{"id":654,"date":"2012-03-20T20:58:34","date_gmt":"2012-03-21T03:58:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/?p=654"},"modified":"2012-03-20T20:58:34","modified_gmt":"2012-03-21T03:58:34","slug":"where-do-audiences-come-from","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/2012\/03\/where-do-audiences-come-from\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Do Audiences Come From?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In just 30 seconds &#8211; and without words &#8211; this\u00a0<strong>AT&amp;T<\/strong>\u00a0commercial poignantly answers the question of how a son receives the gift of passion for football.<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CAQddBxWlNA<\/p>\n<p>The answer is universal. \u00a0The commercial could have been set in an art museum, concert hall, theater, science center, art studio or many such places.<\/p>\n<p>This is commonly understood. \u00a0When we were young, we were introduced to experiences that became a part of us. \u00a0Some left impressions. \u00a0Some created memories. \u00a0Some stirred sensations. \u00a0Some became familiar. \u00a0Some \u00a0touched emotions and affected intelligence that resonated over time.<\/p>\n<p>I point this out because too many arts &amp; cultural organization leaders still believe that it is the job of their marketing\u00a0department to create audiences. \u00a0They don&#8217;t. \u00a0They can&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>At best, the function of marketing\u00a0<strong><em>gathers<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0audiences &#8211; but it doesn&#8217;t\u00a0<em><strong>create<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0audiences.<\/p>\n<p>Your best advertising, direct mail, discount incentives, public relations and outreach efforts are absolutely meaningless to someone without some prior emotional, physical or intellectual connection to what you are offering.<\/p>\n<p>Which leaves open the profound question of <strong>whose responsibility is it really to create audiences?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In just 30 seconds &#8211; and without words &#8211; this\u00a0AT&amp;T\u00a0commercial poignantly answers the question of how a son receives the gift of passion for football. http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CAQddBxWlNA The answer is universal. \u00a0The commercial could have been set in an art museum, concert hall, theater, science center, art studio or many such places. This is commonly understood. [&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":[16,34,4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-education","7":"category-marketing","8":"category-strategy","9":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654","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=654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}