and Barbara was relaxing. Barbara also sees a newspaper ad with a 2 for 1 offer so she and her friend convince each other to attend over lunch; as do Maria and her friend.

Group 5 Consumer: Michael, age 40, divorced, two children, full-time solicitor. Has a mobile phone and internet at work and home. His interests are Manchester United and the casino. Consumer: John, age 25, single, no children, full-time IT worker. Has a mobile phone, internet at work and reads tabloids. Interests are computer games and Radiohead. This group also had a limited budget. They decided to stage a comedy night. They ran a funny, light- hearted radio campaign; a poster campaign to catch Michael on his way to work and a corporate leaflet drop. John is sent an email at 12.20pm (just before his lunch-break) with a link to ticket purchase. Another leaflet drop in pubs and clubs reinforces the message after work.

The days of the five characters all had some common patterns and themes (for more thoughts on this subject see the A Day in the Life seminar in the AMA’s Changing Worlds conference report). For example, lunchtime and late afternoon were identified as good times for targeting people, when they might be in a receptive mode rather than focused on work or another task. Delegates also discussed the difficulty of generating conversations: how often do you think customers actually see an ad of yours? Do newspaper ads really generate talk between friends over lunch or is this just optimism? Admittedly an arts advert might be a more natural conversation than for a washing powder as it offers the chance for people to connect but delegates were also encouraged to employ creative thinking (such as encouraging letter campaigns or using internet chat rooms) for generating conversations.

86 Keynote Debate

Margaret Chapman & Andrew McIntyre

This debate saw the discussion of issues raised in the keynote speeches on Audience Builder and Emotional Intelligence.

Print and direct mail that communicates passion not features

“I’d like to start with a provocative question. To write individual direct mail letters with a passion must be time-consuming so is this a realistic expectation for small arts organisations?” “It is harder than just regurgitating letters but it is not something that should just be the remit of one over- stretched marketing person. It is important to get the whole organisation thinking about the audience: 75% of the words for the letter may come from a brainstorm with the artistic team. In terms of differentiating letters for individual segments it is important to realise that only part of the message will be differentiated or shuffled round. There will only be a certain number of key messages that you want to communicate about the production in total so it’s just a case of selecting the right ones in the right order for the right segment. The other advantage of getting the artistic team involved in this process is that not only do the marketers get fantastic content from the artistic teams but it is a revelation for the artistic team that we as marketers actually want them to talk to the audience. They embrace this as an opportunity and it is often a privilege to listen to them enthuse about the art. I often think that if people could be in a room with this artistic director or that curator enthusing for five minutes then they’d all book immediately – it’s about trying to recreate that experience on paper.” “Surely if we transfer the passion to the brochures then we can make brochures more effective?” “The issue with brochures is that they are the most effective tool for one part of the audience but an incredibly expensive and ineffective tool for the rest. We can make our brochures more effective, for example in the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra brochure they now make suggestions that “if you like x you might like y” but we can also spend our money more effectively on segments like infrequent or new attenders e.g. through a test drive or ambassador scheme. Of course, there are still going to be some generic things and brochures work for a lot of segments even if not all but we have to stop relying on the notion that they can work for everybody and think about the audience in a segmented way. The other problem with brochures is how do you expect someone to know what is right for them and what they might like from the 64 things on offer, especially if they have limited knowledge? We have to stop assuming that people know what they want to buy and for different segments pick 3 things from the 64 that you think they might like based on previous purchases.” “Are people more offended or do they lose trust in you more quickly if they don’t like something that you have personally recommended to them?” “This depends on the brand. The brand is the promise of what you will get and how you will feel. If you say, heart on sleeve, ‘It was like x and I felt y and I hope you will too’ (not categorically ‘you will’, but ‘I hope you will’) then people will buy into that: if you have been honest about the promise then people will recognise that honesty even if they then decide that it wasn’t for them – they won’t feel they have been let down, more that they made the wrong choice from the menu, given the information they had.” “How we use language is also very important. The script for word of mouth recommendations, for example, is more effective if it is couched in the language of the target audience not yours.” 87 “Very few people can write down the passion – even artistic directors will go into written discourse mode. So when we talk to them, we tape them (they normally speak too quickly to scribble when they are enthusing!). Some people find it more natural than others but eventually most people open up. Of course there can be difficulties eg if you are a venue taking in touring work and you can’t get to the artistic people to talk to them. Sometimes you can’t get what you need from the director and you need to look elsewhere for a story or for enthusiasm for the work to communicate to the audience. A good example is when we wrote a letter about a production of Orwell’s 1984. We went down after rehearsals to talk to the actor playing Winston Smith only to discover that he found the experience so emotionally draining that he couldn’t talk to anyone else for some time after performing and just sat in the dressing room with a towel over his head. So that was my hook; that was my story: people want to experience someone putting that much into their performance and something that was clearly emotionally challenging for those involved.” “One of the things that comes across to me is the importance of telling stories. We produce a free magazine for subscribers. In this issue we commissioned a lot of backstage photography and talked about the backstage, planning and creative input required in putting together an opera – witnessing this process is a privilege that we have in the arts and that we can share. I think we lose a lot of opportunities to talk to audiences and sometimes we forget about the importance of using visual language, like photographs, as well as the written word.”

Emotional intelligence, communication and pyramid selling

“Different people react to different triggers whether they are visual, aural, kinaesthetic and so on. Politicians are trained to understand that the public relate to different things so they use different cues of body language, cover a point several times in different ways etc. Maybe we need to be multi-sensory and use the language of images, of sounds and so on to communicate with people in different ways.” “It is important to get your message across in different ways to access different representations of the world. ‘Delicious’ is the language of the olfactory. ‘Take your seat among the gnarled trees’ communicates a visual picture. For others we need to use auditory language. For these people it is not just about using sound words like ‘ringing’ but also about speaking in the first person and in a conversational tone so that they can almost hear what we’re saying in the way of someone speaking to them, rather than seeing written down explanations. And we can push into these different areas of communication even in a direct mail letter.” “We use bits from the script in direct mail so people know what the performance will sound like.” “We were involved with a ‘get into jazz’ website. At first nobody would risk engaging because they didn’t know what it would be like. Now you can click on and listen for a minute.” “It might be appropriate for arts organisations to use pyramid selling to change culture – if we can communicate the passion and encourage people to enthuse we can grow audiences. Arts organisations have conceptual entrepreneurs at the heart of organisations – those who create ideas. These ideas are then diffused through knowledge entrepreneurs.” “There is a good example of pyramid selling at the Tate Modern. They have people who give guided tours. This is quite expensive in terms of staff costs. However, what happens is that this expensive member of staff gives a guided tour and they deliver bite-sized chunks of information, insight and ideas. The people who have had the tour then come back with friends or family and give them the tour and enthuse about the organisation. Then these people might give others the tour and so on.” “It’s all about finding the appropriate channel to transmit the messages of the passionate, ideas people.” 88 “We need to recognise that the arts are not functional. You don’t sell the arts to someone because they can cut the grass with them. The drivers of an arts purchase are emotional. So how should we aim marketing on an emotional level to get people attached to the arts?” “The issue here is how do people articulate that emotion themselves for them to recognise its relevancy for them? I can get a focus group to tell me about the emotional experience but I might need to get them to undergo some fairly convoluted exercises to get them past “good night out”. Different people at different stages in their arts attending will articulate in different ways. This is why we need segmentation because different people need different messages.”

Audience Builder

“Do people move between the audience builder boxes? Ie do they change their levels of risk?” “Yes. People are allocated to the highest box they’re willing to try and are then re-coded at the end of the year. Comparing the code for year one and year two means that we can see how many have stayed in the same box and how many have moved up or down in terms of frequency or difficulty of event attended. Initial results after the first year of audience builder at Bristol Old Vic suggest we succeeded in moving 20% up and that we lost 10% down (for all sorts of reasons like change of life-stage etc) so broadly we are pushing people upwards. We also need to take into account the fact that the programme is not necessarily consistent in terms of the amount of product offered at each level.” “What about tracking people? Isn’t this a problem when different people book, data capture problems and so on?” “Yes this is a problem but we have to base everything around data. It won’t be 100% accurate but it is the best we have. However, I would still avoid making assumptions that someone didn’t come to something as the tickets may have been booked by someone else.” “If you don’t have a computerised box office then there are number of things you can do to capture data. For one venue we ran a competition for a year. Every time you bought a ticket you were entered into a free prize draw to win a weekend in Barcelona if you filled in a short form. Every time you bought a ticket you got another entry and this method achieved 72% data capture. Alternatively you could build a list of names and email addresses and then contact them annually to ask people what they’ve been to in the last year.” “How does audience builder work for a venue where you are promoting lots of different genres?” “Customs House is an arts centre in South Shields. Part of their rationale for being an arts centre is that they want customers to cross over between genre because otherwise they might just as well be a theatre or music venue etc. So their climbing frame looks slightly different. They have a big black line across the middle. Underneath that line is everyone who has only been to one art form. Above that line are those who do more then one, and then they just have three ranks for the work – easy, moderate and difficult. The primary aim is to move people above that black line.”

Test Drive

A recent test drive for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra got 1,000 new attenders and they cost 10p each to get (cheaper than a brochure!). They were all given free tickets, which were tickets that the RLPO couldn’t sell so the tickets didn’t cost anything. After they’d been we asked them if they’d like to come again – twice in the next three months, paying full price. This meant that this group attended three times in four months, which makes them incredibly frequent attenders. Usually with Test Drive people 89 operate lower expectations of frequency and willingness to pay so this is how the audience behave. Here we set the expectations high (a good time to do it when they have the excitement of discovering a new thing) and what was also interesting was that these people were also very good at getting more new people. Often the accepted concept in the arts is that it is the people who are most loyal and have been coming for years who are the best advocates. I’m not sure this is true as these people have already introduced their friends to is and are already in a circle of people who are coming, rather than a circle of people who are not coming. Having then got these new audiences to attend frequently it is then not unrealistic to say to them why don’t you subscribe?

90 Access All Areas

Steve Mannix - Shape

This seminar looked the implementation of access policies across your organisation.

There are 9 million disabled people in the UK, which equates to round 15% of the population. 6.8 million disabled people are of working age18; 8.6 million have a hearing impairment19; 1.2 million have a learning disability20 and 1 in 7 (14% of the population) experience mental health issues.21

It is useful to be aware of the economic and societal implications for this group:

• 50% of disabled people are economically inactive compared to 15% of non-disabled people; • 3 million disabled people are out of work and 1 million of them would like to work; • 1 in 3 disabled people have been refused service or turned away from a public place; • 50% of disabled people feel that they are not listened to; • Only 18% of primary schools and 8% of secondary schools are accessible; • More cases were taken in the first year of the Disability Discrimination Act than under the Sex Discrimination Act or the Race Relations Act.22

So, where are we now in terms of legislation? Organisations should be aware that: the Disability Discrimination Act (1995) becomes law on the 1st January 2004; the Special Educational Needs Act (2001) becomes law from September 2003; the Human Rights Act is already law and we might also want to consider the EU directive (Article 13) and the new disability bill that is due to be introduced in November.

There are number of golden rules in terms of access:

• Be honest and accurate; • Communicate regularly; • Consult as widely as possible; • Involve disabled and deaf people at all stages and levels; • Have a go; • Learn.

It is important to think about access in terms of the whole experience. Start by thinking about physical access issues. What do you know about your venue or your tour? How do you communicate this information? Is your information clear and honest, and how regularly is it updated? The next thing to consider is attitudinal access. Ask yourself whether everyone in the organisation is aware of the issues? Do people know what to do? Do people feel confident in doing it?

18 Labour Force Survey 19 RNID 20 Mencap 21 Mind/OPCS 22 RADAR 91

This is an access check list which provides a useful starting point in terms of identifying opportunities for developing your accessibility and to enable you to start building policy across your organisation.

• Have you undertaken an access audit (physical access and attitudinal access) of your venue or tour venues? • What training is in place in relation to disability equality and deaf awareness? • Have you undertaken a staff and volunteer audit? • Have you undertaken an audience survey that deals with issues of accessibility? • What do you programme? • Have you undertaken an audit of your current partner organisations? • Have you undertaken an audit of partner schools/youth clubs? • Have you undertaken a board audit? • Have you undertaken an advisors audit?

Accessible marketing tools are often an area of debate. The first key element to get right is the communication. As previously mentioned, information should be clear, honest and regularly updated, to help you to build the “contract” with your audiences or users. Print itself should be developed in different formats. In addition to standard print these can include large print, tape, Braille or cd. But just having print in different formats is not enough. Have you considered appropriate distribution for these different formats? You should also carefully consider the use of images of deaf and disabled people.

Web and electronic communication is the biggest revolution for disabled and deaf people. Ensuring your website is accessible means ensuring that it is possible to receive it text only; that it is in readable, plain English and that it offers maps, access guides and local transport information.

Audience development is a two way street. Remember that disabled and deaf people need you as much as you need them. This means that there are a number of organisations that should be keen to work with you in relation to developing access, including: local organisations of disabled and deaf people; local community organisations; Local Authorities and local charities. As an organisation you can also learn from audience focus groups. You can create access groups and task groups and ensure that disabled and deaf people are included as volunteers. For access to be adopted throughout the organisation, and not just by marketing or front of house staff, deaf and disabled people should also have board and advisory group membership or representation.

Here are some tips for logistical questions that you should be able to answer satisfactorily:

• What is the start/end time of the performance? • Can you tell me about transport local to your venue? • What is your ticket reservation policy? • What is your concession policy? • Can my non-disabled friend(s) sit with me? • Can I get a drink and can I eat? 92 • Will I get thrown out of the venue at the end of the show? • Will I know that the performance has started?

Accessibility may be funded or help to access funding from the following sources:

• Corporate social responsibility budgets • Local Authority funding • Trusts and foundations • Statutory funding (SRB/Urban Renewal/Rural Development Fund)

The key to promoting accessibility is to follow the golden rules outlined in this presentation and to have a go as there are always improvements that can be made and you may be surprised by the results. By making a start you will start to build your confidence in your ability to address the access issue and you will find that, because access is not just a marketing or a front of house issue that everyone will benefit and as a result you can help to create change.

93 Show me the money!

Patrick Morsman – Tickets.com

This seminar looked at the types of data that can be used to increase revenue and expand audiences.

For the purpose of this seminar data is defined as information that is lying around waiting to be turned into an opportunity, and not just box office data.

Data has many uses. It gives us a starting point from which we can test out our theories. It allows us to compare our performance against external benchmarks so that we have a better idea of what is achievable. Data can help us to justify, for example, programming and pricing policy and should help us increase revenue.

Data is available from a wide range of sources. Statistics from external bodies include the Office of National Statistics website and there are a wide variety of research papers available from the Arts Councils and the AMA. Information internal to the organisation includes box office system analysis, telephone system analysis and website statistics, but we should also use personal experience and use data to test our ‘gut’ feelings.

There are many ways in which data can be used more effectively. In-house systems can be used to enhance data collection. Telephone systems can be used to provide call statistics such as the peak times, numbers of calls missed and waiting times, as well as to track the time that people call when the box office is closed. North Wales Theatre uses Call Line Identifier to call up the customer record, which helps box office staff. Ticketing information can be used to segment your audience, as with the example of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (see the Audience Builder – How to do it seminar in this report), and in understanding crossover as an aid to better targeting.

External statistics provide valuable context that can be used to reinforce decision-making. A number of systems involve giving feedback to external bodies to enhance bench-marking, such as Arts Index South, where Arts Marketing Hampshire have pooled data from a wide area to enable benchmarking of levels of market penetration and cross-over. Other such centralised repositories of data from a wide variety of organisations include Data:crunch and Purple Seven’s Vital Statistics.

A strategic approach to data is the best way to achieve the maximum return on investment and this can be achieved by using all the elements together – not just box office data in isolation. A well-communicated strategy with defined goals and well-communicated results will also ensure that the whole organisation works together. This is particularly important in the case of the box office team. It is vital that the box office “buys in” to any campaigns you are running; that they understand what they are trying to achieve and are informed when information is being sent out and have copies of all print. Through box office and marketing working together, data collection rates of 99% can be achieved. Results should also be communicated throughout the whole organisation. 94 Box office data, in particular, can help you to:

• Understand your current bookers; • Get them to spend more, more often; • Tell customers about relevant events and target messages rather than simply bulk distributing brochures; • Increase commitment by helping customers to ascend the “loyalty ladder”, e.g. from infrequent attenders to friends. • Reward loyalty – or at least recognise it by thanking people.

The box office transaction offers the opportunity to collect useful data from the customer, for example:

• How did you hear about the event? • What other types of event are you interested in? • Would you like to purchase any other items?

You can maximise box office effectiveness by, for example, getting the box office to be competitive about collecting good data; ensuring the box office is fully informed of any promotional activities and special offers and using incentives for up-selling: for example, the Royal Palace incentivised programme sales and doubled sales as a result.

The first step in improving use of data is to audit your box office data. This audit should cover the following questions:

• How old is the data? • When were customers last active? • How many records are incomplete? Can they be completed? • Have events been categorised (this needs to be thought through carefully)? • Is all possible data being captured? • Am I capturing all the data I could be? • Could the box office be more proactive in collecting data such as email addresses?

Having undertaken the audit the next step is to clean up your data. The best approach is to do this as you go, by using rapid addressing, but third party bureaux can be employed to undertake batch processing. In any case regular maintenance is required to de-duplicate records. It is also worth trying to obtain alternative contact methods: telemarketing still hugely underused, and email/text marketing starting to emerge as a key means of communication.

Having marshalled the data, ticketing history can be used to find out what customers are actually interested in (in terms of what they book), but this can be supplemented with a tick box postcard or a verbal question to find out what your bookers also think they might be interested in. Bookers can and should, however, be segmented in ways other than simply by type of event attended (see the Audience Builder – How to do it seminar in this report). 95

The key is to build a strategy based on internal data, but reinforced by external data. Your strategy should then be tested on small numbers before rolling-out campaigns to mail thousands of customers. It is also important to give yourself plenty of time and plan ahead (the AMA Timeline planner is a rather good way of doing this). Finally, be prepared to be creative, and not just do the same old things.

96 Early Adopters and Trend Setters

Martin Prendergast - The Guardian/The Observer

This seminar explored the findings of ROAR, one of the most extensive youth projects in the UK.

ROAR (Right of Admission Reserved) is a piece of continuous research into the lives of 15-24 year olds in the UK that has been ongoing since 1995. In 2002 the study recruited a sample of 1219 nationally representative 15-24 year olds. A range of research techniques are employed to investigate how young people perceive brands, media, and issues including politics, money, education, sex and shopping. Techniques include face-to face interviews, focus groups, accompanied nights out/nights in and photo diaries.

The 2001 findings had identified that the youth market are apparently not the Opinion Formers that we are led to expect. In the 2001 study we had identified that the generation of 15-24s have rejected idealism as redundant and pointless. They have adopted a pragmatic approach to the world around them. In a sense there is a belief that the important issues have already been fought, such as sexism and racism, and that there is no need to rebel against a system when there is really nothing to rebel against. Those issues that remain are perceived to be beyond the influence of young people so there is a feeling that there is no point getting overly worried about them. In other words there is a belief that they can’t make a difference. They also perceive a job to be pretty much guaranteed and are optimistic about their future so, given they don’t see anything to hold them back in life, they are prepared to accept the status quo and make the most of the world they live in. They also see the world as a place of endless opportunities and there’s a belief that anyone can make it nowadays so there is no excuse not to succeed.

So what mattered to the participants in the 2001 study? The things that mattered were quite superficial and self-focused:

• The cult of celebrity: young people aspired to a celebrity lifestyle as they have grown up in an era when anyone can become famous. Celebrities played a huge part in influencing young people’s views, opinions and style. • Making a fast buck: young people have seen others making big money through technology, music, design, fame or just luck. The feeling was that anyone has the potential to get rich. • The pursuit of the body beautiful: young people were prepared to spend more than ever to achieve the right look, not just in clothes but also on body art and enhancement. • Growing sexual confidence: young people are exceptionally confident at a much earlier age than previous generations in mixed sex groups. • Rock ‘n’ roll lifestyles: drink, drugs and music still bring young people together and act as a bond. • Experience is everything (and pre-packaged is best!): young people were demanding new “experiences” to counter the stress of work and education. However, unlike previous generations, who might have gone back-packing around the world, these 15-24s wanted packaged experiences with a known outcome and the risk-factor removed.

97 The evidence from the 2001 research pointed to a generation that had become much more unified and more mainstream than earlier generations. Within the demographically representative sample there was no strong evidence of a sub-group of trendsetters or opinion-formers. There was no evidence that young people were ahead of the marketing game, or as media-literate as we had been led to believe. So, we wondered whether trend-setters really existed or whether we had been making assumptions about the youth market based on the experience of an older “youth mindset” working in media or marketing who were constantly seeking out new music, picking up all the newest technology and spouting their opinions about the state of the world. Perhaps these people were assuming their own tastes, views and values applied to the younger generation.

In the 2002 study we began with the theory that Opinion Formers probably did exist within the youth market but that we had failed to pick them up with the 2001 research. The research had the following objectives:

• Do Opinion Formers exist within the 15-24 market and, if so, what proportion of the population do they make up? • Who are these Opinion Formers? • What is their role in influencing their peers? • What influences the choices made by Opinion Formers? • How does the adoption model work in today’s youth market?

This is the adoption model we would expect to find, the traditional method of diffusion:

So how would we identify these Opinion Formers? Traditionally youth Opinion Formers had been identified through the following descriptors:

• Being madly into fashion; • Reading certain magazines; • Being passionate about music; • Political viewpoints; • Logo, brands;

98 • Early adopters of technology.

However, the 2001 results indicated that these variables might not be as discriminating as they were in the past with young people increasingly adopting very similar styles, media, music and political views. The research agency 2cv who are specialists in the youth market and have done a lot of qualitative research with young people suggested the following approach: that Opinion Formers could only be identified by certain common values:

Opinion Formers Wanna B’s/Mainstream Creative Just entertainment, just consume Participative Just spectator, just read about it Risk-takers Comfort, fit in Create own identity Ease of mass market and media definition Unusually passionate about a couple of things Safety, just fit in, go where the herd goes Interested in change and novelty Comfort and stability, don’t think too much

Using a new set of discriminators really did pull the youth market apart, uncovering fundamental differences between Opinion Formers and other young people. The Opinion Formers which we spoke to turned out to be really useful for marketers to know about as, unlike most 15-24s, they are actively pushing things forward in their areas of interest, not just following what is fashionable now. Talking to Opinion Formers, then, can help to get clues to future directions rather than just hearing about present trends.

We identified that it was important not to confuse Opinion Formers with Wanna B’s. Wanna B’s aspire to opinion former status, and would describe themselves as such, but are essentially followers of fashion rather than setting trends themselves. Statements like these would “catch” Wanna B’s out:

• I set the trends amongst my group of friends; • I know about the latest trends before most others – especially my mates; • Friends often ask me first about what the latest trends are.

Wanna B’s, in fact, find it difficult to identify other individuals who may be ahead of them. Wanna B’s do play an important role in influencing their peers, but they are completely unaware of the true Opinion Formers who are one step ahead in their age group.

So, 2cv designed a set of lifestyle statements that allowed us to identify the true Opinion Formers. These were strictly applied (candidates had to “agree” with 80% or more of the defining statements) and this allowed us to differentiate Opinion Formers from the Wanna B’s. This is how the 15-24 year old population broke down:

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Opinion Formers (12%) were likely to have a high level of passion for particular areas of interest. They were most likely to be university students or recent graduates. They are active and involved individuals and are highly creative, frequently making their own music, customising clothes to create new styles or getting involved in art or drama. They are confident individuals who are happy to be different from the crowd. They are outgoing and sociable, particularly seeking out like-minded people – people with a passion in life for something and who have conviction. Opinion Formers embrace change. They are much more likely to read newspapers, magazines and books and are constantly on the look out for information about their areas of interest. They hate superficial conversation, are constantly learning and are on the search for deeper bonds.

Wanna B’s (23%) have a slight female bias. They are the youngest group (at school or college) but are the biggest spenders. They are more likely to live in urban areas; they love sport, film, TV, music and are passionate about fashion. They are big influencers among their peers and the right look is very important for them. They love going out and aspire to celebrity status.

Mainstreamers (65%) are spectators, not doers. They have no over-riding passions, except sport, have lower self-confidence and low motivation. They have no desire to stand out from the crowd – they just want to fit in and avoid change/risk. They also aspire to celebrity lifestyle but are unlikely to make it!

We have already mentioned that Opinion Formers have higher levels of passion than their peers. So, what is that passion? Opinion Formers have the strongest propensity to be passionate about a variety of different subjects, especially music, sport and art, but also film, technology, theatre, photography, gaming and politics:

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The chart shows that Wanna B’s generally display a narrower range of passion centres but were particularly passionate about fashion compared with their peers. Among the mainstreams, sport was the one unifying passion, with much lower levels of passion for music and fashion than the other groups.

By asking people about their attending patterns in the past three months we also saw that the Opinion Formers were most likely to be the active group:

When asked whether or not they agreed with the statement, “I’m motivated by creating things in my life”, 95% of Opinion Formers agreed, compared with 63% of Wanna B’s and 50% of the mainstream.

When asked, “What things give a good indication of the sort of person you are?”, we found that, while all groups put “friends” first, the other responses really pull the three groups apart. Opinion Formers are much more likely than Wanna B’s to cite their personal beliefs (70% compared with 42%); their political views (32% compared with 12%) and academic achievements (49% compared with 34%) as being good indicators of who they are. Opinion Formers also have a strong propensity to cite their taste in music and films as giving a good indication of who they are. Effectively, they are more inner-directed than the Wanna 101 B’s: they are more in touch with themselves as individuals, without being introverted. Wanna B’s are more outer-directed and rely on their physical appearance to express their personalities: they rank clothes as the primary thing, after friends, that gives a good indication of the sort of person they are. (Clothes gets 73% of Wanna B’s compared with 55% of Opinion Formers). Mainstreams have more detached means of describing themselves – they are most likely to say that their job gives a good indication of who they are. They are very reluctant to say their outward appearance gives a feel for who they are (only 48% cite the clothes they wear) and so they are more inner-directed than Wanna B’s and more introverted than Opinion Formers.

So, are Opinion Formers the trendsetters? What is interesting is that Opinion Formers tend to mark themselves down on the statements that were the traditional way of identifying trend-setters:

This might lead us to assume that Wanna B’s are in fact exerting the most influence on the market. But, in fact, it’s not that simple. Opinion Formers are friends with other Opinion Formers. They are less dependant on friendship networks to find out what’s cool and are more likely to do their own exploration to find things which suit their individual taste and style. Consequently, Opinion Formers would not claim to influence their friends and, indeed, do not want others to be like them. To illustrate the point, when asked to agree or disagree with the statement, “I’m usually the first to get new technology”, 34% of Opinion Formers and 35% of Wanna B’s agreed. However, if we looked at who actually owned particular pieces of new technology, it was clear that Opinion Formers are, in fact, the ones who are adopting the new technology the fastest. 42% of Opinion formers, for example, owned a PDA/WAP/GPRS phone/Laptop compared with 31% of Wanna B’s and 30% of the mainstream. Similarly, 66% of Opinion Formers owned a DVD/MP3/Minidisc player/Digital camera compared with 57% of Wanna B’s and 51% of the mainstream.

Wanna B’s don’t realise that they’re not ahead of the game because they are not aware of the existence of true opinion formers, because they mix in different and separate social groups. But here’s another good example. Wanna B’s are not too far behind Opinion Formers in terms of describing music as a passion and claiming to seek out new music:

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However, they are much less likely to actively seek out new music than Opinion Formers:

Opinion Formers also exhibit a much more eclectic taste in music including: chill out, classical, drum ‘n’ bass, funk, hardcore, heavy metal, hip hop, indie, jazz/blues, punk, reggae, rock, soul and trance. Wanna B’s stick to what’s fashionable: dance, disco, garage, house, r ‘n’ b. The same is true when we look at films. Wanna B’s are only 7% behind Opinion Formers in terms of being passionate about film, but when asked to agree or disagree with the statement “I prefer off-beat cult movies to Hollywood blockbusters” only 24% of Wanna B’s agreed compared with 43% of Opinion Formers.

So, within technology, music and film, Opinion Formers are at the cutting edge, but what about fashion? We have already established that Wanna B’s are much more passionate about fashion. Evidence suggests that Opinion Formers are not led so much by “fashion” but by “style”: “It’s the way you put things together that really matters”. Not only that, but they prefer no-logo to logo: 37% of Opinion Formers agree that “fashion brands don’t interest me” compared to 17% of Wanna B’s. Furthermore, 50% of Opinion Formers prefer labels on the inside compared to 30% of Wanna B’s. It is the Wanna B’s who are the biggest followers of what’s happening in the “fashion” world. When asked where they get their ideas from, Wanna B’s say, “The media and celebrities – that’s where you get your ideas”, and if asked where the

103 media get their ideas they think either that “They’re the ones coming up with ideas” or that they get their ideas from “celebrities and fashion shows”. So what part do Opinion Formers play in the fashion world? Well, Opinion Formers still have an above average interest in fashion. However, their passion for fashion stems out of creating an individual style, of customising clothes. This makes it harder for the mainstream to follow. However, Opinion Formers are increasingly watched by the media which take their ideas and make them saleable. So, here is a new theory of innovation:

So, how does the interaction with media differ between Wanna B’s and Opinion Formers? Here are the highest indexing newspaper and magazine titles for Opinion Formers:

If we look at the highest indexing titles for Wanna B’s we see a very different selection of titles:

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In summary, then, there are two levels of trendsetter within the youth market:

• Opinion Formers – the cutting edge • Wanna B’s – can make brands famous

The media is key to instigating adoption because:

• The media inspire and report on Opinion Formers • The media translates Opinion Formers’ tastes into something more accessible • The media create the link between Opinion Formers and Wanna B’s

105 In Yer Face! Some NLP techniques and how they can be used for successful, face-to-face communication.

Anne Roberts

This session looked at NLP techniques for enhancing person-to-person communication skills.

Communication is the art of being understood.23 It is important because we all want to get our points across. There are a number of assumptions that we often make about face-to-face communication:

• People are difficult (except us!) • I am right (and therefore you are wrong) • Communication is an up-hill struggle

NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) provides a framework that helps us to address these assumptions. So, let’s assume that we already know that good communication requires:

• Clarity (getting the message across without unnecessary noise or interference) • Preparation (ensuring we have clear objectives about what it is we want to communicate) • Simplicity (go for the one main message we want to put across) • Focus • Brevity • Both “sender” and “receiver” committing to communicate

Getting these basics right are important to ensure the message itself is effective but the aim of this seminar is identify ways of then communicating it even more effectively.

Neuro Linguistic Programming is the study of excellence. It looks at the mind, body and how they work. It argues that we can learn to be more effective by studying people who are examples of excellence. ”Linguistic” refers to the language we use to describe and categorise our world and make sense of our experiences. We tend to assume that language and thinking work in a two-way dynamic relationship so we analyse language to identify how people respond to the world. “Programming” considers the patterns of thought and behaviour that help or hinder us and recognises that there are thought and behaviours that we can re-program to get rid of unwanted behaviour.

NLP is more than a collection of techniques: it is a way of thinking that is, above all, curious about how excellence works. The key questions for NLP thinkers are: What do you want? What works? How do you do that? What is the difference between mediocre and excellent? NLP is an extremely powerful way of thinking but this session offers a simple introduction to some techniques that will, hopefully, make you curious about communication; how good communicators do it and what you can learn from them.

23 Peter Ustinov 106 NLP offers a useful analytical structure with logical levels. These levels recognise that we are programmed on five different levels that structure our experience. When all the levels work in harmony you tend to find excellence. The levels are as follows:

• Identity – who you are and why you’re like me • Beliefs – about the outside world around you • Capability – competences and skills • Behaviour – what you do as a result of the above • Environment

Using this structure can help in the following uses:

• Organising information – writing a report or a business plan • Improving presentations – giving the whole picture • Design projects – you won’t miss anything out • Identifying patterns and preferences in yourself and others. A good example is the phrase “I shouldn’t do that here”. We see Identity in “I”; Beliefs in “shouldn’t”; Capability in “do”; Behaviour in “that” and Environment in “here”. You can place the emphasis on any word in the sentence and where you place the emphasis shows the logical level that people are operating on. • Create job descriptions • Analyse blockages – why is an organisation failing, branding – not doing (behaviour) what they believe (beliefs), believing different things about the outside world to yourself • Allows you to separate behaviour from identity

This seminar looks at the level of capability and behaviour and therefore will have a limited effect because we’re not taking the whole, we’re only talking about possible behaviours.

Why is face-to-face communication sometimes difficult? The first difficulty is that each person has their own unique model of reality. For example, Tony Blair has a different model of reality from most people in the UK at the moment. He probably utterly believes he is right. Many people utterly believe he is wrong. Who is right? Well, it depends upon whose eyes you see through. The only way we all experience the world is through our five senses and each individual processes this sensual material in different ways: you only have to discuss a mutual experience with a colleague or a friend to realise how differently people see the world. It is important to recognise that their reality is more real than your reality (to them). As they are always operating from within their own model of reality, they are always “right” (and so are you within your individual reality). NLP holds that the key to good communication, and good relationships generally, is to understand the other person’s version of reality and to learn to really walk around in someone else’s shoes.

So how do we really get inside someone else’s shoes? Here are some useful tenets:

• All human behaviour is purposeful • There are positive by-products of bad behaviour 107 • Every behaviour is useful

For example, imagine you have a consistently late member of staff. If you discover the purpose of the lateness it might be possible to address it. Children behave badly for attention.

The first pillar of NLP, then, is building rapport. One of the ways that we do this is through “matching and mis-matching”. If we synchronize our posture and breathing with that of someone else, for example, then we build rapport. This happens when you’re genuinely trying to understand someone and helps to overcome disagreement. Examples of “mis-matching” include fidgeting or looking over one’s shoulder. Imagine trying to agree with someone while fidgeting or looking away from someone; or disagreeing with someone while you try to match their behaviour.

Another way if building rapport is known as “pacing and leading”. Pacing people comes when you are really paying attention to someone and once you really become interested in someone this will happen naturally. This is not sales mirroring but finding out why someone ticks. Once you have paced them, it is easier to lead them to where you want to go because they will want to go with you. So once you have acknowledged people’s feelings by mirroring them, you pace and lead them to the desired other state. You can use this particularly with energy levels.

The second pillar of NLP is “outcome orientation”. This recognises that the key to any successful activity is your objective. Without knowing the answer to the question “What do you want?” and having an identified outcome you are likely to be blown off course by external factors. We should also remember that the way we speak about things changes outcomes and that being positive helps make things happen, as does being forward-looking and thinking about solutions. One way of understanding “outcome” orientation is to compare the “problem frame” with the “outcome frame”: as follows:

Problem frame Outcome frame What’s your problem? What do you want? How long have you had it? How will you know when you have got it? Whose fault is it? What else will improve when you get it? Who is to blame? What resources do you already have that can help you achieve your outcome? What is your worst experience with this problem? What is something similar that you did succeed in achieving? Why haven’t you solved it yet? What’s the next step?

Part of the problem with the British is an inclination towards the problem frame, seeing the problem rather than the solution. We tend to cash ourselves in order to pre-empt others from doing it. One of the reasons we find face-to-face communication difficult is because we expect to face difficulties, we believe we won’t get what we want and we counter prevarication with aggression. We also give up quite easily. The outcome frame gives us a more positive approach that is useful for effectiveness, efficiency, morale and relationships.

108 In effective communication it is also important to consider representational systems and sensory acuity. This means that we need to ask ourselves how people are screening their experiences. Different people process things differently through the five senses:

• Visual • Auditory • Kinaesthetic • Olfactory • Gustatory

Clues about which sense is mainly used are offered through body language and verbal language. This is useful because it helps you to listen and walk round in someone else’s shoes: it offers you their view of things and allows you to use a language that will really communicate with the person you’re talking to. Consider the following sensory predicates:

• “Do you see my point of view?” • “I just can’t grasp this concept” • “That doesn’t ring true to me” • “It feels so fragmented” • “That left a bitter taste in my mouth” • “We’re not on the same wavelength” • “She bit off more than she could chew”

Each of these give a clue to the sense that is used the most. In terms of body language we also get clues from the way people look. Someone who relies on the visual is more likely to exhibit signs of being tense or hunched, use finger-pointing, shallow breathing or rapid talking. Someone who focuses on the kinaesthetic may be plumper, relaxed, well centred, have their palms turned upwards and use deeper breathing, slower speech and slower movement. We can also get sensory clues from interests and hobbies:

Visual – painting, drawing, cinema, engineering, design, sciences Auditory – writing, poetry, linguistics, music Kinaesthetic – sport

Mismatches of using the wrong language can prevent effective communication so it is important to match the sensory preference.

A final tool that is useful is to consider “chunking for success”. How much information (how large a chunk) can you process at once? Do you prefer detail or the big picture? How flexible are your chunk sizes? One needs to try and develop flexibility in chunk sizes in order to match the chunk size of others and in order to pace others to the desired chunk size. Problem solving often requires the ability to chunk up to the bigger picture to find the solution.

109 Txtm8: An introduction to the effective use of SMS

Ruth Staple - South West Arts Marketing

This presentation offered an introduction to text message marketing using, as a case study, the Txtm8 project.

The mobile phone industry has seen rapid growth in recent years and, although 78% of UK homes claimed to have at least one mobile phone in May 200124, forecasts predict that the market is still growing. Over two hundred countries now have mobile networks and, in Western Europe, SMS and mobile phones are considered to be the primary peer-to-peer communication method of choice for under 25s, having replaced the internet and chat rooms. This year 55 million SMS messages were sent every day during May compared to 45 million in May last year.25 That’s a growth of 22% and almost one message for every member of the population.

In a recent Guardian article a report was quoted which suggested the age profile of SMS users was changing as more people over twenty-five, and even people in their fifties and sixties, were becoming comfortable with SMS. This has been aided particularly by the ability to send text messages from a pc, which is more acceptable to older people who can’t be bothered to fiddle around with the handsets.

SMS communications are mostly peer-to-peer but this year 7% of the messages sent were made by companies. A new report (Frost & Sullivan) predicts that texting will account for 10% of all mobile phone companies income by 2006.

I’d like to have a look at what the 55 million daily messages are being used for.

• Updates. These are services we sign up to such as weather reports, stock market updates and sport results. Maybe you’d like to know the results of Manchester United's latest match or updates all on the latest stages of the Tour de France. But if your mind is on higher things than Lance Armstrong's thighs you may wish to receive a contemplative thought for the day that is currently offered by both Christian and Islamic organisations. • Voting. Despite this year’s Big Brother being declared a flop, it still manages to secure four million votes at eviction time. On a more serious note, voters in Liverpool and Sheffield were able to cast their vote by text in the local elections in May this year. This innovation was unveiled by the electoral reform society to “boost the proportion of people who bother to vote in local elections” with security measures in place to ensure you cannot vote more than once. • Greetings Cards. First there were greetings cards on the Internet. These are perfect if you have forgotten your mother’s birthday, assuming of course that she has email. Now there are SMS picture greetings which take even less time to organise and can be sent direct to your celebrating parent. Lessons from my own experience include ensuring your mother’s phone can receive picture messages, and reminding her to turn it on.

24 Oftel 2001 25 Mobile Data 110 • Dating. At the conference last year we heard from Adam Joinson who suggested people choose their communication method when asking for dates according to how successful they think they are going to be – face to face if they are confident, and by email or SMS if not. Mobile dating services are proving to be amongst the most profitable services for mobile operators. Although the majority of users are under 25, more than 50% of the revenue for these services came from the over 25’s, with the over 30’s representing the most profitable user group. • Airlines. On July 7th both Paris airports launched an SMS service allowing passengers to check out flight information. By sending a text message with their flight number they can receive arrival and departure time, terminal, gate and baggage claim belt number. Another useful service might be to alert unsuspecting passengers to airport personnel strikes. Qantas will now provide passengers, including economy class, with handsets allowing them to text safely, and several leading American airlines have also relaxed the restrictions on texting during a flight. • Education. Given the high numbers of children with mobile phones (25% of children aged between 6 and 13) schools are seeing both the advantages and disadvantages of text within the education system. A new scheme in Yorkshire will text parents of truanting children to tell them that their kids have skipped school again while other ideas consider sending revision tips to people studying for exams, and encouraging chat between schools. However some schools are installing scanners that sound an alert when a mobile phone is used to stop pupils texting each other with the answers during exams. So far this year 254 pupils have had their exam results disqualified. • Location. The child rescue alert system also had its first run when 6-year-old Summer Haipule went missing. Police sent messages to alert people of the possibility of an abduction. Unfortunately in this case the alerts didn’t work as the contract the police had with their service provider had run out. • Hot Lines. There are different examples of ‘hot lines’ being used, many of which are crime related, but my favourite is one in the Philippines called Text the Pusher, Save the User. This scheme encourages people to report illegal drug activities. Bizarrely, this has spawned a new idea called Snifferdog.com which invites residents to sign up for SMS tip offs warning them of the location of dog teams used to crack down on drugs and illegal handguns. • Clubbing. Anyone who has been to a club recently will have noticed how many people send texts whilst on the dance-floor. This may be to let people who aren’t there know what a good time they are missing, but often the texts are to other clubbers as it is too loud to hear each other talk. Neo One have now developed a huge screen which allows clubbers to chat with each other. This is a great idea if you’ve lost a friend in the crowd but I’m not sure I’d be happy about letting everyone else see my messages if I was trying to chat someone up. • Porn. A British “newspaper” has developed a business that sends adult content to mobile phone owners, by-passing the standard carrier sales channel. By texting “go thesport” Bang go.net redirects people to a porn site thus avoiding breaking the law by sending indecent publications by post.

In all these cases, there are a number of benefits of SMS as a communication tool. Firstly, receivers can be guaranteed to “get the message”. It’s hard to ignore a text message when it arrives, and they cannot be deleted without first being opened. Messages can be extremely reactive to events and sent with only a minutes notice 24 hours a day. Assuming that phones are switched on messages are usually received within two minutes of sending them.

111 The Txtm8 project was funded by a £15k DCMS New Audiences grant, awarded via Arts Council England, South West. There is an assumption that many young people go out for the night without a clear destination or activity in mind other than being with friends. Txtm8 aimed to test this utilising the benefits of SMS whilst offering a mixture of instantly promoted special offers. The project began in March last year and was initially scheduled to finish in September. However, since this meant the bulk of the activity would take place when Plymouth’s large student population would be absent, the project was extended until October, allowing us to test the premise on the returning student population.

The txtm8 project sought to market a range of events in Plymouth to 18-24 year olds using SMS technology, working with a range of arts and leisure organisations throughout the city. I know you are thinking “Oh no, not another audience development project aimed at young people”, but given the research available on text messaging at the beginning of the project this seemed the obvious age group to test the technology.

Plymouth City Council contacted suitable arts and leisure organisations inviting them to a meeting to find out more, and from that meeting we set up a steering group of seven which represented the range of organisations involved. It comprised the Theatre Royal, Barbican Theatre, Plymouth Arts Centre, 24-7, South West Arts Marketing, Plymouth City Council and Plymouth Musicians Cooperative. As the project progressed further organisations asked to be included, notably Plymouth Pavilions, several commercial clubs and jazz bars. The main incentives for the organisations taking part were:

• To sell unsold capacity; • To test SMS technology without having to fund it from their own budgets; • To increase awareness of their organisation to a target age group that is notoriously difficult for the arts to communicate with; • To own a database of contacts in the target age group.

The Phone Room was identified as a suitable partner to handle the mobile polling and after considerable discussion, and some seriously dodgy suggestions, we decided to call the project: Txtm8 – the free text service that keeps you in the now : )

The steering group worked with designers from 24-7, the local style magazine for 18-25 year olds, who were used to communicating with this age group and who also developed our website. I have to admit that when I first saw the print design I said, “oh, it’s not very ‘arty’ is it?”, to which the designers answered “exactly”. I’m pleased to say it was very effective.

Despite the existence of several companies who managed databases of the target age group, including one with 150 names from the right postcode area, we decided to build our own database from scratch, hoping that we could match the 150 names, and perhaps achieve a target of 300. Our priorities included a simple but effective data collection system and the ability to segment by age and interest. The data fields we decided were most important to us were: name, phone number, email address, age and postcode. We also asked people to state which of the following they were interested in: Cinema, Clubbing, Comedy, Dance, Digital visual arts, theatre and live music. We were keen to differentiate “dance” and “clubbing” to

112 avoid confusion: in one report when non-attenders were asked why they don’t go to dance events they replied that it was because “they were too dangerous”.

Below the data capture fields is a sentence which makes it explicit as to why we are collecting data and what we were going to do with it. The cards were distributed throughout the city and in a full-page advert in 24/7. One of six discreet numbers on the card allows us to monitor where they were picked up as we had six separate codes. Cards were returned to a Plymouth Freepost address to maximise the numbers being completed. People could also register via the Txtm8 website www.txtm8.info and could unsubscribe at any time. People registering were automatically entered into a competition to win one of two Nokia 5510 mobile phones, or one of 50 £10 top up vouchers. Once registered, members received text and email messages thanking them for registering, and suggesting that they pass the message on to their txtm8’s

The project was launched by DJ’s and bands playing at a prime site in Plymouth City Centre’s busy shopping area on a Saturday morning as individuals wearing bright yellow branded t-shirts handed out cards inviting people to sign up. The printing and launch costs amounted to £3k, or 20% of the total budget

The technology was extremely user friendly. Messages were sent via a website, so users only needed an internet connection and a password. Initially I sent out all the messages but it wasn’t long before organisations were happy to do it for themselves. The website allowed users to send text messages, emails or both. Sometimes we sent a short SMS message and a longer complimentary email including a link to a companies’ website. All of the emails we sent during the project were free of charge. Operators

113 could also choose whether to send their messages to everyone, selected individuals, groups, or a combination of groups e.g. 35-44 year old live music attenders for the Paul Weller competition.

There was only one limitation. Messages could not be stored and sent out later at a particular time, so if a club wanted to send a message at 10pm I had to stay at home and send it, but I understand this has now been resolved. The system was very responsive. From typing in a message and pressing send on the website, to someone receiving it, typically took 10 seconds to a minute, assuming their phone was turned on. During the seven months of the project we sent out over 10,000 text messages, plus emails.

The first thing we did was to establish an anti-clash diary showing when organisations wanted to send messages, which audience segments they were targeting and what kind of offer they were sending, as we didn’t want to swamp users with messages. We also realised that as our promotional material described us as a ‘free text service’ we had to be an information service as well as sending out special offers.

So how did we test the technology? Here are a few examples.

• Across art form, by promoting an art form to a different interest group. “Catwalk” was a performance at the Theatre Royal with a strong club soundtrack and a late night show on a Friday. We contacted the clubbing audience at 6pm on Friday evening offering free tickets if they showed “the phone message” to the Box Office. We also promoted a film called “Biggie & Tupac” about two American rappers showing at the local arts cinema to the clubbing audience. • Timed messages. We sent the same message at different times to alphabetically selected sections of the database and monitored the response rates to identify the best times to send messages. • A wide variety of promotions and discounted tickets were offered at all of the participating organisations from theatre tickets, tickets to see bands (notably Toploader, Morcheeba and Paul Weller) free drinks at nightclubs, and reduced price entry to films. • Teaser campaigns. We sent a variety of messages leading up to an event. We were delighted that Destiny nightclub allowed us to send teaser messages for a Judge Jules night for which there would be no advance sales.

• This linked to the queue jumping as we then sent message on the night of the event that allowed Txtm8’s to jump the queue. • Developing audiences. We offering existing mainstream cinema audiences discounted tickets to see foreign films, and promoted new events at the Barbican theatre to existing audiences e.g. dance classes to dance performance attenders. • Textback. This is where we asked recipients of messages to text back to win competitions or qualify for free tickets or offers.

All competition winners were notified of their win via text messages and members whose emails were bounced back as incorrect were asked to confirm their address by text. We also kept the mobile phone numbers of people taking up the offers, allowing us to profile them from our database, but also acting as a security mechanism. Organisations offering discounted tickets were able to claim back the discount from our budget and we were able to make sure they weren’t claiming for non-existent punters as we had to be entirely accountable to the DCMS for the money spent.

114 All competition winners were sent evaluation forms and a pre-paid envelope with their prizes. Encouragingly 54 were returned and all the comments were extremely positive. 100% wanted the scheme to continue, although this could of course have been because they had won something. In October scheme members in the target age range were sent text messages asking them to participate in phone questionnaires. As a result 19 more detailed responses were obtained with similarly promising results to the postal surveys.

So what were the main outcomes of Txtm8? At the end of the project, and once duplicate users had been removed, 826 people had signed up. Only 6 people had unsubscribed from the service. 525 email addresses were also captured, although a small proportion of these were found to be unusable, as people had filled them in incorrectly. Always ask people to print their email addresses.

We were aiming our promotion and branding at 18-24 year olds, and this accounted for 40% of participants, with almost another 40% form the age groups on either side (15-17 and 25-34). The most popular method of registering was online. One of the findings that surprised us the most was that 51% of those signing up to the scheme were men, and that people taking up the offers were split equally by gender. This certainly aroused considerable interest as a possible way of increasing the awareness of the arts among young men. We also noted that when we mapped the audience against known regular arts attenders in Plymouth we were reaching a very different audience – ACORN classifications of students, bedsits, and young professionals.

And what about the results of out different ways of testing the technology?

• The “Catwalk” offer at the Theatre Royal created a 5% response rate which included people who were new to the Theatre Royal’s Database. “Biggie & Tupac” enticed a 2% response rate, all of who were new to the Arts cinema. • Changing the timing of the messages revealed that early evening, about 6pm, was definitely the best time to send texts across all of the age groups. The day made a difference to younger people as they were “out of money” after the weekend. • The promotions and discounted tickets varied in response rate from 0-16% and were higher if the target audience was well matched to the offer. • The teaser campaign for Judge Jules certainly elicited a response from the clubbing audience, and quite a few people tried jumping the queue. The bad news was that despite the offer being agreed with all parties well in advance, the club had such an overwhelming response on the night they decided not to bother without telling us. We had to send everyone apologetic text messages, but the good news is that we were able to respond quickly and knew everyone who was sent the message would read it. Post project evaluation suggests that this didn’t damage the brand or prevent people from trusting our offers. • The response to the message aimed at developing audiences were lower than other promotional offers and were typically between 1 and 3%. • Once we had the textback facility the response rate to offers and promotions leaped to 16-20%. Most responses were received within 5 minutes of the message being sent out and most were received from the target age segment. 115

So, after spending the £15k from the DCMS did we think we had learned anything about using SMS to attract people to the arts?

• Working with a range of organisations meant each organisation was able to benefit from the trust in a range of brands. • Post project evaluation showed that people receiving Txtm8 branded messages trusted them. Messages offering information and promotional offers about their favourite clubs or bars meant they also read and trusted the messages they received from theatres and arts centres. • Arts organisations gained from the success and experience of the non-arts sector working with young people. • The print was not what we considered to be “traditional arts print” but the fact that over 800 people signed up to the service suggests that it worked. • Working as a group to brainstorm ideas also freed us from typical constraints. • “By offering a wide variety of information from several organisations we were able to reach people who would usually switch off as soon as they heard the word theatre.” (Participating venue) • SMS is not only for young people. Although our print was aimed at 18-25 year olds 33% of people signing up were over 25. • “My little cousin, my mum and my grandparents all use text” (post project evaluation interview). The barriers that older people feel about using SMS are helping to be alleviated by the services offering pc to mobile phone communications. • As with more conventional communication methods, such as direct mail, the language and timing of the message were key. Because of the nature of the technology both had to be considered even more carefully: texts allow a maximum of 160 characters for Latin alphabets, and 70 for Chinese or Arabic alphabets, in which we had to get over our branding, make the offer and include a response mechanism. The “little book of text messaging” helped with the commonly used abbreviations, but the Barbican Theatre had a better idea: they asked members of their youth theatre group to come up with the wording for their messages. All of the issues associated with the timing of messages such as direct mail and brochures apply but with radically different timescales. Rather than worrying about whether to send them first or second class to arrive next Tuesday we were talking about sending them during lunch-hours, school breaks or at about 6pm when people were sat in the pub deciding what to do for the evening. • Participating organisations need to be committed and see the benefits of the project to ensure best results. The organisations who took part committed a great deal of time and effort to this project because they could see exactly what was in it for them; they were included at every stage of the process and they had an independent organisation to run the project so they all saw themselves as equal partners. • SMS built the awareness of arts organisations with people who did not respond to traditional arts marketing methods. Questionnaires showed that, although most of the respondents did not consider themselves to be arts attenders, they could remember the names of the arts organisations who had sent them messages as well as the names of the bars and clubs. Post project questionnaires showed that 53% of respondents were visiting an arts venue for the first time because of a text message they

116 had received, and 42% were visiting a new type of event because of a text message they had received. Almost all of the respondents did not consider themselves to be arts attenders. • Using SMS can affect how people view your organisation or even your city. Certainly Plymouth City Council were delighted with what they thought using SMS said about both the arts in Plymouth and Plymouth as a city. • SMS cannot sell unwanted tickets but it can turn intenders into attenders: “I’d seen the Barbican Theatre before but not been inside” (Post project evaluation interview). People today are very media savvy, particularly this age group, and they easily see through the special offer that is trying to sell the un-sellable. But post project evaluation included a lot of comments from the Intenders group who had subsequently visited a venue that was new to them. In one case the respondent had even saved the venue’s box office number straight to her phone address book.

So what’s in store for Txtm8? After the project had finished we received several emails from members asking when it would be coming back as they were missing the service. I’m delighted to say that the organisations that took part have decided to keep the brand going and pay for it themselves. I think that counts as a success. As the technology becomes more prevalent it will be interesting to see whether the younger male “Innovators” become less attracted by SMS in favour of whatever replaces it and, as it becomes more acceptable to older age groups, it will be interesting to test the technology with older audiences who are also new to the arts.

So, could we have achieved the same results using our £15k DCMS money in another way? A criticism frequently levelled at audience development projects is that the same results would have been achieved if money had been given to people on the street to attend arts events. Could we have got 800 people to sign up to the scheme if we had given them each £19? I expect so, as this age group are very money conscious. Let’s make it harder: what if we’d given 100 people £150 to attend an event, could we have managed the same results? Of course, but what we wouldn’t have achieved was the trusted brand, the brand that was missed once the project had finished. We would also have annoyed the friends of those taking part who didn’t get £150, whereas SMS actively encourages viral marketing and we asked people to pass the message on to build the scheme, and we wouldn’t have built the awareness of arts venues in the city with a group who were, by their own admission, not really in to the arts.

To summarise the key points to consider when thinking about using text:

• Language and timing, as with all other communicating methods, are key, and we have to be even more focused. • When asking for data be explicit about why you are asking for it, what you will do with the data, and ask people’s permission. This minimises the chances that you will damage the brand by sending unwelcome messages. • Ensure that SMS is just one of your communication tools and is built into your campaign rather than being an “add on”.

SMS isn’t suitable to use for every target audience segment or even every product, but when the two are well matched, and the above points are taken into consideration, it can be very effective. 117 Get Creative

Petrina Wisniewski - Heresy

This session offered a simple, practical guide to getting creative, exploring the principles and processes of creativity and offering techniques for generating ideas.

“Creative thinking is not a talent, it is a skill that can be learnt.”26

Why is creativity so important? Well, because it’s always easy to jump to the logical conclusion. Imagine a man holding a block of wood. What will happen if he drops the block of wood? The logical answer is to say that the block of wood will fall. But of course that assumes gravity or that the man is on earth. If he is in space the wood will probably float around; if he is underwater the wood will float to the top. This may seem a ridiculous example but creativity is important in thinking around the logical.

In business, creativity helps us to keep up with the pace of change. We all spend time trudging out the same things when, often, if you take time out and think creatively, you can take a small leap in the imagination that will take you much further in the same amount of time. So, creativity is about the power of a fresh idea (no matter how small) to change things for the better. It is about progress.

So, some thoughts from the coal-face. Creativity is nothing more complex than a mode of thinking that flourishes in the right environment and we simply have to train ourselves to think in that mode. There are two different modes of thinking, critical thinking and creative thinking:

Critical Thinking Creative Thinking Dialectic or argumentative Constructive Knowledge driven Possibility driven Linear progression Parallel journeys Continually judging Seeking exploration Removing the wrong Seeking the different Truth is the goal Value is the goal

Combative Supportive Avoid being killed Offer all contributions Repetitive, predictable behaviour Wanting to go somewhere new

Critical thinking is important: most of us probably spend most of the day thinking “critically”. Critical thinking typifies standard decision-making processes and can be slightly bureaucratic or ruthless.

Brainstorming typifies creative thinking where you open up all the possibilities in a creative environment. Creative thinking is about exploration and wanting to go somewhere new. It is not the norm.

118 This is how the brain works, in simple terms:

The brain has lots of pathways and it does get into routine and habit. What we need to do to think more creatively is we need to block the routine path and make a creative leap. Humour is the best example of creative thinking because jokes take you down unexpected routes in your mind as you make a leap to the punch-line. Here’s are a couple of examples:

Q: Who are the nicest guys in the hospital? A: The ultra-sound guys

Q: What’s a psychic dwarf who’s escaped from prison? A: A small medium at large

In other words you make a twist as you get an unusual answer: the response clashes with the expected path and you make a creative leap.

There has been a lot of debate as to whether individuals have left brain and right brain thinking:

Left Brain Right Brain Logic Intuition Reasoning Insight Judgement Gut feeling Maths Visualising Verbal memory Visual memory Analysing Pattern recognition Linear thinking Holistic thinking Categorising Dreams Focusing Multi-tasking

I don’t think this matters a great deal because ideally creative techniques should help to combine both parts of your brain.

26 Edward de Bono 119 Here’s an exercise that derives from the artist Betty Edwards. She went out to prove that anyone can draw fairly well using an exercise called drawing from the right hand side of the brain. The exercise involves copying the drawing of a face that appears upside down. The point of the exercise is to think about the picture not as a person or as objects but simply about lines and shapes. It encourages you to think about the picture as a big puzzle that you are trying to fit the pieces in. Don’t turn the page the right way up while doing the drawing as you will start to think of it as an object again: just keep following the lines. Most people are generally surprised at the results they achieve. The idea is that by changing the perspective you can block the routine, logical path of trying to represent an object so you can make the creative leap: you can change the way of thinking.

There are a number of rules for creative thinking:

• Yearn for personal success. • Believe in your own ability to be creative. • Set goals and take time out to be creative if you need to and it will pay off. • Quantity breeds quality: you will often come up with a lot of terrible ideas in order to get one gem. • Understand that a problem is merely an opportunity in disguise: the discovery of penicillin arose from the problem of mould growing on the samples. • Don’t be limited by the obvious: try and think from different perspectives.

Creativity can be very helpful in generating new ideas, solving current problems and making effective decisions. It can also help in getting creative ideas bought by the rest of the organisation. There’s a great example of 3M, the innovation company, and post it notes. When this guy thought of the idea of paper with glue everyone said no to the idea. That was until he gave every secretary in the company a supply of post-it notes. When he stopped the supply after three weeks every secretary complained to the manager and post-it notes were born. So, when setting yourself a creative challenge it is important to have the task well-defined and know what it is you’re trying to do, whether that is generate a new idea, solve a problem etc.

There are broadly three processes of creativity:

• Linear: ways of reorganising things to change perceptions; • Lateral: ways of unlocking the ordered mind; • Initiative: ways of tapping the unconscious mind, often leading to fleeting moments of creativity.

Here’s an example of linear thinking:

120

Can you see an animal? Now, can you see another one? Try looking at it from another angle. You should be able to see a rabbit and a duck.

Here’s a famous example of lateral thinking:

There are six matches here. Take three away to make four. The answer lies in roman numerals. Lateral thinking tells us that maybe things can mean something different from what first appears.

Here’s an example of intuitive thinking:

Either a young lady or an old lady is likely to leap out at you. It should be possible to identify both. As another example of intuitive thinking, there is theory of the three Bs (bed, bath and bus), which suggests that your best ideas can come when sitting in the bath or lying in bed.

121 This is an example of a creative process map. The map enables the user to take the task and the processes of creativity and think of the different techniques available to address it. There are literally hundreds of techniques but this map offers some examples for different tasks and for the three creative processes:

Techniques

SCAMPER is a list of questions that can be used to tease out new ideas:

• Substitute? • Combine? • Adapt? • Modify? • Put to other use? • Eliminate? • Rearrange?

A good example of an idea resulting from combining is that the hot dog was invented because frankfurters used to burn people’s hands, so they were combined with a bun. An example of an idea resulting from eliminating is doughnuts because doughnuts didn’t cook in the middle, so they took the middle out and had a hole in the middle instead. If you prod at a particular task with these questions you can come up with some interesting solutions.

Futurescaping is effectively wishful thinking: if you can project where you want to be it can help you to think about the context of the new idea

Random word/picture. The idea here is to get a dictionary and pick out a random word or look round the room and pick out a random word e.g. “light”. You then take the random word and try and relate it to your problem. For example, imagine you are thinking about generating new ideas about cars and your random word is “balloon”. So, you might think what does balloon have to do with car? That is where you might 122 have a “bridging” idea. So, you think what has a balloon got to do with anything; what characteristics does it have, what does it do. You then might think about a balloon on a car, helping to raise a car up. You might then think about raising a car up on a car jack: on soft soil you can’t use a car jack so then the idea could be a new sort of car jack that will spread the force more evenly on the car. This technique can be useful for unusual solutions and I recommend it if you’re feeling stumped.

Colour bath is hard to demonstrate because it is intuitive but it describes the effect of colour on you so you might lie in a bath of green and come up with some new environmental ideas. You might use red for thinking about love and so on.

Mind mapping is a useful technique for working on ideas on your own or in a group. While writing long- hand is “left brain”, mind maps use “right brain” by employing colour and visual information. There are a few different ways to do mind maps but they generally start with a key word that relates to the challenge in the centre of a sheet of paper. You then think of essential words or phrases that relate to the key word and place these around the key word. You keep adding words or phrases either to the key word or to the last word or phrase you added and do this until you build up as complex a map as you feel necessary. Only then do you review the map to see if there are any ideas that can be used to address the challenge. Here’s an example for a brand of beer where the challenge was increasing its profile among young drinkers. The key word, therefore, was young drinkers:

Another way of using the mind map is to link the words like “fashion” and “clubs”, rather than simply thinking of ideas around one word, and see whether the challenge can be addressed by using combinations.

Money-in-the-mouth is useful in making yourself think harder about decisions: consider the different ideas you have and ask yourself whether, given £100, you will put it on one idea or split it across a few different ideas.

Role-play encourages you to think about ideas from different points of view. Ask yourself, “How would my manager do it? How would consumers do it? How would Richard Branson do it? How would McDonalds 123 do it?” Try and stand in someone else’s shoes. Six hats is another means of role-play: imagine you are wearing a green hat and think positively about an idea; then put on a black hat and tear the idea apart: each hat represents a different role.

Murder boards are where you have an idea and you put it up in the middle of a big piece of paper in a staff room, coffee room or somewhere similar and let people go for it add their thoughts and opinions. As this is an anonymous exercise it lets people be honest about what they really think

So, as a parting thought, be prepared to spend time generating ideas: it is better to have enough ideas and for some of them to be wrong than to have no ideas at all.

124 Round Tables

The round tables offered delegates the chance to benefit from the knowledge of fifteen experts on fifteen different subjects. A brief outline of the subjects covered is included below, along with email addresses for the convenors for those eager for more information.

Effective customer care with Beth Aplin (Arts Consultant)

What do you do to make your customers feel cared for? Are you happy with your organisation’s customer care policy? Beth, who is delivering a course on training the trainer in customer care for the AMA this autumn, answered questions on how you can provide an ongoing programme of customer care in your box office, front of house, catering or gallery visitor services. E: [email protected]

Pricing with Tim Baker (Arts Consultant)

Pricing is one of the most sophisticated tools in the marketing toolbox, yet for many arts organisations pricing strategy falls somewhere between a macho competition for the highest top prices, and attempts to keep prices as low as possible in order to promote accessibility. Even for mid-scale organisations, there are hundreds of variables that can be 'tweaked' to achieve big increases in revenue without affecting attendance. Tim talked about the model he has developed to help understand the factors that affect pricing strategy, and answered pricing questions. E: [email protected]

Direct Marketing with Nick Boaden (Marketing Manager at the West Yorkshire Playhouse)

So what is it? According to the Direct Marketing Association, it is: ‘Communications where data is used systematically to achieve quantifiable marketing objectives and where direct contact is invited or made between a company and its existing and prospective customers.’ So how do we make the most of direct marketing when we often work in strapped-for-cash arts organisations? Drawing on ten years of working in performing arts marketing, Nick shared a host of examples of good practice. E: [email protected]

Museum and Gallery Marketing with Kate Carreno (Sainsbury Centre for Visual Art)

New and refurbished museums and galleries open on an almost daily basis; exhibition previews make the pages of ‘Hello!’, and getting a same-day ticket for shows like Picasso-Matisse is nearly as hard as getting a Centre Court seat for the men’s final. Are museum and galleries the new rock and roll? Is marketing their rising star? Or are you still stuck with no staff, no budget, no database and no visitor information, with colleagues who want to know why you haven’t yet got the exhibition into the review section of the Saturday Guardian? Delegates shared their joys and woes. E: [email protected]

125 Marketing Planning with Stephen Cashman (Arts Consultant)

No matter how brilliantly creative your marketing ideas are, you might still not be using resources, embracing opportunities or countering threats to maximum effect unless you have a cogent marketing plan. This risk increases enormously when strategic issues are involved. Stephen Cashman led a conversation on best practice in marketing planning. Stephen has produced more than ten strategic marketing plans for a range of arts organisations. He has most recently written Thinking BIG!, the AMA and Arts Council England guide to strategic marketing planning for arts organisations. E: [email protected]

Databases & data analysis with Rachel Davidge & Fergus O’Keefe (Tickets.com)

Do you want to refine your skills and get the most out of your database? Do you have a detailed understanding of the key issues involved in data analysis? This was the session for delegates wanting to brush up on how to get the most out of their system. E: [email protected]

E-marketing with Hans de Kretser (Head of Digital Marketing, M + H Communications)

E-marketing can be an extremely cost-effective tool to help you achieve your marketing objectives. We constantly hear about developments in new technology, which can leave us feeling like we’re always running to keep up. Hans cut to the chase, and helped identify how to make the most of your online marketing activity. E: [email protected]

Motivating people with Simon Drysdale (Head of Sales & Marketing, The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall)

Every manager needs to be able to motivate or draw out the best from others and Simon, who has been Head of Sales & Marketing for the last seven years at The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, answered questions on how to motivate your team. E: [email protected]

Developing Black & Asian Audiences with Jonathan Goodacre (Senior Manager for Programme Delivery, Momentum Arts)

There is no single method to develop Black and Asian audiences because there is no single Black and Asian market. As with any targets, your strategy and tactics should be based on a sound knowledge of the character of your local or regional target markets and their arts interests and habits. Jonathan helped delegates to identify some appropriate strategies and tactics. E: [email protected]

Press planning with Caroline Griffin (Senior Bursar, SAMPAD)

Do you have a detailed understanding of the key issues involved in developing and implementing a press campaign? Caroline helped to answer delegates’ queries, questions and concerns. E: [email protected]

126 Selling difficult work with Heather Maitland (Arts Consultant)

We’ve been trying to develop audiences for ‘difficult’ work for years now, but audiences still don’t meet expectations. Do you feel under unbearable pressure to achieve the impossible? How do we drop the label that condemns some work as difficult? Heather, who has worked on audience development with a wide range of arts organisations, addressed queries on how to interpret the information to tell audiences what they need to know, and create an image that communicates the message effectively to your target audience. E: [email protected]

Programming & audience development with David Popple (Manager of Stamford Arts Centre)

How do programming, education and marketing work together in your organisation? For a basic guide to programming and how it fits with audience development objectives, delegates talked to David who has been managing venues for 14 years. David introduced his checklist for programming and selecting touring work, and shared his wisdom on making the most out of your attendance patterns. E: [email protected]

Advertising with Martin Prendergast (Arts Manager of Guardian Newspapers Ltd.)

This was the opportunity to find out how to get an outstanding return on your advertising budgets. Why do some adverts work, whilst others disappear off the page? How can you tell if an advert is working? How do you plan and implement an advertising campaign? What are the dos and don’ts of advertising? When is advertising a complete waste of money? E: [email protected]

SMS with Ruth Staple (Marketing Director, South West Arts Marketing)

An average of 55 million text messages were sent each day in the UK in May 2003. Ruth gave advice on getting a piece of the action, having used SMS technology to market a range of events in Plymouth to 18- 24 year olds, working with a range of arts and leisure organisations throughout the city. E: [email protected]

Optimising for selling online with Roger Tomlinson (Arts Consultant)

Regular AMA speaker, Roger Tomlinson is content manager of ticketing.org.uk, the ticketing technologies website for cultural organisations. Roger took questions and queries, including setting up online sales, integrating these with your offline sales, and understanding the fees and charges. E: [email protected]

127 Speakers’ Biographies

Stephen Cashman

Stephen is an independent consultant who specialises in working with arts and cultural organisations on issues of strategic management, strategic marketing and identifying the implications of future trends. A Durham University MBA, he has been employed by a range of arts organisations and has written ‘Thinking Big!’, the AMA / ACE guide to strategic marketing planning for arts organisations to be launched at this year’s conference. Besides his other projects, he is currently working as the Director of Communications for the Network of Audience Development Agencies.

Anna Castle

Anna Castle, development manager of STAGETEXT, is a graduate in drama. Anna has worked in marketing at the West Yorkshire Playhouse where she concentrated on a range of access issues, at Hammersmith and West London College and as business development manager for I CAN, the national educational charity for children with speech and language difficulties. Anna has been amazed at the range of people who attend and enjoy captioned performances and for whom going to the theatre has become a positive and accessible experience.

Margaret Chapman

Margaret Chapman is a chartered psychologist based at the University of Hertfordshire. She specialises in the social psychology of work and organisations and in particular, narrative-based approaches to research and practice. Her doctoral research is funded by the Economic & Social Research Council and investigates the emerging concept of emotional intelligence (EI) in leadership development. Her thesis is entitled ‘Critical Competency or Passing Fad? Exploring emotional intelligence discourses in learning and development’ and is an exploratory study designed to investigate ways in which different stakeholders talk about and make sense of EI and with what implications, for both theory and practice. Margaret has presented her work at numerous national and international conferences and published a range of articles for both the academic and professional press. Her first text ‘The Emotional Intelligence Pocketbook’ appeared in 2001 and has resulted in media appearances on national and local BBC radio. The book has enjoyed popular interest and she receives regular feedback on its ‘user friendliness’ and accessibility. The rights have recently been sold to India and Chinese Hong Kong and ranks amongst the top 10 on Amazon (UK) in terms of popularity, alongside such notaries as Daniel Goleman.

Dave Cobban

Dave has been working in business and marketing for 12 years. He started working life in 1991 as an accountant at KPMG in London, auditing companies such as Grand Metropolitan, John Laing, Haagen Dazs, and Burger King. Then he moved into the management consultancy arm of KPMG working on the William Hill bookmaker’s litigation. In 1994 post qualification he seconded to KPMG Sydney to work on the Qantas floatation. Then in 1995 had a serious change of career and moved to the planning department of the advertising agency DDB Sydney. There, he worked on brands like McDonald’s, Microsoft, Hasbro, NSW Dairy Farmers, NSW Lotteries, and Hyundai. In 1998 he returned to London to begin working at

128 M&C Saatchi on Foster’s, Sega, PPP healthcare, and helped set up eMCSaatchi. In 2000 moved to HHCL & Partners to work on Guinness Ireland, AA and ITV. In late 2001 Dave joined the board of A Vision as Planning Director. A Vision is a small through-the-line communications agency specialising in experiential marketing. Their clients include Sony Europe, Audi, PlayStation, Channel 5, Lycos, Orange and MTV.

Tracy Cochrane

Tracy Cochrane has spent over ten years working in arts marketing, and is now the marketing manager with Audiences Yorkshire, which she joined five years ago. Audiences Yorkshire is the largest of the arts marketing agencies, and Tracy has responsibility for managing the marketing, audience development and research work of the company. She has worked with a wide range of performing and visual arts organisations, museums, festivals and cultural attractions. She has extensive audience development experience, including Arts Exchange, aimed at developing audiences for South Asian arts events and she is currently working on Audiences Europe, aimed at accessing best practice in audience development across Europe. Tracy is an experienced researcher in both quantitative and qualitative techniques. She is also an experienced trainer, having developed a programme of marketing and audience development training courses, which she has delivered as far afield as Budapest. Previously she was head of marketing at the Victoria Theatre in Halifax, and prior to this she was marketing officer at Yorkshire Dance, one of the national dance agencies.

Hans de Krester

Hans de Kretser is head of digital marketing at M + H Communications Ltd. Working with arts organisations across the UK, he provides consultancy on online strategy and project management as well as support with online marketing and using digital media. This has given him the opportunity to experience working with many of the latest technologies that e-marketing offers. Most recently these have included videos on mobile phones, online viral games, as well as email and text marketing techniques and building content management systems for websites. Before working for M+H, Hans worked at Sadler's Wells where he implemented one of the first real-time integrated online ticketing systems in a UK theatre. He also introduced an SMS text messaging system that can reserve tickets from a mobile phone direct to the ticket database. Hans began his marketing career at English National Opera where he specialized in direct marketing and research. It is these skills which have informed his approach to digital marketing today.

Helen Dunnett

Following a music degree at Liverpool University, Helen began her career in the arts working for music publisher Emerson Edition (also known to wind players worldwide as June Emerson Wind Music). She then went to Edinburgh to work for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra as publicity officer, closely followed by the Hallé Orchestra where she was press and PR officer, acting head of marketing and press and marketing manager all in the space of 2 years! Helen then decided to diversify somewhat and was marketing manager at Buxton Opera House until November 2001. She is currently head of marketing at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.Whilst at the Hallé Orchestra Helen worked on the very first Test Drive scheme, pioneered by the Hallé in 1996/7 with Arts About Manchester, and has subsequently presented the results to the Arts Council and at Arts About Manchester's launch of 'Test Drive the Arts' at The

129 Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. At Buxton she developed a pioneering telemarketing scheme, called ‘TelePrompt’, which was a huge success and is now used in many other arts organisations around the country. The big focus at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is a new strategy based on customer relationship management and the engine that drives this – segmentation. Cutting edge analysis tools have been used to identify and target specific segments in our existing and potential audience and put them into a 'Climbing Frame' of loyalty. This too has aroused significant interested in the sector. In her spare time Helen sings in two choirs and learns German!

Phil Gibby

Phil Gibby has been director of Arts & Business South West since April 2003. He previously spent four years with Bristol Old Vic, where he headed the company’s marketing, sponsorship, press & PR and sales functions, implementing a radical new marketing strategy based on the tenets of customer relationship management. Since August 2000, he has chaired South West Arts Marketing, the regional audience development agency. He also chairs art + power, a radical group of disabled artists working for change and has previously served as a board member of Total Theatre, Bristol Arts Marketing and the Welsh new writing company Theatr y Byd. Phil was closely involved in Bristol’s bid to become European Capital of Culture 2008, chairing the performing arts working party. He also sits on the conference management group of Culture South West. Before moving into arts management, Phil was news editor of the theatre industry newspaper, The Stage from 1993 to 1999. He has also written for a wide range of other titles, including the London Evening Standard, the Sunday Express, The Scotsman and The Gulf Times, as well as contributing to a number of industry publications including Prompt, ArtsProfessional and the Journal of Arts Marketing (JAM). Born in the Netherlands and a graduate of the University of Warwick, Phil is married with three children and lives in Bristol.

Sue Hemmings

Sue Hemmings is a social science staff tutor and member of the sociology discipline group at the Open University. Prior to this she was senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Plymouth. She has worked widely in the areas of cultural and women’s studies and has contributed to a number of national initiatives in the teaching of social sciences in higher education. With Eric Harrison she is the author for Polity of a range of student and tutor support materials in introductory sociology. She is a contributing author to Open University courses in sociology and in ‘race’ and education. With Elizabeth Silva and Ken Thompson she is author of ‘Understanding the Everyday’ in Tony Bennett and Diane Watson (eds) ‘Understanding Everyday Life’ (2002), Blackwell.

Mel Jennings

Mel Jennings worked in touring theatre (Black Mime Theatre, Talawa Theatre) for six years before becoming an arts marketing consultant. Her clients have included Arts Council England, Birmingham City Council and The British Council. Her work has taken her to Eastern Europe, South Africa, West Africa and across the Caribbean. Mel is also a visual artist, and founder of the Streatham Festival.

130 Tamar Kasriel

As head of knowledge venturing at The Henley Centre, Tamar is responsible for driving the development of The Henley Centre's proprietary consumer insight. She is valued for her broad, creative thinking, international outlook and her communication skills. She has led international projects across many sectors, both private and public, and now focuses on fast moving consumer goods and retail. Tamar has worked at The Henley Centre since 1997, prior to which jobs included a stint at the Guardian newspaper's New Media Lab and teaching in France and Japan. She has degrees in history and japanese from Oxford and Essex universities.

Steve Mannix

Steve is currently the chief executive of Shape, the largest disability arts development agency in the UK. Steve has worked in arts management, fundraising and campaigning for the past seventeen years in a variety of roles including; youth and community director for The Albany Empire, South East London; administrative director for Graeae Theatre Company, the national theatre company of disabled people; as general manager of Battersea Arts Centre and most recently as development director for Stonewall, the national lesbian and gay organisation. In addition to these posts, Steve has undertaken various freelance engagements and consultancies for organisations including Heart n Soul, Greenwich Festival, The Word literature festival, City Challenge, London Arts, the Arts Council of England and Contact Theatre. He has also acted as an advisor and assessor for the New Opportunities Fund, The Community Fund, The Platinum Trust and Sport England. Internationally, Steve has worked in the U.S. for Free Street Theatre, Chicago; California Theatre Centre, San Francisco; and City Kids, New York. He is currently working on a new pan European Initiative on the theme of access with the British Council and the Consortium des Institutes Culturels Europeens Belgigue.

Andrew McIntyre

Andrew was born into a socialist, football mad family in Middlesborough. This has left him with a strong desire to live somewhere else, a season-ticket at the Riverside Stadium and a bit of a leaning towards the underdog. In fact, he has a fatal attraction to difficult causes, trying to ban the bomb as CND’s national youth organiser, then urging world peace at the United Nations Association. But it was his doomed attempt to popularise the policies of Camden Council that persuaded him to settle for the soft option of developing audiences for the arts. Marketing roles in museums and galleries led to 8 years as head of research at the regional audience development agency. Four years ago, Andrew co-founded Morris Hargreaves McIntyre, a consultancy specialising in audience and organisational development. MHM’s clients include the major funding bodies and some of the most forward thinking arts organisations, large and small, in the UK, Europe, the Far East and Australia. Andrew lives in Manchester with Helen, a primary school music teacher, and two small sons who don’t yet support Manchester United.

Patrick Morsman

One time ‘ambient dub’ musician Patrick Morsman started his ticketing life as a box office assistant for the Hallé Orchestra. He was a key part of the team that opened Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall. A keen interest and understanding of the box office system led to a move to Select Ticketing Systems as support co-ordinator, eventually moving through to the sales department when the company became Tickets.com. 131 Patrick is now a sales consultant for Tickets.com covering the UK and Ireland, and brings to his role a wealth of experience from both the client and supplier perspectives.

Adrian Payne

Adrian Payne is Professor of services and relationship marketing and director of the Centre for Customer Relationship Management at the Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield University. An internationally recognised authority and author on CRM, relationship marketing and marketing strategy, he has acted as an advisor, consultant and educator to numerous leading organisations. His client list includes British Airways, Experian, IBM, Halifax, Hewlett Packard, Lloyds Bank, Mercedes-Benz, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Royal Mail and Zurich Financial Services. Adrian has practical experience in marketing, market research, corporate planning and general management. His previous appointments include positions as chief executive for a manufacturing company and he has also held senior appointments in corporate planning and marketing. He has worked widely in the IT, financial services professional services, telecoms and utilities sectors. He has also worked with many manufacturing firms and government departments. He is chairman of the Academic Advisory Council of the CRM Group Ltd. He is the author of the first text to be published on relationship marketing (Butterworth Heinemann, 1991), and has written several other books on the subject. He is currently completing two new books on CRM.

Martin Prendergast

Martin Prendergast is the arts manager at Guardian Newspapers Ltd. He has worked at GNL for the last five years and is currently charged with generating revenue from GNL's portfolio of arts sections, both print and on-line. Prior to working at the Guardian, Martin spent over four years working at Dewynters, the London-based live-arts advertising agency. He moved to London after leaving Warwick University where he graduated in english and theatre studies.

Peter Pullan

Peter Pullan, director and chair of STAGETEXT has been hard of hearing since the age of five. He is a postgraduate of Leeds University and has a technical and marketing background in chemicals in Europe. Asked on BBC London News what captioning meant to him, Peter replied: ‘It's about equality. It means that I can feel the same as any other person in the capital.’

Anne Roberts

Anne has been a freelance consultant in the arts for ten years. Her specialisms include audience development, market research (particularly qualitative), and marketing and management planning; clients include the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Rambert Dance, LIFT and Welsh National Opera. More recently she has become involved in continuing professional development and has worked as a coach and trainer for numerous arts managers. Recently she coached ten agency directors in marketing and management through First Spark, an eastern region continuing professional development initiative. Anne was co-founder of the Advanced Certificate in Arts Marketing, has been a staff lecturer at Warwick University and Anglia Polytechnic University, and has been in demand as a conference speaker and management trainer. Anne is a certified practitioner of neuro linguistic programming (NLP) some elements of which she employs during coaching and training projects; she is 132 also a qualified reflexologist (which so far she has failed to incorporate into management training!). Anne became a proud mum for the first time at the end of April, and baby Eliza will be seen attending selected conference sessions (though we hope not contributing too much!).

Robert Stanier

Robert Stanier is a consultant at The Henley Centre, where he has worked since 2000. He has worked on a variety of projects across sectors, specialising in leisure and media: a recent project on modal targeting for Capital Radio FM was nominated for an industry award. He is currently working for several government departments as well as private sector clients. He specialises in ethnographic research and workshop facilitation. He worked previously as a qualitative researcher for Reflexions Communication Research, did a stint working in marketing and event management for a NGO in New Delhi, and has a degree in classics from Magdalen College, Oxford. He led a seminar at last year's AMA conference in Glasgow.

Ruth Staple

Ruth Staple began her marketing career with an international brand of footwear (‘not just shoes but a way of life’) and, quickly realising her mistake, forewent her right to a budget and ran away to join the theatre. After working her way from press officer to marketing manager she left to join South West Arts Marketing, the regional audience development agency for the south west, in 2000. She is now the organisation’s marketing director and her role includes project management, training, research and offering support and services to artists and arts organisations from Lands End to Tewkesbury, as a results of which she spends many hours stuck in traffic or waiting for trains. Ruth is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a survivor of the AMA’s Advanced Certificate in Arts Marketing.

Merfyn Williams

Merfyn Williams, director of STAGETEXT has been profoundly deaf from birth and communicates using sign language and speech. He is a volunteer in community advocacy roles on access issues where he promotes awareness of the diversity of hearing loss. Merfyn says that captioning has given him full access to hearing culture theatre and enabled him to appreciate a wide range of theatre productions.

Petrina Wisniewski

Petrina was born in Canada but raised and educated in Sydney Australia. After completing a Bachelor of Business, she entered the workforce as a marketing graduate trainee at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Realising her true interest lay in advertising, she joined a leading Sydney agency - The Campaign Palace - where she worked as a planner for the next 5 years. During her time there her account portfolio included The Daily Telegraph, Nokia, Daewoo, The Australian Meat and Livestock Corporation, Thredbo Ski Resort, Bonds Clothing, Harlequin Mills & Boon, and Caltex. Seeking a new direction in life, Petrina decided to move to London and worked at Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R as a senior account planner for 3 years. Her account responsibilities included Marks and Spencer, Canderel, Lego, Breakthrough Breast Cancer, Womankind and Virgin Cola. Continuing her quest for new experiences, she then moved to a start-up integrated communications agency, Heresy, in 2003 and is working on Ocado (online grocery service in partnership with Waitrose) and the Sci-Fi Channel. Upon leaving high school, Petrina has also co-owned and managed several event management companies 133 which have hosted regular youth focused events. These range from touring US and UK DJs around Australia, to reinventing the roller disco in the UK.

134 Exhibitors’ Directory

Arts Council England

14 Great Peter Street, London SW1P 3NQ Tel: 020 7973 6569 Fax: 020 7973 6560 Email: [email protected] Web: www.artscouncil.org.uk Arts Council England is the national development agency for the arts. Between 2003 and 2006 we will invest £2 billion of public funds in the arts in England, including funding from the National Lottery. We believe in the transforming power of the arts - power to change the lives of people throughout the country. Our ambition is to place the arts at the heart of national life, reflecting the country's rich and diverse cultural identity as only the arts can. We want people throughout England to experience arts activities of the highest quality. We believe that access to the arts goes hand in hand with excellence.

ArtsProfessional

PO Box 957, Cottenham, Cambridge CB4 8AP Tel: 01954 250600 Fax: 01954 252600 Email: [email protected] web: www.artsprofessional.co.uk

ArtsProfessional, the fortnightly publication co-edited by Liz Hill and Brian Whitehead, was launched in May 2001 and has taken the arts world by storm, rapidly becoming the most popular UK arts management journal. Its circulation is now in excess of 6,500 arts professionals. Renowned for its strong independent editorial line, industry news and its cutting-edge arts management features, ArtsProfessional maintains an extensively archived website. It is complemented by its electronic sister publication, APe-mail, which is edited by Catherine Rose, published on alternate Tuesdays, and has a readership of nearly 6,000. APe- mail is a concise digest of arts-related stories which have appeared in the national broadsheets during the previous fortnight. Together ArtsProfessional and APe-mail have earned a reputation for being unrivalled sources of information. The combination of these two publications with a soon-to-be re-launched website, provides a cost-effective recruitment vehicle. If you don’t already get your own copy of the magazine, visit the ArtsProfessional conference stand to pick up a promotional postcard for the next four copies which will be mailed first class, free of charge, entirely without obligation. Alternatively, register online today at www.artsprofessional.co.uk

Galathea STS

Seatem House, 39 Moreland Street, London SE6 2HU Tel: 020 7014 8632 Fax: 020 7490 3530 Email: [email protected] Web: www.globaltickets.com Galathea was established in 1997 to develop a fresh, innovative and sophisticated product drawing on a wealth of industry expertise. ENTA was the result; designed to provide ticketing and marketing solutions in a wide range of environments whilst benefiting from new advances in Windows™ technology. Today, Galathea STS boasts a portfolio of over 50 clients ranging from international agency and citywide networks to high profile standalone venues with loyal and demanding clienteles. With the introduction of its enta- connect web-interface, Galathea STS recognises e-commerce as the critical area in its future plans.

135

The Guardian / Observer / Guardian Unlimited

119 Farringdon Road, London, EC1R 3ER Tel: 020 7239 9728 Fax: 020 7278 1449 Email: [email protected] Web: www.guardian.co.uk The Guardian is a modern, multi-sectioned award-winning national newspaper with a reputation for unparallelled arts coverage. Owned by a trust, it is truly independent and positions itself as: 'open- minded', 'challenging', 'intelligent', 'modern', 'lively', 'questioning', 'innovative', and 'confident'. ‘We will continue our traditions for investigation, for elegant writing, irreverence, for wit.’ Alan Rusbridger, Editor. ‘The Observer is Britain's oldest Sunday newspaper and it has been making mischief, poking its nose where it shouldn't and reporting the best in arts, culture, politics, sport, business and skulduggery for over two hundred years. We aim to keep it that way.’ Roger Alton, Editor.

Impact Distribution Services Ltd

Tuscany Wharf, 4b Orsman Road, London N1 5QJ Tel: 020 7729 5978 Fax: 020 7729 5994 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.impact.uk.com Impact Distribution Services Ltd have been providing cost-effective print distribution solutions to the arts, tourist and leisure sectors in London and the South East for over 20 years. We combine this experience with the latest technology to offer carefully targeted publicity display services to all organisations from the smallest fringe theatre company to London’s busiest tourist attractions and most prestigious international festivals. In addition to our standard distribution services we can also provide hand-to-hand, door-to-door and specialist poster campaigns and have recently expanded our geographical coverage to offer nationwide distribution in collaboration with our regional partners.

London Calling Arts Ltd

14A Ardleigh Road, London N1 4HP Tel: 020 7275 7225 Fax: 020 7241 4856 Email: louise@londoncalling Web: www.londoncalling.com Come and visit Alison, Andrea and Louise on the London Calling stand over the next few days. We will be demonstrating our attractive new website launched in May 2003. www.londoncalling.com gives details of all of our display and distribution options and allows you to subscribe for tickets offers from London theatres, venues and orchestras. When you subscribe to our new website during the Conference you will be entered in the prize draw, there is a subscription form in your Delegate Pack, fill it in and drop it at the stand, or subscribe online. Don't miss out!

Purple Seven Ltd

37 Lakin Road, Warwick CV34 5BU Tel: 0845 052 0985 Fax: 0870 420 4374 Email: [email protected] Web: www.purpleseven.co.uk Vital Statistics is a revolutionary data analysis tool. Using the latest technology, it is an online solution that sits alongside your box office system and automatically extracts your customer information on a daily 136 basis. You can access your information held on our secure server from any PC and run a wide range of easy-to-interpret analysis reports; set and track targets and undertake highly targeted mailings. To find out more about how Vital Statistics can help you improve your marketing effectiveness and to take advantage of our conference offer to save £500, come and see us at our exhibition stand.

SAM’s Books

Chaldon Court, Church Lane, Chaldon, Caterham, Surrey CR3 5AL Tel: 01883 345011 Fax: 01883 345011 Email: [email protected] Web: www.sam-arts.co.uk SAM’s Books provides a specialist books service for arts marketers and managers, and is leading on Ksam - Knowledge Services for Arts Management, an Arts Council funded project creating a searchable website of text-based knowledge to support arts management. So whether you are looking to increase your marketing knowledge, undertake or find some research, explore learning, understand partnerships or the world we live in, develop fund raising skills, or become a more effective manager, you will find the facts, have your questions answered and make the connections through Ksam. Browse live at our stand at the conference, and then on the websites www.sam-arts.co.uk and www.ksam.org.uk

STAGETEXT

Tel: 020 8903 5566 Fax: 020 8903 5566 Email: [email protected] Web: www.stagetext.co.uk STAGETEXT is a limited company, with charitable status, delivering captioned performances and promoting the use of captioning systems in cultural venues throughout the UK. STAGETEXT was established in May 2000 by Peter Pullan, Merfyn Williams and Geoff Brown. Each has a different type of hearing loss and a determination to improve access to the performing arts to all people with a hearing loss. STAGETEXT also supports venues in setting up their own in-house captioning systems, operated by captioners trained by STAGETEXT. STAGETEXT provides captioned performances in a wide variety of venues in England, Scotland and Wales.

Synchro Systems Ltd

International House, Stubbs Gate, Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Staffs ST5 1LU Tel: 01782 741999 Fax: 01782 742999 Email: [email protected] Web: www.synchro.co.uk Supplier of consumer-focused ticketing solutions to Arts & Entertainments industries. Producers of Venuemaster2 - CRM integrated venue management system. Also offer Internet ticketing solutions, interactive kiosks, project management, best-of-breed system integrations and dedicated ticketing and membership fulfilment services. Additional provision of seamless links with Ticketmaster also available.

Thirteen Design Ltd

9-10 King Street, Bristol BS1 4EQ Tel: 0117 908 1313 Fax: 0117 908 1314 Email: [email protected] Web: www.thirteen.co.uk

137 Thirteen is a graphic design company. Thirteen strives to produce intelligent and innovative design solutions across all media. Diversity is a vital ingredient of our personality and enables us to design for various sectors. There is no single idea behind Thirteen’s work – each project is approached in a unique way, with an open mind and fresh enthusiasm. If there is one common thread running through all of our projects, it is the desire to produce work that is unique, relevant and engaging. For further information contact Nick Hand.

Tickets.com

Midsummer House, 405 Midsummer Boulevard, Milton Keynes MK9 3BN Tel: 0845 330 2343 Fax: 01908 232414 Email: [email protected] Web: www.tickets.com/provenue Tickets.com offer complete ticketing, marketing and CRM solutions to venues throughout the UK and Ireland where there are now over 500 combined users of Databox and PASS. The recently launched ProVenue™ Ticketing Solutions brand includes ProVenueDatabox™ and ProVenueMax™. Tickets.com’s internet sales module ProVenueOnline™ offers an easy and reliable way to sell tickets in real-time direct from a venues website. Representatives from both customer services and sales will be present throughout the conference to talk through any questions you have. Tickets.com is proud to be sponsoring the AMA conference and wishes everyone a successful and enjoyable two days in Poole. ts.com

Windsor House, 12 High Street, Kidlington, Oxon OX5 2PJ Tel: 01865 856100 Fax: 01865 856001 Email: [email protected] Web: www.ts.com ts.com helps performing arts venues throughout the UK to dramatically increase their online business. We can do the same for you. Our low-cost, high performing products, including the award-winning ticketingsolutions platform, provide a simple route to extensive benefits. With ts.com as your technology partner, you will communicate better with existing customers; build relationships with new customers; boost your ticket sales; reduce your ticketing costs; streamline online, telephone and walk-up sales; increase revenues from merchandise and memberships; run more effective sales and marketing campaigns; improve your ability to respond to peaks in demand; remain in control of pricing and sales management. To find out more visit our stand or contact us (details above).

138 Delegate List

Name Surname Organisation

Margaret Ainsley Sheffield Galleries & Museums Trust Alain Airth M & H Communications Max Alder Zion Arts Julie Aldridge AMA Aisha Ali BBC North & ACE Tabitha Allum Arts Council England Louise Amery Aberystwyth Arts Centre Nadine Andrews Arts About Manchester Ltd Beth Aplin Catalyst Arts Sarah Armond Victoria and Albert Museum Hazel Arthur Opera North Richard Ashton Opera North Josie Aston Orchestra Of The Age Of Enlightenment Pam Badwal Impact Tim Baker Tim Baker Associates John Baker The Camberley Theatre Kirstin Bannerman Project Ability Darwinder Bansal sampad south asian arts Alison Barker Barbican Centre Julia Barry New Theatre Robin Barton Arts About Manchester Ltd Stephen Beadle Tickets.Com Limited Alison Beames London Calling Arts Ltd Jenny Beard Imperial War Museum North Claire Bebbington Palace Theatre & Opera House Simon Bedford West Yorkshire Playhouse Sarah Bell Arts Council England Haidee Bell Audiences Yorkshire Peter Bellingham Welsh National Opera Sheila Benjamin ABL Cultural Consulting Roger Bennett London Metropolitan University Cressida Bhavan Arts Marketing Association Suman Bhuchar Rachel Bickerton Halle Egil Bjornsen Centre For Cultural Policy Helen Black TAG Theatre Company Richard Bliss Northern Stage Nick Boaden West Yorkshire Playhouse Helen Bolt AMA Claire Bowdler City Of London Sinfonia Eamonn Boylan ts.com Jon Bradfield Out Of Joint Chantelle Brandon Reeves CIDA Philip Bray Nitro Orian Brooke Rachel Brown Royal Shakespeare Company Laura-Mae Browne Broadway Media Centre Tracy Brunt Half Moon Paul Brunton Borderline Theatre Nigel Buckler Arts Council England, South West 139 Howard Buckley Millfield Theatre & Arts Lauren Buddie National Galleries Of Scotland Helen Burgun Barbican Centre Harriet Busby Usher Hall Annabel Busher Karen Campbell North Wales Theatre Kate Carreno Sainsbury Centre Stephen Cashman Stephen Cashman Consultancy Anna Castle STAGETEXT Phil Cave Arts Council England Caroline Cawley ADeC Joanna Chapman Chester Gateway Theatre Margaret Chapman Boston Psych Janine Charles Oxford Brookes University Carmen Cheetham CIDA Dave Cobban A Vision Tracy Cochrane Audiences Yorkshire Jane Coe Barbican Centre Emma Conba Impact Distribution & Mktg Jodie Cook Gardner Arts Centre Aoife Corbett The Arts Council (Ireland) James Coutts National Galleries Of Scotland Neil Couzens Sadler's Wells Stephanie Cribbs DanceCity Helen Crumley Arts Council England Margaret Cudjoe Osageyfo Theatre Company Tamsin Curror Arts Council England Rosemary Curtis SAMs Books Sian Dafydd Sgript Cymru Rachel Davidge Tickets.com Limited Sophia Davidson Nitro Julia Davies Northern Ballet Theatre Louisa Davison The Corn Exchange Hans de Kretser M&H Communications Simon Delany AKA Jo Dereza Exeter Phoenix Alice Devitt Anita Dinham Arts Ambassador Jane Donald The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall Adele Donnellan M & H Communications Ltd Kirsty Doubleday Dewynters Plc Simon Drysdale The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall Kate Duffell AKA Dominic Dulley Purple Seven Helen Dunnett Royal Liverpool Philharmonic & Philharmonic Hall Julie Eaglen Louise Emerson London Calling Arts Ltd Lindsay Endean Spitalfields Festival Stephanie Falkiner Birmingham Repertory Theatre Iain Farrell Citizens' Theatre Julia Farrington Union Chapel Project Deirdre Figueiredo Craftspace Touring Rona Fineman Diane Fitzpatrick Solihull Arts Complex Katherine Flynn UHArts 140 Jo Forrest Arts Council England Kate Fortescue AMA June Francois Valleys Arts Marketing Iain Fraser University of Abertay, Dundee Peter Fraser University of Hertfordshire Dawn Gabriel Assembly Hall Theatre Nathi Gaisa ACMASA Angela Galvin Sheffield Theatres Louise Gardner Watershed Media Centre Rachel Gatiss AKA Jennie Gentles Watermans Trudi George DipM MCIM Max Marcomms Ltd Phil Gibby Arts & Business South West Lisa Gidney Purple Seven Jon Gloersen Roadmender Georgie Goddard SAMs Books Lucy Goldsborough Almeida Theatre Company Jonathan Goodacre momentum arts May Goodliffe Lawrence Batley Theatre Catherine Goss Glyndebourne Festival Opera Kim Gowland Manchester City Galleries Fran Graham Audiences Yorkshire Judith Gray Dundee Contemporary Arts Elizabeth Green City of Birmingham Symphony Tanya Greenfield Arts Council Of Northern Ireland Dianne Greig Scottish Opera Lucy Grierson Caroline Griffin MAC (Midlands Arts Centre) Gary Haldane Scottish Opera Katie Hall Royal Festival Hall Nick Hallam Royal And Derngate Theatres, Nick Hand Thirteen Charlotte Handel The Drill Hall James Hanks FACT Rachel Hanson Leicester City Council Matthew Hare ts.com Alvin Hargreaves Plymouth Pavilions Di Harris SAMs Books Jenny Harris Leeds International Concert Season Rachel Harrison Birmingham Arts Marketing Laura Hartley Northcott Theatre Simon Harvey Williams Bath Festivals Trust Rachael Hazzard TEAM Christina Heap Royal Centre Sue Hemmings The Open University Beatrice Henderson Catriona Henderson Arnolfini Pam Henderson AMA Marcia Hewitt UK Arts International Peter Hewitt Arts Council England Lee Hickman Agenzia Diana Hiddleston The Oxford Playhouse Eric Hildrew Audiences Yorkshire Sarah Hirons BBC Symphony Orchestra Sally Hodgson Lakeside Arts Centre 141 Sarah Hodson Bristol Old Vic Zol Hoffmann Impact Distribution & Mktg Russell Holbert Arts Marketing Hampshire Neil Holding The British Library Lesley Holmes Culture & Arts Unit, Belfast City Council Morwenna Honan Royal International Pavilion Henrietta Hopkins Resource Susie Hopkinson Barbican Centre Suzanne Hopp Arts & Entertainment King's Lynn & West Norfolk David Hopper Peacock Theatre Graeme Howell Nottingham Playhouse Tracey Hughes Unit Communications Group David Hughes Tickets.com Limited Sarah Hunt Donmar Warehouse Madeline Hutchins SAMs Books Jeni Iannetta Dundee Contemporary Arts Mark Irwin Citizens' Theatre Louise Izod Artworks-MK Lynn Jackson STAGETEXT Marianne Jacques The Oxford Playhouse Kingsley Jayasekera M & H Communications Ben Jeffries Arts Council England Danny Jenkins Thirteen Jeanne Jenner Phoenix Arts Lis Jennings Wycombe Swan Mel Jennings Independent Consultant Sarah Jervis The Oxford Playhouse Cat John Reading Museum Service Gill Johnson Arts Council England Jo Johnson BBC Concert Orchestra Victoria Johnson M & H Communications Neil Jones Cambridge City Council Mandy Jones North Wales Theatre Richard Jones North Wales Theatre Gillian Jones The Bush Theatre Trina Jones Birmingham Repertory Theatre Andrea Jones London Calling Arts Ltd Neville Jopson Lawrence Batley Theatre Nina Jowett Birmingham Arts Marketing Helena Joyce CIDA Sophia Kakembo Green Room Tamar Kasriel The Henley Centre Jo Kay Arts About Manchester Ltd Victoria Kearns Shared Experience Melanie Keartland ACMASA Colette Keaveney BBC Concert Orchestra Iain Kempton Creu Cymru Sarah Kennedy West Yorkshire Playhouse Salema Khanum UK Arts International Richard King Front Of House Fundraising Susan Kirby Triskel Arts Centre Marie Kirbyshaw Artworks-MK Shirley Kirk South West Arts Marketing Rita Kottasz London Metropolitan University Leon Kruger Coliseum Aberdare 142 Sian Lambert Royal And Derngate Theatres Karen Lawton Roses Theatre Jo Ledwidge Contact -Young People's Theatre Ltd Richard Leggatt Galathea STS Limited Simone Lennox-Gordon Arts Council England Jonathan Lewis Buckinghamshire Chilterns University Jo Lock North Devon Theatres Trust Bobby Lonergan Reading Arts & Venues Frances Longley MAC (Midlands Arts Centre) Tamsin Loudon Bridport Arts Centre Tracey Low English Pocket Opera Yi-Shan Lu Department Of Museum Studies Eileen MacCallum Boilerhouse Theatre Company Eve MacDonald Welsh National Opera Alison MacLeod Dundee Repertory Theatre Jane Macpherson The Lowry David Madge Neath Port Talbot CBC Melanie Maidens Audiences Yorkshire Heather Maitland Tim Manley Arts About Manchester Alison Mann Arts Council England Steve Mannix Shape Emma Marlow Barbican Centre Donna Marsh Glyndebourne Festival Opera Rob Marshall Arts Council England, Liz Martell Arts Council England Valentina Maxwell Sheridan Maynard Birmingham Arts Marketing Brian McAteer Assembly Hall Theatre Kim McAvoy Firstsite @ The Minories Art Gallery Rebecca McCauley Buxton Opera House Violet McClean Arts Institute at Bournemouth Adam McGinlay North Wales Theatre Sharon McGreevy Institute Of Art Design & Tech Andrew McIntyre Morris Hargreaves McIntyre Hannah McKeand The Watermill Theatre Karen McKinnon-Lilley Arts Council England David McNeill Arts Council Of England Rachel Menzies Brunton Theatre Sarena Messam Apna Arts Kevin Metchear Library Theatre Company Bill Miller CSN Consultancy Ltd Penny Mills Royal Court Theatre Nia Mills Taliesin Arts Centre Catharine Milner Barbican Theatre Debora Mo June Moore Theatre Royal Karen Moore People's History Museum Paola Mora Sadler's Wells Rebecca Morris City Of Birmingham Symphony Patrick Morsman Tickets.com Mark Mulqueen Arts Council England Rachael Murray Norfolk & Norwich Festival Claire Murray Royal And Derngate Theatres Sofia Nazar Lakeside Arts Centre 143 Laura Newhofer Young Vic David Newland Arts Council Of Wales Yve Ngoo BBC Radio Newcastle Stuart Nicolle Purple Seven William Norris London Philharmonic Orchestra Robin Norton-Hale English Touring Opera Frederica Notley Gardner Arts Centre Michelle Nye-Browne Firstsite @ The Minories Art Gallery Simi Obra The PRS Foundation Roisin O'Brien Cardiff Arts Marketing Chris O'Kelly Queens Theatre Sarah Ogle Denrele Ogunwa Decibel Fergus O'Keefe Tickets.com Limited Helen Palmer Diana Pao Arts Council England, London Neil Parker momentum arts Jigisha Patel Ikon Gallery Stella Patrick Taliesin Arts Centre Scott Paul Synchro Systems Ltd Adrian Payne Cranfield School of Managment Anatal Perlin Amsterdam Uitburo Adrian Phillips The Phone Room Ltd Sara Phillips momentum arts Marika Player Royal And Derngate Theatres Nicola Pleming Solihull MBC Libraries & Arts Lisa Popham Dewynters Plc David Popple Stamford Arts Centre Ellie Post Barbican Centre Alan Postlethwaite ts.com Josie Powell Northern Ballet Theatre Adam Powell Association Of British Orchestras Alex Powers Arts Council England Becky Pratchett Watershed Media Centre Martin Prendergast Guardian Media Group Chloe Priest Britten Sinfonia Lynfa Protheroe Valleys Arts Marketing Peter Pullan STAGETEXT Adrienne Pye Arts Marketing Hampshire Rasheed Rahman Polka Theatre Mary Rahman Sharon Raizada Barbican Centre Punam Ramchurn Contact -Young People's Theatre Ltd Sharon Raymond Zion Arts Catherine Reed Palace Theatre & Opera House Enid Reid Whyte The Arts Council (Ireland) Liz Richards Pilot Theatre Company Claire Richards Rothes Halls Debbie Richards Amy Richardson Phoenix Dance Theatre Angela Riddering Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Debbie Ripley sugarfreedesign Anne Roberts Alison Rodgers Dundee Contemporary Arts Sara Rogerson National Galleries Of Scotland 144 Louise Rose Birmingham Arts Marketing Joanna Rowlands FACT Sheila Ryall Assembly Hall Theatre Mary Ryan Institute Of Art Design & Tech Nicholas Sadlier Belfast Waterfront Hall Tim Sanders Galathea STS Limited Caroline Sanger-Davies Llangollen International Jonathan Saville Royal Centre Samantha Scott Forced Entertainment Vicky Shead Phoenix Arts Andrea Sheppard The Point Howard Sherwood Splash Of Paint Keith Shiri Tamara Shneck Unit Communications Group Jan Shorrocks Salisbury Playhouse Lucy Shorrocks Welsh National Opera Joanna Sigsworth BBC National Orchestra Of Wales Claire Silcock Imperial War Museum North Jessica Silvester Royal Albert Hall Emma Simon Unicorn Marketing Office Claire Simons Barbican Centre Sam Skillings Chipping Norton Theatre Rebecca Small Royal Shakespeare Company Kate Smith South West Arts Marketing Janet Smith Blackwood Miners Institute Arti Sonchhatla Arts Marketing Hampshire Katharine Sorensen Milton Keynes Gallery Lisa Spencer Craftspace Touring John Sprackland Southport Arts Centre Sara St. George Arts Institute at Bournemouth Rob Stanier The Henley Centre Ruth Staple South West Arts Marketing Daniel Storer Impact Distribution & Marketing Heather Stradling momentum arts Katherine Styles Peacock Theatre Sarah Swaine Guardian Media Group Peter Swinkels Amsterdams Uitburo Jackie Tata-Rojar Synchro Systems Ltd William Tayleur Business Of Culture Ltd Lynsey Taylor Scottish Opera Jo Taylor St George's Bristol Christian Terrill Galathea STS Limited Nerys Thomas Blackwood Miners Institute Rachael Thompson Tickets.com Limited Angela Tillcock Marketing Consultant Marie Tippet North Devon Theatres Trust Craig Titley Palace Theatre Watford Rachel Tomkins Modern Art Oxford Roger Tomlinson ACT Consultant Services Jane Tonkin Crafts Council Anne Torreggiani Audiences London Jo Towler Philharmonia Orchestra Jenny Tunbridge AMA Sharon Tuttle Arnolfini Catherine Twite Gallery Oldham 145 Sally Anne Tye Nottingham Playhouse John Underwood Thirteen Michelle Van Den Berg Theatre Sans Frontieres Sarah Vining Smith National Waterfront Museum Jenny Vobe MASC Ivan Wadeson Arts About Manchester Ltd Simon Wall Reading Arts & Venues Fiona Wallace Derby Playhouse Mark Walmsley WebProjects Huei-Wan Wang Department Of Museum Studies Matt Ward Palace Theatre & Opera House Agnes Warntjes Rotterdam Festivals Samantha Watson Dorking Halls Carl Watt Scottish Museums Council Hazel Weeks Aberdeenshire Council Rachel Wheeler Leicester City Council Ian Whitaker Young Vic Kate White Blackfriars Arts Centre Brian Whitehead ArtsProfessional Alisha Whittington Quicksilver Theatre Adrian Williams Coliseum Aberdare Deborah Williams Reality Productions Merfyn Williams STAGETEXT Andrew Willshire Horniman Museum & Gardens Gabrielle Wilson English Touring Opera Barry Wilson The Drill Hall Sarah Wilson Horniman Museum Grace Wilton Dorking Halls Petrina Wisniewski Heresy Tim Wood The Place Sarah Wood Theatre Cryptic Sandra Wood Brewery Arts Centre Amanda Wood The Sage Gateshead Nick Woodhouse Guardian Media Group Gemma Woolford Impact Distribution & Mktg Suzanne Wynne Wycombe Swan Dawn Yates Manchester City Galleries David Young Tolbooth Nicky Young Dundee Repertory Theatre

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