Ideas

Almost all Americans watch television—around 80% on any given day. But the way audiences are watching has changed. Many now tune in to connected TV (CTV), which streams video content via a connected TV device (think smart TVs, Roku, AppleTV, AmazonFire, etc.). This video content is delivered “over the top” (OTT) instead of via a cable or satellite connection, through streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and Amazon.

Summer is the season of camps—and we don’t just mean the ones with tents! With schools out in your local communities, summer camps are a golden opportunity for arts organizations to inspire and nurture the next generation of artists, musicians, and performers. But in a digital space as crowded as your favorite beach, it’s not always easy to make a splash with your camp-focused digital campaigns. We’ve got you! 

When you market a large volume of programs and initiatives, it can be tempting to run as many campaigns as possible—the more ads, the better, right?—but that doesn’t necessarily guarantee an equally significant payoff. When it comes to digital advertising, sometimes less is more. 

Intentionality is key, especially for multifaceted arts organizations with small (but mighty) marketing teams. We worked with Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art to streamline their campaign structure, mitigate audience overlap, and reduce their team’s workload, all while maximizing overall impact.

It's summertime, and you know what that means: arts marketers have visions of Sugar Plum Fairies dancing in their heads. That’s right: now is the time to plan—and, in many cases, start—your holiday programming campaigns. 

When you think about digital marketing campaigns, return on investment (ROI) likely comes to mind. But what happens when you’re running an attendance or membership campaign, and purchases largely don’t take place online? Museums and similar types of cultural institutions often find themselves in this predicament. 

At CI, we’re obsessed with measurement, and that includes even those scenarios that seem unmeasurable. Enter: proxy metrics. A proxy metric is something you can measure that represents or approximates the value of your intended metric when data is limited. Let’s look at how we use proxy metrics to measure campaign performance for the museums we work with.

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.