{"id":809,"date":"2024-03-19T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-19T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/?p=809"},"modified":"2024-02-16T22:03:01","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T22:03:01","slug":"nonprofit-arts-marketing-drive-for-image-first-the-road-to-revenue-follows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/2024\/03\/19\/nonprofit-arts-marketing-drive-for-image-first-the-road-to-revenue-follows\/","title":{"rendered":"Nonprofit Arts Marketing \u2013 Drive for Image First; The Road to Revenue Follows"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Or, Drive for Money First; The Road to Oblivion Follows \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by Lisa Fotios from Pexels<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Over the last couple of columns, we\u2019ve talked about the coming war. I need a break from that, and I\u2019m sure you do, too. Let\u2019s head back over to the land of the living, at least for the moment, and help them support your work. In your nonprofit arts organization, the person leading that effort is the marketing director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m always surprised when longtime executive and artistic directors think about marketing as a necessary evil. These folks think that the development department is similarly evil, but refrain from using language that might offend a development director who has a strong relationship with a particular donor or a cadre of them. Disrespect to friend of a million-dollar donor might cost the company a million dollars (and an executive\u2019s job) whereas disrespect to a marketing director \u2014 whose relationship is to thousands of people, any one of whom might disappear with but little financial deficit \u2014 is an ongoing battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the American Marketing Association<\/a>, marketing is \u201cthe activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.\u201d The word \u201csell\u201d is not in there. Nor is the word \u201crevenue.\u201d But the word \u201cvalue\u201d is, and that\u2019s the key ingredient to the whole enchilada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Marketing the arts is about image. It’s the secret sauce.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Marketing directors, in general, make far less than their counterparts in the other revenue-centered departments but are responsible for managing the entire organization\u2019s entire reputation. The average arts marketing director made about 84 cents for every dollar an arts development director made last year, according to statistics at Americans for the Arts. (Your mileage may vary.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because so many nonprofit arts organizations are desperately looking for money, money, acclaim, butts-in-seats, money, money, and, of course, money, the misconception that the marketing director is there to \u201csell tickets\u201d (or worse, \u201csell subscriptions\u201d) continues to stanch the ability for a charitable organization to prove worth. As discussed in earlier columns and in my book, Scene Change: Why Today\u2019s Nonprofit Arts Organizations Have to Stop Producing Art and Start Producing Impact<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>butts-in-seats is not a valid nonprofit metric. Otherwise, the Los Angeles Dodgers might qualify as a successful nonprofit because they provided a worthwhile civic activity for the people of Los Angeles and filled 3,837,079 seats in 2023<\/a>. After all, did your<\/em> organization sell 47,371 tickets per performance?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A typical Los Angeles Dodger home game. No, the Dodgers are not a nonprofit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So, here\u2019s the scoop on nonprofit arts marketing: it\u2019s about crafting and trumpeting the image of the organization, not \u201csell tickets.\u201d Tickets are a byproduct of marketing; image is the product. If done well \u2014 and this is completely dependent on all other parts of the organization electing to stick to a primary value worthy of the charitable sector in which the company chooses to do its work \u2014 then the revenue should follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If, however, the image is that of an elitist company content only to present art for its donors-cum-beneficiaries, the company will never be a safe bet for long-term civic support. Next stop, oblivion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simply put, only the rich White folks will care. Just as they always have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That’s us, dahling.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut wait,\u201d I hear you skreich<\/a>, \u201cmoney is the manner in which people are paid. We can\u2019t pay people a return on value. We need revenue to pay for the art, which, even in your ridiculous world, pays for the good works the company does to help the community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re right, of course. But revenue \u2014 even ticket revenue \u2014 <\/em>is not the job of the marketing department. Raising enough revenue is the task of every damn person who works for the company, from volunteer usher to board member<\/em>, led by a concerted marketing plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, here\u2019s the scoop on nonprofit arts marketing: it\u2019s about crafting and trumpeting the image of the organization, not \u201csell tickets.\u201d Tickets are a byproduct of marketing; image is the product.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If the image of the company is consistently strong, easily definable, and causes celebration among community members (and not just those folks in the boat above), more people in your community will buy in. People want to be moved and entertained, and they can get that from any number of for-profit entertainment options. More importantly for your charity and its goals, people want to have a stake in the success of their own community. If that means that they are moved to buy tickets and subscriptions, great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the only metric by which your company judges success is sold-out houses, then you\u2019re doomed to the next event that doesn\u2019t sell out. Ultimately, your whole company will fail because the public won\u2019t know why you even exist beyond being yet another place that presents some sort of art. As we\u2019ve learned in the Pre-Post-Pandemic Era, the public has a choice and won\u2019t just choose an arts organization because it produces art and nothing more. Even if they\u2019re the only one in town.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best marketers in the nonprofit arts world can\u2019t make people buy tickets to something they don\u2019t want to see. Chasing dollars for that uber-intellectual vanity piece that has nothing to do with the community (no matter how \u201cimportant\u201d it is to your artists) never works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arts marketers can only market the organization\u2019s reputation, the impact it has on the community, and maximize the revenue efforts by placing that image in front of the people who are likeliest to respond to it. Then people might put money toward that company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s why your company has to start:<\/p>\n\n\n\n