{"id":214,"date":"2011-12-26T17:31:24","date_gmt":"2011-12-27T00:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/?p=214"},"modified":"2011-12-26T17:31:24","modified_gmt":"2011-12-27T00:31:24","slug":"albert-einsteins-secret-of-audience-participation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/2011\/12\/albert-einsteins-secret-of-audience-participation\/","title":{"rendered":"Albert Einstein&#8217;s Secret of Audience Participation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/2011\/12\/albert-einsteins-secret-of-audience-participation\/einstein\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-215\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-215\" title=\"Einstein\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Einstein-300x224.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Einstein-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Einstein.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Imagine if Albert Einstein, the greatest scientific mind of the 20<sup>th<\/sup> century had pursued a career in arts &amp; cultural marketing instead of the arguably less complex field of physics.<\/p>\n<p>What would he have concluded?<\/p>\n<p>Imagine the young Einstein arriving for his first day of work as the marketing director for a theatre company, museum or symphony:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>&#8220;You need to shave 7 percent from this season\u2019s marketing budget,\u201d says the Finance Director,<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>We\u2019ve got to launch an Obama-style social media strategy!\u201d urges the Board Chairperson,<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>\u201cHow is it that in a city this size we can\u2019t find one theater-full of people to attend this weekend&#8217;s performance?\u201d demands the Artistic Director,<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>&#8220;Let me tell you how it worked when I got into the business.\u201d says the CEO,\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>\u201cI think we should boycott advertising in the newspaper until they hire more arts writers!\u201d suggests a donor,<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>&#8220;We need to update our brand.\u201d advises the head of the marketing committee.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Give Marketing Einstein some time to experience the arduous mechanics and opposing gravitational forces of expense budget and sales revenue, organizational mission and audience behavior, company culture and community dynamics.<\/p>\n<p>It wouldn\u2019t take long for Marketing Einstein to observe that the business of arts &amp; culture depends not just largely, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">but entirely,<\/span> on the word-of-mouth of audiences and fans.<\/p>\n<p>Now envision him late at night, at home in his study, scribbling furiously on his iPad.\u00a0 Moments of frenzy alternate with long minutes of profound silence.\u00a0 The great mind is challenging the greatest of puzzles \u2013 weighing the arguments and counter arguments, the logic and the evidence, considering the obvious and the unknown \u2013 all while alternatively writing, thinking and arguing with himself out loud.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, there is a Steven Spielberg-worthy moment \u2013 the clouds part, a light shines upon the exhausted but exhilarated Marketing Einstein, his frenzied hair standing out as if jolted by the surging brain power just beneath his skull.\u00a0 He rises in triumph.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAh-ha,\u201d he says as he points his finger at the formula and equations.\u00a0 His eyes are ablaze!\u00a0 And from his dry lips, he utters these truthful words:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>&#8220;An Empty Seat Never Recommended Anything to Anybody.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>Okay, it wasn&#8217;t really Albert Einstein who said that &#8211; despite the photo evidence!<\/p>\n<p>I heard it from Mr. Lee Wochner (then Executive Director of the LA Stage Alliance) who shared his insight at the 2002 gathering of the Association of Performing Arts Service Organizations (APASO).\u00a0 To me, however, the effect was no less profound.<\/p>\n<p>It is, I believe, a fundamental truth about the business of the performing, visual, cultural, literary, culinary and digital arts.\u00a0 It is the kind of foundational statement which should lead you to ask questions like,<strong><em> &#8220;If I believe this, then I must also believe&#8230;&#8221;<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And yet, too many seats are empty.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps because we haven&#8217;t taken the time to revisit the very basic physics of where audiences come from &#8211; and why.<\/p>\n<p>And really, it doesn&#8217;t take an Einstein to figure that out.<\/p>\n<p># # #<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Imagine if Albert Einstein, the greatest scientific mind of the 20th century had pursued a career in arts &amp; cultural marketing instead of the arguably less complex field of physics. What would he have concluded? Imagine the young Einstein arriving for his first day of work as the marketing director for a theatre company, museum [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-214","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-marketing","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214","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=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}