Download MARKETING NEWSLETTER NO 1 Summary of contents First

MARKETING NEWSLETTER NO 1
Summary of contents
First meeting of Arts Marketing Working Group ….Training …Who ‘owns’ the audience?...Are
season brochures worth the cost?….Cheaper postage
Getting started
The marketing working group had its first meeting on January 26th. Rachel Horan (Mermaid
Arts Centre), Huw Roberts (The Helix), Cliona Maher (Storytellers Theatre Company), Aoife
Flynn (Model Arts and Niland) and Janice MacAdam (freelance marketing consultant)
attended.
Everything from training and collective analysis of audience data, to getting arts marketing
onto the Arts Council’s agenda were discussed. Click here to download a full set of minutes.
Thanks for the feedback
Thanks to those who attended the 2 training courses on 20 & 21 January. It’s clear the
training needs in the whole area of arts marketing/audience development are enormous. The
feedback on the courses so far has been very positive. Funds permitting, we hope to organise
another 2 days of arts marketing training in a few months time. We’ll keep you posted.
Druidstone Arts Marketing – the ultimate arts marketing course for venues
This is an appeal for help! Theatre Forum is very keen on bringing Druidstone to Ireland. To
refresh your memory, Druidstone is the marketing course run by the Theatre Managers
Association (TMA) and the Arts Council of England (ACE). This 7 day intensive residential
course has been going 21 years and is considered the best programme of its kind in Europe.
The TMA and ACE have agreed in principle to run the course in Ireland in January 2006.
However, for this to happen we need financial support from the Arts Council here.
Andrea Corbett, the part time Audience Development Officer in the Arts Council left in
December. I understand Stephanie O’Callaghan, the acting Development Director is handling
this brief in the interim.
Marketing staff need to be more vocal about their training needs and, if they support the idea
of Druidstone coming to Ireland, they need to let the heads of their organisation know. This
should also be communicated to Arts Council.
Who owns the audience?
The issue of who owns the audience data collected by venues has become a hot topic. What
we can say is that:
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Many venues and production companies are hazy on the Data Protection Act; and
haven’t checked if they need to register with the Data Protection Commissioner.
Venues are under the mistaken impression that they ‘own’ the data. Both the Act itself
and recent EU judgements have confirmed that “consumers reasonably expect that
both the venue and the company whose work they are seeing will be entitled to have
their name, address etc”;
That said, many venues are not collecting data appropriately; getting consent is key.
This is the script the UK Arts Marketing and Theatre Manager Associations suggest :
“Thank you for booking tickets to see the [insert production company] at the [Any Town
Venue].
We would like to add your name to our marketing list so we can keep you informed about
events and other developments at our venue.
(optional: Is this all right? Await positive or negative response.)
We are officially called the [Any Town Venue Limited]. We will give your details to the [insert
production company], who trade as [? Limited] whose show you are seeing.
Is this all right?
Await positive or negative response
From time to time we may also share your details with other (optional: arts and entertainment)
organisations which we think you will be interested in.
Is this all right?
Await positive or negative response.
Theatre Forum is going to look into organising a briefing for members on the subject. In the
meantime, lots of very clear information is available from www.dataprotection.ie
Question for you
At the recent training day for Box Office and Marketing Managers, the suggestion of some
research on the effectiveness of season brochures was raised. It would be useful for
everyone to have a benchmark figure on the rate of return on season brochures. Databox
users should log their season brochure mailing and then run the campaign returns report at
an agreed number of weeks after the mailing goes out. The report actually gives a figure for
return on investment. We have a copy of Heather Maitland’s handouts: ‘logging your mailing’
and ‘running the campaigns return reports’. Contact Theatre Forum if you want copies.
Cheaper Postage
Backstage Theatre in Longford wants on pass on details about the An Post Postaim scheme.
It only applies to mailouts of 2,000 or more but basically the more you post the more you
save. (If you post over 250,000 items in one go, you can save over 20c per letter, which is
quite significant, and god knows we could all do with saving every cent we can!). It does
involve some extra work in the early stages in terms of sorting addresses by county, but after
the first mailout everything should be straight forward. For more details on the scheme, call
Mary Coyle at the GPO on 01 7058489.
Hungry for more?
We would strongly encourage anyone with responsibility for marketing in their organisation to
become an affiliate member of the UK Arts Marketing Association. Their training courses are
very good and their website is an invaluable resource of case studies and publications. See
www.a-m-a.co.uk for details.
Last Chance Saloon
You received an invoice over a month ago for membership of Theatre Forum 2005 at last
years rate. This offer expires in mid February and we would urge you to pay your annual
subscription as soon as possible. Less time on our part chasing subscriptions means more
time organising practical services for you!