© COPYRIGHT by Kara York 2019 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING IN THE PERFORMING ARTS By 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. i 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 ii 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 iv 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). v 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, 1 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