{"id":1387,"date":"2013-01-10T09:06:49","date_gmt":"2013-01-10T16:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/?p=1387"},"modified":"2013-01-10T09:06:49","modified_gmt":"2013-01-10T16:06:49","slug":"adrian-peterson-raffi-the-pursuit-of-perfection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/2013\/01\/adrian-peterson-raffi-the-pursuit-of-perfection\/","title":{"rendered":"Adrian Peterson, Raffi & the Pursuit of Perfection"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I have the greatest respect for Adrian Peterson, the Minnesota Viking’s running back who improbably returned from major knee surgery to complete an incredible season in which he fell just 9 yards short of the all-time rushing record for an entire season.<\/p>\n

Oh so close.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It made me recall my closest brush with marketing “perfection.”<\/p>\n

As the marketing director of the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts in the late 1990’s, we had the privilege of presenting a single concert by the extraordinarily popular children’s entertainer,\u00a0Raffi<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It was a late-scheduled concert. \u00a0So it hadn’t been in our season announcement. \u00a0It was announced just a few weeks before the performance date, as I recall. \u00a0(And, in case it wasn’t obvious – in an era before websites, email, Facebook and Twitter.)<\/p>\n

Our theater held 838-seats. \u00a0Today, on-line buying would have sold out the show in hours (or minutes). \u00a0 But after mailing out a postcard announcement, we just waited for the phone calls to pour in. \u00a0And they did. \u00a0It didn’t sell out in a single day – but from the moment the announcement hit, it was clear that this was going to be the fastest & strongest selling performance in our organization’s history.<\/p>\n

Exciting!<\/strong><\/p>\n

And I dared to dream that we might achieve a moment of perfection. \u00a0Imagine it: \u00a0an 838-seat sell-out with every seat representing a paid admission.<\/p>\n

For a performing arts marketer, that’s the\u00a0equivalent\u00a0of bowling a perfect 300, pitching a perfect game, or scoring a perfect 10 on the balance beam. \u00a0It’s incredibly rare. \u00a0Precious.<\/p>\n

Remarkable.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anyway, to make a long story short. \u00a0We sold 836<\/strong>\u00a0tickets to his performance. \u00a0Too late, I discovered that our earnest PR manager (without consulting me) had scored points with a prominent (and very appreciative) local TV anchor by comping<\/em> tickets for her and her young child.<\/p>\n

In my nearly 9 years at that venue, I was directly responsible for the sale of hundreds of events; sold thousands of tickets and generated millions of revenue. \u00a0It was a job I loved and great and gratifying experiences in so many respects.<\/p>\n

Still, I have to admit to a lingering “stinging sensation.”<\/p>\n

Whenever I see someone approach – but not reach – perfection, I’m reminded of the time when we achieved 99.76%<\/strong> paid capacity.<\/p>\n

Oh so close.<\/strong><\/p>\n

# # #<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have the greatest respect for Adrian Peterson, the Minnesota Viking’s running back who improbably returned from major knee surgery to complete an incredible season in which he fell just 9 yards short of the all-time rushing record for an entire season. Oh so close. It made me recall my closest brush with marketing “perfection.” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34,7,22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1387","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-marketing","8":"category-morale","9":"category-underutilization","10":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}