American University Thesis and Dissertation Template for PC 2016

Kara York

2019

EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING IN THE PERFORMING ARTS

Kara York

ABSTRACT

This thesis explores the theory and practice of experiential marketing in the performing arts. It argues that in the performing arts, experiential marketing has two facets: marketing the whole experience of attending a performance, and marketing as an experience itself. Experiential marketing is about creating experiences that consumers want to be a part of. It is inherently part of the performing arts, because they are an experience in and of themselves. However, experiential marketing as a concrete concept has been underexplored in the performing arts in a formal manner. There is literature on experiential marketing in corporate marketing, but a lack of literature on its application in the performing arts. Experiential marketing connects marketing and programming. For patrons, it is all part of the same experience – from the moment of impact created by the organization’s marketing techniques to the moment they stop interacting with the organization after they return home.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ...... i

LIST OF TABLES ...... iii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ...... iv

LIST OF DEFINITIONS ...... v

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ...... 1

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 4

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ...... 19

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS: DC BEST PRACTICES OBSERVATIONS ...... 26

Wolf Trap...... 26

The Washington Ballet...... 30

Signature Theatre...... 31

Woolly Mammoth Theatre...... 34

The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center...... 36

CHAPTER 5 FINDINGS: DC BEST PRACTICES INTERVIEWS...... 38

CHAPTER 6 FINDINGS: NATIONWIDE SURVEY ...... 58

CHAPTER 7 DISCUSSION & CONCLUSIONS ...... 73

Summary...... 73

Discussion & Conclusions...... 76

APPENDIX A INTERVIEW PARTICIPANTS AND QUESTIONS...... 85

APPENDIX B SURVEY PARTICIPANTS AND QUESTIONS ...... 87

REFERENCES ...... 90

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Familiarity with the Term “Experiential Marketing.” Source: York 2019 ...... 59

Table 2 Experiential Marketing Formal Training. Source: York 2019 ...... 63

Table 3 Pre/Post Performance Talks. Source: York 2019 ...... 64

Table 4 Artist Meet & Greets. Source: York 2019 ...... 65

Table 5 Non-Traditional Performance Settings. Source: York 2019 ...... 66

iii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure 1 Ticket into "Titanic." Source: Signature Theatre 2016 ...... 54

Figure 2 “The Scottsboro Boys” Lobby Exhibit. Source: Signature Theatre 2018 ...... 55

Figure 3 “The Fix” Poster. Source: Signature Theatre 2015 ...... 56

Figure 4 “The Fix” Window Cling. Souce: Signature Theatre 2015 ...... 56

Figure 5 “The Fix” Step and Repeat Podium Sign. Source: Signature Theatre 2015 ...... 57

LIST OF DEFINITIONS

CONVERSATIONAL “A one-to-one approach to marketing that companies MARKETING use to shorten their sales cycle, learn about their customers, and create a more human buying experience,” (Drift.com, Inc. 2019)

CUSTOMER-CENTRIC “Customer-centric marketing is a marketing approach MARKETING designed around customer needs and interests. It is about prioritizing customers over any other factor, using a blend of intuition, common sense, and solid data about customer behavior,” (Grenier 2018).

CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT “…encouraging your customers to interact and share in MARKETING the experiences you create for them as a business and a brand,” (Ference 2017). Giving customers “something meaningful beyond a sales pitch: a brilliant end-to-end customer experience, great content, or interactive, real- time customer support,” (Ference 2017).

EMOTIONAL MARKETING “Emotional marketing tells a story that connects with an audience in a human or personal way” and “conveys a brand’s values, interests and passion,” (Cohen 2017).

EVENT MARKETING “The promotion of a product, brand, or service through in-person interactions,” (Kim 2018).

EXPERIENCE “Something personally encountered, undergone, or lived through,” (Merriam-Webster, Incorporated 2019). “…obtained from doing, seeing, or feeling things,” (Cambridge University Press 2019). “An event or occurrence which leaves an impression on someone,” (Oxford University Press 2019).

EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING Creating experiences that consumers want to be a part of (Olenski 2018).

RELATIONSHIP MARKETING "Relationship marketing is a strategy designed to foster customer loyalty, interaction and long-term engagement. It is designed to develop strong connections with customers by providing them with information directly suited to their needs and interests and by promoting open communication,” (Olenski 2019). “…a brand’s ability to create an emotional connection with a customer,” (Olenski 2019).

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Perhaps there should be a subject called 'art/market studies' which examines the different facets of this relationship. Its focus could include, for example, the marketing of art, marketing in art, marketing through art, marketing from art, and marketing as art.

—Daragh O’Reilly & Finola Kerrigan, Marketing the Arts

Experiential marketing is a marketing tactic that is currently being utilized by many successful businesses. While experiential marketing has existed for a long time, long before today’s technological age, it is currently coming to the forefront of the marketing world and becoming a vitally important marketing method as the digital landscape evolves. As technology replaces many aspects of human communication, human actions, jobs that were previously done by humans, and activities that used to be live experiences but now are done online, people of all demographics are beginning to actively crave and seek out live experiences and opportunities to make memories and form human connections.

As is mentioned above, experiential marketing has been around for a long time, but it has recently come to the forefront of the marketing world as a result of the current rapidly changing digital landscape and people’s growing desire to seek out real, live experiences. While experiential marketing is quickly emerging to the forefront of the marketing scene and is being used by many corporate businesses, it is not being used as intentionally and effectively as it could be in performing arts marketing. There is also some ambiguity surrounding the definition of “experiential marketing” in relation to other types of marketing, such as relationship marketing, customer-centric marketing, customer engagement marketing, inclusive marketing,

event marketing, emotional marketing, and conversational marketing (see LIST OF

DEFINITIONS). Although experiential marketing is very much its own marketing type, and it employs methods that are specific to the concept of marketing that is based on creating experiences, it is also in a lot of ways intertwined with, and influenced by, these other types of marketing.

Experiential marketing can be defined as “memorable events or experiences that engage the customer in a personal way,”(Lung and Hu 2017),“an advertising strategy that focuses on helping consumers experience a brand,” (Galetto 2018),“getting into public spaces and letting the consumer interact with your product personally,” (Hein 2007), “direct engagement with consumers and creatively interacting with them in a memorable way,” (Kim 2017), or “a type of strategy that engages an audience with a real-life invitation to engage with–or experience–a brand and what it makes or represents. It's participatory, hands-on, and tangible," (Zantal-Wiener

2017). Experiential marketing is, in its essence, about fostering opportunities that create live connections, conversations, multi-sensory experiences, and human moments. "Human moments create the meaning we crave, and those moments create the anchor for trust, connection, and memory making,” (PR Newswire 2018).

In the performing arts, experiential marketing has two facets: Marketing the experience of attending a performance, which is about marketing the patron experience from the moment the patron goes to buy their ticket to the moment they stop interacting with the organization after returning home, to their hotel, or wherever they are going after the performance (which is the part of experiential marketing that is inherently present in performing arts marketing, but that can be enhanced through various methods); and marketing as an experience itself (which is the part of experiential marketing that is currently not being utilized as effectively as possible in

performing arts organizations). Marketing as an experience involves bringing the experience of attending a performance at the organization into the organization’s marketing, and showing consumers what their experience with the organization will be like before they purchase their ticket. It is about creating a memorable experience for patrons from their very first point of interaction with the organization.

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

There are only two authors whose literature was reviewed in the research who talk about experiential marketing specifically in relation to the arts. One of these two authors is Petkus, who looks at how experiential marketing has been being utilized more and more in different companies' marketing, argues that its application to the arts could be extended and improved, explains why experiential marketing is so relevant to arts marketing, and talks about how to implement experiential marketing and “stage an experience,” (Petkus, Jr. 2004). The information and insight that Petkus offers is extremely helpful because the argument in his article is essentially the exact argument that is presented in this thesis.

The second author who talks about experiential marketing specifically in relation to the arts is Colbert, who explores how experiential marketing and the arts are related and how they go hand-in-hand. He also takes gender into account and looks at the difference in preferences between men and women, and how we market to each of these two groups differently, which none of the other sources do directly. The article is also useful to the research and serves as a very strong source because it takes into account culture, and explores how culture affects how we market, which is important when we are looking at experiential marketing. “What appears to be a fact is that the experience with the provider must bring emotion that will lead to satisfaction that in turn will lead to repurchase or recommendation. This satisfaction must come from the core product, as well as the service encounter (for men), and the theatre should demonstrate pro-social values (for women),” (Colbert 2016). Colbert’s article is similar to Petkus’s article in that they both talk about experiential marketing and the consumer experience in the arts, but the way that

Colbert takes into account demographic and cultural differences in experiential arts marketing makes his article slightly more detailed and effective. 4

Dr. Daragh O’Reilly and Dr. Finola Kerrigan provide a current perspective on arts marketing, mark the shifts in the field and how we can adapt, and discuss the social dimensions of arts consumption, the role of arts marketers, effective methods of audience engagement, successful brand development, and many other important arts marketing concepts. O’Reilly and

Kerrigan’s writing is useful in research on experiential marketing because although it does not talk directly about experiential marketing, it deeply discusses many aspects of arts marketing that can be enhanced through experiential marketing. The book has many contributors, all who are scholars in the arts marketing field. O’Reilly and Kerrigan make a strong point when they suggest that “perhaps there should be a subject called 'art/market studies' which examines the different facets of this relationship. Its focus could include, for example, the marketing of art, marketing in art, marketing through art, marketing from art, and marketing as art,” (O’Reilly and

Kerrigan 2010). The only weakness of this book is that its organization is somewhat difficult to follow.

Another author who talks about arts marketing but not experiential marketing is

Rentschler, who looks at both museum marketing and performing arts marketing and the trends in both fields, how organizations in both fields are becoming more aware of arts marketing as a management tool and the rising importance of marketing strategy over marketing as culture and marketing as tactics, how marketing is now a part of the standard operating procedures of any arts organization, and the different periods of arts marketing. The research in this thesis focuses on performing arts organizations of different disciplines, which Rentschler does as well, and this article helps give context for how marketing has evolved and affected museums and performing arts organizations over time. Rentschler covers a twenty-five-year period and provides historical context for arts marketing in different arts disciplines (Rentschler 2002). However, the article

was published over 10 years ago, and it is more of an explanation of a research study than an informational article with conclusions and outcomes. Again, in the research, it mainly serves to provide historical context.

The last author who talks about arts marketing but does not talk about experiential marketing specifically is Walker-Kuhne. Walker-Kuhne’s writing is different from the writing of the authors of the other two arts marketing-centered (but not experiential marketing-centered) sources because she takes into account America's increasingly multicultural population and looks at nontraditional audiences' and diverse communities' growing engagement in the arts. She includes examples and case studies across the different arts disciplines to provide an in-depth argument for how we can most effectively open our doors to new audiences and become more accessible to a wider range of different demographics. Looking at consumer values when implementing experiential marketing techniques very much involves looking at how we can invite new audiences in, not just keep our current ones, and this is highlighted in Walker-

Kuhne’s writing. This book has many strengths, but one of them is how Walker-Kuhne describes all aspects of multicultural audience development in every way, starting from the very beginning point and delving into understanding the audience development language, understanding the needs of different audiences, and giving specific tools for building your audience (Walker-Kuhne

2005). Therefore, of the sources reviewed that are related to arts marketing (and not experiential marketing specifically), this one was overall the most useful in framing the research.

The first authors in the literature reviewed who talk about experiential marketing in the corporate world, not in the arts world, are Babel and Jain. Their article argues the importance of inclusive marketing in making sure that your product is accessible to as many people as possible, instead of only to a select group of people or a select demographic, an idea that is similar to the

themes explored by Walker-Kuhne. Babel and Jain give examples of inclusive marketing in various different types of businesses, talk about providing consumers with multi-sensory experiences, define inclusive marketing and experiential marketing, and explain in detail the relationship between the two using examples and surveys. This article provides an idea of another aspect of marketing that should be taken into consideration when looking at experiential marketing – inclusiveness – and how experiential marketing can be used to foster inclusiveness and accessibility and to create new doors. A strength of these authors’ work is that they look at experiential marketing from a different angle than many of the other sources; they look at it through the lens of inclusive marketing. “Till now, the corporate were known to use marketing as a tool where they first determine the needs of the customer and then develop products that cater their needs, but now our main challenge is how to use this effective tool of marketing to increase the income of the poor and empower them,” (Babel and Jain 2012).

Dale looks at customer relationships, customer-oriented marketing, increasing customer lifetime value, and the customer's role in a company's business model, and compares customer value management and relationship marketing with mass marketing. Dale supports and provides evidence for the importance of taking into account individual customer values in your marketing tactics (Dale 2018). One weakness of Dale’s article in relation to relevance to the topic of experiential marketing is that although it does talk about aspects of customer marketing that can be applied to the rest of the research and used to establish definitions, it very much focuses on customer and company values, and not so much on the actual customer experience.

Marketing Week: London’s 2006 article defines experiential marketing and argues why and how experiential marketing helps develop brand perceptions, argues the difference between experiential marketing and field marketing, and talks briefly about the influence of ad-avoidance

or ad-blocking technology on digital marketing and why this is increasing the importance of experiential marketing and finding methods of making it so that people cannot avoid experiencing your brand. The article defines experiential marketing and explains how it differs from other types of marketing, and it provides definition distinctions that are important to the research. Having clear definitions is vitally important to building the argument that experiential marketing is a necessary part of performing arts marketing. A major strength of this article is how it talks about ad-blocking technology and explains why this is impacting the effectiveness of digital marketing, because it is the only source that really looks at this idea in this context.

“Brands have to take their customers on a journey. We ask clients what they want to achieve and talk to the customers to discover what they think about a brand so we can devise a brand experience that is relevant and engaging,” (Marketing Week: London 2006).

Another comparable article by GES defines experiential marketing in a similar but slightly different way than the Marketing Week article, explains its history, and talks about the rise in awareness of experiential marketing and its increasing relevance and importance in today's marketing world, how marketers can incorporate technological advances into experiential marketing, the importance of social media and its role in experiential marketing, and how to successfully launch an experiential marketing campaign. The ideas and strategies laid out in this article can be used to apply experiential marketing to performing arts organizations. “In its simplest form, experiential marketing is a form of marketing which focuses on helping consumers experience a brand. Traditional advertising, such as radio, TV, and print is effective at communicating product benefits visually and verbally, but experiential marketing immerses the consumer within the product like never before,” (GES n.d.). This article provides an easy-to- understand, step-by-step guide to launching an experiential marketing campaign.

Galetto presents another definition of experiential marketing, which is similar to the others but worded slightly differently. Galetto talks about best practices in experiential marketing, argues the benefits of experiential marketing and why it is important to make customers genuinely happy, and gives a few great examples of experiential marketing. Galetto provides another perspective on experiential marketing and its benefits, and she gives even more examples that can be used to apply experiential marketing to performing arts organizations.

Galetto’s article is very accessible and is laid out in a way that makes sense and that covers all of the bases (definition, best practices, benefits, examples, additional resources). This article is one of the most well laid-out of any of the sources in the experiential marketing (not directly in relation to the arts) category. “An advertising strategy that focuses on helping consumers experience a brand, experiential marketing veers off course from traditional strategies that broadcast brand and product benefits to a wide audience. Also referred to as engagement marketing, experiential marketing may be comprised of a variety of marketing strategies geared toward immersing customers within the product by engaging them in as many ways as possible.

Ultimately, companies utilizing this strategy want to help customers form memorable, emotional connections with a brand to foster customer loyalty and improve customer lifetime value

(CLV),” (Galetto 2018).

Hein defines experiential marketing as "getting into public spaces and letting the consumer interact with your product personally,” (Hein 2007). All of these different experiential marketing definitions offered by the different authors in the literature review are important to forming the argument of the overall definition of experiential marketing and all of its elements.

Hein talks about how for many people seeing is believing, discusses the irony of the fact that experiential marketing is flourishing in the digital age when it has in fact been around for a long

time, and gives examples of successful experiential marketing campaigns done by various companies. He does an excellent job of arguing the relevance of experiential marketing and explaining exactly why it is such an effective marketing technique in the present day. He argues the effectiveness of experiential marketing by explaining in great detail scenarios in which it has worked, and by giving a variety of examples of successful campaigns (Hein 2007).

Kerpen offers more aspects of the definition of experiential marketing. Kerpen argues that experiential marketing is based around trying to create a spark in the customer's mind that will drive them to feel inspired to make a purchase, talks about the importance of ensuring that customers are having a great experience with your brand and making sure that your brand's values are reflected at your events, explains the effectiveness of employing brand ambassadors for word-of-mouth marketing, and discusses the importance of creating events that have mass appeal but that also create memorable experiences for people by having a personal touch. These concepts are all relevant to the research because they provide more examples of the importance of experiential marketing and how it can be effectively implemented in any business, including performing arts organizations. Kerpen lays out very specific key steps that are essential to making sure that your experiential marketing campaign is successful. He is also one of the only authors who touches on marketing methods in relation to Millennials specifically. “Eventbrite, the world's largest event technology platform, recently conducted a study that found that

Millennials are spending increasingly more money and time on experiences than material goods,” (Kerpen 2017). There is one other author in the research who talks about marketing to

Millennials, and it is Olenski.

Olenski takes the broad concept of experiential marketing and applies it to the current generation, argues that more and more people are drawn to experiences instead of material

things, explains why this shift is happening, and presents ideas of ways that marketers can create unique experiences to draw millennial consumers to the organization’s brand. Olenski presents different unique ideas for giving consumers live experience opportunities that can be (and should be) easily applied to performing arts organizations, and many of them are already being utilized by performing arts organizations and can just be enhanced to be made even more effective. As is mentioned previously, Olenski also focuses on experiential marketing in the context of marketing to Millennial consumers, which is a specific focus that is really only present in

Olenski’s article and Kerpen’s article. “Generation Y is unique in many ways, including the fact that they’re choosing to invest in experiences over things. Instead of buying fancy cars and homes as soon as they get their first big payday, Millennials invest in vacations, weekends at music festivals, and other adventures,” (Olenski 2017).

Kim gives another definition of experiential marketing, then provides twenty great examples of experiential marketing campaigns that have been done by a wide variety of different companies, from HBO to Delta to Sensodyne. Although none of his examples are directly arts- related, the examples that he gives can be used to create ideas of effective marketing campaigns for performing arts organizations. One example of the corporate campaigns discussed in this article is Lean Cuisine’s “#WeighThis” campaign where they set up an installation in the middle of Grand Central Station, and a professional sign-painter would write down the way in which people wanted to “weigh” themselves separate from their physical weight, such as by the amount of love they give their children or by their work ethic. Another example is the show Gilmore

Girls’s “Luke’s Diner” popups. “Luke’s Diner” was one of the main settings on Gilmore Girls where the main characters often met with one another. At the popups, staff from the show made this beloved fictional location into a real place where customers had the chance to receive a free

cup of coffee as well as a fun surprise under their custom Gilmore Girls coffee sleeve. These experiential marketing campaigns are great examples that could be used by performing arts organizations to come up with their own experiential marketing campaigns. The main strengths of Kim’s article are how the experiential marketing examples he provides cover a wide spectrum of different businesses and ideas and formats, how all twenty of the campaigns are explained in great detail, and how there is a clearly laid-out list of key takeaways at the end (Kim 2017).

Pathak explains a different approach to experiential marketing than the works by the other authors in the reviewed literature. Pathak’s article clearly and concisely presents the argument that experiential marketing is not a new concept; it has been being used for a long time and is just now being labeled and gaining visibility. It is unique because Pathak looks at experiential marketing in relation to social media and whether the results of experiential marketing are measurable in the context of digital marketing. As other authors do as well, Pathak helps bring to light that it is a necessity to acknowledge that experiential marketing has been around since way before the digital age, and it is just becoming more significant in the digital age because we have the technology now to do more with experiential marketing than just events – we can utilize experiential marketing concepts on social media and through videos and other digital marketing. This article is a strong source because it points out how large of a role technology and social media play in experiential marketing (Pathak 2014).

PR Newshire looks at current top brands and how they are using experiential marketing and relevant brand experiences to connect with consumers. They highlight how experiential marketing is becoming more and more widely embraced by many companies as a primary driver of their marketing mix. This article is helpful to the research because it talks about sampling events, pop-up stores, and other experiences that can be used to connect with consumers, and it

gives examples that can be applied to arts marketing. It also provides quantitative data, and most of the other sources include mostly exclusively qualitative data. It provides information about customer feedback on experiential marketing, which creates the realization that this is something that should be considered in the successful execution of experiential marketing, in addition to just the staff perspective on the effectiveness of experiential marketing. “65% of marketers are seeing a direct sales lift as the result of experiential marketing. And almost a third are generating at least a ten to one return on investment (ROI) from experiential marketing investments.

Overall experiential budgets are expected to rise at least six percent in 2015. 87 percent of consumers say live events reach them more effectively than television advertising, and 98 percent say a live event motivates them to buy a product. They also share the experience with others--almost half tell someone about a live event while they're attending,” (PR Newshire

2015). In regards to the application of the concepts in this article to performing arts marketing, it is important to remember that in the performing arts, the experience is the product.

Another article by PR Newshire, published in 2018, looks at a study by GMR Marketing that explains the concept of "creating brand trust through uniquely human moments at live experiences," as well as what draws customers to live experiences and why humans seek out experiences in order to create distinctive memories, and how these concepts can be applied in marketing. Elke Zysk, Executive Vice President of Strategy + Insights at GMR, presents the argument that "human moments create the meaning we crave, and those moments create the anchor for trust, connection, and memory making," (PR Newshire 2018). This quote, and the concept behind this quote, will serve as a theme throughout the thesis. This article really helps explain why experiential marketing increases trust and decreases skepticism in customers, and it supports the importance of creating experiences and memories for people. This article is strong

because GMR actually visited live events themselves to collect information through interviews, surveys, and panels.

Together, Smith and Hanover launched the largest network of experiential marketing content in the world, and they have trained the marketing teams at many successful companies, such as Procter & Gamble, Oracle, Mercedes, Cisco, Intel, IBM, Microsoft, Pepsi, Anheuser-

Busch, Best Buy, Toyota, R.J. Reynolds, and more. Smith and Hanover’s eBook explains why passive marketing strategies are no longer effective in relation to the increasing importance of experiential marketing; live, face-to-face engagement and creating consumer relationships to drive brand affinity; and the establishment of the feeling of shared common values between the company and their consumers. Smith and Hanover go very in-depth in laying out ways that companies can utilize experiential marketing, possibly the most in-depth of any of the authors in the research. These methods can be applied and utilized when explaining how to implement experiential marketing in the performing arts, and when arguing why it is important to use these methods. Smith and Hanover use case studies, research, and interviews from a very wide variety of different successful brands to create a strong argument. Smith and Hanover’s way of defining experiential marketing is also very clear and effective – “In its simplest form, experiential marketing is nothing more than a highly evolved form of corporate storytelling. But while the premise appears simple - combine a brand message, elements of interactivity, a targeted audience, and deliver it in a live setting to create a defined outcome - successful experiences are both art and science. Embracing experiential marketing requires a new way of thinking about marketing, creativity, and the role of media in the overall mix,” (Smith and Hanover 2016).

Wu uses a case study of a Starbucks in Taipei City, Taiwan to look at the quality of the customer experience and customer satisfaction in relation to loyalty, experience economy, and

the importance of not just the quality of the product and customer service, but the quality of the customer experience during the actual process of dining. He argues that experiential quality influences experiential satisfaction, which in turn influences experiential loyalty. Wu’s points about the connection between experiential quality, satisfaction, and loyalty are a big part of what is being explored in the research, and these points must be taken into consideration when applying experiential marketing techniques to the arts. Wu discusses a concept that is briefly touched upon in a couple of the other sources but is not really discussed in great detail in any of the other sources, which is that customer experience is not just related to customer service directly between staff and customer, but to every aspect of the experience as a whole, from start to finish, which is very important to consider in the application of experiential marketing to performing arts marketing (Wu 2017).

The last author in the “experiential marketing, but not arts” category is Zantal-Wiener.

Wiener presents her definition of experiential marketing, and then provides eight examples of experiential marketing campaigns carried out by various organizations/businesses that were particularly effective. Although Zantal-Wiener’s article is not directly related to the arts, like many of the other articles, it provides more excellent, innovative ideas of experiential marketing campaigns that could be adapted and applied to performing arts organizations. Zantal-Wiener provides not only a list of great experiential marketing ideas, but lists of the takeaways for each of these ideas in the grand scheme of marketing. She also provides great definitions and differentiation between the different marketing types. “To understand experiential marketing, just look to its name. It's a type of strategy that engages an audience with a real-life invitation to engage with – or experience – a brand and what it makes or represents. It's participatory, hands- on, and tangible,” (Zantal-Wiener 2017).

To summarize, there are three main categories in the review of the available literature on experiential marketing and the arts: literature that talks about experiential marketing directly in relation to the arts, literature that talks about arts marketing but not experiential marketing, and literature that talks about experiential marketing but not arts marketing. The largest of the three categories is literature that discussed experiential marketing, but does not talk specifically about experiential marketing in relation to the arts. In the “both experiential and arts” category, there are two sources, the Petkus article and the Colbert article, and the Colbert article is overall more useful because he and Petkus have very similar arguments, but Colbert includes an analysis of the differences in marketing to different demographics and to people from different cultures.

There are three sources in the “arts but not experiential” category. There is the O’Reilly and

Kerrigan book, which is harder to follow than the other two sources and tends to go off in different directions at times; there is the Rentschler article, which mostly just provides historical context; and there is the Walker-Kuhne book, which is the most effective source in this category because of its organization and how Walker-Kuhne analyzes customer values and how organizations can invite more diverse audiences to experience the arts, which is a large part of the goal of experiential marketing.

Most of the authors in the final category, the “experiential but not arts” category, offer different effective definitions of experiential marketing. None of these authors’ definitions is more or less than effective than any of the others. They are all slightly different, but also all similar in many ways, and they all present a different important aspect of experiential marketing that was used in forming a new definition in relation to experiential marketing’s context in the performing arts and building the argument about experiential marketing’s effectiveness. Every author in this category also explores the reasons why experiential marketing is so effective, each

of them looking at a different aspect of marketing, a different demographic, or other factors that influence marketing in general. While some authors’ arguments are more effective or better- organized than others’ arguments, all of the sources in this category offer their own strengths: distinctive definitions, strong examples, looking at a particular demographic or aspect that is not explored by the other authors, or unique methods of implementing experiential marketing.

In addition to literature on experiential marketing, literature on the marketing mix was reviewed. The marketing mix has shifted and evolved over the years, with more aspects being added, but originally, the marketing mix consisted of just four “P”s: Place, Product, Promotion

(communications), and Price. The Place aspect of the marketing mix is about where customers go to look for the product, the distribution channels for the product, and, in the arts, it includes the physical venue where the product is experienced (the concert, show, exhibit, etc.). The

Product aspect of the marketing mix is the tangible thing that the customer is purchasing when they make a purchase. In the performing arts, the product is usually what the customer experiences later on, at a time after the transaction itself. The Promotion, or communications, aspect of the marketing mix involves looking at the best ways to reach the target audience, the channels used for advertising, the timeline as far as when the organization advertises what, and all other aspects of the methods used in the marketing process itself. Therefore, Promotion also encompasses Place and Product in this context (Mind Tools Content Team n.d.).

These three aspects of the marketing mix – Place, Product, and Promotion – are the most relevant to experiential marketing. Place and Product are related to the first part of experiential marketing, the marketing of the experience, and promotion is related to both the first part and the second part of experiential marketing, because including experiences in the marketing itself is part of the promotion method. All three of these aspects are intertwined and related to one

another. Promotion serves as the umbrella aspect of all of the other aspects of the marketing mix, especially when we are looking through the lens of incorporating experiential marketing into the performing arts marketing process. Keeping these three aspects of the marketing mix in mind will be important in creating context throughout the entirety of the thesis.

CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The thesis research methodology included both secondary and primary sources, and both qualitative and quantitative data, but mostly qualitative. The first step in the research involved the finding, reading, and analyzing of existing literature on experiential marketing. Some of this literature was on experiential marketing in the arts, but much of it was on experiential marketing in corporate, for-profit businesses. Some of the literature looked at the first half of the experiential marketing definition, the concept of marketing the entire experience of the product, but most of it looked at the second half of the experiential marketing definition, the concept of marketing as an experience itself. An annotated bibliography and thorough literature review were conducted.

The literature review was actively conducted and compiled into written format from May

14 to June 29, 2018, and updated on an ongoing basis throughout the course of the rest of the research, from June 29, 2018 to March 15, 2019. In the review of the existing literature, the aim was to identify businesses and organizations who are currently implementing successful experiential marketing tactics, look at examples of successful experiential marketing campaigns that have been done by businesses outside of the arts world, and look at opportunities and specific experiential marketing tactics that are not currently being used effectively in the performing arts and could be being used effectively by performing arts organizations. The goal was to define experiential marketing and differentiate it from the other different similar types of marketing, compare different authors’ definitions of experiential marketing and other forms of marketing, and identify gaps in the research. These scholarly and non-scholarly secondary sources were used mostly to look at history, research gaps, and examples of ways that

experiential marketing is being used by successful corporate businesses to acquire ideas for experiential marketing campaigns that could be applied to performing arts organizations.

First, literature was reviewed that discussed experiential marketing and its application to the arts. Next, literature was reviewed that talked about arts marketing, not directly in relation to experiential marketing, but directly in relation to marketing the arts in general. Once the sources were reviewed that included both experiential marketing and the arts, as well as the sources that included arts marketing but not experiential marketing, the literature was then reviewed in the category in which the majority of the literature lies, which is literature that talked about experiential marketing, but not the arts. The main obvious gap in the research was the fact that there are very few articles, books, or other secondary resources that talk about experiential marketing in relation to the arts. The identification of this gap resulted in the decision to work to fill the gap with the research that was conducted throughout the thesis process. The information that is offered by each of the authors of all of the secondary sources was put together, as well as a large variety of primary sources, to form a cohesive argument, analysis, and implementation process for experiential marketing in the arts.

The second step in the research was to observe all of the electronic information and other background information available for each of the five local DC metro area experiential marketing best practices organizations – Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in

Vienna, VA; The Washington Ballet in Washington, DC; Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA;

Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, DC; and The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in

College Park, Maryland – in order to prepare for the interview process with representatives at each of the five organizations. This research was conducted from November 12 to November 16,

2018. The selection process of the five best practices organizations was informed by previous

experience interacting with or working with the organizations, having a previous connection to staff at the organization, and upon recommendation by staff at one of the organizations (previous experience interning in Marketing at Wolf Trap and The Washington Ballet; having had Erica

Bondarev Rapach, Associate Executive Director of The Clarice, as Marketing the Arts professor;

Erica recommended Signature Theatre and Woolly Mammoth, whose marketing practices had also been observed previously in classes and through social media). Additionally, based on my observations during my time living in the DC area, these five organizations were practicing marketing techniques that were outside the norm and that seemed to be a step ahead. There was a bias present in the observational step due to interning experience in the Marketing departments at

Wolf Trap and The Washington Ballet, so the background/observational information for those two organizations is more detailed and in-depth than the background/observational information for the other three organizations (Signature Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, and The Clarice

Smith Performing Arts Center) who were only observed digitally in this step. The internship at

The Washington Ballet was a Marketing internship, and it took place from January 15 to April

27, 2018. The internship at Wolf Trap was a Marketing & Promotions internship, and it took place from May 7 to August 10, 2018. All five of the local experiential marketing best practices organizations’ websites were studied for the following information: mission, vision, history, programs in their current season, size of Marketing staff, special events, “plan your visit” information to learn about the customer experience from start to finish (box office hours of operation/other ways for patrons to purchase tickets, venue logistics, how to get there, parking maps, local restaurants, local hotels, accessibility), and any other information about above-and- beyond experiences offered by the organization that could be gathered just from digital research.

For Wolf Trap and The Washington Ballet, there was a compilation of information gleaned from digital research and information obtained through interning experiences.

The third step in the research was the attempted organizing of a focus group with members of the marketing and administrative staff at each of the five local experiential marketing best practices organizations involved in the study. The goal of this section of the research was going to be to gather insight from people with different perspectives, experiences, and viewpoints on experiential marketing, arts marketing, and arts administration in general, and to allow multiple arts marketing professional to converse with each other and share their different ideas and perspectives and have a discussion about it together in the same room. The prospective participants in the focus group were Keith Berquist, Marketing Manager at Wolf

Trap; Michael Mael, Executive Director at The Washington Ballet; Jennifer Buzzell, Director of

Marketing and Sales at Signature Theatre; Mikala Stubley, Marketing & Communications

Manager at Woolly Mammoth; and Rika Dixon-White, Director of Marketing and Guest

Experience at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Each of the five prospective participants were reached out to individually by email. The emails were sent out on Thursday,

January 24, 2019. Once willingness to participate was confirmed by all five prospective participants, a private Doodle Poll was sent out to each of them on Monday, January 28, 2019, with an option to indicate times that they could meet either in person or through Zoom video communications software. None of the times offered worked for all five of the prospective participants. There was a time that three of the participants could meet, but the conclusion was that it would be more beneficial to conduct individual interviews than to have a focus group with only three participants. The focus group did not take place.

The fourth step in the research was to attempt to schedule interviews with each of the five prospective participants for the focus group from the five different local best practices organizations, which was done by emailing them each individually. The purpose of interview portion of the research was to fill in the gaps in the digital/observational research, and to spark discussion about experiential marketing and gather insight from arts marketing professionals. Of the five local best practices organizations, representatives from three of the organizations were available for an interview. Interviews were conducted with Keith Berquist (Marketing Manager,

Wolf Trap), Michael Mael (Executive Director, The Washington Ballet), and Jennifer Buzzell

(Director of Marketing and Sales, Signature Theatre). The interview with Keith Berquist took place at 2:00 pm on Monday, February 18, 2019 at Philz Coffee, 1350 Connecticut Ave NW,

Washington, DC 20036. The interview with Michael Mael took place at 3:00 pm on Tuesday,

February 19, 2019 at The Washington Ballet, 3515 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, DC 20016.

The interview with Jennifer Buzzell was conducted over the phone at 1:15 pm on Wednesday,

February 20, 2019. All interviews were recorded using the Otter Voice Notes cellphone application. Each participant was asked ten base questions (see Appendix A), with varying follow-up questions depending on their responses to each of the base questions.

The fifth step in the research was to figure out a way to gather information about current experiential marketing practices at major performing arts organizations throughout the United

States, which was done by creating and distributing a survey to the head of the Marketing staff at a sampling of 52 different performing arts organizations in different regions of the country, selected based on location (they were all in major cities) and performing arts discipline (each of the performing arts organizations the survey was distributed to was either a symphony, a ballet company, a theatre, an opera company, or a performing arts venue). The goal of this step of the

research was to collect both quantitative and qualitative data about current experiential marketing practices at performing arts organizations nationwide. The survey was created using

SurveyMonkey. It consisted of ten questions – four Yes/No, one Yes/No/NA, and five open- ended (see Appendix B). The surveys were all sent out on Tuesday, March 12, 2019. Each of the

52 staff members to which the survey was distributed was contacted personally – they were emailed individually, addressed by name, and the name of their organization was included in the email. 16 of the staff members to whom the survey was distributed participated in the survey:

Karina Kacala, Director of Advertising & Promotions, Opera Philadelphia (Philadelphia,

Pennsylvania); Leah Oby, Director of Audience Development and Communications, Louisiana

Philharmonic Orchestra (New Orleans, Louisiana); Tamara Vallejos, Director of Marketing &

Audience Development, Opera Colorado (Englewood, Colorado); Mical Hutson, Director of

Marketing and Communications, Portland Symphony Orchestra (Portland, Maine); Parker

Owens, Chief Marketing Officer, Colorado Symphony Association (Denver, Colorado); Deborah

Warren, Director of Marketing, Center Theatre Group (Los Angeles, California); Amber

Ostaszewski, Director of Audience Engagement, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (Cincinnati,

Ohio); Nikki Battestilli, Marketing Director, City Theatre (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania); Rachel

Traversari, Senior Director of Marketing, Durham Performing Arts Center (Durham, North

Carolina); Jennifer Weissman, Chief Marketing Officer, Boston Ballet (Boston, Massachusetts);

Emma Wall, Assistant Vice President of Marketing, North Carolina Symphony (Raleigh, North

Carolina); Maria Ewing, Director of Advertising & Promotions, North Carolina Symphony

(Raleigh, North Carolina); Michael Frisco, Director of Audience Development, Detroit

Symphony Orchestra (Detroit Michigan); John Koluder, Director of Marketing &

Communications, Indianapolis Ballet (Indianapolis, Indiana); Lauren McKinley, Marketing

Director, Tulsa Symphony (Tulsa, Oklahoma); Sarah Myer, Vice President of Marketing,

Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (Indianapolis, Indiana). After reviewing the responses, I emailed each of the 16 participants one open-ended follow-up question on April 1 (see Appendix

B), to which five of the survey participants responded and provided further information. The sixth and final step was to connect all data collected and discuss, identify gaps, identify areas of strength, draw conclusions, and make suggestions for the implementation of experiential marketing in the performing arts as well as suggestions for future research, based on all findings.

CHAPTER 4

FINDINGS: DC BEST PRACTICES OBSERVATIONS

The five identified experiential marketing best practices organizations in the DC metro area were Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, The Washington Ballet, Signature

Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, and The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Mission, vision, history, programs in their current season, size of Marketing staff, special events, “plan your visit” information to learn about the customer experience from start to finish (box office hours of operation, ways for patrons to purchase tickets, venue logistics, how to get there, parking maps, local restaurants, local hotels, accessibility), and other information about above- and-beyond experiences offered by the organization that could be gathered just from digital research, interning experiences, and other observations were compiled in order to obtain background information and as much information about each organization’s experiential marketing practices as possible before the interview process.

Wolf Trap

The first “local best practices” organization observed is Wolf Trap. Wolf Trap’s mission is “to present and create excellent and innovative performing arts programs for the enrichment, education, and enjoyment of diverse audiences and participants,” (Wolf Trap Foundation 2019).

Their values are excellence, innovation, a broad spectrum of programs, diversity, accessible and affordable arts experiences, Wolf Trap’s unique environment, fiscal responsibility, the creativity of the human spirit, and the power of the arts to change society. Their vision is “Wolf Trap will harness the power of the performing arts to enrich and change lives by extending the Wolf Trap experience to millions of people worldwide,” (Wolf Trap Foundation 2019). Wolf Trap was founded by Catherine Filene Shouse in 1966. Mrs. Shouse decided to donate 100 acres of her farm to the US government, as well as funds to build a large outdoor amphitheater, which is now 26

the Filene Center, Wolf Trap’s outdoor amphitheater which hosts all shows for their summer season. Congress accepted Mrs. Shouse's gift and designated Wolf Trap as the nation’s only

National Park for the Performing Arts. It now operates as a “public-private partnership between the National Park Service and the Wolf Trap Foundation,” (Wolf Trap Foundation 2019). Every summer, Wolf Trap hosts over 100 performances of all different genres at the Filene Center.

Some examples of the diverse shows in their Summer 2019 season are The Avett Brothers,

Johnny Mathis, Diana Ross, Jackson Browne, Josh Groban, American Ballet Theatre, Reba

McEntire, Tchaikovsky & Beethoven played by the National Symphony Orchestra, Ringo Starr

& His All-Starr Band, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Lincoln Marsalis, The Beach Boys,

Sting, Jennifer, Hudson, and The Piano Guys. They present performances for children in the summer at their other outdoor venue, a small stage called the Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods.

At The Barns, their smaller, indoor venue, they present performances by the Wolf Trap Opera in the summer, and a variety of over 80 different performances across different genres in October through May. Some examples of the shows in their 2018-2019 Barns season are The Lone

Bellow, Nicole Atkins, Maggie Rose, Art Garfunkel, Red Baraat, John Oates with The Good

Road Band, Evening of Indian Dance, Bumper Jacksons, International Guitar Night, St.

Lawrence String Quartet, Masters of Hawaiian Music, Cherish the Ladies, The Montrose Trio,

Habib Koité, The Swingles, Storm Large, and Stephen Kellogg. They offer events such as dinners on the Associates Deck, the Wolf Trap Ball, and Bourbon and Bubbles at The Barns. The

Communications & Marketing staff at Wolf Trap is made up of about 20 people. Their box office is open Monday through Friday from 10 am to 6 pm, Saturday and Sunday from 12 pm to

5 pm, and until 9 pm on performance days. Patrons can buy tickets online, in person at the box office, or by phone.

As far as the customer experience from start to finish, Wolf Trap provides a lot of information about the entirety of the customer experience. They explain in-detail how to get to each of their venues and centers (The Barns at Wolf Trap, the Filene Center, the Center for

Education at Wolf Trap, and the Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods) using any mode of transportation and coming from any direction. They state where the toll roads are, and they even provide a link to MWAA’s Toll Road website so that people can learn more about the toll rates.

They explain that each venue has free parking. Their “Accessibility” page provides information about seating for patrons with disabilities, parking spaces for patrons with disabilities, locations of accessible restrooms, sign language interpretation and Communication Access Real Time

Translation (CART) services, and hearing assistance devices for each venue. They list, describe, and provide links to the websites for nearby hotels. They have multiple facilities available to be rented by groups. They provide a menu of the foods offered at The Barns, and state that patrons can bring their drinks to their seat. They provide information about the on-site restaurant at the

Filene Center, OVATIONS by America Eats, and how patrons can also request a prepared picnic from OVATIONS that they can pick up before the show and bring into the Filene Center. They give a link to the menu at the concession area where patrons can get food once they are in the doors at the Filene Center. They also talk about how patrons are allowed to bring their own food and drinks into the Filene Center (including alcohol), and highlight how this is a huge aspect of the appeal of their overall customer experience. Additionally, they provide a list of the best local restaurants. “Patrons can bring their own food and drinks, including alcohol, to enjoy in the park’s beautiful meadow before the show. Those seated on the lawn can also picnic before and during the performance. Even though the performances are world-class, the dress and atmosphere are casual. There are several beautiful locations you can rent to hold pre-

performance events. And you’ll find a full restaurant, concessions, and many other hospitality options,” (Wolf Trap Foundation 2019).

Wolf Trap and the four other local experiential marketing best practices organizations all exemplify best practices in the “marketing the experience” part of the proposed definition of experiential marketing in the performing arts. However, it is extremely important to note that based on the research conducted, Wolf Trap is the only one of the local experiential marketing best practices organizations that actively practices the “marketing AS an experience” aspect of the proposed definition of experiential marketing in the arts. They incorporate the experience of attending a performance at Wolf Trap into their marketing efforts. Wolf Trap has promotional events in the summer at various locations in Virginia and DC – such as Farragut Square, Franklin

Park, and Hancock Park – where a few people from the Marketing team go and set up a tent and a booth, put up a giant sign with all of the summer shows, and hand out concert brochures and other information. They interact directly with people who have been to Wolf Trap and loved it, people who have been to Wolf Trap and have suggestions for improvement, people who have been going to Wolf Trap every summer for 50 years, people who have never been to Wolf Trap but know what it is, and people who have never even heard of Wolf Trap. They spark conversations with people about their music preferences, the current season’s performers, and their experiences at Wolf Trap. They have a mascot, “Wolfie,” who comes to these events and takes pictures with people. They give out koozies, pens, wine stoppers, and other free Wolf Trap merchandise. They have jazz bands or other musicians who they hire to perform next to the booth so that people can experience music that may be similar to the music they would experience at show. Wolf Trap makes memories for people and helps people experience the organization’s brand, not just at shows, but with their marketing.

The Washington Ballet

The second “local best practices” organization observed is The Washington Ballet. The

Washington Ballet’s mission is “to bring the joy and artistry of dance to the nation’s capital and the world’s stage through the professional presentation of the best in classic and contemporary ballet; to provide the highest caliber of dance training through a preeminent school of ballet; to serve and involve the entire community through extensive dance education and community engagement programs,” (The Washington Ballet 2019). The Washington Ballet grew out of the success of The Washington School of Ballet, which was founded and directed for years by Mary

Day. “The Washington School of Ballet opened in 1944 and the Company was established in

1976 with Ms. Day’s singular vision clearly illuminated: to create a stellar institution of teaching, creating, and enlightenment through dance,” (The Washington Ballet 2019). The shows in The

Washington Ballet’s 2018-2019 season include TWB Welcomes (celebrated artists from the dance world share the stage with The Washington Ballet), Contemporary Masters (works by

Merce Cunningham, Mark Morris, and Paul Taylor – three choreographers who have defined modern dance), The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, and Three World Premieres. They also offer a special behind-the-scenes series called “Works & Process at the Guggenheim,” which

“offers unprecedented access to the world’s leading creators and performers” and “allows patrons to see, hear, and meet artists in a unique and intimate setting,” (The Washington Ballet

2019). One example of this that happened on March 10-11, 2019 was a discussion in which Julie

Kent, Artistic Director of The Washington Ballet, talked about newly commissioned work with choreographers Dana Genshaft and Ethan Steifel, and Company dancers performed exclusive excerpts from the April 3 opening of Three World Premieres. They have special events such as

“beerballet&bubbly,” which gives patrons a behind-the-scenes look at a working rehearsal of an

upcoming production, followed by a cocktail reception. Other events in their 2018-2019 season include The Washington Ballet Gala, Sleeping Beauty Soiree, Breakfast with the Sugar Plum

Fairy, and The Nutcracker Tea Party, at which attendees got to enjoy tea service, hands-on activities, and photographs with the Sugar Plum Fairy. There are currently five people on the

Marketing and Communications staff at The Washington Ballet. Their box office is open

Monday through Friday from 8:30 am to 8:45 pm, Saturday from 9 am to 4 pm, and Sunday from

9 am to 1 pm. Patrons can purchase tickets online, over the phone, or in person at the box office.

The Washington Ballet performs at four different venues: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Warner Theatre, the Harman Center, and THEARC Theater. Their website includes a seating chart, address, and brief description for each venue, as well as links to the venues’ websites for patrons who would like to learn more about the customer experience at that particular venue. Other special experiences provided by The Washington Ballet are pre- performance workshops for families with young children, which give an age-appropriate introduction to the performance they will see on the stage, incorporating movement and storytelling; post-show discussions; and the selling of merchandise at each show that is tailored to the particular show (as well as merchandise that is sold at every show – The Washington Ballet shirts/totes, used pointe shoes signed by the Company dancer to whom they belonged, etc.).

Signature Theatre

The third “local best practices” organization observed is Signature Theatre. Signature

Theatre’s mission is “to produce contemporary musicals and plays, reinvent classic musicals, develop new work, and reach its community through engaging educational and outreach opportunities.” Signature Theatre was founded in 1989, and it is “a Tony Award®-winning regional theater that broadens and brightens the region’s cultural landscape with its bold

productions of challenging new and established works and engaging education and outreach programs,” (Signature Theatre 2019). They combine Broadway-caliber productions with intimate playing spaces. Their goal is to be a leading force in musical theater in the United States. Some of the shows in Signature Theatre’s 2018-2019 season include Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Tony

Award®-winning musical tribute); Unforgettable (Jazz pianist Mark G. Meadows lets loose with the smooth stylings of Nat King Cole. King’s hits “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” “(I Love You)

For Sentimental Reasons,” “Mona Lisa” and “L-O-V-E”); Grand Hotel the musical; Spunk

(based on three short stories of Zora Neale Hurston and adapted by Jelly’s Last Jam writer

George C. Wolfe, Spunk sets the human ability to endure to the strums of a guitar in a stirring musical fable); and Blackbeard (world premiere in which Blackbeard and his “merry crew of maritime marauders” embark on a fantastical journey across the globe to raise an undead pirate army from the depths of the sea). One special event experience that they offer patrons is their

“Inside Signature” series. Some of the “Inside Signature” events that they are offering during the

2018-2019 season are Inside Signature: 30th Anniversary Season Preview (Managing Director

Maggie Boland and Associate Artistic Director Matthew Gardiner sit down to discuss the line-up for Signature’s 30th Anniversary Season, what goes into planning a season, and how future productions are chosen at Signature); Inside Signature with the Co-Creator of Ain’t Misbehavin’

(conversation with Murray Horwitz); Inside Signature with Kevin McAllister (Kevin talks about his career, including his recent role in Come from Away on Broadway, and how he’s preparing for his upcoming role in the world premiere of Blackbeard); and Inside Signature with the Cast of Spunk (the cast describes their experience working with director Timothy Douglas). Another special event experience that Signature Theatre offers their patrons is their “SigWorks” series,

Signature Theatre’s program “dedicated to developing the future of theater works and artists,”

(Signature Theatre 2019). A few examples of SigWorks events in the 2018-2019 season include

SigWorks: Dance Technique for Performers (a structured technique class focusing on style, storytelling, and personal artistry); SigWorks: Torgus & Snow (presented as part of SigWorks:

Monday Night New Play Readings at Ali’s Bar, an initiative that highlights and supports the work of DMV and regional playwrights); and SigWorks: Soldiers of the Cross (also part of

SigWorks: Monday Night New Play Readings at Ali’s Bar). For Blackbeard, they also have

“Signature Seminar,” which is a five-part series that provides patrons with “an in-depth look at the inventive behind-the-scenes magic to launch a world premiere musical,” (Signature Theatre

2019). Signature Theatre “has won 107 Helen Hayes Awards for excellence in the Washington,

DC region’s professional theater and has been honored with 431 nominations,” (Signature

Theatre 2019). Signature Theatre has six people on their Marketing staff. Their box office is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 am to 6 pm. Patrons can purchase tickets online, over the phone, or in person.

When it comes to the customer experience from start to finish, Signature Theatre provides a lot of information to help people plan their experience. They have very clearly laid- out seating charts for each show. They explain how to get to Signature Theatre from Southern

Virginia, from Washington, DC, and from Maryland, including an easy-to-interpret map. They provide detailed information about parking (including parking maps) and public transportation.

They have a shop called Signature Shop at shows which features show-specific merchandise,

Signature Theatre merchandise, show posters, CDs, books, and more. Patrons can also shop online. Signature Theatre works to make sure their shows and events are is accessible to everyone by providing open captioned performances for each mainstage show, accessible seating for patrons who use wheelchairs, walkers, scooters or other mobility devices, accessible parking,

assistive listening devices, and sign-interpreted, closed caption, or audio-described performances. They are based in The Village at Shirlington, which has boutiques, salons, libraries, hotels, restaurants, and bars, so people can plan a whole day trip when they come to a show at Signature Theatre. They have Pride Nights on select Fridays for members of the LGBTQ community, family and friends with a lively post-show reception, and they have Discussion

Nights (post-show discussions) following select Tuesday and Wednesday performances.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre

The fourth “local best practices” organization observed is Woolly Mammoth Theatre.

Woolly Mammoth’s mission is “to create rousing, visceral, enlightening theater experiences that galvanize diverse artists and audiences to engage with our world in unexpected and often challenging ways.” They are “a radically inclusive community—across race, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical ability, socioeconomic background, and political viewpoint—in which all are encouraged to exchange ideas freely and reach for new understanding.” Woolly Mammoth provides “a supportive home for creative risk-taking by our company and guest artists, staff, board, volunteers, audiences, donors, and colleagues. Through relentless inquiry and experimentation, we strive for world-class excellence and innovation in every aspect of our work,” (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company 2019). They present boundary- breaking work and serve an essential research and development role within the American theater.

A few of the shows and events in their 2018-2019 season include She the People (The Second

City’s most fearless, tuned-in sketch comics roasts the patriarchy); BLK FEMME Love (life- affirming spoken word performed by Black Femmes in the name of romantic love, love of one’s sisters, love of one’s community, and love of oneself); Dat Fuckshit: A Public Airing of

Grievances (stories, poems, and songs that illuminate the impact of microaggressions); Gloria

(about the cutthroat, opportunistic culture of modern media); and The Peculiar Patriot (about a self-proclaimed “Peculiar Patriot,” who makes regular visits to penitentiaries in order to boost the morale of her loved ones). One show in their 2018-2019 season, The Fever, is performed in complete collaboration with the audience. It “begins as a simple story about an ordinary party and evolves into a spellbinding examination of how we assemble, organize, and care for the bodies around us,” (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company 2019). Woolly Mammoth also offers experiential events such as a New Year’s Eve performance and party, Dinner on Stage with pop- up performances and the opportunity to mingle in the scene shop with company members, and a

Spring Gala. Woolly Mammoth’s Marketing staff is comprised of five people. Their box office hours change throughout the season, and patrons can purchase tickets online, over the phone, or in person.

Woolly Mammoth provides directions on how to get to the theater, and how to travel there by way of metro or metrobus. They give detailed information about parking, and they list the days and times when discounted parking is available. They have a “Nearby Hotspots” page on their website where they list their restaurant partners and the addresses for each of the restaurants, and they provide information about their apartment rental partner for anyone who needs a place to stay. They offer a variety of accessibility options for patrons who are deaf or hard of hearing, patrons who are blind or have low vision, and patrons who have limited mobility. They provide information on their website about late seating in order to manage patron expectations when it comes to what happens when arriving after a show has already begun. As far as creating exceptional experiences for patrons who come to see a show, Woolly Mammoth always has concessions, merchandise, and exciting show-themed experiences in the lobby before their performances.

The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center

The fifth “local best practices” organization observed is The Clarice Smith Performing

Arts Center. The Clarice opened in 2001. Their goal is “creating the NextNOW. We are building the future of the arts by educating, training and presenting the next generation of artists and creative innovators.” They are “committed to collaboration and the creation and support of new work that further advances our knowledge and understanding, working in its creative radius,”

(The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center 2019). The Clarice is part of the College of Arts and

Humanities at the University of Maryland. One of their current show series is called NextLOOK, which was established in 2014. It supports the development of new music, plays, dance and other experiences by regionally-based performing artists. All of these shows take place at Joe’s

Movement Emporium and are pay-what-you-want. Some examples of NextLOOK shows from their 2018-2019 season are Victor Provost: The Other Side of the Storm (New music examining local and global societal structures in the U.S. Virgin Islands as the territory rebounds from a devastating hurricane season); Ronya-Lee Anderson: Kings and Queens: The Untold Heroes of

Rock n’ Roll (a multi-disciplinary project designed to highlight the contributions of African-

American artists to Rock n’ Roll); Monique Walker: Amma's Chasm (a call to the community compelling them to speak out, lift each other up, and mend wounds, bringing light to the darkness of domestic violence), and Tarik O’Meally: Night Light (a reflective examination of the current discordant American crisis of identity).

On their website, The Clarice provides directions from Washington, DC, Baltimore and

Points North, Virginia and Points South, and Main Campus Entrance at Route 1, and they explain how to get there by way of all methods of public transportation. They give detailed parking information about all of the different parking options and the logistics of each one. They

list nearby airports, and they provide a building map. There are multiple dining options both near and on-site at The Clarice, which they list and provide information about on their website as well. They list and give addresses and links for nearby hotels. The Clarice offers accessibility options to ensure the best possible experience for all patrons, including assistive listening devices, large print programs, audio described performances, sign language interpretation, wheelchair accessible seating and entrances, accessible parking, and accessible restrooms. They also provide safety information so that people are aware of what to do in case of an emergency.

They give information about each of their different venues, including interactive seating charts, seating capacity, accessibility, and technical specifications. Their regular season box office hours are Monday through Saturday from 12 pm to 8 pm, and Sunday from 12 pm to 6 pm. Patrons can purchase tickets in the ticket office, by phone, online, or by mail.

CHAPTER 5

FINDINGS: DC BEST PRACTICES INTERVIEWS

Representatives from three of the five local experiential marketing best practices organizations were interviewed about experiential marketing, and about trends in arts marketing in general (see Appendix A). The interviews assisted in the collection of information and perspectives about current practices in experiential marketing in the performing arts. The interviewees were Keith Berquist, Marketing Manager at Wolf Trap; Michael Mael, Executive

Director of The Washington Ballet; and Jennifer Buzzell, Director of Marketing and Sales at

Signature Theatre. It is significant to note once again that the purpose of the interviews was to gather different viewpoints on experiential marketing in the performing arts. That being said, not all of the viewpoints are perfectly in line with each other or with the ones ultimately being argued in this thesis, but it is important to explore experiential marketing in the performing arts from different sides and different points of view.

Keith Berquist, Marketing Manager at Wolf Trap, said that the most helpful things coming into the marketing field, at least in the jobs that he has been in and on the popular music side of things, are broad knowledge of music and audiences for different genres. Being able to identify who the organization is trying to market to (and understanding the different audiences and audience segmentation) is very important, as well as the means of reaching those audiences through trial and error. Digital marketing is a skill that has become more and more relevant for arts marketers and in the marketing world in general. Really being able to hyper-target specific audiences and audience demographics has also become more important, especially as genres continue to merge and shift, since there are so many sub-genres that intersect. Marketers must be able to come up with a very specific marketing plan that is tailored to the large variety of

different audiences. Audience segmenting is very important regardless of the type of organization one is working for, the exception being very specific types of venues that almost exclusively present or produce within one genre. In these cases, segmenting will still be part of the marketing process, but there will be less different segmenting from show to show. If there is any diversity in your programming, which most organizations are aiming for in the current day, you must be able to identify from show to show who your target audience is for each of the shows. Berquist said that when he thinks of experiential marketing, he thinks of “any marketing efforts that do not create friction between the company and the potential consumer,” (Berquist

2019). Experiential marketing is marketing or messaging that meets people in stride, or provides a sense of joy or entertainment. It is not about trying to get people’s attention by flagging them down and telling them what they want. It is about giving people something that they already want, and delivering it to them in a place that makes sense for them. “We are moving further and further away from the mentality that organizations want to try to force their message on people; it is more about how they either make themselves a part of that person’s enjoyment or entertainment, or how they can fit themselves to their patrons and help the patrons find how they fit into the organization,” (Berquist 2019).

When asked how and when he first heard about experiential marketing, Berquist explained that he has been aware of experiential marketing for a while, since before he started working at Wolf Trap. He has been aware of it essentially since he entered the arts marketing industry. He was not really aware of it as an actual concept before he graduated college and started working full-time. Even though he was participating in it and being marketed to by other companies who were using experiential marketing, he did not necessarily realize it or pinpoint it, or know the term “experiential marketing.” During his first job out of college, when he was

working in marketing, he started to learn how to look at which shows were not selling well and how to figure out new ways to reach the audience. This type of creative thinking, and coming up with creative marketing efforts and innovative promotional efforts such as creating exceptional experiences for consumers, was the beginning of his practicing of experiential marketing.

Berquist spoke about how experiential marketing can be beneficial both in bringing in new audiences and in retaining audiences who are already familiar with your organization and who have already interacted with your organization and your brand once or multiple times in the past. In general, it can be used for both acquisition and retention. However, especially in the arts, experiential marketing is more likely to attract your existing fans and to aid in building and maintaining relationships with your patrons. Part of the challenge of using any type of marketing to make new people want to buy a ticket, at least in music marketing at an organization like Wolf

Trap, is that the product that the organization is really selling is the artist and the artist’s brand more so than your organization’s brand. The organization is trying to sell people on wanting to see a particular artist or band. If they do not already know the artist, they probably are not going to want to go to the show. “Where experiential marketing is helpful in arts marketing is galvanizing your existing fans to try and get them to act as ambassadors for your organization,”

(Berquist 2019). Berquist has found that the best way to bring in new customers is by offering discounts. If the organization is trying to inspire and rally their existing customers, experiences or opportunities are the way to go. Giving them exceptional experiences also gets them to tell their friends to come to shows, because it gives them something exciting and memorable that they want to share with the people they care about. However, the marketing as an experience aspect of experiential marketing is beneficial in that it familiarizes new people with the organization’s brand as a whole, as opposed to each individual show.

According to Berquist, Wolf Trap does utilize experiential marketing, and they use it in a variety of different ways, although they do not really actually use the term “experiential marketing” or discuss it explicitly. Instead of talking about the umbrella of experiential marketing, they talk about it in its individual parts – grassroots outreach, brochure and poster distribution, onsite activation, etc. Each aspect is its own entity, and they do not really use the umbrella term of “experiential marketing,” even though it informs all of the smaller individual parts. According to Berquist, some of the main areas where experiential marketing initiatives are applied are in onsite brand activation, grassroots marketing, and building relationships with local businesses through the distribution of brochures. Building relationships with local businesses also involves having dialogues with these businesses, because on the note of getting people to tell other people about your organization, if the business is on the organization’s side, they can communicate the message of the organization to their own customers. Berquist said that he thinks that Wolf Trap has been practicing experiential marketing for quite a while, and that it has sort of always been in the arts marketing field, even if it was not always called “experiential marketing.” Long before the existence of digital marketing and all of the new technology, when people would hand out flyers after a show, that was a way of engaging with people face-to-face and trying to build a connection that is beyond just placing an ad in the newspaper. These face- to-face interactions have always been experiential marketing, just in a simpler way. It has always been a standard part of marketing.

After being presented with the two parts of experiential arts marketing that are being proposed in the thesis – marketing the experience and marketing as an experience – Berquist said that he feels that “both parts of it are equally important in creating effective experiential marketing, especially today, in today’s market,” (Berquist 2019). The marketing the experience

piece is extremely important because with the variety of entertainment options that people have today and with all the new venues that are opening, there is a ton of opportunity for entertainment, so you have to have a very clear selling point and a very clear value proposition.

You have to be clear on what differentiates you from the dozen other venues in the area, especially in an area like DC. When there are three shows that someone wants to see on a given night, organizations must figure out how they go about picking which one they are going to attend. One thing that Wolf Trap does to make themselves be at the top of people’s list is that they present themselves as a destination. They make a conscious effort to be accessible and price-friendly. They allow people to bring in their own food and drinks, they have free parking, they are metro accessible, and patrons can build their entire evening around the show and all of the pre-, post-, and during-performance experiences that go along with attending a show at Wolf

Trap. All of these experiential aspects have a large influence on people’s decisions about where they go for entertainment and how they choose to spend their time and money. At a more expensive venue that is surrounded by more expensive restaurants, they are marketing a different type of experience, but an experience that is still desirable to a lot of people; so the organization just has to be aware of what their specific start-to-finish experience is for people and the unique experience that they have to offer.

Berquist said that he has not had any formal training or been to any formal workshops specifically on experiential marketing. He has been to multiple industry conferences, but the focus is currently so heavily on digital marketing that he has not seen anything targeted specifically to the experiential aspect of marketing. However, on the note of digital marketing, the definition of experiential marketing can be broadened to include digital marketing because the organization can create a digital campaign that involves consumer interaction. The

organization can create something that is not just a YouTube pre-roll ad or a Facebook ad, but that inspires customer engagement digitally. That being said, it is hard for an organization like

Wolf Trap, which has over 200 shows per year, to commit the amount of thought and time that have to go into creating something that people can engage with and something really captures people’s attention for every show. This is one of the barriers in general for the performing arts industry when it comes to experiential marketing. Performing arts organizations are marketing their brand, but their product is in the form of many different shows in a season, so only so much time can go into marketing each individual show. Time is a barrier in experiential marketing at performing arts organizations, more so than budget or anything else. There is a lot of catching up, and not necessarily trying to get ahead. As soon as one show is done, there is another show that is happening, so there is never really a break where you can take the time to strategize and think of exceptional ways to “wow” people in your marketing for each show. Another barrier, which is related to the time barrier, is the fact that it is hard to think of creative experiential marketing campaigns and frame them in a way that applies to all of the different audience segments and all of the shows. Therefore, marketing mostly has to be show-specific, which circles back around to the time barrier and how as soon as one show is done, it is time for the next one. Where there is potential for digital experiential marketing is leveraging the data that can be collected through digital marketing to create very tailored campaigns based on the data and based on what gets people interacting with the organization. These tailored campaigns qualify as experiential marketing to a certain degree since they are based on the customers’ wants and needs when it comes to making them view an experience as worthwhile, as well as how the organization can meet fit into these wants and needs, as long as you the organization is delivering something that genuinely provides value or entertainment. Additionally, experiential

marketing is often focused more on what it is to experience the organization as a whole as opposed to the individual shows, which removes the barrier related to having to quickly move on to marketing the next show after one show is finished.

The amount of time that it takes to use experiential marketing in the sense of marketing as an experience is a barrier for many performing arts organizations in implementing this aspect of experiential marketing. According to Berquist, there are other marketing efforts that are considered more essential. For example, if given the choice between running a Facebook ad for each of your organization’s shows or having a booth at a promotional event at Farragut Park, most people would choose running the ads for the shows, because that is the accepted standard practice. It is more quantifiable and measurable. It has a greater chance for return on investment, because if you have a booth at a an event, you are relying on people to take the information that they collected from you at the event back home and take action potentially way after their interaction with you, and you are counting on the assumption that they will not just stick the brochure in their pocket or leave it on a bench and that they will remember to actually go online when they get home and buy a ticket. It is more genuinely experiential and extends the experience to the marketing instead of just when they buy the ticket or show up at the performance, but it is less direct and less measurable. There are more steps in between the marketing and the actual buying process. This factor is a major reason for the shift towards digital experiential marketing over marketing as an in-person experience. Digital marketing provides the fewest possible steps from the messaging to the completion of the transaction.

People see a post, see a ticket link, and can immediately and directly click on it to make the transaction. It also takes a lot of time to really engage with individuals one-on-one. However, as is discussed previously, Wolf Trap’s promotional booths serve as institutional marketing as

opposed to programmatic marketing, so they are serving a different purpose than posts about individual shows. The booths allow people to see what it is like to experience the organization as a whole.

Berquist argued that taking digital marketing and finding ways to make it experiential, and finding ways to leverage the information and data that you can collect from digital marketing to create very personalized marketing messaging for your audience base, are overall the most efficient and effective ways for performing arts organizations to use experiential marketing.

Berquist also talked about personalizing emails to the organization’s email list, and how instead of either sending personalized emails individually to each person, or BCC-ing the entire list without any personalized information, the organization can add each person to their Outlook contacts (and keep this updated on a rolling basis as new people are added), and use mail merge, where they can import each contact’s information into the email. For example, marketers can pull each person’s first name and company, and have these be automatically filled in where they want them in the email when it is sent out to everyone, so that to each individual person, it will look like they wrote a personalized email. This takes more effort up-front, because the marketer has to enter everyone’s information into their Outlook contacts, but it saves time later on, because any time that they want to send out a mass email, they can create a more personalized experience for each person. People are much more inclined to respond to emails that are personalized. Hyper-personalization, tailoring, and authentic communication through digital marketing is an effective way for performing arts organizations to utilize experiential marketing.

Berquist concluded by saying that “experiential marketing is becoming more important with our generation,” and by talking about how influencer marketing is tied into experiential marketing (Berquist 2019). The younger generation tends to be very skeptical of being advertised

to and marketed to, and one way to break through this is by having someone who is already a trusted source, such as “Instagram Influencers” who have a large social media following.

Influencer marketing is a new concept, and performing arts marketers are still trying to figure out exactly how it fits into arts marketing, but it is a very effective marketing strategy. One way that it has been being used in performing arts marketing on a small scale is having the artists themselves (at least at a venue like Wolf Trap, where they bring in many different very famous and/or influential artists) promote the show on their own website and on their own social media.

This connects back to the idea of word-of-mouth marketing, and gaining new audiences through people hearing about your organization from friends or “influencers.” People often listen to the word of outside sources more than they listen to the organization itself, because the organization is obviously going to promote its shows because they have to; they do not have an objective opinion. People’s friends and other influencers do not have to promote the organization’s shows and their experiences with the organization, so if they are promoting the organization, it must really genuinely be worth their time.

Historically, the experience of a performance began the moment the patron set foot inside the theater or the hall and ended the moment they stepped out. In his interview, Michael Mael,

Executive Director of The Washington Ballet, said that back when he started working in marketing, what people focused on in their marketing efforts was simply what they were selling, the date and time, and the price. That was what all the images reflected on the ad copy – just simply saying, for example, “come hear Beethoven's 9th Symphony on Saturday night at eight o'clock at the Kennedy Center.” There were no extra experiences – the performance was the experience – and the viewpoint was that there was nothing further needed. That was the viewpoint on marketing for a very long time. When Mael re-entered the arts marketing field in

the early 2000s and worked for the Baltimore Symphony at Strathmore, they spent a lot of time thinking about the customer experience. Not so much the additional pieces or the exceptional experiences outside of the show itself, but just the customer experience coming to the show from start to finish. They knew based on market research that the three things that people were concerned about were location, ushers, and parking, so they built a marketing message that was

“based around convenience, around free parking, and around great customer service,” (Mael

2019). This is when he began to think about customer service and about the customer experience as something other than just their experience inside the concert hall. If you go to a great concert, and you come out and your car is towed, then it does not really matter how great the concert was, because you remember the experience as a whole as something that happened that was negative.

Patrons “spend a lot of time thinking about the experience itself – not just what happens inside the hall, but what it takes to get there and beyond that,” (Mael 2019). This is also when he began to think about putting together groups, because they needed to take into consideration people’s desire for a social aspect as a part of the experience. They would recruit groups to bring people to the show, such as a group of students from a University, and create a special experience tailored to that group, such as a speaker or an artist meet-and-greet. After doing this for a while, he took this concept to the next level by not just recruiting groups to bring people, but actually creating groups by having one patron bring their friends, school cohort, coworkers, or other group with which they were associated. He created an actual menu of experience options

(backstage tour, meet with an artist after the show, a cocktail reception on the roof, etc.), and depending on what was most interesting to that particular group, the group could pick and customize their experience. At The Washington Ballet, it is harder to do some of these things because they do not control the venue (as is the case for most producing performing arts

organizations), but they do still try to implement the concept of a customized group experience in whatever ways they possibly can.

Mael discussed how “the new generation of audiences wants experiences, and the words you hear again and again are words like ‘curated,’ ‘customized,’ ‘artisanal,’ ‘handcrafted,’ those are the words that follow people around, that everything is bespoke,” (Mael 2019). Each person’s experience does not look like the experience of the person sitting next to you, because everything is customized for you. “To me, experiential marketing is all about identifying the pieces and resources the organization has to enrich the performance itself, either before, even outside the hall, once patrons come into the hall, even during the performance itself, and then what happens afterwards,” (Mael 2019). Organizations need to create experiences that enrich what their patrons are going to see, or what they have seen, or what they are in the process of seeing. These experiences can really be anything, from pre-performance lectures to a customized drink in the lobby to a social event or opportunity. All of these additional aspects just add depth to the performance itself. “Every performance is special. Every performance is a unique experience, even if it is the same play night after night every night. And that is why we go to live events, because every performance is unique,” (Mael 2019). This being said, Mael also talked about how for many people, just going to a performance in and of itself is no longer sufficient. There has to be something more for people to feel like they really had a fulfilling, meaningful experience from start to finish. Performing arts organizations have to go above and beyond to create value for people.

When asked about how segmentation comes into play in creating above-and-beyond experiences for patrons, Mael talked about micro-segmentation, which is looking at different levels of audience segments; for example, friends of one person, versus 80 students from a

University class, versus people between the ages of 20 and 30, and so on. The broader the segments, the easier it is to create events and special experiences that cater to and appeal to as many people as possible. If the organization creates a tailored experience for one person and their group of friends, they spend a lot of time catering to a very small, select group of people, so the wider the group and the wider the segment, the more cost effective and time effective it is to actually create these events. However, in order to still take customization into consideration, the organization cannot just have events like “women’s night” that are too broad and that make it so that there is nothing really tailored or personal about the experience. “Segmentation is important, but it has to be smart segmentation,” (Mael 2019).

When presented with the two proposed parts of experiential marketing, Mael said that he has not found marketing as an experience or experiencing the marketing itself to be something that really happens or fits into performing arts organizations – they use experiential marketing from the side of marketing the experience, and thinking of new ways to market the experience.

“The business we are in is to create events, to create experiences, to create performances…so by definition, you have to find a way to market that,” (Mael 2019). Marketing the experience begins the moment the customer thinks about buying a ticket, and it ends when they arrive back at their home or their hotel. He said that he is not sure that creating an experience in the marketing itself is meaningful in what we do (he noted that it might be, but said that he just has not figured it out yet). As was the case with Berquist, Mael said that he has not had or seen any type of formal training or workshops on experiential marketing, but that they must exist somewhere, because they are such an important growth area for the industry.

Mael went on to point out that as an arts marketer, he cannot reach an individual patron’s friends to get them to come to the organization’s performances as well, but the patron can reach

their friends and tell them to come to the next performance because of the exceptional experience they had at the show they just attended. Therefore, performing arts marketers must think about how they can enable individual existing patrons to become marketers for the organization. The idea is to create experiences that are meaningful to the audience and that would be meaningful to their friends, so that they will go out and bring their friends in. Getting people to buy tickets is difficult and expensive, so if performing arts marketers can get each existing patron excited about the experience and get them to bring several of their friends to the next show, this brings marketing costs down appreciably, and it increases the odds that people who would not have otherwise ever come to a show will actually purchase tickets and show up. “I cannot invite the existing patron’s friends, but the patron can, so how do I enable them to do that? The essential element of this is to create unique experiences that are interesting and compelling, and that will excite people who otherwise would not come,” (Mael 2019). This applies not just to getting people to tell their friends, but getting people to tell their classmates, their coworkers, etc. in order to make sure to reach those broader audience segments that allow the organization to be able to create tailored experiences for each segment. It is not just a matter of creating the right experience, it is also a matter of finding the right catalysts who will actually go out and effectively market for the organization. Mael argued that online marketing is cost effective as well, but it is harder to actually get people in the door that way. Mael explained that using experiential marketing and creating enriching experiences that create value for people and spark word-of-mouth marketing is the most effective method overall. Experiential marketing in and of itself is not the sole answer to the challenges we face of building an audience, but it is certainly a part of building an audience, and like Berquist talked about, it is the umbrella that must be present to encompass each of the other smaller parts of the marketing process.

Echoing what Berquist and Mael said in their interviews, Jennifer Buzzell, Director of

Marketing and Sales at Signature Theatre, said that experiential marketing has been around for a while, since way before the digital age, and that it was just not being referred to by that term.

People today have a shorter attention span and less patience. It takes more to give people an experience than it used to; people expect more. The rise in awareness of intentional experiential marketing is a result of the change in people’s expectations. Currently, Buzzell very intentionally practices experiential marketing. She has led multiple workshops on experiential marketing. She talked about how Signature Theatre’s marketing team brings in the creatives/creative team, director, and playwright for the show when they are planning their marketing campaign for that show. They ask them things like what is most important to them, what experience they want the patrons to have, and so on. After that phase, they have everyone working together. They do a lot of cross-departmental brainstorming, because everyone at the organization has creative ideas, not just the marketing team.

Buzzell shared many great examples of experiential marketing that Signature Theatre has done by creating special experiences for their patrons that are tailored to each specific show.

Buzzell provided many examples of show-specific special experiences that Signature Theatre has created for their patrons, but one exceptional example is when Signature Theatre was showing

Titanic from December 13, 2016 to January 29, 2017. Everyone’s ticket was in the form of a

“boarding pass” (Figure 1). Each boarding pass had an actual Titanic passenger on it, and the audience members could go online to Signature Theatre’s website when they got home after the show and find out what happened to the Titanic passenger who was on their boarding pass. This was a way to continue the audience experience, and keep the audience interacting with the organization, even after the show was over and they had returned home. They also had a special

Titanic menu, where they offered food and drinks such as coconut oatmeal pudding with fruit

(inspired by the oatmeal and porridge served on the Titanic), salmon beurre blanc and ratatouille

(inspired by the French dish “salmon with mousseline sauce” that was served on the Titanic), and

Punch Romaine (based on the drink served to first-class Titanic passengers). Patrons were fully immersed in the experience – They could taste, feel, and see the experience of being on the

Titanic.

Another example of a show-specific special experience that Signature Theatre created was when they were showing The Scottsboro Boys from May 22, 2018 to July 1, 2018. They had a historical exhibit in the lobby relating to the Scottsboro Boys trial that people could look at before or after the show (Figure 2). They also had newspapers from the actual Scottsboro Boys trial. These additional visual aspects added another layer to the audience’s experience of the performance itself and enhanced their overall experience.

A third example of a show-specific special experience that Signature Theatre created for their patrons was when they were showing The Fix from August 11, 2015 to December 20, 2015.

They made a Cal Chandler campaign poster and signs to help visually bring the show to life

(Figure 3). They had window clings that were on all of the doors as people entered the theatre

(Figure 4). For the Step and Repeat, they had a podium with a United States seal that said “The

Future President of the United States” (Figure 5). “We had this out at our big annual open house which was right before the fix opened and every single kid there posed at the podium and took their picture,” (Buzzell 2019).

Buzzell also noted that for the marketing campaign for this show, “we invited a member of our board to join us who actually owns a company that plans communications for political campaigns – he was Mitt Romney’s communication agency when he ran for President, he’s

worked on Chris Christie’s campaigns and many more. He joined us for the marketing meeting to help plan the campaign and advised us on everything. We even pitched this story to the

Washington Post and got a feature article about his involvement in the newspaper which sums up the whole campaign nicely and has the link to the online ‘TV commercial’ we made as an attack ad against Cal’s presidential run from the opposing candidate – The actor playing Cal was awesome, so this whole campaign was a ton of fun,” (Buzzell 2019).

Figure 1 Ticket into "Titanic." Source: Signature Theatre 2016

Figure 2 “The Scottsboro Boys” Lobby Exhibit. Source: Signature Theatre 2018

Figure 3 “The Fix” Poster. Source: Signature Theatre 2015

Figure 4 “The Fix” Window Cling. Source: Signature Theatre 2015

Figure 5 “The Fix” Step and Repeat Podium Sign. Source: Signature Theatre 2015

CHAPTER 6

FINDINGS: NATIONWIDE SURVEY

To learn about current practices in experiential marketing from a broader lens, it was beneficial to look at what is being done at performing arts organizations of different disciplines, not just in DC but throughout the entire United States. This provided a picture of how people in different areas of the country, from different backgrounds, and at different types and sizes of performing arts organizations view and utilize experiential marketing. As was stated at the beginning of the previous chapter, all of the viewpoints expressed in the surveys are not necessarily in line with each other or with the experiential marketing viewpoint that is ultimately being argued in this thesis. The purpose of the survey was to get a sampling of the different viewpoints of experiential marketing held by various performing arts marketing professionals.

The fact that there were so many different viewpoints and that there was so much variance in performing arts marketers’ perspectives on experiential marketing in the performing arts reinforced the need for clarification on the concept, which is the aim of the final chapter of the thesis.

The survey included answers from marketing staff members from a sample of 16 performing arts organizations in 11 different US states. The organizations represented included nine symphonies, two ballets, two theatres, two operas, and one performing arts venue. Out of the 16 survey participants, 13 were familiar with the term “experiential marketing.” Three out of the 16 survey participants were not familiar with the term “experiential marketing,” (Table 1).

Table 1 Familiarity with the Term “Experiential Marketing.” Source: York 2019

Each of the 13 survey participants who were familiar with the term “experiential marketing” provided different ways that they define experiential marketing in the context of the performing arts. Six of the 13 definitions of experiential marketing were framed by the

“marketing the experience” aspect of experiential marketing. These six definitions fall into that category because they focus on enhancing the patron experience and increasing audience engagement once they have already purchased a ticket and are at the show, as opposed to creating experiences for people during the marketing process, before the point of transaction.

Jennifer Weissman, Chief Marketing Officer of the Boston Ballet, defined experiential marketing as “giving patrons deeper ways to engage with the arts,” (Weissman 2019). She talked about how for their current show, which features a very contemporary playlist with songs from the choreographer’s Spotify, they are asking audience members to suggest music for next ballet.

They are also giving audience members chances to come up on stage, pose with the props, touch toe shoes, and other hands-on experiences or engagement efforts with the audience members who are at the performance. Parker Owens, Chief Marketing Officer at the Colorado Symphony

Association, said that experiential marketing for their product specifically is incredibly difficult

due to the artistic programming constraints as well as brand-practices for franchise products.

“For our end of the product, we provide events within the context of the concert experience that allow for feedback, engagement, participation, and encourage surprise and delight day-of- activation,” (Owens 2019). Mical Hutson, Director of Marketing and Communications at the

Portland Symphony Orchestra, discussed how experiential marketing in the performing arts fits the definition of “experiential marketing” to a tee, because the organization is selling an experience. “As we set our budget, we determine what experience is going to sell and at what level, and as we set up our marketing plans, who and how many we target, as well as the look and the feel of the marketing collateral,” (Huston 2019). Tamara Vallejos, Director of Marketing

& Audience Development at Opera Colorado, defined experiential marketing as “opportunities for patrons to engage with our art beyond simply sitting in the theater and watching a performance,” (Vallejos 2019). She said that she views experiential marketing as being more focused on building the brand loyalty of existing patrons (whether first-time attendees or longtime subscribers) as opposed to being a mechanism for intriguing or attracting entirely new audiences. Leah Oby, Director of Audience Development and Communications at the Louisiana

Philharmonic Orchestra, stated, “Experiential marketing in the context of the performing arts would include enhancing the guest experience by communicating programmatic themes through the use of sensory methods and other data collected from audience engagement surveys,” (Oby

2019). Maria Ewing, Director of Advertising & Promotions at the North Carolina Symphony, said that in her experience, experiential marketing involves “offering free tickets to a concert,” and after the first experience, giving a “discount offer to purchase tickets,” (Ewing 2019), which relates to marketing the experience because she makes the experience accessible to new patrons and then retains the new patrons by giving them an exceptional first experience.

The next four definitions of experiential marketing were framed by marketing as an experience. Rachel Traversari, Senior Director of Marketing at the Durham Performing Arts

Center, defined experiential marketing as “an experience that engages the customer with your product or service,” (Traversari 2019). Similarly, Nikki Battestilli, Marketing Director at City

Theatre, defined experiential marketing as “engaging with a consumer in a way that allows them to have an experience,” (Battestilli 2019). This could mean engaging with them at the performance, but it also relates to engagement during the marketing process. Deborah Warren,

Director of Marketing at Center Theatre Group, defined experiential marketing as “creating a brand event to showcase the shows in an unconventional way,” (Warren 2019), which is about creating events that give people experiences with the product or with the organization’s brand beyond just at the performance. Brand events are about creating experiences through the organization’s marketing itself. According to Michael Frisco, Director of Audience Development at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, performing arts experiential marketing is defined the same way as it is in other industries. “The applications that come to mind that are specific to the performing arts include opportunities to encounter or play live music, content-rich social media, and on-site experiences that further the understanding of an artistic program,” (Frisco 2019).

The last three definitions of experiential marketing provided by survey participants alluded to both aspects of experiential marketing: marketing the experience and marketing as an experience. Karina Kacala, Director of Advertising & Promotions at Opera Philadelphia, defined experiential marketing as “creating hands-on or more interactive experiences to heighten audience experience with the goal of attracting new audiences/boosting retention,” (Kacala

2019). Kacala included both aspects of experiential marketing in her response by mentioning how it can be utilized to bring in new patrons and to retain them. Amber Ostaszewski, Director

of Audience Engagement at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, stated, “Most of my role is informed by experiential marketing, however we term is as ‘engagement,’” (Ostaszewski 2019).

The concept of patron engagement is important in both aspects of experiential marketing. Sarah

Myer, Vice President of Marketing at the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, suggested that experiential marketing is “…any way to engage the patron beyond a typical marketing buy that will encourage them to either purchase a ticket for the first time or become a returning customer,” (Myer 2019). Again, this definition includes both acquisition and retention, which relate to both aspects of experiential marketing.

Each of the 13 out of 16 survey participants who were familiar with the term

“experiential marketing” had first learned about the concept of experiential marketing in different ways and from different sources. Four of the participants stated that they could not pinpoint a particular moment or instance that they learned about the term, but that it has been around for a while and is naturally part of how their marketing has evolved over time. Other responses included marketing conferences, readings, at their University, from a fellow staff member (Group Sales Coordinator), board members, and previous jobs, both corporate and nonprofit. Three participants stated that they had been using experiential marketing for years before they actually heard the term “experiential marketing,” which relates to what Shareen

Pathak discussed in “It’s Not Just Events Anymore: Social Media Has Lit a Fire under

Experiential Marketing” about how experiential marketing is not a new concept; it has been being utilized since long before the digital age and is just now actually being called “experiential marketing” and being intentionally executed as its own type of marketing (Pathak 2014).

Out of the 16 survey participants, four reported that they have attended a workshop or participated in other formal training on experiential marketing. 12 of the survey participants

reported that they have not attended a workshop or participated in other formal training on experiential marketing (Table 2). The four participants who indicated that they had received formal training on experiential marketing each included notes about what they meant when they said that they had received training. Leah Oby (Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra) noted that her

“…previous career experience with production and experiential marketing occurred from 2012-

2014,” (Oby 2019). Mical Hutson (Portland Symphony Orchestra) stated, “Never with that term.

But I feel like any training for marketing a symphony in particular is experiential marketing training. I worked with a professional symphony marketing consultant for three years,” (Hutson

2019). Jennifer Weissman (Boston Ballet) stated that “it comes up in various conferences, but I haven't gone to a specific only-experiential workshop,” (Weissman 2019). Sarah Myer

(Indianapolis Symphony) explained, “Conferences I've attended aren't solely focused on it, but it's discussed in most of the marketing conferences I attend,” (Myer 2019).

Table 2 Experiential Marketing Formal Training. Source: York 2019

Out of the 16 survey participants, all 16 indicated that their organization offers pre/post- performance talks (Table 3). Tamara Vallejos (Opera Colorado) noted that they offer “pre- performance talks for every mainstage opera, and occasional talk-backs for special instances

(world premieres, etc.),” (Vallejos 2019). John Koluder (Indianapolis Ballet) said, “We have 63

worked with a young professionals group to conduct a pre-performance talk during our first season (which was just recently, in February 2018). While we have not done a pre- or post- performance session since then, we are planning to schedule these in conjunction with performances during our 2019/20 Season (August 2019-April 2020),” (Koluder 2019).

Table 3 Pre/Post-Performance Talks. Source: York 2019

Out of the 16 survey participants, all 16 indicated that their organization offers artist meet

& greets (Table 4). Tamara Vallejos (Opera Colorado) noted that they offer a ticketed “Artists in

Conversation” event a few weeks ahead of a production, offering a panel discussion and opportunities for mingling with the artists. She said that they “incorporate artists into as many events as possible (seating the stage director with patrons at Opening Night Dinner, having artists at our annual gala, open rehearsals with mingling sessions for donors and select attendees, etc.),” (Vallejos 2019). John Koluder (Indianapolis Ballet) said that they “conduct monthly

"Happy Hour" events where “season subscribers, corporate partners, and other community members can watch a portion of rehearsal and then meet the dancers in an informal setting afterwards. These are not open to the public,” (Koluder 2019).

Table 4 Artist Meet & Greets. Source: York 2019

Out of the 16 survey participants, 14 indicated that their organization performs in non- traditional performance settings, one out of the 16 survey participants indicated that their organization does not perform in non-traditional performance settings, and one out of the 16 survey participants indicated that the question was not applicable because their organization is a presenting performing arts organization and not a producing performing arts organization (Table

5). Tamara Vallejos (Opera Colorado) noted, “We have a small season, so this doesn't happen too frequently, but we do it occasionally. However, a large market research study I recently completed has shown us that what most prospective patrons and current patrons highly prefer the traditional setting of the opera house, so we are scaling back our non-traditional settings and increasing our performances at the opera house. This is notable because much of the industry feels like we need to be more avant garde in our approach to settings - but this is not supported by data or actual patron experience,” (Vallejos 2019). Nontraditional settings could be beneficial in attracting new patrons or new audience segments, but loyal, more traditional patrons prefer the traditional performance setting. Jennifer Weissman (Boston Ballet) noted that they “…did a massive performance on Boston Common a few years ago, attended by 55,000 people. We will

be performing at Boston Calling music festival this May for two days – 40,000 attendees per day.

We do much smaller "pop-up" performances annually around town a few times a year, usually with pre-pro/second company dancers, but sometimes with the main company,” (Weissman

2019). Maria Ewing (North Carolina Symphony) said that they have a Soundbites series at different local restaurants. It involves “chamber music and a meal at various restaurants...they seat 100, and it costs about $70 per person,” (Ewing 2019). John Koluder (Indianapolis Ballet) said that “some examples include mini-performances at the Indianapolis International Airport on

Valentine's Day, during an artist exhibit meet-and-greet event held in a gallery space at Saks

Fifth Avenue (Fashion Place Mall), and "Family Day" performances in gallery space at the

Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields,” (Koluder 2019).

Table 5 Non-Traditional Performance Settings. Source: York 2019

When asked to provide examples of other exceptional experiences that they offer their patrons, each of the survey participants listed a sampling of the ways that they go above and beyond to create memorable experiences, beyond just the show/concert/product itself. Leah Oby

(Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra) explained how “the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra also offers opportunities to engage with a young and innovative demographic through the use of its 66

Prelude for Young Professionals membership program. Prelude members gain access to exclusive LPO events like happy hours and crawfish boils – geared towards helping members socialize with other young professionals,” (Oby 2019). Karina Kacala (Opera Philadelphia) said that they offer “post- or pre-show receptions, tours, informal meet ups, photo opportunities

(photo booths), and custom cocktails at venues,” (Kacala 2019). Tamara Vallejos (Opera

Colorado) talked about how when they are thinking of how to create exceptional experiences for their patrons, they consider that “it is critical that our opera performances feel like grand nights out, from top to bottom (our research shows audiences want this). This season, as a result, I have implemented the red carpet treatment at every performance. People get extremely giddy walking on a red carpet to enter the opera house. Once inside, because step-and-repeats aren't very engaging, we offer a free lobby photo booth at performances, complete with operatic-themed props, and post patron photos to social media the following day. We are continuing to add elements to the on-site patron experience, but these are some of the most simple but impactful,”

(Vallejos 2019). Mical Hutson (Portland Symphony Orchestra) said that as a symphony, they offer more exceptional experiences for their patrons than they can even count (Hutson 2019).

They are constantly working to go above and beyond, because creating experiences is inherently part of being a symphony. Parker Owens (Colorado Symphony Association) said that they offer

“free pre-concert activation opportunities for listening in a non-traditional space (lobby/galleria), preconcert family activities for our family-friendly events that are sensory (instrument petting zoo, themed crafts, unique photo opportunities),” (Owens 2019). Deborah Warren (Center

Theatre Group) explained that the live events and concerts in and of themselves are exceptional experiences (Warren 2019). Amber Ostaszewski (Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra) said, “We are experimenting with non-traditional concert formats. For example, shortening concerts, flipping

concert expectations, interplay between roles as audience and performer, etc.,” (Ostaszewski

2019). Nikki Battestilli (City Theatre) said that the exceptional experiences that they offer depend on each particular show (Battestilli 2019). This is similar to what Jennifer Buzzell talked about in her interview and shared in her marketing materials, and the experiential marketing ideas and tactics that were tailored to each of their shows (Buzzell 2019). Rachel Traversari

(Durham Performing Arts Center) said that they offer “VIP President's Club, season seat member open house, announcement events,” and other such experiences (Traversari 2019). Jennifer

Weissman (Boston Ballet) talked about their initiative called “Warm-Up,” which is “a series of activities in our lower lobby before every show. It includes dancer trading cards, postcards that we mail for free, photo booth and props, toe shoes to touch (series in various stages so you can see the "guts"), song lyrics to current ballet (music by Khalid, James Blake, Barry White...) – it varies depending on the show,” (Weissman 2019). Emma Wall (North Carolina Symphony) explained that they offer backstage tours, as well as dinners and exclusive performances at VIP's homes (Wall 2019).

Each of the 16 survey participants offered insight into how they leverage experiential marketing digitally vs. in-person. Jennifer Weissman (Boston Ballet) said that they are “currently soliciting songs for new ballet in the theater (on a big board where people can add their suggestions) and on our social channels. We always try to find digital/in-theater crossover when possible to make biggest efforts multi-channel,” (Weissman 2019). Rachel Traversari (Durham

Performing Arts Center) said, “We have much more access to cast and creative members through social media ahead of time versus in person. However, we have done Facebook live, podcasts, and video recordings in-person. We basically do both depending on the schedules of performers/touring cast members,” (Traversari 2019). Nikki Battestilli (City Theatre) explained

that “the idea when I post experiential marketing things on social is to make others feel like they missed out on something cool and don't want to miss the next one,” (Battestilli 2019). Karina

Kacala (Opera Philadelphia) said that they try to document the in-person experiences “as much as possible to share on social media so that even if people missed an experience, they know that it happened. We encourage people to use show-specific hashtags and interact with us across our various social platforms,” (Kacala 2019). Amber Ostaszewski (Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra) explained, “Our social media and digital marketing is still relatively message-based, although we have started creating more content and investing time in creating online formats (such as concert streams, Instagram stories, and a podcast),” (Ostaszewski 2019). She said that in-person marketing tends to be where their best return on investment is for experiential marketing, but even so, they are both very much interconnected. “Often it takes someone experiencing online content and messages before getting them to one of the in-person experiences,” (Ostaszewski

2019). Deborah Warren (Center Theatre Group) said that she uses experiential marketing digitally by “capturing brand events and repurposing them in digital content,” (Warren 2019).

Parker Owens (Colorado Symphony Association) said, “Social listening is applied to our product review and value. We measure feedback, positive and negative, on all titles presented/curated by the organization and apply it in our overview of the content with point of purchase and post- attendance surveys. Digital marketing for our product is providing behind-the-scenes previews, social media takeovers from visiting artists, and in-depth interviews with musicians featured in weekly e-communications,” (Owens 2019). Mical Hutson (Portland Symphony Orchestra) explained, “Currently, we are working on extending our storytelling arm. We have redesigned our website to assist. We have ramped up our photography and videography,” (Hutson 2019).

Tamara Vallejos (Opera Colorado) said, “We have invested in the full-time position of Digital

Content Manager specifically to produce video and photo assets that we can share with audiences online and on social, and bring them behind the scenes,” (Vallejos 2019). Leah Oby (Louisiana

Philharmonic Orchestra) said, “We leverage experiential marketing techniques on social media by creating pre-event awareness, and by sharing the information and encouraging our followers to share with their networks as well. Additionally, we occasionally offer incentives for sharing, liking, and promoting organizational events,” (Oby 2019).

After receiving all of the survey responses, each of the 16 survey participants was emailed an open-ended follow-up question regarding whether or not their organization practices the “marketing as an experience” side of experiential marketing (see Appendix B). Amber

Ostaszewski (Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra) talked about their Music Lab, a hands-on experience for community members where they get to experience what it is like to hold or play an instrument. The Music Lab is staffed by musician volunteers. It offers a rotation of different orchestral instruments for visitors to try. The Music Lab is available for visitors in the lobby before select CSO and Pops concerts, and it can also be requested for participation in local community events (Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra 2019). They use the Music Lab as a “dual community engagement/Marketing promotion,” (Ostaszewski 2019). They also have other events, such as their CSO on Tap series (free concerts in craft beer tap rooms), which allows attendees to develop personal connections with the musicians.

In response to the follow-up question, Tamara Vallejos (Opera Colorado) talked about how they have done some “marketing as an experience” efforts in the past, but not in their current season. They have done performances a couple times a year in the major local shopping mall where people who were out shopping would stop and listen, and the organization would share brochures and special promo codes with the people who stopped to listen. They found that

these events were helpful in increasing general awareness of the art form, but not so much for

Opera Colorado specifically. To try to generate measurable results of these efforts, they would create custom promo codes for the mall performance viewers. They have also done similar performances at art walks and other community events. Vallejos said that Opera Colorado still does a lot of community performances and experiences to introduce people of all ages to opera, and this is a critical part of their mission, but she noted that those efforts are more part of their

Education & Community Programs department, not Marketing. Because the Marketing budget is limited, they have to be very strategic and data-driven in how they allocate their budget. She said that “for many arts organizations, attracting new buyers isn’t that hard, but retaining them is the tricky part. This is why when we do experiential initiatives, we focus them on our existing patrons; we want to give them every reason to come back, so that brand loyalty aspect I mentioned is super important,” (Vallejos 2019).

Jennifer Weissman (Boston Ballet) also talked about pop-up performances when asked about “marketing as an experience,” but she has actually found them to be an effective way of attracting new audiences. They have marketing events where the Nutcracker bear is giving hugs, there are activities for people to participate in, and they have other dancers/trainees come to the events. They also have dancers perform at various public events, such as the Mayor’s Arts Fest.

Additionally, she talked about how their “…education department goes out into the community to read ballet stories at the local libraries (next up is Cinderella, but we do it for all the big shows that have story books). We are going to be ‘borrowing’ Education staff to do readings at local bookstores as part of our promotions. We’ve also had our Executive Director read the Nutcracker story as a ‘celebrity guest’ at various events, where she is accompanied by the Bear and the Nut man,” (Weissman 2019).

Leah Oby (Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra) said, in regards to creating experiences through the marketing itself, they do participate in this type of marketing through promotional booths or tables at different arts related events within the community. In addition, she mentioned that even though this is technically an at-the-performance experience instead of a before-the- purchase marketing experience, they also provide opportunities for hands-on experiences and face to face interaction with patrons at concerts through the use of pre-concert discussions and their informational booth. “We are able to communicate important messages to patrons during the pre-concert talks about the organization and upcoming events. Additionally, patrons may receive informational materials, order tickets, or purchase subscriptions at our marketing/informational table each performance,” (Oby 2019).

Maria Ewing (North Carolina Symphony) said that their “hands-on” promotional efforts where they incorporate experiences into their marketing are mostly at various events in the community. For example, recently they participated in the Hispanic Educational Summit, sponsored by the NC Society of Hispanic Professionals. They have an ongoing partnership with

Marbles Kids Museum called “Music Makers.” At each of these events, among others, an

Instrument Petting Zoo was featured. They also attend senior citizen expos and other family- targeted events. This summer, they will attend the One Giant Leap Festival at the NC Museum of

History. This festival is a commemoration of the 1969 moon landing. They will promote their upcoming season 19/20 concerts, The Planets and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. “We are promoting our concerts at community events that best match our target audiences, which changes depending on which concerts we are promoting. Our participation is very strategic,” (Ewing

2019).

CHAPTER 7

DISCUSION & CONCLUSIONS

Summary

Experiential marketing in the performing arts consists of two aspects: The inherent

“marketing the experience” aspect, as well as the “marketing as an experience” aspect that is actively being utilized by for-profit businesses but that has yet to be fully explored in performing arts marketing. Performing arts organizations need to find ways to bring the experience of attending a performance at the organization into their marketing. The review of the existing literature showed that very there are very few existing sources that talk about experiential marketing in the arts, and the only sources that do talk about experiential marketing in the performing arts address it only from the “marketing the experience” angle. Nearly all of the literature on experiential marketing in the corporate world talk about experiential marketing from the “marketing as an experience” angle. For experiential marketing to be used as effectively as possible in the performing arts, both aspects of experiential marketing must be used to each organization’s best ability, and in the way that makes sense for each individual organization depending on their performing arts discipline, and depending on their programming, budget, time, audience demographic, size of staff, and existing marketing practices.

To reach this conclusion, secondary source data was collected by conducting a literature review of the existing literature, and by observing all of the electronic information and other background information available for each of the 5 local DC metro area experiential marketing best practices organizations – Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, The Washington

Ballet, Signature Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, and The Clarice Smith Performing Arts

Center. Primary source data was collected by attempting a focus group; interviewing representatives from 3 of the 5 DC local experiential marketing best practices organizations, and 73

creating and distributing a survey to the head of the Marketing staff at a sampling of 52 different performing arts organizations in different regions of the United States, of which Marketing representatives from 16 performing arts organizations in 11 different US states participated.

In the observational portion of the DC local experiential marketing best practices organizations, it was discovered that all five of the organizations had a clearly defined mission and clearly laid-out goals, a page on their website that talked about the organization’s history, a calendar page that showed all of their upcoming shows and events, directions on how to get to the venue (or how to get to each venue, if there were multiple), detailed parking information, information about nearby (and on-site) restaurants and hotels, facilities rental information, and accessibility information. Based on observations from prior experience, Wolf Trap is the only organization out of the five local best practices organizations that practices the “marketing as an experience” aspect of experiential marketing in the performing arts through their promotional booth at events in the community, where customers can directly interact with representatives from the organization and collect tangible items with Wolf Trap branding or information

(brochures, pamphlets about how to get to Wolf Trap, Wolf Trap koozies, etc.).

In his interview, Keith Berquist, Marketing Manager at Wolf Trap, talked about the knowledge that has been most helpful to him in the arts marketing field and the skills he has found to be most important, the value of digital marketing and how to use it effectively to collect data, and how to then utilize that data for tailoring content and hyper-targeting specific audiences. He talked about digital marketing vs. in-person marketing, barriers to experiential marketing, personalizing emails, and about how to use influencer marketing to enhance experiential marketing. Michael Mael Executive Director of The Washington Ballet, talked about the practice of experiential marketing through creating customized experiences for patrons. He

explained the concept of micro-segmentation and different levels of audience segments, and how we can use this concept to tailor the special experiences we offer patrons. He talked about how experiential marketing in the performing arts does not usually include the “marketing as an experience” aspect, but that it could just be because it has not yet been explored, since the

“marketing the experience” aspect has been so prominent and is naturally built in to performing arts marketing, so performing arts organizations have yet to really move beyond that and see how else they can implement experiential marketing through the angle of “marketing as an experience.” Jennifer Buzzell, Director of Marketing and Sales at Signature Theatre, explained the importance of collaboration in coming up with show-specific special experiences, and she provided many great examples of special experiences that have been done by Signature Theatre to enhance patrons’ experience of the show itself, and to keep patrons engaging with the organization even after they return home from the show.

The results of the nationwide survey were that 13 out of 16 participants were familiar with the term “experiential marketing.” Of these 13, six defined experiential marketing through the lens of marketing the experience, four defined experiential marketing through the lens of marketing as an experience, and three alluded to both aspects in their definition. Four of the participants stated that they could not pinpoint a particular moment or instance that they learned about the term, but that it has been around for a while and is naturally part of how their marketing has evolved over time. There were various other ways that survey participants had learned about the term “experiential marketing.” Three participants said that they had been using experiential marketing for years before they actually heard the term “experiential marketing.”

Four out of the 16 participants had attended a workshop or participated in formal training on experiential marketing. All 16 of the participants said that their organization offers pre/post-

performance talks, and all 16 said that their organization offers artist meet & greets. Out of the

16 participants, 14 said that their organization sometimes performs in non-traditional settings, one said that their organization does not perform in non-traditional settings, and one said that the question was not applicable because their organization is a presenting performing arts organization, not producing. Each of the 16 participants shared examples of exceptional experiences that they offer their patrons, and each of the 16 participants gave information as to how their organization leverages experiential marketing techniques on social media and in other digital marketing versus in person. When asked the follow-up question about whether their organization practices the “marketing as an experience” side of experiential marketing, five of the participants offered further insight, and four out of the five practiced marketing as an experience and found it to be effective.

Discussion & Conclusions

As can be observed through the literature review and other research conducted for this thesis, there is currently a gap between the corporate view of experiential marketing and the performing arts view of experiential marketing. The corporate marketing world focuses on marketing as an experience, and the performing arts marketing world currently focuses more on marketing the experience. Performing arts organizations need to find ways to market the experience of attending a performance, but also to actually incorporate the experience of attending a performance into their marketing, in order to most effectively implement a full experiential marketing strategy. Marketing as an experience helps potential patrons, and current patrons, engage with the organization’s brand beyond just when they are at a performance.

If performing arts organizations can find ways to get out into the community and make consumers feel like they are more directly involved in the organization’s brand, events, and

performances, and like they will come away from an interaction with the organization and the organization’s brand with a valuable, worthwhile, and memorable experience, stronger relationships will be built with consumers and there will be an increase in audience acquisition and retention. Existing actively out in the community, making organizations accessible and visible, and creating experiences for people will also present great opportunities for reaching new people, opening doors for new audiences, and inviting people in.

Throughout the research, it was discovered that providing information to patrons on the organization’s website about the basic aspects of the customer experience from start to finish

(box office hours, other ways for patrons to purchase tickets, directions, parking, accessibility, places to dine, hotels, rental spaces, etc.) is a fairly standard practice, and it is already being done by all major performing arts organizations. Experiential marketing is partially about accessibility, convenience, and transparency about all aspects of the basic customer experience to make sure that everyone knows what to expect. It helps patrons prepare for their visit and plan to

“make a night of it” by having dinner before or after the show, going shopping, or staying in a hotel. It is important in ensuring that nothing negative happens unnecessarily that might cloud an otherwise wonderful experience (such as cars being towed or people getting lost on their way there), and so that there is no confusion. But experiential marketing is also really about everything that goes above and beyond those things.

One predominant theme that was present in the interview and survey participants’ methods of effectively implementing both the “marketing the experience” and “marketing as an experience” sides of experiential marketing was cross-departmental collaboration. Buzzell spoke specifically about Signature Theatre’s cross-departmental collaboration between the Marketing department and the creative team, director, and playwright when they are planning their

marketing campaign for a show in order to discuss things such as what is most important to them, and what experience they want the patrons to have. The collaboration between the Marketing department and the creative team, director, playwright, and other artistic staff serves as a best practice for marketing the experience. As far as cross-departmental collaboration in marketing as an experience, a proposed beneficial cross-departmental collaboration is the Marketing department working together with the Education & Community Engagement department. Based on the responses from the five survey participants who responded to the follow-up question about marketing as an experience, this collaboration would be beneficial in finding ways to extend marketing efforts into the community through engagement opportunities.

Another major theme that arose in the interviews and in the survey responses was the tailoring and customization of experiences. Whether it is tailoring digital marketing to increase audience engagement based on data, tailoring special experiences to a particular group or audience segment, or tailoring special experiences to the theme of a specific show, all of the interviewees and several survey participants mentioned tailoring in some way in their responses.

This highlighted the importance of personalization, and making everyone feel like they are heard and like their wants and needs are understood. All of these ideas tie into what Berquist said about meeting the customer in stride. The marketing mindset for a long time has been to get customers to notice the product, or to bring the customer to the product. In reality, the best way to bring in new customers, especially when it comes to experiential marketing, is by being what they need and by being present where they already are.

On this note, although none of the interviewees and few survey participants mentioned the “marketing as an experience” aspect of experiential marketing without being prompted, it was predominant in the literature reviewed, which was mostly literature about corporate

practices and corporate ideas for experiential marketing. This makes sense, since businesses that are selling a tangible product and not a show cannot market the experience, as they are marketing a product; they can only create marketing that is an experience. If they want to create a live experience for their customers, they have to do it through their marketing. Performing arts marketers can practice experiential marketing just by creating special experiences for their patrons that keep people coming back, making them feel personally connected to the organization, and making them want to tell their friends about the phenomenal experience they had with the organization. It is necessary to create an exceptional experience for patrons from the moment they buy a ticket to the moment they return home from a show – but why not take it even farther than that?

This is where it is being proposed in this thesis that marketing as an experience comes into play, even in performing arts marketing, where marketing the experience is so important and so inherent. Marketing the experience and creating tailored experiences keeps patrons coming back and inspires them to help bring new people to the organization, but marketing as an experience adds another element. It creates doors for people who otherwise would never have been able to enter. It is a means of reaching out to people who have no prior connection to experiencing the performing arts. Is that not something that all performing arts marketers are aiming to accomplish? How can performing arts organizations reach people who are so distantly separated from the performing arts world that they will not feel welcomed to these experiences – and/or will not even be AWARE that these experiences are available for them – until the organization interacts with them face-to-face?

Wolf Trap’s promotional booths exemplify marketing as an experience in the performing arts. People are out in the community, walking around the park or grabbing a bite to each on their

lunch break or headed out to do errands. The organization is meeting them right where their day naturally takes them; they are meeting them in stride, quite literally. They see Wolfie, see the giant poster, see the free swag, see the people at the booth chatting and enjoying themselves, and they feel compelled to see what it is all about. Some of these people have been to Wolf Trap or are familiar with the organization, but many people walk up to the booth and say, “What is Wolf

Trap?” These people do not have friends who talk to them about the experience of going to shows at Wolf Trap and all of the above-and-beyond, show-enhancing experiences that were created for them. They do not have a connection to the organization through their place of employment. They do not follow Wolf Trap on social media to see the segmented, audience- tailored content. They do not check Wolf Trap’s website. They do not receive Wolf Trap’s emails. These people would otherwise have never been aware of the experiences that Wolf Trap creates. Suddenly, they have a Wolf Trap koozie in their hand and they are looking through a brochure of the whole summer season. They are taking pictures of their children posing with

Wolfie that they will have on their phone and might even post on social media. They are excited that some of their favorite artists will be performing, and that the tickets are inexpensive enough that they can afford to attend. They are enthusiastically chatting with members of the marketing team about their favorite types of music, and the team is making recommendations about which shows they think the person would enjoy. They are joking around about having seen live shows long ago when they were younger, and talking about how they miss seeing live music. They are enjoying the live music that is being played next to the promotional booth. They pull up the Wolf

Trap website on their phone as they are walking away, and they see how easy it is to buy tickets.

At some of the promotional events, Wolf Trap even has someone from the box office there with

a laptop who can sell tickets to people right there at the booth. A door has just been created for someone who otherwise would never have been reached.

Marketing as an experience is where performing arts organizations could draw ideas from some of the examples of experiential marketing that were discussed in the literature reviewed that gave examples of effective “marketing as an experience” experiential marketing campaigns that have been done by for-profit businesses. Symphonies could have instrument petting zoos in at their promotional booths. Ballets could have promotional booths with sample used pointe shoes previously worn by Company dancers that people could look at up-close, or a couple of

Company dancers teaching children easy ballet steps. Even just the basic experience of consumers interacting face-to-face with people from the organization is invaluable.

Marketing as an experience is an element that currently serves as a both gap and an area of opportunity for experiential marketing in the performing arts. As can be observed from Wolf

Trap’s promotional booths, there is great benefit in meeting people out in the community where they already are, because people will be introduced to the organization who would not have otherwise ever heard about it. Performing arts organizations, even more so (possibly much more so) than corporate businesses, are community-based organizations. The organization is marketing primarily to people in their area, because those are the people who are the most likely to be able to attend performances. With this being the case, marketing as the experience makes a lot of sense for performing arts organizations. It is important to get out into the community – the community they are marketing to – to actually meet people and give them a connection with the organization. People scroll through thousands of posts on social media every day. They are more likely to remember, and be impacted by, a face-to-face interaction. By bringing experiences into

their marketing, the organization has just created a personal experience for people, and they have given people a sense of connection, value, and meaning.

There needs to be a lot more collaboration and connection between programming and marketing. Experiential marketing connects marketing and programming, which many arts marketing professionals think of as separate areas of action. For the patron, it is all part of the same experience – from the moment of impact created by the organization’s marketing techniques to the moment they stop interacting with the organization after they return home. In her interview, Buzzell talked about how the Titanic tickets with information about actual Titanic passengers on the back invited people to visit their website and kept them interacting with

Signature Theatre even after they returned home from the show. They extended the audience experience period so that instead of just being from when they bought a ticket to when they returned home, it continued after they were home (or in their hotel, or wherever it was they were going after the show). Why not extend the audience experience period on the other end as well, and have it begin before they purchase their ticket? This is the area of opportunity where marketing as an experience comes into play. Experiential marketing can be used to create an augmented product for performing arts patrons. As is discussed previously, Buzzell spoke in her interview about how they have a lot of staff collaboration between the marketing staff and the artistic staff. They could use this collaboration to practice the augmented product, and to incorporate the second half of experiential marketing in the performing arts – marketing as an experience. Marketing must be related directly to programming, since it is all part of the patron experience as a whole. Performing arts organizations must extend the patron experience from starting when they buy a ticket and ending when they get home and stop interacting with the organization, to starting with their very first point of impact with the organization – the

organization’s marketing. It makes sense that performing arts organizations extend the patron experience to the marketing itself since this is, again, the initial point of impact with the organization’s brand, and it is the patron’s initial experience interacting with the organization.

Along with implementing the marketing as an experience facet of experiential marketing, performing arts organizations can draw from the “marketing the experience” best practices that were discussed by the 3 DC experiential marketing best practices interviewees and the survey participants in order to also implement this side of experiential marketing as effectively as possible. Organizations can offer pre- and post-performance talks and artist meet-and-greets for their patrons to give them more of a connection with the performance. They can tailor experiences to certain audience segments. They can offer special experiences in the lobby, such as photo opportunities, activities for children, or show-specific merchandise. They can tailor the entire experience to the show specifically, such as by having exhibitions in the lobby, special food and drink menus, or activities on the ticket that involve online post-show interaction with the organization, as Buzzell discussed. Performing arts organizations should implement any and all kinds of surprise-and-delight factors that make patrons walk away saying “wow, that was an incredible, memorable experience,” and that make them want to come back to another show and bring their friends and family.

Marketing the experience and marketing as an experience are both vitally important to effective experiential marketing in the performing arts. Marketing the experience and creating exceptional experiences for patrons at the performance increases audience retention and brings in new audiences through word-of-mouth. Marketing as an experience allows consumers to experience the organization’s brand starting with their very first interaction with the organization, as opposed to just once they have bought their ticket and are at the performance. It

gives current patrons a chance to interact further with the organization, meets people in stride, and brings in new audiences by being out in the community where they already are, introducing them to the organization, and giving them a memorable face-to-face interaction and hands-on experience.

APPENDIX A

INTERVIEW PARTICIPANTS AND QUESTIONS

Participants

• Keith Berquist, Marketing Manager, Wolf Trap – Vienna, Virginia

• Michael Mael, Executive Director, The Washington Ballet – Washington, DC

• Jennifer Buzzell, Director of Marketing and Sales, Signature Theatre – Arlington,

Virginia

Questions

1. What kinds of marketing skills were necessary when you first came into the field? How

have the requirements for being an arts marketer changed from when you entered the

field until now?

2. What does experiential marketing mean to you? Talk to me about what is involved. What

is it and what is it not?

3. Were you aware of experiential marketing before now, and if yes, when did you become

aware it?

4. Do you feel that you use it at your organization? When did you start using it? When do

you think the field first started using it?

5. (Tell them the 2 parts of my definition of experiential marketing, using visual for in-

person) – Do you think your organization does one of these aspects better than the other?

Which one, and how can you make the other one stronger? Are there any barriers that

prevent you from doing it?

6. What are the trends in each of the 2 aspects of experiential marketing that you have

observed in the arts marketing field in general?

7. Have you had training of any kind in this kind of marketing? Have you attended

workshops or seen workshops available on this topic? Do you have a group of peers who

discuss experiential marketing? How do have you gotten your information about

experiential marketing and how do you use it to come up with ideas? How do you keep

tabs on what others are doing? What would be helpful to you/what is missing in terms of

training, case studies, education, etc.?

8. (Show them some of the corporate examples and ask them to react to them. Gauge their

reactions. What kinds of words do they use? How do they describe these things?) – 1 in

common and 1 different for each person

9. Can these examples be applied to the arts? If yes, how? If not, why not?

10. If they have intentionally used experiential marketing – Can you reflect on how your

relationship with the audience has changed in your experience as a result of experiential

marketing? Has it changed at all? What experiences have you had with this? If they have

not intentionally used experiential marketing – Looking back, now that you are familiar

with the term, what experiences have you had with experiential marketing? Are you

likely to start intentionally using it?

APPENDIX B

SURVEY PARTICIPANTS AND QUESTIONS

Participants

• Karina Kacala, Director of Advertising & Promotions, Opera Philadelphia – Philadelphia,

Pennsylvania

• Leah Oby, Director of Audience Development and Communications, Louisiana

Philharmonic Orchestra – New Orleans, Louisiana

• Tamara Vallejos, Director of Marketing & Audience Development, Opera Colorado

(Englewood, Colorado)

• Mical Hutson, Director of Marketing and Communications, Portland Symphony

Orchestra (Portland, Maine)

• Parker Owens, Chief Marketing Officer, Colorado Symphony Association (Denver,

Colorado)

• Deborah Warren, Director of Marketing, Center Theatre Group (Los Angeles, California)

• Amber Ostaszewski, Director of Audience Engagement, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

(Cincinnati, Ohio)

• Nikki Battestilli, Marketing Director, City Theatre (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)

• Rachel Traversari, Senior Director of Marketing, Durham Performing Arts Center

(Durham, North Carolina)

• Jennifer Weissman, Chief Marketing Officer, Boston Ballet (Boston, Massachusetts)

• Emma Wall, Assistant Vice President of Marketing, North Carolina Symphony (Raleigh,

North Carolina)

• Maria Ewing, Director of Advertising & Promotions, North Carolina Symphony

(Raleigh, North Carolina)

• Michael Frisco, Director of Audience Development, Detroit Symphony Orchestra

(Detroit, Michigan)

• John Koluder, Director of Marketing & Communications, Indianapolis Ballet

(Indianapolis, Indiana)

• Lauren McKinney, Marketing Director, Tulsa Symphony (Tulsa, Oklahoma)

• Sarah Myer, Vice President of Marketing, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra

(Indianapolis, Indiana)

Questions

1. Please give your name, job title, and organization. (Open-Ended)

2. Are you familiar with the term “experiential marketing?” (Yes/No, with optional

“Comments” box)

3. How would you define experiential marketing in the context of the performing arts? (If

you are not familiar with the term, please write “N/A”) (Open-Ended)

4. When and where did you first learn about the concept of experiential marketing? (If you

are not familiar with the term, please write “N/A”) (Open-Ended)

5. Have you ever attended a workshop or participated in other formal training on

experiential marketing? (Yes/No with optional “Comments” box)

6. Does your organization offer pre/post performance talks? (Yes/No with optional

“Comments” box)

7. Does your organization offer artist meet & greets? (Yes/No with optional “Comments”

box)

8. Does your organization ever perform in non-traditional performance settings?

(Yes/No/NA with optional “Comments” box)

9. What other exceptional experiences do you offer your patrons? (Open-Ended)

10. How does your organization leverage experiential marketing techniques on social media

and in other digital marketing, vs. in-person? (Open-Ended)

Follow-Up Question

In addition to creating exceptional experiences for patrons at performances and events, does your organization ever create experiences through the marketing itself (promotional booth in the community, other hands-on experiences or face-to-face interaction with patrons during the marketing process)? (Open-Ended)

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