Ideas

As arts marketers, we’re always looking for new and exciting ways to grow our audiences. We want to invite them into our inner circle, and make them feel like they’re part of a growing cultural community.

One of the most valuable assets we can gain from a new patron is their email address. They’ve given us permission to talk to them on a regular basis, and we shouldn’t take that for granted.

Hi, CI! is our monthly series featuring the best team we know - the Capacity Interactive team! You will learn more about the people who help arts organizations market smarter. This month, we’re featuring one of our Digital Marketing Analysts who is a dynamic dancer, a talented choreographer and empowers arts marketers to find important stories within data.

As arts marketers, we are fortunate to promote products and experiences that, by their very nature, are designed to be engaging and delightful. It’s not like toothpaste or frozen peas — we are telling people about plays, concerts, artwork, and performances that offer shared human experiences.

A few weeks ago, I was digging through the Google Analytics (GA) account of one of our projects. While this may not sound exciting, I love gleaning information that I can use to improve our projects and empower us to do a better job. What I actually encountered was something that will change our approach to web development at its core. I discovered a bit of data that will have a direct impact on the way our team does its job.

Over the past few years, the GA data on all websites we’ve built has justified investing in responsively designed sites. With non-desktop traffic hovering in the 50% range, we could clearly make the argument that desktop and mobile need to have equal investments in time and effort. But what happens when mobile traffic reaches 70%?

Ask the Industry features advice from arts marketers in their own words. We hope it will spark new ideas for your organization.

This month, we’re asking, “How can marketing and development departments successfully collaborate?” Gabriella Napoli and Rio Vander Stahl (Carnegie Hall), Christopher Hoodlet and Colette Randall (ICA/Boston) Belinda Bale and John Hart (The National Ballet of Canada) answer everything from what elements make their interdepartmental relationships successful to how they segment messaging and create compelling content for both ticket buyers and donors/members.

Almost 97 years passed between the first telephone call in 1876 and the first mobile phone call in 1973. In 1991, the World Wide Web became publicly available, and just 13 years later, a couple of kids launched Facebook from their dorm room. Three years after that, in 2007, Apple released the first iPhone and fundamentally altered how we engage with the web and with each other.

The Internet has brought us cat memes and viral ASMR videos, and our mobile devices have made it possible to watch them during meetings. It has brought us more relevant ads and better ways to measure their effectiveness, but it has also brought us data scandals and privacy concerns.

Hi, CI! is our monthly series featuring the best team we know - the Capacity Interactive team! You will learn more about the people who help arts organizations market smarter. This month, we’re featuring one of our Senior Analysts who is a former theatrical costumer that turned her passion for creativity and storytelling into a new career in digital marketing. 

Facebook has transformed in-person events into a digital experience. In fact, 490 million people use Facebook Page events every month, and 38 million events are created by Facebook Pages. Once a user joins an event, it’s automatically added to their Facebook calendar. They can also see if their friends are interested in or going to events near them.

Classics programming is at the heart and soul of what symphonies do. From Mozart to Mahler, symphonies breathe new life into these impactful pieces, carrying on centuries-old traditions of music, culture, and innovation.

That said, many symphonies have been challenged with year-over-year declines in classics attendance. While classics programming is the “raison d’être” for most symphonic organizations, pops programming (think Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire™ in Concert) has become more of a draw for newer audiences.

Hi, CI! is our monthly series featuring the best team we know - the Capacity Interactive team! You will learn more about the people who help arts organizations market smarter. This month, we’re featuring one of our Senior Search Analysts who loves all things ballet and dance, has a newfound passion and talent for pottery, and brings her invaluable teaching skills to work every single day.