From David Ezer, Conference and Events Manager at Chamber Music America, comes the following: Greg, Since you're blogging of late about copy, here's some brochure copy I just found, which I found remarkable for its being conversational, direct, and reflective of a history between presenter and audience. It has asides, quotes the artists, doesn't treat the art like its rarefied -- it may not be sober, but at least it's different and much more engaging than the basic stuff. http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/CulturalPrograms/fall.asp … [Read more...]

  I’ve been reading a lot of business books lately, and one of them—Seth Godin’s All Marketers are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World (the "liars" part of this title is partly ironic, by the way)—makes a striking point. Grodin says that marketing must be authentic. It has to tell a story that the product being marketed really does fulfill. If you run an airline, and you want people to believe that your flights are truly special, then they have to be. And not just the flights. Also the way you … [Read more...]

  How to write a press release, I mean. Or some ideas in that direction, since I’ve been complaining about classical music press releases that are dumb and empty.   A few principles:   1. Classical music is full of depth and intelligence. Press releases should reflect that. Not just state it, but reflect it with intelligence of their own.   2. The classical music audience is smart. So are the people we’d like to attract to classical music, along with people in the media we wish would pay attention. Another … [Read more...]