July 2008 Archives

Each week, I'll post an interview with someone far more knowledgeable than myself on specific marketing and publicity subjects. This week, publicist Marisa Handren on trends in viral marketing, music sites to read, and why the indie rock world is obsessed with felines.


Marisa Handren runs Four Paws Media, an arts and music pr company in Jersey City, NJ. Before starting Four Paws, Marisa spent three years at Blue Ghost Publicity working with inspiring and accomplished artists such as Deerhoof, The Locust, Xiu Xiu and Grammy nominees Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Marisa also published the magazine Kitty Magik for ten years.






How long ago did you start your own PR firm?

Four Paws started three years ago.


Which bands does Four Paws Media represent?

The current roster includes Adam Gnade, The Advantage, Burning Star Core, Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog, Chris Brokaw, The Curtains, Deerhoof, Elliott Smith (posthumous release, New Moon), Carla Bozulich's Evangelista, Experimental Dental School, Flying, Fog, Gorge Trio, Hawnay Troof, Heartworm Press, Little Women, Mirror Mirror, New Bloods, Numbers, People, Pale Young Gentlemen, the Seconds, Shapes and Sizes, xbxrx, and Xiu Xiu.


What kinds of things do you look for in bands? I.e. is there some kind of criteria for representation? I assume a lot of bands handle their own press (much like a lot of young classical musicians/ensembles); at what point do they make the transition to hiring a publicist?

The most important requirement is enjoying the music. No point in involving yourself with something you don't want to listen to let alone have to talk about on a regular basis!

It's different for every artist and label when they come to a decision about promotion. I'd say generally they'll consider hiring a publicist when they believe a specific project would appeal to a larger audience and are in a financial position to back it.


What are some of the trends you've noticed in bands' (1) album art (2) websites (3) instrumentation?

1 - limited edition packaging, interchangeable cover art, poster inserts, different art for CD and vinyl releases
2 - more free downloads, videos, blogs/writings directly from the artists to the fans, letting fans remix their songs
3 - anything goes


Can you describe the Deerhoof sheet music project? I think it's a fantastic idea. How did that come together?

The response has been amazing! I think people are getting excited. We're definitely excited about it.

Basically Deerhoof has offered "Fresh Born", the first song from their new album Offend Maggie, in sheet music form, before anyone can hear Deerhoof's version. The project invites listeners to make their own version of the song and if they record it they can then upload it to a website ( http://deerhoof.cashmusic.org/) to share with others.

To take it a step further, WNYC came out to the big Prospect Park show Deerhoof played in Brooklyn a few weekends ago and put together this great video about it. It made the Spotlight page on YouTube and it's been posted all around the Internet since then. The project really started organically that night with fans picking up copies of the sheet music at the concert and also playing it before the show for WNYC's cameras, but it's been grabbing more and more people's attention with each passing day. It's been thrilling to hear all the submissions so far.


What other viral marketing techniques have been successful? Didn't Vampire Weekend give out like, Staples discs with the album info scribbled on them? And obviously the Radiohead pay-what-you-want initiative was successful... 

I'm not overly familiar with Vampire Weekend and don't recall hearing about that promo idea. I guess it didn't go so well! (Just kidding.) Of course Radiohead's idea was great. Obviously they're in a financial position where they could afford to do something like that but I feel if any artist really takes the time to consider what their listeners might want, you can actually bring something to them that's interesting, unique and enjoyable for everyone involved. Consider the actual people involved and don't look at it simply from just a financial point of view, that makes the most sense to me. People will respond the most to that.


Back to the basics: when you send out a press release, do you send it out as an attached pdf or paste it into the body of an e mail?

I use a mailing list provider so it's all about the fancy HTML for me!


Do you send formal press releases to bloggers, or let news spread on its own?

Depends on the mood and the project. We sometimes let sites run news first so it's an exclusive to their outlet, or I will announce it and let it spread that way, or like we did for the Deerhoof sheet music project when we let the fans pick up copies at the show and had it spread organically at first. It varies.


Deerhoof's new album comes out on October 7, 2008. When did you start pitching it to media?

Before they started thinking about recording it! You don't ever have to guess with that band, the record they end up making is always going to be that great. And I was right again.


We never "leak" albums in classical music. We also never give away free/exclusive downloads from popular sites. I heard somewhere that the tracks that are given out for free are always the highest sellers on iTunes, etc.. Is that true? What are the other benefits of leaking?

I actually don't know if that's true. I think the best benefit of leaking is that people get to hear your music. Isn't that what every musician wants, to be heard by as many people as possible? Leaking does put a damper on my job and the labels, and the bands if no one buys their record because they can download it for free, but I also realize the ups to it. It's a great and easy way to hear music. But part of me also misses being able to dig around for new things instead of being able to go online for instant gratification. 


Why did Gawker call Pitchfork "ancient"? Is this true? For argument's sake, let's say Pitchfork replaced Rolling Stone. What's going to replace Pitchfork? A new platform hasn't been created, so is the answer just, other music blogs?

The Daily Coyote blog is going to replace everything. No one will care about music so much anymore. They will just want to adopt animals and start big pet families.


What are your three favorite music criticism sites or publications?

I like reading "Bull Tongue" in Arthur, Time Out New York, and the Xiu Xiu blog.


Last and most importantly, there appear to be a lot of feline references in the indie rock world - Four Paws Media, Asthmatic Kitty, FatCat Records. Coincidence, or...?

Animal lovers.

More good marketing stuff via In the News! Is this a challenge for Life's a Pitch? It is so on, "Ian VanderMeulen".

In an article in today's (7/31) Atlanta Journal-Constitution about Alliance Theatre's upcoming experiments with audience text-messaging, Kirsten Tagami writes, "This summer, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has used audience text messaging at its new venue in Alpharetta, the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park. Concert-goers are encouraged to text questions before intermission, ASO spokeswoman Melissa Sanders said. Selected questions are answered by conductor Robert Spano and guest artists during the intermission show, which is broadcast on a big screen. The first time the ASO tried it, on June 28 during its all-Beethoven show, about 75 questions were received via text, she said. Sanders said she didn't know of other orchestras that were using texting consistently, but some have experimented with it. 'It's definitely a trend in the field,' she said."

I wonder how many times they make the "please turn off your cell phone" announcement after intermission.

I think I am the only member of The League of American Orchestras who joined solely so I could receive their daily In the News e mails. They're somehow comforting to me, even though some of the headlines are ripe for parody (there was one about classical music and improvising once that was a real gem).

Yesterday, In the News alerted me to this initiative by The Philadelphia Orchestra. Here is the blurb:

In today's (7/30) Philadelphia Inquirer, Peter Dobrin writes about the ways the Philadelphia Orchestra is trying to deal with "subscriber drain." "This fall it will unveil its most radical change yet: a membership program that combines PhillyCarShare's last-minute flexibility with amazon.com's marketing acumen and maybe some of Starbucks' get-it-anyway-you-want-it solicitousness. The new program is called eZseat. Once you're a member, you can buy a ticket at a 25 percent discount at almost any time--from an hour before a concert to nine months before curtain. Different membership levels carry different benefits. A $50 annual membership allows access to orchestra-level seats in Verizon Hall; $75 for both first-tier box and orchestra-level seats. The program, whose research and development was funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and Neubauer Family Foundation, will exist solely online. Members can print out their tickets, whose bar codes will be scanned at concerts by ushers." J. Edward Cambron, the orchestra's vice president for marketing and public relations, helped create eZseat "as a response to increasing resistance to the old subscription model. ... eZseat, he says, provides the 'ownership' factor of subscriptions, the benefits, but more flexibility.

Did they have to call it eZseat? Really? Really?

I appreciate 1. their admission that the subscription model is dying a slow and painful death and 2. the decision to actually do something about it, rather than complain to management that "the artists aren't selling", etc.. That said, what's most interesting to me, here - and what the Inquirer piece didn't cover, unfortunately - is how the orchestra will actually market their marketing scheme. I've found more and more that even when organizations have great marketing initiatives, they don't spend the time or money to market them to the right people, which is almost, but not quite, as bad as not creating the new programs in the first place.

This was on the homepage of CNN.com today. The tagline: "Animal control officials had to put a stray 44-pound cat into foster care because they didn't have a big enough cage."

What I wouldn't give to have footage of my artists on the homepage of CNN.com. Surely this is just as interesting as the chubster cat?

Apples and oranges, yes, but when I think about The Mainstream Media being the brass ring of most performing arts' publicists' lives, and then I actually look at what is covered by CNN.com, etc., I just have to wonder: why do we care so much?

I've been revising bios for the upcoming season, and I find myself doing a curious thing: pigeonholing my artists through quirky labels. Last summer, I was content to write "American bass-baritone Eric Owens" or "Grammy Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn", but this year, I find myself pushing the epithet envelope: "Genre-bending bass-baritone", "Demographic-defying violinist".

Now, those barely make sense, but here I am, racking my brain to come up with something catchy. Confusing, and catchy. The more confusing the catchier? I'm using labels to describe how un-labelable my clients are. In a post-genre - that's another good one, stolen from an article I read about Obama being "post-racial"...? - musical world, are we able to resist the urge to label?

I went home last weekend and gave my dad, who does not work in The Industry, my client Gabriel Kahane's new album. He listened to it in his car while running errands, and when he got back, I asked, "What did you think?" "What do you call it?" he question-answered. Would he like it better or worse if I called it one thing over another? If I had said, "I don't know - it's music" rather than what I actually said, "We're calling it 'post-tonal chamber music meets indie-pop'"?  "Oh. So pop music for smart people?" Well...not really...which started a lengthy exchange about what I should label the album, not about the actual music. (My father ended the discussion by announcing that it would be called "Nouveau indie", for those of you playing at home.)

MySpace Music gives artists a wide-range of genre label choices, but you have to choose at least one. So, on quite possibly the largest platform for exposing people to new music in the world, there is not an option to present yourself without label, and yet, artistically, so many artists profess to be genre-less. How do artists deal with that? Some joke (Gabriel's genre is Indie/Classical/Regional Mexican), some are painfully literal (the band Lucky Soul's profile says Pop/Soul/Pop); I personally like Sigur Rós', which is Visual. While this is accurate if you know Sigur Rós' music, "Visual" is an absurd descriptor; it says nothing about the actual music, only something about the band's brand and perceived fanbase.

Genre labels are no longer about what an artist's music sounds like. Rather, labels have become code for how an artist is positioned in the industry, and are used as vehicles for profile-building. The signifier and the signified are not the same, as it were. A single album is called "indie" when pitched to a record store (that will not accept classical albums) and "classical" when placed on iTunes (because there is less competition for features and rankings). When you submit an album to the site TuneCore for digital distribution, you are asked to choose one or two genre labels directly under the name of the artist and album. The choices are: Alternative, Blues, Children's Music, Comedy, Dance, Electronic, Folk, French Pop, German Folk, German Pop, Hip Hop / Rap, Holiday, Inspirational, Jazz, Latin, New Age, Opera, Pop, R&B/Soul, Reggae, Rock, Soundtrack, Vocal, World, Americana, Country, Spoken Word. Gabriel's manager reports that a few years ago, TuneCore had a Classical option, since he labeled the last EP "Alternative" and "Classical", but that seems to have disappeared. Of course.

But even if an album is (somewhat accurately?) labeled "Alternative" and "Classical", my mind goes to Alanis Morissette ca. 1995 and then J.S. Bach ca. 1747, not Gabriel Kahane ca. 2008. Consequently, genre labels are used to determine where the album is sold, who it is reviewed by, and not much else.

So am I going to take the epithets out of my artists' bios? Nope, because who's going to interview a plain old bass-baritone.

And round and round we go.

This made me think of this, which led me to wonder if the organizers of the upcoming Bernstein Festival are exploring cross-marketing opportunities with the 2009 Broadway West Side Story revival.

According to Nails Magazine as reported by The New York Times in August 2007, there are 3,800 nail salons in New York City. I will only go to one of them. I'd like to tell you that's because I appreciate the good service, personal care and attention to returning customers, but it's none of those things. They have a frequent visit card: after 10 visits, you get a free manicure. At $7 per manicure, that's not exactly the deal of the century (what's another $7 when you're $70-deep in hand care), but it's the idea of getting something, anything, for free that's appealing. A quick gander at my key chain proves my unfaltering support of a number of rewards programs: Duane Reade ($5 coupon for every -- cringe -- hundred dollars you spend), Borders, C-Town supermarkets (classy girl), AAA and Cosi. I also believe I am a "frequent" flyer of every airline still in existence, a frequent rider on Amtrak, a member of OpenTable (700 points away from a $20 gift certificate!), and I just cashed in all my credit card points for Staples gift cards. What a rewarding life I lead.

But where is my frequent Philharmonic card? Broadway and Off-Broadway card? Opera card? New Music Ensemble card? I realize that, unlike manicures and train rides, the content of performing arts organizations changes - that is, I can't buy ten random tickets and expect a free opening night ticket to The Met - but other realistic and appealing rewards can be created. For example, most of the behind-the-scenes tours, talk-backs and post-performance receptions at performing arts organizations are reserved for major donors and/or subscribers. Unfortunately, the behind-the-scenes material is what would be most interesting, I think, to the infamous "new audiences"; why only offer such perks to those already committed to your organization?  Assign points to each ticket price and rewards to each point level. Five $20 tickets gets you coupons at the gift shop, three $100 tickets gets you a backstage tour, so on, so forth.

I don't think performing arts rewards programs will get people in the door: if I've never seen an opera, the promise of a backstage tour after a significant financial investment probably won't be the deciding factor. But I do think that, once single ticket buyers have bought their first ticket, the promise of fun perks down the line can only help.

Formerly belonging to the fair country of Montenegro, the domain extension .ME will now be sold by GoDaddy.

The GoDaddy press release is hilarious:

Imagine the possibilities. After all, .ME translates to a wide range of catchy words throughout the world - including the obvious English translations, such as "about me." Others include "amar.me," which means "love me" in Spanish, and "secondo.me," which is Italian for "in my opinion."

"Amar.me". Yes, that's exactly where my mind went.

Actually my mind went one (or two) other place(s) and then right on to artist websites! Snatch up your name, especially if you don't already own your-name.COM.

This reminds me of a press release I once received from a top NYC venue with their name misspelled in the heading. Fortunately, they (ahem, I) caught it before the release went out.

I'm sure I've made plenty of spelling errors in my day, but it never ceases to amaze me when press releases are filled with mistakes. If publicists don't take the time to really check their own work, how can we expect the press to write thoughtfully and thoroughly about our clients? This goes for press kits and bios as well; I think people often underestimate the power of well put-together and well-written press materials.

Each week, I'll post an interview with someone far more knowledgeable than myself on specific marketing and publicity subjects. This week, rock photographer Christopher Owyoung on classical music clichés, getting the proverbial "perfect shot", and what makes great live music photography.

Chris Owyoung is an NYC-based photographer specializing in live music coverage, promotional and event photography. His portfolio includes members of The Metropolitan Opera alongside artists like Erykah Badu, The Cure and Kanye West. His work has been featured in The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Village Voice, Billboard, and this month's issue of Spin. Chris also likes puppies and long walks in the park.





How many concerts do you usually shoot per week?

It depends on the season. During the summer, when a lot of bands are touring, I shoot as many as four concerts a week. I probably average four to six bands a week for the entire year.


What has been your favorite concert to shoot so far, other than all of the Wordless concerts, obviously?

Oh, that's a tough one. I've loved - loved - almost all of the Wordless gigs. Outside of those, there are concerts I've enjoyed as a music lover and a concerts I've enjoyed as a photographer. It's a shame, but the two seldom mix.  There are a few shows that were amazing for both - Sigur Ros at Manhattan Ballroom, Dresden Dolls at Manhattan Ballroom and Drive By Truckers at Terminal 5. There were multiple points during each of those shows where I had to stop my self from blissing out so I could continue working.


How did you get into live concert photography?

I short of fell into it. I've always loved music but photography is a recent passion. PlaybackSTL, a music magazine from my hometown of Saint Louis, Missouri needed a photographer for CMJ 2006. My brother, Todd Owyoung, who is just about the sickest concert photographer alive, recommended me for the job. After a few back and forth emails with the editor, I jumped in head-first. Twenty bands and five days later I was hooked.


I think you have an amazing ability to capture the moments of a concert in your photographs; do you think that ability comes from training as a photographer or a passion for music/performance?

Aww thanks! Actually, it's neither. I'd love to tell you either that I'm an amazing photographer with years of training or that my dedication to music took me to Juilliard but I can't. The truth is, I haven't had any training and although I love music, I'm constantly humbled by the passion of others for performance. If there's one thing that helps me "capture the moments," I'd say it's my obsession with detail. I have very specific ideas about how to take photos and when to take them. I think my work is basically what you get when you take an anal-retentive music lover with a modest amount of photographic skill and put her/him in the front row. Okay, I'm being overly modest, but I do think that some of the best concert photographers are lovers of both but masters of neither.


What are some of the obstacles to getting  "the perfect shot"? I remember once you said some girl's legs were in your way...

Wow, where to begin. While it's true that the various body parts of the audience are often in my way, it would be closer to reality to say that I am actually in the way of the audience. I'm extremely conscious of my adverse impact on the concert-going experience and it's actually the continual state of "being in the way" that is a big impediment to getting the best shots.  I prefer to shoot at venues with a barricade so I can avoid pissing people off. Outside blocking an audience member with my camera, the main obstacles are lighting and the time limit.

Getting to shoot for three songs is becoming generous these days. In some cases photographers are given less than 60 seconds, which is totally insane. I understand completely that artists and fans don't want a horde of 20 photographers spoiling their show, but if things continue as they are, there simply won't be any iconic images to remember current music by.  Artists and management want more control over image these days. To them, a documentary photo showing that the concert took place is sufficient. I seriously doubt Annie Leibovitz or Kevin Mazur would agree. Consequently, over half of the images in my portfolio were taken after the first three songs.

Lastly, lighting is a huge factor. To put it simply, no one has any right to complain about crappy photos if the lighting designer uses strobes or a dim red wash during the first three songs. Next question please, I'm getting depressed!


From what you've seen of classical music photography, do you think there's a lower standard for live shots at those concerts? That is, do you think people might assume an orchestral concert will be less exciting than a rock concert, and that assumption shows in their pictures?

It's more that the standard is different, not necessarily lower. I think the classical music experience is stuck in a sort of cultural prison that I readily (but unfairly) associate with expensive tickets, double-breasted blazers and hours of sitting in silence. Those associations are pretty ugly but I'm not sure that your typical producer of a classical music concert has figured out how to attract a younger audience without losing the existing fanbase. To answer your question, I think that the people who photograph classical music are hired by producers trapped within the old visuals - the image of an expansive orchestra, uniformed and faceless with an old white man in front.
 
Whether the photographer is capable of more exciting photos or not, the client determines the final presentation. One of the main reasons I love working for Wordless is the lack of tradition and abundance of experimentation. I hope my photos are a reflection of this.


Do you think more interesting live concert photographs could make classical music more accessible to a wider audience? If so, how? I think a series of photographs from each sections' perspective (including the conductor's) during a concert would be cool, though I realize that would be difficult to make happen during a performance.

Certainly. I think interesting photography combined with unconventional writing and promotion are key to bringing classical music to a wider audience. Dynamic images, particularly of avant-garde contemporary classical musicians, have the ability to capture the attention of a more diverse audience than is normally associated the genre. I think the classical musicians who are willing to take an unconventional approach to their image will benefit from a wider fan base and greater name recognition. There's no reason a photo of Cameron Carpenter totally killing it on the Trinity Church organ can't be as compelling (if not more) than a photo of Jack White in a plain red t-shirt. Image and public perception are not a talent show.

I think photos from the perspective of each section is an interesting idea, albeit impossible to execute at anything more than a dress rehearsal. Photo call anyone?


You know in Roman Holiday when the photographer takes pictures of Audrey Hepburn all day with a cigarette lighter camera? Do tiny cameras exist that an orchestra could attach to music stands to take photos while each member was playing a certain movement or something? I would love to see some shots like that displayed in lobbies or used for advertising materials. Thoughts? What can orchestras do to make their photographs stand out?

The technology to photograph each musician from the stand certainly exists. I think it's just a matter of demonstrating the value of the concept. I'd personally love to see video of each performer. As far as what an entire orchestra can do to make their performance photographs stand out, I love the visual idea of acrylic music stands and chairs. Lines of sight are a huge problem for photographers and videographers - having fewer things to compete with the performers expressions is key.


What can soloists do to make their photographs - press shots and live shots - stand out?

For press shots, I'd say anything that defies convention is a good start. Lose the tux and tails, leave the viola at home, take cues from fashion photography, heavy metal, whatever - the goal should be to create a compelling image that tells some sort of story. You don't need to have the instrument in the photo or be wearing a cummerbund to convey that you're an artist - leave that to your publicist/manager.


We have a bit of an "epidemic" (footnote, MusicalAmerica.com) in classical music: critics are being let go left and right. Do you think more photo-based and less content-base sites are the way of The Future?

That critics are being canned is a shame and a waste of talent. I tend to think that people still care about criticism but are also looking for the photos, news bits and dynamic media that allow them to create their own opinions. I would also argue that critics need to publish for the web. To have a page consisting entirely of long paragraphs of text with no photos or other media these days is inexcusable. It's not about having less content, it's about having more rich content.


Is your website actually a blog platform? I notice folks can comment on the photos you post; why do you have that option?

Yes. My website is built on a Wordpress blog. I've been too busy shooting recently to update it as often as I'd like but I prefer it to having a HTML or Flash site for the advertising value and ease of modification. A lot of photographers have portfolio sites that are great for showcasing work convey nothing about  their personality or how they work. Having a blog as my homepage allows potential clients (as well as fans and other photographers) to get to know me beyond the images. Allowing these people to comment gives me valuable feedback, helps me interact with my visitors and creates a miniature community for people who subscribe to my updates via RSS. Anything that breaks down the social barrier of having to email a complete stranger is a good thing.


Do you have any advice for a venue/orchestra/musician for finding the right photographer for their needs?

Ha! They should start by calling me! Seriously, finding the right photographer is a lot like finding a good hair stylist. You need to love their portfolio, they need to have the right equipment for your type of hair, you should dig their personality, and a few good referrals never hurt. Likewise, hiring the cheapest one is almost always a bad idea.

A quick note about what's going on to your right:

• Stuff about the blog, stuff about me, Contact.
  
• Subscribe to the newsletter, for a newsletter that I have yet to write because I haven't decided on the format yet. I plan on including a list of the longer posts, a recap of the Friday interviews, and - as any good newsletter-sender should have - exclusive content. To be determined exclusive content, but it will be exclusive, don't you worry. I'll send this out once a month.
• Subscribe to this blog's feed, see RSS Feeds.
  
• Archives, I think this is clear.
  
• The Sites section is a list of my four favorite websites (that are applicable to the performing arts - I mean, I like Google, obviously, but there's no need to mention that here). Please do not hesitate to contact me (see first bullet) when you come across great sites yourself.
  
• Success/Disaster of the Week. I want to encourage people to send me their marketing/publicity success and not-so-successes so I can post them. I strongly believe in stealing each other's ideas to improve the industry as a whole.
  
• Resources. With the help of my trusty assistant Allegra (actually, she did it all), I've compiled step-by-step instructions on marketing platforms - YouTube, MySpace, etc. - that may seem daunting, but are actually quite easy to manage. 

Lastly, I wanted to let you know that every Friday, I will post an interview with someone in the marketing/publicity fields on specific topics. Look for photography phenom Christopher Owyoung tomorrow. If there's a topic you're dying to know about (err, within the limitations of this blog), I'm happy to hunt someone down to ask about it.

Thanks for reading!

There's a lot of talk about what kind of audience classical music has and wants. Generally speaking, I think we want young people with disposable-enough incomes who like to go out and have a network of friends in their cities or towns.

That stated, the industry expects the members of this coveted demographic to change their current routines to accommodate it. I decided to conduct a highly-scientific focus group - i.e. e mailing my sister Aliza and her three roommates - on the subject.

Aliza - Marketing Coordinator, Dauphin
Brianne -  Group Strategist, Saatchi & Saatchi
Cammie - Operations Analyst, QVT Financial
Katharine - Analyst for Strategic Planning, American Express

All 23 years old, college-educated and living in New York City.

- - -

How much money do you spend on a normal night out?
Aliza: $40-$60.
Brianne: Probably at least $40 or $50 when you add in cost of cabs!
Cammie: $40.
Katharine: $100.


What was the last thing you bought over $30?
Aliza: Jack Rogers (shoes).
Brianne: Summer dresses.
Cammie: Dinner.
Katharine: A bathing suit.


What time do you normally eat dinner?
Aliza: 7:30ish.
Brianne: 7:00.
Cammie: On weekdays probably between 7:30 and 8. Weekends a bit earlier, more like 6 or 6:30.
Katharine: 7:30.


Have you ever seen the New York Philharmonic?
Aliza: Yes.
Brianne: No.
Cammie: Yes.
Katharine: Yes.


If yes, what did you see?
Aliza:  The first concert in Central Park this summer.
Cammie: Philharmonic in the Park.
Katharine: Sadly, I can't remember (it was years ago).
 

If no, do you have any desire to?
Katharine: I would love to go again!
Brianne:  Not really. Maybe if other friends were going. But it definitely wouldn't be my suggestion for an outing.


How much would you pay to see a classical music concert?
Aliza: $50 - $75 depending on the concert.
Brianne: Depends who I'm going with. Maybe $25-30.
Cammie: $40.
Katharine: Up to $125.


Would you go to a concert by yourself, or would you want to go with friends? On a date? With someone who knows about classical music?
Aliza: I definitely would not go to a classical music concert by myself, but I would go with friends or on a date (although I don't think I would be dating any guys who would take me to a classical music concert unless they were my sister's friends).  I would prefer to go with someone who knows about classical music because I like the back stories about the orchestra, the piece, the time period, etc..
Brianne:  Wouldn't go by myself. I'm not really the type to go to movies or concerts or anything alone. I'd probably want to go with friends who had the same level of knowledge/appreciation about classical music as I do, which isn't much. Definitely don't want to feel intimidated or judged by the person I go with!
Cammie: I'd rather go with someone, whether it be a friend, date or classical music aficionado.
Katharine: I would not want to go by myself, but beyond that I would be open to
going with anyone (friends, a date- why the heck not?, and it wouldn't
really matter if they did or didn't know about classical music).


What is the biggest obstacle to seeing a classical concert in your mind?
a) price - concerts are too expensive
b) location - who hangs out in midtown?
c) timing - we go to dinner at 8 pm
d) comfort level - I don't know anything about classical music

Aliza: I would go for A, those tickets get to be super expensive.  Anytime it's free or not too expensive I'll go.
Brianne: I guess D. I'm not sure it's really all about comfort. I'd say it's more that I just don't really care for classical music. I'd rather do something else.
Cammie: A.
Katharine: I think the biggest obstacle is that it seems that it requires a lot
of advance planning and it might be difficult to get people to go.


If you're looking for something to do on a Friday night, where do you look?
Aliza: Time Out to see if there's any new shows or restaurants to try or I talk to friends and make plans that way, through things they know about.
Brianne: Out to dinner, a movie, or typical bar scene.
Cammie: I usually talk to friends or do something low key on a Friday like the movies or just going to dinner.
Katharine: Usually I talk to friends and occasionally look at Time Out.
 

Would you go see a movie/concert/play because it got a good review or because your friends told you it was good?
Aliza: Probably more so if my friends told me it was good because they have similar interests to me, but if it's get a good review and I happen to stumble upon it, I would give it a try.
Brianne: I'd trust my friends over a good (or bad) review.
Cammie: Both.
Katharine: I usually give more weight to recommendations from friends over reviews.
 

Which websites do you look at every day?
Aliza: Yikes, this is where it starts to get embarrassing...Perez Hilton, People, Gawker, Jezebel, NY Times.
Brianne: NY Times, Bitten, Times style section, Iconoculture (trends website my company subscribes to).  
Cammie: MSNBC, CNN, Facebook, Gmail/Google, Weather.com.
Katharine: Sadly, the only sites I look at everyday are work-related (financial
websites, payments blogs, etc.).


What was the last time you heard classical music in any setting? (movie, elevator - anywhere)
Aliza: Last night, I watched "Talented Mr. Ripley"...LOADS of classical music, I mean, they're in Italy!
Brianne: Restaurant at lunch yesterday maybe? Can't say I really pay attention to it!
Cammie: My iPod.
Katharine: Over the loudspeakers at the Tampa airport on Sunday night.


What's the first thing that comes to mind when I say "classical music"?
Aliza: Big concert halls with huge orchestras...sorry Amanda, Wordless hasn't changed that yet!
Brianne: Requires concentration to appreciate it!
Cammie: Um, I'm not sure. I listen to classical music when I really need to concentrate, or want to relax. I guess it makes me think of culture somewhat.
Katharine: Bow ties.

Many thanks to my hip and trendy lab rats for their answers.

- - -

Highly-scientific conclusions and suggested solutions:
(CV = coveted demographic)

Members of the CV have money to spend, but they spend it on social activities.
Make performances social activities, but in a natural and logical way. That is, don't just slap an "under-30" party onto a performance and expect the CV to come. The advertising has to match the concept, has to match the places it's advertised, has to match the programming. Figure out who throws the best parties in your community and co-sponsor an event with them. Also, make it easy for the CV to plan social events around your concerts. Sell tickets and dinners-for-two at a local restaurant together, offer intermission drink ticket add-ons when people are purchasing their tickets, and encourage the bar across the street to give out a free drink for every concert ticket post performances.

Members of the CV have money to spend, but they spend it on [SPOILER ALERT!] products they see advertised in the magazines and websites they read.
Hold (actual) focus groups and find out which blogs/publications the CV reads in your community. Advertise there. I have thought about gossip/fashion sites for advertising, but not about the financial sites/blogs that Katharine mentions. It's possible that most of those are too national to be useful for local marketing, but worth looking into anyway. My lawyer friends read this obsessively, for example, and I think I will suggest advertising upcoming classical albums there. Also, I'm glad Brianne mentioned the Times Bitten blog: it would be cool for a classical label (or any label, actually) to work with a site like Epicurious to pair music with recipes. Playlists for dinner parties, soundtracks for preparation, etc..

Members of the CV (at least in New York City) eat dinner around 7:30 pm. Most classical music/theatre/dance performances are at 8 pm.
Make performances earlier or late. The NY Philharmonic has "Rush Hour" concerts at 6:45 pm, but they're geared toward commuters, not the CV. (When work ends, come experience a different kind of rush. Head over to the Philharmonic for an evening of music that's guaranteed to move you. Concerts last about an hour. So by the time the last notes die down, so has rush hour.)  It's perfect - a one hour concert at 6:45 pm! I'm not saying my sister and her roommates wouldn't want to go to a full-length concert, but the Philharmonic already has a program in place that fits their schedule; it just isn't marketed to them. Something I've thought about a lot is the idea of a "two-night stand". That is, present the exact same concert at a classical venue at 8 pm, and then again somewhere else (a club downtown, for example) at 10:30 pm. Same program, same ticket prices, same artist, see who comes.

Members of the CV take recommendations from their friends over what they've read in the newspaper in deciding what to do and where to spend their money.
...so if you don't get the big preview in the paper for your performance, it's not the end of the world. Reach out to young community leaders - heads of church groups, student body presidents, groups/club leaders at local universities, etc. - and involve them in the process of promoting your performances organically.

Members of the CV feel comfortable at classical music concerts.
This is both news and not news to me. On the one hand, I strongly believe that we underestimate the proverbial "new" audiences' ability to sit still and refrain from texting during classical concerts. On the other hand, I assumed that my sister and her roommates would have felt more comfortable going to a classical concert with someone who knew about the genre. Apparently not!

Members of the CV still think of classical music as completely high-brow.
Thoughts on that, in no particular order: concert dress, advertising campaigns, artist photos, album covers, presumed dress-code at concerts, exclusive donor events, lack of funding and performance opportunities for new music ensembles, over-generalization of the art form in popular media.

Note: In my "What is the biggest obstacle..." question, I just realized that I didn't even give them the opportunity to say they just don't like classical music! I'm all, THAT IS NOT AN OPTION. In actuality, however, that's something no amount of marketing can change: I don't like Rachel Ray, no matter how many refreshing-looking iced coffees she promotes. It is interesting to think about, though: just "not liking" something that is completely omnipresent but often accepted as background music or cell phone ringtones. Another post for another time.

Update - 7/24, 2:30ish pm: It was brought to my attention via e mail that Lincoln Center will be presenting two concerts of The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen with Paavo Järvi conducting on March 2, 2009; the first concert is at 7:30pm and the second is at 10:30pm. The programs are different. They are also presenting a free concert with The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen the following Wednesday, March 4th, in the middle of the day. Additionally, Jordi Savall's Lincoln Center concerts in October and February of 2009 are slated to start at 9pm. Good stuff. 

Renée Fleming was on Gawker Stalker yesterday, which leads me to think, as I often do, about classical music celebrity versus "real world" celebrity. More on that at a later date.

The New York Philharmonic is running a photo contest for their Concerts in the Parks series this summer. Folks were encouraged to submit their photos and then to vote for their favorites between July 25th and July 31st. The categories are best performance shot, best family/friends shot, best kid shot, best nature shot, best picnic shot, best NYC moment shot, most original shot, and overall favorite shot. Such a great idea! And then, just when I think we're safe...

Winners in each of the eight categories in the contest will be announced on August 1, and will receive a pair of tickets to a New York Philharmonic performance at Avery Fisher Hall.

Oh NO. No no. Why wouldn't the winning photos become the advertising campaign for Concerts in the Parks next summer? I had assumed the point of the contest was to gather unique perspectives "from the ground" (literally/not literally). And some of the photos are really amazing; they capture the excitement and fun (imagine that!) of a philharmonic concert far better than any artist publicity shot does. Ah well. Baby steps.

Update - 7/22, 2ish pm: It has been brought to my attention that Carnegie Hall has held a Playbill cover art contest for the past three years. The ten winners receive $500 and two tickets to a Carnegie concert, and most importantly, their artwork becomes the monthly Playbill covers. I did not know this, and think it's swell. The contest is open to art students, and is advertised via schools, art websites and Facebook. This year's deadline was July 17th. It would be rockin' for Carnegie to collaborate with a gallery and display the original artwork from the top 10, or maybe top 30 submissions, then work with that gallery on cross-marketing and even present a couple concerts in the space. Read your program while being surrounded by programs. 

At our Wordless concert in Prospect Park, Brooklyn on Friday night, the band Deerhoof announced to the crowd that they were giving away sheet music for the song "Fresh Born" off their upcoming album, Offend Maggie. Audience members were invited to pick up the music, create their own version of the song, and submit a link to an interactive website before the "real" version is heard by everyone next month. The sheet music is also available for download from the site.

According to The New York Times, approximately 48,500 people patronized the Bon Jovi concert in Central Park on Saturday, July 12th, while 63,000 came out to see Lang Lang and the NY Philharmonic in the same park on Tuesday, July 15th.

Classical music: 1
New Jersey: 0

Each week, I'll post an interview with someone far more knowledgeable than myself on specific marketing and publicity subjects. This week, multi-instrumentalist Rob Moose on performing in, marketing himself in and making a living in the classical, Broadway and indie rock worlds.

Violinist/Violist/Mandolinist/Guitarist Rob Moose graduated from The Manhattan School of Music in 2004 with a degree in violin performance. Since then, he has performed with The Orchestra of St. Luke's, Jay-Z, Burt Bacharach, The National, Savion Glover and Vampire Weekend, and has toured and recorded with Sufjan Stevens, Antony and the Johnsons, Beth Orton, Duncan Sheik and My Brightest Diamond, among others. He was recently featured in a Lenny Kravitz music video (playing the violin, with Kravitz...conducting) . Additionally, he plays for the Broadway show Spring Awakening and recently founded the string quartet OSSO.



What was your rehearsal and performance schedule this week?

Friday 11: Recording Prep Rehearsal with Bach Reformed (my duo project with fiddle player, Dana Lyn).  (tenor guitar, mandolin). Performance with Beth Orton at WXPN XPoNential Music Fest, Philadelphia. (guitar, piano, mandolin, violin)  

Saturday 12: Performance with Beth Orton at Celebrate Brooklyn Festival, Prospect Park Bandshell, NY.  (same)

Sunday 13: Recording Prep Rehearsal with Bach Reformed (same)

Monday 14: Reading of Gabriel Kahane's new chamber song cycle, "For The Union Dead," a setting of poems by Robert Lowell.  (violin, electric guitar). Spring Awakening at Eugene O'Neill Theater.  (violin, electric guitar)

Tuesday 15: Performance with Capathia Jenkins and Louis Rosen at Iridium, NYC.  (violin, electric guitar) 

Wednesday 16: fly to London

Thursday 17: rehearsal with Beth Orton

Friday 18: Performance with Beth Orton at Latitude Festival, UK


What is the smallest venue you've ever played in? The largest?

Besides my mom's office Christmas party?  The smallest would be either Jack's Stir Brew, a fair trade coffee shop in the West Village at which I occasionally play Bach, or the Sidewalk Café in Alphabet City, where I first performed with My Brightest Diamond (then called AwRY) in 2003.  The largest outdoor venue I've played in was the 2005 Arezzo Wave Festival in an Italian football stadium with Antony and the Johnsons.  For an indoor venue, I'd say either Radio City Music Hall with Jay-Z or the Royal Albert Hall with Antony.


When do you feel least connected to your audience? I.e. in a noisy bar where folks don't seem to be fully paying attention to the performance, or in a concert hall where some people are sitting so far back they can barely see you? Most connected?

I think that outdoor venues tend to create the largest disconnect between performer and audience member.  In non-classical situations, I find that lighting also has a great impact on the feel of a performance.  If I cannot see my audience, I sometimes feel isolated on stage, unless they are particularly vocal.  In general, though, I would prefer a noisy, intimate situation over a silent, formal one simply because performer and audience are more likely to directly interact, whether through energy exchange, eye contact or actual conversation.


Do you connect with the audience at all when you play Broadway shows? You're on stage for Spring Awakening; that must be totally different than playing in the traditional Broadway "pit", right?

Broadway shows are automatically a different breed of performance because as a musician, one is confined to a supporting role in favor of the actors.  I have only a limited experience with traditional pit playing, but that does seem to offer the least possible amount of connection with an audience.  In a pit, most musicians cannot see what is happening on stage, so we are unable to even share in the experience of the acting and singing.  Spring Awakening provides a welcome contrast to the typical musical theater performance, both for musicians and audience members.  Because the show is as much a rock concert as it is a theatrical narrative, the presence of the band on stage is absolutely crucial to its delivery.  Additionally, the onstage seating guarantees that someone is sitting less than ten feet away, a distance that guarantees they will hear my natural, unamplified sound nearly as well as I.   


I've seen audience members come up to you after Gabriel Kahane/My Brightest Diamond/Sufjan Stevens concerts to compliment you and discuss the performance/music. Does that ever happen after orchestra concerts? Broadway shows?

Nearly never.  That is one of the biggest reasons I prefer playing in non-classical settings.  There is an inherent anonymity in orchestral performance that matches the requisite submission to a conductor.  When an orchestra musician walks onto the street, the only reason someone will recognize him is because of his tuxedo.  They will not know which section of the orchestra he played in, much less what instrument.  Orchestra playing can be transcendent, particularly with a group as flexible and open-minded as Orchestra of St. Luke's, but I always remember to check my pop music expectations at the door.


Stereotype: audiences at a The National concert wouldn't know how to act at a NY Philharmonic concert. Thoughts?

I think the indie rock audience is pretty well versed in a variety of musical styles and performance situations.  Many groups have incorporated strings, woodwinds and brass into their live performances in recent years.  Organizations such as BAM and The Kennedy Center have programmed concerts involving collaboration between orchestras and rock bands.  If anything, I feel that new audience members would bring a much-needed dose of curiosity and enthusiasm to the concert hall.


What have you been asked to do marketing and publicity-wise for your various performance projects?  Have you ever been interviewed about playing for Spring Awakening? Asked to write something for the Orchestra of St. Luke's website? Sent an e mail out to your contacts about a My Brightest Diamond concert?

Actually, I have not been asked to do anything that I can think of.  I always invite people to performances but I do not send out a regular e-blast or anything formal.  If I was asked to write something on behalf of any of the groups with which I am performing, I would be more than happy to do it. 


What would you be willing to do if asked? Interviews, e mail blasts, quotes for websites? Are there any press/marketing tactics that you feel are off-limits for artists?

As long as I am not asked to sign my name to something I have not written, or to express a sentiment that does not feel genuine, I would not make any general objections to promotional strategies. 


How do freelance musicians market themselves? To orchestras/bands/collaborators/press? Is it a total burden to have to self-promote while practicing/touring/recording, or do you enjoy it at all? What's your advice to recent conservatory graduates who are looking for jobs?

Freelancers market themselves informally and constantly.  The most important thing is connecting with fellow musicians, and I mean that in as non-superficial a sense as possible.  Attending performances, meeting and speaking with the musicians that inspire you, learning other people's music, writing music to play with specific people...these are all integral networking tools as well as ways to expand one's artistry.  On paper, the process sounds very active, but these methods are best utilized in an organic, almost subliminal way.

Something that has helped me recently is to recognize and embrace my niche.  If I happen to be one of a very few who can act as a concertmaster, hire musicians, write string arrangements, conduct if necessary, double on guitar, and serve as a personal liaison for an artist operating outside of his realm of comfort, then my realization of that fact enables me to promote myself as such and bring my skills to a variety of situations. 

To recent graduates, I would advise pursuing cheap rent, avoiding a 9 to 5, being courteous and appreciative in all situations, seeking mentors and asking advice, bringing pencils to rehearsal, learning new instruments and buying new clothes, and, most importantly, thinking of gigs as investments in your future (i.e. playing concerts for little to no money if you believe in the music). 


Josh Ritter with the Boston Pops, The Decemberists with the LA Philharmonic: important artistic collaborations or marketing/publicity ploys?

The effectiveness of the classical/pop cross-pollination phenomenon depends entirely on the quality of the band and its arrangements as well as the competence and interest of the conductor and orchestra.  Having experienced both formats with multiple artists, I honestly feel that a group of freelance players are a stronger asset to a band looking to integrate classical instruments than a traditional symphony orchestra.   


Coolest thing to happen to 1) classical music 2) Broadway 3) indie rock in the last year? One answer for each, please.

Classical: Alex Ross on The Colbert Report discussing his book, The Rest is Noise.
Broadway: Mario Lopez in A Chorus Line (I don't know enough about Broadway to make an intelligent remark, but who doesn't love Saved by the Bell). 
Indie Rock: Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. 

The musical [title of show] opens on Broadway in about an hour. Props to show creators Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen for that, but the team should also be congratulated on the completion of their web series - The [title of the show] Show.

The musical is about the creation of a musical about a musical - got that? - so putting together a web series about said musical/musical/musical going to Broadway is good marketing stuff. I read that there were five to twenty four thousand viewers per episode; not huge numbers in the grand scheme of "the internet", but a sizable fan base for a rookie show going into a Broadway run.  Also, because of the podcasts, [title of show] managed to generate buzz and garner press when they weren't even performing! In the interim, New York Magazine declared, "The funniest show of the season is now playing on the internet."

The [title of show] Show can be found on YouTube and the show's website.

Moral of the story: if Project Runway, American Idol and Dancing With the Stars weren't proof enough, here we have yet another example of how much people love behind-the-scenes video material.  My kingdom for a "Making of the Quartet" web series.

Fashion magazines often have Splurge/Steal sections; that is, an item of clothing or an accessory that celebs have (splurge) next to the version of the product that the rest of us can afford (steal).

September of two years ago, the Metropolitan Opera seemed to change overnight. In his blog, Through Rosen Colored Glasses, former Met board member and current chair of The Met marketing committee Ben Rosen outlines the three major initiatives undertaken by the Gelb regime: improve the product, create a major marketing effort, and add new sources of revenues and audience development. He goes on to outline exactly what measures were taken and the critical and commercial success that ensued.

He doesn't mention what all this cost, unfortunately, but let's assume The Met's operating budget is a "splurge" for the average presenter. So what can you do with little to no budget? Well, here you are - my best Glamour magazine impression:

Splurge: Replicas of Met sets at Saks Fifth Avenue.
Steal: Window displays using production props or music scores at your local bookstore or library. Example: If you're presenting The Rite of Spring, blow up copies of the premiere's scathing reviews, political cartoons from the time, and parts of the score, and arrange those along with biographies of Stravinsky and books on 20th century music. All the while displaying your venue, box office and performance information prominently, of course.


 
Splurge: Movie stars at opening night.
Steal: Community leaders at opening night. Restaurant owners, bar owners, CEOs, the superintendent of schools, your local congressman/woman, the mayor. OK, it's not Jude Law, but reaching out to the taste-makers in your community can only help build support for your organization, and everyone likes a special opening night invitation, red carpet or not.

Splurge: Gallery Met, a corner of The Met's lobby dedicated to works by contemporary artists.
Steal: Same as the splurge! Maybe William Wegman won't do a portrait for you, but opening the door to local visual artists will generate new audiences, enhance lobby aesthetic, and give your PR department an opportunity to reach out to critics from different genres.

Splurge: Total redesign of posters and website.
Steal: Fresh perspectives from outside your organization/usual freelance designers. Example: Reach out to local art students in your area and invite them to submit potential poster designs for your productions. This can be done in the form of a competition (the winner is automatically invited to do a poster the next season or gets a profile in the local paper) or as a general call for submissions. If you're trying to reach a college audience, why not look to college students for aesthetic guidance for your marketing materials?

Splurge: Free opening performance dress rehearsals.
Steal: Free opening performance dress rehearsals.

Splurge: Attracting specialized audiences (Rosen sites marketing Satyagraha to "New-age magazines, yoga groups, anti-apartheid organizations, India groups and South African organizations").
Steal: Again, the same thing, with the addition of creating a network of businesses in your community that will support all the premieres at your venue. To site McCarter again (I was their marketing intern), Small World Coffee in Princeton, NJ started creating a unique coffee for every new theatre production (I was especially pleased with "To Brew or Not to Brew: There is No Question" for Hamlet), and Triumph Brewery, also in town, created a new beer as well (and donated lots to us on opening nights!).

Splurge: HD live telecasts to movie theaters around the world.
Steal:  Oh dear. Let me think about that one.

ArtsJournal's own Douglas McLennan on the past and future of, well, arts journalism, as told to Crosscut Seattle:

Where are we now in arts journalism? Newspapers have been dropping critics right and left.

Newspapers have not been the newspapers that I remember for quite a number of years now. The day of many competing papers and views in a city is gone. But the classic newspaper model was not built on a mass-media vehicle. It was a collection niches. People don't buy a newspaper because of its coverage of city hall. They buy it for the comics section or the crossword puzzle, etc. After they get through their favorite thing, they will read the city hall coverage. But the genius of this model is that none of the niche contents can support themselves, but if you aggregated them altogether, then you have enough readers and enough revenue to sell to advertisers.

In the '60s, '70s, and '80s, the newspapers increasingly looked to TV as the mass media model. The mass market mentality is not niches at all. It is not excellence of product as the key to success. The mass market strategy is to find the place in the middle so that what you produce appeals to the most people. Editors I worked with at newspapers told me to write at an eighth grade reading level -- the mythical, average, mass-market consumer. As soon as you do that, and when you assume that every person ought to be able to read every story in a newspaper, then you are not talking to those who are interested in the niches. Then the classical music reviews in a given city are not intended for people who know a lot about classical music. They are pitched to those who don't know much. So you end up getting this content that isn't very good. It isn't very satisfying to the audience that ought to be your core audience, and you get this erosion of leadership of arts coverage. There are lots of exceptions. I try to post them every day in Artsjournal. But the majority of arts coverage is not very good.

Also, newspapers have never been able to cover community arts in an interesting way. Things like dance or jazz get really minimal coverage. However, now with the ease and the different ways that you can deliver information, we may discover a new model and improve the way that we cover culture. Right now we are in between the two models. The old one no longer works and the new one hasn't been established.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about. I just spent a week in North Carolina with dance critics from around the nation. Like music, dance is hard to write about. You are trying to describe things that are not easy to describe. What would happen if we tried to describe an event in a new way? I broke them into three teams, and signed them up with blogger accounts, and gave them a Flip video camera, which has a convenient USB port with which to upload movies to You Tube. I asked them to use the video to compare dance styles, or show what you mean, or talk to critics, the audience, or the choreographer. So they had a day and a half to expand the palette on which they are working, to find something that is not so linear in form with which to describe this artistic experience.

I (heart) the Flip video camera, by the way. $149.99 of instant viral marketing potential. I love the idea of orchestras/presenters interviewing audiences before, during (intermission) and after concerts, and immediately posting reaction clips on their sites and YouTube. Also, if they agree to it, video-interviewing artists just as they're about to go on stage and just as they're coming off stage.

Check out this killer double-bill!



















From a commenter on Brooklyn Vegan, "does that mean Shostakovich isn't really playing miller theater either?"

Classical labels, take note! This is about the fourth time this week I've heard about albums being issued (and re-issued) on vinyl, which further proves my theory that the way to make something cool is to go back and do it the way it was originally done. Example: chamber music in chambers, not on big stages.

The press kit version of Hilary's Schoenberg/Sibelius album actually made it look like the CD was a vinyl (it was square and thick), and two out of the five trendy music site writers I sent it to told me they got really excited when they thought that's what it was.  No, sorry, just a little light Schoenberg for your enjoyment on a plain old CD.

I love political campaign e mails. There's such a sense of urgency and drama. I got one this morning that said, "Own a piece of this movement by making a donation of $25 today." Own a piece of this movement. Boom. Yes. I even like how they're addressed - there's no "Dear Potential Subscriber" or "Dear Patron" or even "Dear Amanda E Ameer"; it's all "Amanda --". I'm like yes, what's up, how can I help you? Also, I appreciate them suggesting $25, a specific, manageable amount that I don't really have to think about.

Where is the sense of urgency in arts fundraising e mails? I don't want a free tote, I want to know that you really need my money now or something bad will happen (or something good WON'T happen). Also, where is the gesture toward a broader movement? Everyone wants to be part of something big and history-making; what is/where is the national arts movement, and will my donating money to Playwrights Horizons make me a part of it?

Last thought, re-triggered by our clever political friends: "own a piece of this movement, literally", formerly called, in my mind, "the church organ commission". When a church needs an organ (re)built or repaired, the fundraising committee asks church members to sponsor individual pipes. Money doesn't seemingly go into a general pot - you know which pipe is yours. I always wondered why dance companies and chamber orchestras (or symphony orchestras, for that matter) didn't seek to create new works commissioned by the so-called people. "I own 4:03 - 4:23 of the newest John Adams piece for Alarm Will Sound." The more people who commission the work, the more who have a vested interest in spreading the word and making the work a success; a new donor base and an established street team, all rolled into one!

Most importantly, donating money to tangibly help create a new piece of dance or music really would make me feel like I was part of a movement, literally and not so literally.

I was reading my August 2008 issue of Vanity Fair on July 9, and was surprised by this news in Gail Sheehy's Hillary Clinton campaign post-mortem:

Clinton's people had no idea how excited a whole new cohort of voters would become by a youthful figure who tapped into their vital hunger for change from the ground up. Obama started cultivating these new voters at low-cost events. The turnout amazed even his own team. What began as I.M.'s and campus meet-ups developed into a genuine social movement.

Such was the hubris of Hillary's team that they discounted Obama as a passing pop star to non-voters. Politco.com reported that at a November 2007 Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Iowa, where 9,000 people showed up, 3,000 were already for Obama. "Our people look like caucus-goers," Mandy Grunwald sniffed, "and his [Obama's] people look like they are 18. Penn said they look like Facebook."

"Did they sleep through the 2003-4 election cycle?" asks an incredulous Joe Trippi, referring to Howard Dean and his new form of communication. As the pioneer who kick-started the bottom-up, low-dollar style of campaigning, tapping grassroots organizers and "newbies" for Dean through the Internet, Trippi was appalled that the Clinton machine stuck with a top-down, status-quo campaign. But the Clintons were out of touch with new forms of communication. Bill Clinton still doesn't use e-mail or own a BlackBerry.

Why hadn't they been using the Internet all along as a bulging cash register the way the Obama forces were doing? Hillary's team had held a retreat in the fall of '07 to huddle with propeller heads from Google and Yahoo, hoping to update their Internet savvy, but basically gave up on trying. "We tried direct mail but we couldn't come close to him," admits one member of Clinton's brain trust. "Obama tapped a different sensibility. They had a more, uh, viral [i.e., spreads by itself] campaign." The very word "viral" in his mouth sounded foreign.

I was simply going to post the excerpt and write that arts organizations can learn a valuable lesson from this, but instead I'm going to ramble a bit, because what I'm most interested in here is that Bill Clinton doesn't own a BlackBerry.

Sheehy's e mail/BlackBerry snipe as an indicator of how the Clinton unit is behind the times basically begs the question: in 2008, does someone have to be tech and internet-savvy to be an effective Commander in Chief? Which, of course, sends my convoluted brain directly to another question: in 2008, does someone have to be tech and internet-savvy to be an effective performer?

I realize that Bill Clinton has people to answer his e mails for him (as do many top artists), but I would think that carrying around a BlackBerry would be beneficial for a political candidate (spouse of a political candidate, and artist) on two, if not many more, levels. First, the supreme power of He's One of Us. I check my BlackBerry, Bill Clinton checks his BlackBerry! I'm too busy to be away from my e mail for ten minutes, he's too busy to be away from his e mail for ten minutes!! The BlackBerry is perfect for this, because Bill Clinton becomes one of us while maintaining Very Important and Busy Man status.

Second, the trendy tech-ophile factor. I always thought Bill Clinton was kind of a cool guy; he plays the saxophone! To find out that he doesn't like gadgets or even "use e mail" is pretty disappointing. If I were a political publicist (I'm sure they're not called "publicists" - maybe "Communications Strategists"), I would be terrified of people knowing this about my client, err, candidate. Insert "Bill Clinton had bigger PR problems for them to deal with" joke [here].

So does it matter if artists know about/care about/use technology? Hilary (one L, violinist...we're switching gears here, folks) has gotten press for having a blog (since 2002, for those of you playing at home), as has pianist Jeremy Denk, and former NYC Ballet dancer (and founder of The Winger) Kristin Sloan had her own iPhone commercial. Does that actually make them better performers, or just more relevant and easy to relate to public figures?  Is an interest in new technology audience-building and caliber-building, or just the former?

So which artists own BlackBerries? Who has their events at the Apple store instead of the Barnes & Noble? Who checks e mail? Who reads blogs? ...and who in the press and public cares?

FYI, Obama has an iPhone and John McCain is "aware of the internet", so we should be all good in November.

Every Friday, I'll post an interview with someone far more knowledgeable than myself on specific marketing and publicity subjects. This week, web producer Alex Sturtevant on The Elusive Yet Omnipresent Banner Ad.



Alex Sturtevant is a Producer at NYC-based agency thehappycorp global. He is the lead for many digital projects for clients such as Cadbury-Schweppes, Miraval Resorts, Idealist.org, and Brooklyn Brewery. Alex also managed the creative for the 87th Annual Art Directors Club Awards Gala, and has previously worked for clients including Universal Music, Dell, Coca-Cola, J.P. Morgan, Paramount Vantage and Vivendi Games.




On average, what would a basic banner ad campaign cost to design and implement?

As frustrating as it is, I am not going to answer this question. There are myriad factors that influence the price of a campaign, ranging from the complexity of animation to the size of the media buy. I don't think it's very useful to try and pinpoint an average price point, but I would stress that I have been amazed by ads done on the cheap and nobody should think that they are necessarily priced out of the game.


For a venue marketing one performance, how far out (time-wise) would you start a banner ad campaign? One month? One week?

I'm not a media planner, but this depends on what you are trying to accomplish with the campaign. If the goal is to have users purchase tickets online by clicking on the ad, then it is a good idea to have two-three weeks running up to the show. If an advertiser is trying to generate buzz around a performance or drive offline ticket sales, then you may want to begin a little earlier.

For LVHRD, a series of live events for the creative community in NYC, we typically begin running ads 3-5 weeks prior to an event.
 

In your opinion, would it be more effective for a venue to produce a banner ad campaign announcing its entire season or to target specific performances?

Again, this is really a question that needs to be preceded with a decision about positioning. Are you trying to sell tickets? Or raise the profile of the venue? Target a specific audience? Banner ads should be treated just like any other piece of marketing collateral.


How important is placement? Obviously, arts presenters/record labels would want their ads in the arts sections (or is that not so obvious?), but does right/left/top/bottom of the webpage matter?

There are two types of placement - what section of a site the ad lives on, and where on the page the ad sits. In terms of the first issue, the homepage is usually a better bet than any interior page (even the arts section) because the dropoff rate grows and grows as you move deeper into a site. End of the day, you want the most eyes on your ad as possible. For placement on the page, it is always a good idea to have the ad above the fold (i.e. a user can see the ad without scrolling). There are technical details about how often your ad will appear on a page ("share of voice"), but again, that's really a question for a media planner.


What are the markers of effectiveness for banner ads? Click-throughs, time spent viewing the page advertised? What kind of report can organizations expect from the sites they advertise on?

The most reliable metric for success is clickthrus. All sites will provide their advertisers of a breakdown of total impressions (number of unique visitors who have seen the ad), clickthru rate (number of users that click on the ad), and clickthru percentage of total users. Successful, national banner ad campaigns usually average 0.2% clickthru rates.

For rich media ads (that expand, include video content, etc), there are additional metrics such as time on ad, interactions with the ad, and so forth. These become important as these ads don't necessarily need to drive users to an external site to be successful.


Are clients advertising on blogs versus mainstream newspaper sites now? What are the benefits/drawbacks of advertising on blogs?

Blogs are a great tool for advertisers. Many of the most influential and popular sites on the internet are blogs, since the content is refreshed on a consistent basis throughout the day. That's not to say that nytimes.com isn't a great place to advertise, but blogs are a fantastic and more cost-effective resource.

This is especially true in industries like the arts, as oftentimes you are marketing to a niche audience. thehappycorp has recently started a blog publishing network called Largetail, that includes a number of likeminded culture/arts/media blogs such as LVHRD, Coolhunting, The Winger, and PSFK. Working with the Largetail network allows advertisers to reach the elusive but coveted demographic of creative professionals, media makers and urban influencers. We are able to offer a range of custom programs to help acquaint our readers with a brand in a unique, relevant and meaningful manner.


You told me once that those irritating ads that float over your screen are the ones everyone asks for. Why are they effective? Doesn't everyone think they're annoying? The only time I ever click on them is when I can't find the X and hit Shrek's ear or whatever by mistake.

Rich media ads. A blessing and a curse. I admit that I have had just about enough of the dancing cowboys encouraging me to refinance, but these ads can be a great way to engage users in new and creative ways as well. Video content is always compelling. At thehappycorp we have also done projects recently that used an XML feed to send new and updated content to the banner ads throughout the life of the campaign. This would be useful if you wanted to advertise a full season at a venue, but display rotating information depending upon what performances were happening on a specific date.


On the other end of the spectrum, I feel like I'm so used to movement in these ads that when I see a static one I'm totally disinterested. Should organizations not even bother if they can't afford animation/video in their ads?

Not at all. That's like saying that since you can't afford to buy a Superbowl ad, it's not worth running a print ad in the Times. There are lots and lots of creative people in digital advertising that are making compelling banners based on good ideas and great creative, not flashy content. Doug Jaeger, the founder and Creative Director of thehappycorp, won numerous international awards for a campaign he did for Doctors Without Borders that included almost no animation at all.


Most effective banner ad campaign you've ever encountered?

I think the "click here to win a free iPod!" ads have absurdly high clickthru rates, but I just can't stomach endorsing them. I think the multiple-placement takeover that Apple did on the New York Times homepage earlier this year was extremely clever.


Least effective?

There are plenty of ads that I don't like personally, but that's not to say they're not effective...!


What's "the next big thing" in banner ad design and engineering? I'm picturing the shark hologram that jumps out at Marty in Back to the Future II.
 
Close - it's actually going to be a squid hologram. I think the age of tricking users into clicking on ads has come and gone, and advertisers are going to have to start offering the user something useful. That might just be clear information - name of product, price, availability - or it might be something more complex like being able to check flight availability in a banner, but either way, give the user something they can use.

Last.fm, an internet radio/concert listing/social networking site based out of the UK, launched an artist royalty program this morning. According to Wired's Listening Post blog, a percentage of the advertisement dollars (err, pounds) will be given to artists when ads appear next to their streaming music, regardless of an artist's position in the industry (signed, unsigned, managed, unmanaged).

By virtue of having to track the numbers for payment purposes, it seems artists will gain useful marketing data from this initiative as well. From an earlier Wired interview with Last.fm co-founder Martin Stiksel:

Stiksel told us about two tools launched concurrently with the Artist Royalty Program that show artists "how many scrobbles, now many streams, how many on-demand plays (they've had) and so on - all of these things will be broken down, because it's a prerequisite for transparency as far as the accounting of all of the royalties is concerned."

I took a gander at Carnegie Hall's page this morning:

"Care to help?" I'm like, yes, Last.fm, I am trying.

Justin Davidson and Perez Hilton remind us that classical critics aren't the only journalists losing their jobs.

In addition to The Chicago Tribune cutting 80 of its 578 newsroom jobs over the next two months, the Tribune corporation is apparently selling Long Island's Newsday, the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field. Between this and the Starbucks drama last week, maybe classical music has finally become mainstream.

Last week, I walked by an Abercrombie & Fitch store, stopped, turned right, and started to walk inside. What the Joshua Bell is wrong with me, I thought:  I don't like Abercrombie clothes, I'm already late for a meeting, and there's no obligatory hot preppy "greeter" guy at the door. It just felt so cool to walk in.

Literally cool. The doors were wide open and the store was pumping AC into the street. Fancy hotels pull similar stunts in the winter: you'll be hustling along, face-in-scarf, and then, all of a sudden, angels are singing and you're briefly under heat lamps. Yes, maybe I will stay at The Plaza tonight, it's warm, here is my credit card.

So after narrowly avoiding Abercrombie I thought, when have I ever passed a performance venue and had a desire to go inside? I walked by Carnegie Hall every day on the way to work at IMG, and never once did I see, hear or feel anything that made me want to go into that lobby. I walked by the Miller Theatre yesterday, or, at least I think I did, since I didn't actually notice it in the mass of Columbia. There's no effort toward creating a sensory experience: nothing to turn my head, let alone my feet. Moving beyond heat lamps and AC, what can venues do to get people in the door?

Give us some idea of what's going on in there, most basically and importantly. It's "Carnegie Hall" ((jazz hands)),  but do people know the range of artists Carnegie presents? The posters wrap around the building, so unless you're circling the block, you're going to miss a lot of information. What needs to be pumped into the street outside Carnegie and any music venue, is, errrr, music. If I was walking along 57th street and heard past performances playing under Carnegie's awning, I would stop and listen, probably every time. Ideally, there would be a screen outside the doors detailing who/what/when you were listening to, along with another screen scrolling the upcoming performances.   Obviously, the rights for such a project would be a mild to moderate nightmare, since a lot of artists only allow their live performances to be recorded for archival purposes. If you can't play concert recordings, work with the record labels and play CDs from the artists on the season. Play stock music - just connect with the hundreds of people who walk by your building every day. (Incidentally, our cool friends at Abercrombie & Fitch are also known for blasting music inside and outside their stores.)

Another not-rocket-science idea is simply having screens in front of the hall playing concert video footage on loop. It would be amazing to see both historic and contemporary performances, and would really give the public a sense of the scope and legacy of the institution. It seems a bit counterintuitive not to include sound here (a la the ads at city bus stops), but we're all so video-obsessed that it probably wouldn't matter.

TV at the bus stop and dance music at your clothing store. Cookie-cutter poster of artist holding violin at Carnegie Hall. Which will get my attention?

Note: I've been told video screens are going to replace the banners at Lincoln Center when the renovations are complete, but I just spent the past 00:02:14 watching the "Lincoln Center Promenade Animation" and saw no such thing. The ticker of upcoming performances on the steps is pretty nice, though.

When it comes time to promote multi-genre performance projects, publicists have to make a choice: which section do I pitch the story to? You only get one critic from one section, so choose wisely!

This is not to say that whomever a publicist chooses to approach about a performance will actually review it (a girl can dream...), but an "angle" decision must be made before starting the process. For example, each Wordless Music Series concert features a classical chamber music group or soloist and an indie rock/electronic band or performer. One Wordless concert in September 2007 - Beirut, Colleen, Katya Mihailova and Colin Jacobsen - was reviewed by Kelefa Sanneh, (now former) rock critic for The New York Times, and another in January 2008 - three orchestral works by John Adams, Gavin Bryars and Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood - was reviewed by Allan Kozinn, classical critic for The New York Times.  I'm certainly not turning up my nose at two Times reviews, but what if Sanneh and Kozinn had been at the same Wordless concert, not discussed it, and both reviewed it? Would they have liked the same things? Disliked the same things? Even mentioned the same things in their reviews?

I don't want to pigeon-hole critics like some pigeon-hole artists and artistic genres, and I don't think every single crossover project should necessarily be reviewed by multiple critics. It's fantastic that so many critics straddle multiple worlds, genuinely passionate and deeply knowledgeable about many artistic styles. But, on occasion, I would like to read distinct and varied perspectives on one project. Let's stick to The Times example since, well, we already went there: Jon Pareles reviewed Sufjan Stevens' orchestral work The BQE at The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).  The format of the concert was The BQE (film, orchestra and live and on-screen hula-hoopers) on the first half, followed by a traditional Sufjan Stevens set (as traditional as anything during which the lead singer is wearing wings can be) on the second half. I liked Pareles' review, but what would Allan Kozinn think (WWAKT)? Stephen Holden? A.O. Scott? Michael Pollak?

When a critic whose genre is clearly delineated for us writes about a concert, I have to wonder: To what degree is a performance's genre defined by the critic reviewing it? Was Jonny Greenwood's piece "orchestral" because Allan Kozinn reviewed it, and Sufjan Stevens' "instrumental" because Jon Pareles reviewed it?

Send critics from different sections to review the same concert and let readers decide (or choose not to decide) genre for themselves. I understand that times are tough for newspapers - we're literally losing a classical critic a week - but why not use this as a marketing ploy? Announce that every section of your paper or magazine will be reviewing the same project, including non-arts sections; I'll bet readers would be intrigued. The set-up doesn't have to be performance-centric, either. Why can't music critics review the noise generated by buildings projects? Theatre critics review the way people act (and I do mean "act") at museum exhibitions? Dance critics review pedestrian traffic patterns? Fashion writers review opera productions, or better yet, opera audiences? The world is one big crossover project, and I'd like to read about it that way.

RSS is an acronym for "RDF Site Summary," or "Rich Site Summary."  RSS is a family of XML-based Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts in a standardized format.