{"id":50,"date":"2021-10-08T04:27:44","date_gmt":"2021-10-08T09:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rowx\/?p=50"},"modified":"2021-10-22T07:56:07","modified_gmt":"2021-10-22T12:56:07","slug":"long-tail-long-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rowx\/2021\/10\/08\/long-tail-long-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Tail\/Long Game"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Row X Blog by Hannah Grannemann<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll just say it straight out, so you know where I\u2019m coming from: I hope many organizations choose to keep and grow their digital programming<\/strong> as we come out of the pandemic. I think it\u2019s great for audiences, a solid strategy for organizations that can handle it operationally and financially, and for the arts field to increase participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about the strategy of the Long Tail as I watch arts organizations and artists deliberate their post-COVID programming strategies. Listening in on webinars and reading media coverage, it\u2019s clear to me that it will take a shift in mindset of organizations to transition digital programming from a stopgap replacement during the pandemic to its own category of programming. For those who do it, it offers great possibilities in the long game of audience building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his 2006 book The Long Tail<\/strong><\/em>, Chris Anderson fleshed out a business strategy centered around the observation that there is an audience for anything, it just might be a small audience \u2013 aka, multiple, niche audiences. Much has happened in the past 15 years since he wrote the book, but I think Anderson’s analysis offers a lot for arts leaders to consider. As relates to audiences, the topic of this blog, he argues that The Long Tail strategy creates value for audiences it brings them content they’re interested in but they just can\u2019t find. When companies offer niche content and make it easy to find, audiences will engage. Next, through network effects (word of mouth) and discovery prompted by the company, or discovery after engaging with familiar content, audiences\u2019 interests expand and they watch a wider range of work. (Describing it in three sentences makes it sound easy, and of course it\u2019s a lot of work.) Anderson tackles the question on everyone\u2019s mind right now: does offering more content increase demand? It can, he writes. Audiences can be activated that were just sitting out, either disappointed by the existing offerings or not able to take the offerings in the way they were presented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sound familiar? For the last year and a half thousands of people watched online content from organizations where they had never been to, could not get to, and most likely never will visit in person. The new digital offerings made their engagement possible. There were oceans of latent demand for arts content.<\/strong> Suddenly, people had more time AND it was easier to access. So they showed up at the virtual doors of arts organizations around the world.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One person\u2019s noise is another person\u2019s signal.\u201d<\/p>Chris Anderson, The Long Tail<\/em>, 2006<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The Long Tail idea is not entirely new to the arts, of course. Portfolio (or \u201ctentpole\u201d) programming, mainstage\/second stage programming or having different programs for community or outreach programs is common. But there are some differences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. The Long Tail approach \u201ccounts\u201d audiences that engage with the same form in a new way. One of the primary case studies in Anderson\u2019s book is Netflix. It\u2019s watching movies, but not in the theater (to state the obvious). A Long Tail approach for digital programming means that digital is considered a valid art form<\/strong> and way for audiences to participate.<\/li>
  2. It puts the match between audience and programming first<\/strong>, not reaching big numbers, betting on reaching financial and audience size goals over time and across more content. With time, it becomes less of a bet. Accepting and embracing that the audience for any one work might be small, not measuring it against the hits or the tentpoles, is a mental shift that requires discipline to keep.<\/li>
  3. It appreciates the audience they have<\/strong>, seeking ways to interest them with other content to deepen their engagement and expand their interests. It respects the audience\u2019s interests and preferences, not pushing too hard to sell them everything. Yes, a Long Tail company seeks to find new customers, but deeper engagement with the ones they have isn\u2019t sacrificed.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Upstream of the audience, a Long Tail approach offers the opportunity to support programming a broader range of work. Call it experimentation, managing expectations, commitment to artists, or whatever. Pick a work, commit to finding an audience for it<\/strong>, then welcome that audience as new members of the family. This is true especially with on-demand digital programs, where sales or attendance goals aren\u2019t in the pressure cooker of time in the same way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There\u2019s no one strategy that will solve all problems or be a good fit for all organizations. But I hope that more organizations will adopt a Long Tail\/Long Game approach as a way of emerging post-COVID for the sake of the audience, and progress<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Get new posts from Row X straight to your email inbox with the free ArtsJournal Daily or Weekly newsletter. Sign up here<\/a>.<\/em> Or, level up to the Premium Newsletter <\/a>or become a ArtsJournal Patreon Fan<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Cultivating more, smaller audiences with digital programming is a COVID recovery strategy worth considering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63,"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":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,11,12],"tags":[15,16,14,17,18],"class_list":{"0":"post-50","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-covid","8":"category-digital","9":"category-strategy","10":"tag-chris-anderson","11":"tag-digital-programming","12":"tag-long-tail","13":"tag-netflix","14":"tag-niche","15":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/rowx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Long-Tail-Image-e1633652990123.png?fit=220%2C145&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdmYVE-O","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rowx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rowx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rowx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rowx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rowx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rowx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rowx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions\/112"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rowx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rowx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rowx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rowx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}