Ideas

Audience development is a crucial task for arts organizations. When growing your pool of prospective ticket buyers, thinking outside the box and utilizing innovative digital strategies is essential.

Holiday productions bring in crucial revenue for performing arts organizations, but selling the same show year after year is no easy feat. 

At CI, we’ve long advocated utilizing YouTube advertising if you have the content to support it. Historically, we saw it as an excellent supplement to other channels, driving strong video views and brand awareness, but not many direct conversions.

But lately, we are seeing a shift, with YouTube also driving some stellar ROIs—sometimes even stronger than what we see reported on display and even Facebook—in addition to remaining a reliable tool for awareness.

Whether you’ve been advertising on YouTube for years or have never taken the plunge, now’s a moment to consider if an increased investment in YouTube could help you achieve your marketing goals.

The past two years have brought turmoil to us as individuals, digital marketers, and arts supporters. Our industry has faced an incredible amount of uncertainty and financial strain, while the happenings of the world around us have taken an emotional toll on our hearts. And yet, we’ve stuck to it. We’ve persevered. Why? Because we know the power of our industry. We know that the arts have the ability to change the way people see the world and their place in it, and that is undeniably worth it.

The arts help us heal from our history, even beyond the past two years. The arts help us remember the importance of connection and regain inspiration amidst the turmoil. The arts make this world a better place. So, we push—the world needs us to.

As we rebuild and reimagine the possibilities of our extraordinary sector, abundance is ripe to think big and beyond what we’ve been able to before, to disrupt the status quo, and to see new potential in our digital strategies.

What is the impact of the pandemic on arts marketing? Capacity Interactive conducted a survey of 53 diverse arts and cultural organizations, collecting data from FY2019 and calendar year 2020, with WolfBrown as research consultants advising on the methodology, survey design, data visualization, and analysis.

We’ve outlined key takeaways to help you understand the data, and posed key questions to help you build stronger foundations for your organization. If you like this blog post, be sure to check out this livestream recording with more insights and in-depth strategic recommendations for the months ahead.

Before you start reading, though, treat yourself to a deep breath: we are a year into this pandemic and it has had a profound impact on all of our lives. All of the data we are about to explore is inextricably tied to the loss and trauma we’ve endured to varying degrees. Give yourself some grace, snuggle a nearby furry friend if you have one, and get ready to dive into the data.

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.

The Arts Industry Digital Marketing Benchmark Study is available for download and this sixth edition holds a ton of new data to help you market smarter. We rethought our approach to make sure we’re giving you the metrics and key performance indicators that can fuel conversation about growth and help you make informed decisions. It’s double the length of previous versions, since the data’s cut in a couple new ways. Here’s a guide to help you get the most out of it.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is confusing to marketers. Of course it is! GDPR is a legal issue and we are not lawyers. At CI we want to be helpful so what we can provide is what our lawyer sent to us and other resources we have found useful in facing GDPR for our business. This is the first post we’re publicly releasing with another specifically about Google Analytics to follow. CI clients will be hearing more from us individually.

At Capacity Interactive, we work with nearly two hundred arts and cultural organizations and have the privilege of tackling challenges in the digital marketing realm with them every day.

Certain questions come up again and again across all organization shapes and sizes, and that inspired us to retool our benchmark. Some of the toughest questions for organizations involve where to put their money, how to staff their teams, and how to set priorities when there is always more to do.

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 our Associate Creative Director who is a superb baker, found her passion for graphic design early in life, and recently oversaw the redesign CI’s email templates.