MeaningMatters

The Krannert Center at the University of Illinois just sent out a postcard advising ticket buyers to look for their season brochures at the end of June. However, those who might be away at that time of year also have the option of ordering by phone or online now. With these methods, patrons were able to buy tickets for next season as early as mid-April.

An article in Marketing Sherpa suggests various uses of email and postal mail for a ‘one-two punch’ email and postal mail for 1-2 punch - http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=29956

A recent report from the Hartman group says that they are seeing in couples “an increase in the practice of dual decision making” - http://www.hartman-group.com/. In our time-starved world, it’s even more difficult for couples to have the time to sit down and make decisions on what to buy next year.

Recent published by the Australia Council and Creative New Zealand (country specific case studies in each version), Full House packs a ton of knowledge into 200 economical pages. Written by Roger Tomlinson, Tim Roberts and Vicki Allpress, it's a must have workbook to read and keep on my desk for all aspects of marketing, ticket selling, customer relationship marketing, etc. It draws from many resources and puts them all into one place. It's smartly spiral bound, so I can keep it open to the relevant chapters as I'm working on projects.

For those who in North America who can't wait the 3 - 10 business days to get your copy. http://www.artsoz.com.au/FULLHOUSE.htm. You can at least download the first two chapters in PDF format. http://www.artsoz.com.au/FULLHOUSE_Ch1n2.pdf. I'd recommended ordering two copies, one of each version, as different case studies are in each. Then keep one in the box office and the other in marketing. (Even possibly make some chapters available to the Executive and Artistic Directors.)

As an organization, Chamber Music New Zealand is over 50 years old. However, in the last two years, they’ve been remarkably innovative. Recognizing New Zealanders time famine, they programmed ‘An Hour of Quality Time’ concerts at 6 pm during the Auckland Festival in March 2007.

They’re ‘at it again” with concerts this week by the New Zealand Trio in Auckland. A 45 minute coffee concert at 10 am and Cushion Concerts for Children at 2 pm on April 20 on Sunday the NZ Trio will be playing Helix, a newly commissioned work by New Zealander John Psathas (who wrote the music for the Athens Olympics). Radio New Zealand will be recording a subsequent Wellington concert for future broadcast.

At this time of year, most performing arts organizations are sending out their 2007-08 Season Brochures. Invariably, we wait for the incoming mail (or check our web reports) to see how many people have responded and see how many have ‘churned-out.’ We then wondered why people decided to not to renew. However, we’re now realizing that some might have mistakenly thrown out the brochure with all the junk mail we receive, put it into a ‘to do’ pile and forgotten to retrieve it, or haven’t had the time to read through the multi-page brochure, talk about it with their spouse/partner, fill out the form, and push submit. This might be described as ‘customer failure’ http://sloanreview.mit.edu/smr/issue/2005/fall/05/

"The Scottish Executive asked the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) to outline its ambition and vision, which the orchestra duly did in the form of a shopping list. The executive responded with an additional £350,000 of funding, taking the SCO's level of government support through the £2m ceiling."

From the April 18, 2007 Scottish Herald

http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/features/display.var.1335284.0.0.php

Idealware has excellent resources for non-profits attempting to deploy webtools. What I find most helpful is their comparison of similar tools. It's like Consumer Reports for non-profits.

This week I've been talking to several clients about the importance of outgoing email newsletters that can encourage people to visit your site, buy products, etc. Idealware's article appeared in my inbox (I'm registered to receive their monthly enewsletter and suggest that you do the same.) http://www.idealware.org/articles/fgt_email_newsletter_tools.php

If you have any questions, please feel free

2006 International ePhilanthropy Award WINNERS Announced!
www.ephilanthropy.org/awards

On September 21, ePhilanthropy awards were announced, recognizing some remarkable (and seemingly inexpensive) methods to mobilize action and to raise money.

Please post any questions/comments you have here.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/arts/2006/08/31/bmclub31.xml

By Douglas Holt