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By Una Carmody, May 31, 2010

In brief

Ever wondered if arts organisations should recommend the work of other arts organisations to their own audiences, and what the best ways might be to do this? Arts Audiences wishes to run a pilot project from June – September 2010 to devise and monitor a small number of ways of doing this, to see what lessons we can learn, with a view to publishing the results.

It is a tried and tested approach in other sectors, where for years linkages between businesses and organisations have been used highly effectively, particularly in entertainment. Informal partnerships have taken place in many areas of the arts; this is an opportunity for specific methods to be tested and monitored such that we can all learn what may have the best chance of working.

The scheme

Even the most creative and productive of organisations can struggle to build audiences with limited resources, and many people have wondered over the years whether better co-operation in the form of recommendation of each others’ work would have an impact on audience.

This scheme will select three projects from those submitted to receive structured support and monitoring in recommending the work of partner organisations.

The pilot scheme will assist with:

• Identification of audiences and their characteristics;
• Devising of straightforward and low-cost methods;
• Implementation and monitoring of results;
• Publish the results such that others can learn from the experience

The three projects selected will be provided free of charge with appropriate support resources, in planning and monitoring, including possible external support where appropriate.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

1. Partner up with an organisation whom you know, or believe, to have audience who may be interested in your work, and vice versa.
2. Submit your organisational details, and those of the partner, along with a two-paragraph outline of your reasons for having chosen each other as partners.
3. Submit an outline of your artistic plans in the period July – September 2010-04-29
4. Submit a brief outline of your regular marketing activity, to include details of the scope of any mailing lists, including email , social media groups, direct mail groups and lists etc.

An assessment panel will select three sets of partners to work with in devising project specific activity, and monitoring the results. It is anticipated that in the main, these activities will form part of the normal marketing activity of each organisation – e.g email mailings, website links etc. Organisations participating in a structured way will be obliged to report the results of their activity to Arts Audiences.

NB If you do not have a partner organisation, you may submit details of your own organisation as above and if appropriate the selection committee will attempt, with your consent, to match you with another single organisation.

HOW DO I PICK A PARTNER?

You should consider a number of elements in asking another organisation to participate in the project with you:

1. Consider that you may choose an organisation in a totally different artform, with a similar sensibility to yours. An art gallery might choose to recommend the work of an independent cinema, for example.
2. It will be appropriate in many cases that your partner organisation may be geographically located close to you. However, if the key to your project is a specific initiative, or is primarily aimed at achieving a specific aim, such as driving traffic to a website, then this may not be key.
3. Bear in mind that partnerships may be most effective if they are of equal benefit to both partners; i.e that during the period in question you both have something to promote. An organisation which is in a quiet period (such as a festival which takes place outside the period) may however choose to use the scheme to maintain a presence with their audience.

APPLICATION

If you are interested, you should submit your organisations’ details no later than Friday 18th June at at 5pm, by email to ucarmody@templebar.ie.
Submissions should be of approximately one-page length and contain:

• your organisational details, and those of the partner, along with a two-paragraph outline of your reasons for having chosen each other as partners.
• an outline of your artistic plans in the period July – September 2010
• a brief outline of your regular marketing activity, to include details of the scope of any mailing lists, including email , social media groups, direct mail groups and lists etc.

In order to be considered, you must;

• be in receipt of Arts Council funding in the year 2010,of any type including project funding;
• be prepared to work with us to document the outcomes of the project and we anticipate that this will mean a minimum of 10 hours work

The panel will seek to achieve a regional and artform spread in the projects selected

We will revert to you within 10 days of submission.

If you have any questions, please email Una at ucarmody@templebar.ie

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By Una Carmody, April 29, 2010

The first report from Arts Audience’s Build Your Audience scheme is complete and available for download. Entitled A Guide to Marketing Your Production on Tour, this highly informative, in-depth document has been produced by Coisceim Dance Theatre with Heather Maitland, and will be of interest to anyone involved in marketing and especially those thinking of touring a production around Ireland.

To download a PDF of this 24 page guide, click here: A Guide to Marketing your Production on Tour

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CoisCeim performance of “As You Are”
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About the scheme: Arts Audiences invited submissions from arts organisations for the Build Your Audience scheme in late 2009, for projects where the services of marketing consultant Heather Maitland would be of assistance to them in a particular audience development initiative. Three projects were selected to proceed on the basis that the results would be of wide interest in the arts. This report is the first of three to be published over the coming weeks.

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By Una Carmody, October 30, 2009

Arts Audiences is delighted to announce the successful applicants for the Build Your Audience pilot project, which will provide free expert tuition on arts marketing and audience development.

The high level of interest in the project and the quality of applications received will prove extremely useful to the Arts Audience Initiative in identifying future strands of work which may benefit arts organisations and those working in the arts.

The three organisations were selected on the basis that their projects would have a wide application across artforms and disciplines and that the outcomes would be clear and useful to others. They are:

Coisceim Dance Theatre, Dublin, whose audience project is focused on developing a marketing strategy for a national tour.

The Ark, Dublin, in association with Irish Museum of Modern Art, whose project will focus on developing programmes which meet the practical needs of schools.

The Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, whose project will focus on retaining and building on the audience base through profiling and increasing visibility

Case studies of all three consultancies will be published online at on this site in the new year to make learning outcomes available to the arts community.

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By Una Carmody, September 17, 2009

Do you need help to identify, communicate with, and build your audience? Looking to target a specific audience sector, e.g. older people? Wondering if you should you use traditional marketing techniques or new media?

Arts Audiences recognises that even the most creative and productive of organisations can struggle with a lack of information about their audience, or with what to do with audience data when they have it.

In this pilot scheme, Arts Audiences will provide free audience consultancy from Heather Maitland this area to 3 organisations. Participating organisations will assist in documenting the process and results, which will be publicised to make learning outcomes available to the wider arts community.

In order to maximise learning, brief case studies of all 3 consultancies will be published on this website – if you’re interested in applying for this, there are more details here

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By Una Carmody, August 31, 2009

Customers care about more than just the show or event, and we need to see what we can do to make sure their experiences are good ones.

Two cultural organisations based in Temple Bar, Temple Bar Cultural Trust (TBCT) and Project Arts Centre (PAC) , have decided to run a project which focuses on the experience of customers who visit their buildings, request information, and attend their events.

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Both organisations have assigned 2-3 members of staff to working on the design and delivery of the project in their respective organisations. A steering committee comprised of the staff members from both organisations meets on a regular basis to update on progress, share experiences and identify next steps in the project.

One of the main aims of this Customer Service Project (CSP) is to create a manual for other cultural organisations interested in conducting a customer service audit, based on the experiences of TBCT and PAC. This manual will be completed in early 2010.