Ideas

Fans of the flywheel model know that a stellar audience experience is key to building momentum for future sales. There are so many ways to deliver an excellent experience, from a seamless purchase path to friendly on-site staff—and this extends to your social media channels, as well.

Delight campaigns are a great way to center your patrons and keep them coming back for more (ideally with friends!). The goal isn’t to move tickets, but rather to gift your audience something they’ll enjoy. Consider it an opportunity to build brand loyalty by offering added value without asking for something in return.

Unlike the quick clicks of online shopping, attending an arts event is rarely an impulse decision. Most attendees need time to research the event, find someone to go with, carefully consider pricing options, and so on.

This long lead-up to buying tickets means that purchases can easily get lost in the attribution shuffle—especially for organizations like Cincinnati Art Museum (CAM), whose patrons don't typically purchase tickets in advance.

As CAM's strategic partner since 2017, we helped them embrace the benefits of Meta’s newly widened attribution window and tap into the full potential of their data for a more holistic view of audience behavior.

The world of digital marketing has always been largely rooted in an inherent trust that technology will cooperate once we hand over our meticulously crafted campaigns and ads. Now, we’ve reached a point where we aren’t just handing over our ads, but sometimes the creation of the ads themselves.

We know it’s never easy to hand over control when it comes to something you care about, especially when fickle technology is involved, but CI is here for support as we all navigate the new digital future of dynamic ads. Let’s dive into some top use cases where it makes sense to let machine learning do the heavy lifting, if you aren’t already.

'Tis the season for giving—and there’s no better gift to bestow than the magic of visiting a cultural institution. If your organization offers gift certificates, now is the opportune moment to remind your patrons that they can gift an experience at your venue.

Read on for some quick tips to maximize your holiday gift campaigns and prepare to deck the (concert) halls with added revenue.

As we approach the end of the year, your thoughts have likely turned to your Nutcrackers and Christmas Carols (and if they haven’t yet… what are you waiting for?!). But there’s likely one other end-of-year effort on your mind: fundraising. 

When it comes to consumer behavior, arts buyers have a style all their own—and we can break that down even further by artistic genre. Whether you're dealing with music mavens or visual art enthusiasts, understanding the distinct buyer behaviors of your audience is crucial for nailing campaign targeting.

While all of CI’s campaigns feature bespoke strategies, film audience targeting is especially unique. We’ve partnered with Film Forum since 2017 to tap into this group and track behavioral patterns over time. The result? A meticulously crafted marketing strategy that feels tailor-made for their audience.

Video remains the dominant content format on social media, so we’re always asked about optimizing the experience. The most common question we get from clients: how long should my videos be?

As your team’s investment in visual storytelling grows, determining the optimal video length for your audiences can be a helpful way to boost the performance of paid social campaigns. Let’s look at CI client data to see how different video lengths play out across Meta’s platforms.

With social platforms like Instagram and TikTok transforming into search hotspots, is investing in Google paid search (SEM) still a savvy move?

It’s a common question we get from clients, and we completely understand why. Social media is where consumers predominantly spend their time, and search is baked into the UI of these platforms, so it’s easy to assume people are gravitating away from traditional search engines.

If you’re stuck in a query quandary and wondering where to put your advertising dollars, don’t worry—we analyzed CI client data to help you better understand arts buyers’ search preferences. The short answer: Google still reigns supreme, but that doesn’t mean you should overlook other search methods; it all depends on your organization's goals and resources.

For every arts marketer, season announcement time brings with it excitement and anticipation, but also apprehension as one considers the responsibility of filling all of those new empty seats. 

With season announcements come subscription on-sales (or memberships or packages or whatever type of similar program your organization offers!), and given that subscriptions are in decline, renewal season requires all that much more strategy when your plate is already full.

In fact, as you’re reading this, you very well may be doing a great theater mask impression: 🎭. But fear not! With CI’s tips, you’ll be all smiles and strategy by the time you’re done reading.

How do you sustain a campaign for a long-running exhibition—especially when media dollars aren't unlimited, as is typical in the arts?