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Arts marketers learn to be right on target…with their audience

Written By Josie Gulliksen
March 12, 2018 at 1:53 PM

Last month’s Miami Arts Marketing Project Lab was yet another invaluable tool provided to arts marketers by the Arts & Business Council of Miami, as part of their Arts Ignite 2018 series.

The focus of the half-day workshop focused on helping marketers identify their target audience and how vital that step is in establishing a strong foothold in the marketplace. Various experts provided tools, tips and techniques to help participants broaden their reach beyond their core participants.

Brendan Glynn, director of Corporate Underwriting for Friends of WLRN, served as facilitator and session leader. He introduced Trinidad Callava, faculty at University of Miami’s Marketing and Science Department, and EllenMarie McPhillip, dean of the Business School at the University of Miami.

Together, Callava and McPhillip presented “The What, Why, Where of Research,” where they spoke about the Typology of Audiences and how they’re split into Low Contact/Whole Contact.

They expressed the importance of using social media as the primary driver of a marketing funnel, knowing the reason why someone chose your event and understanding the experience you’re asking the audience to pay for. They concluded with an interactive value drivers exercise, a take-away for the participants they could incorporate into their daily work as arts marketers.

Packed house at the Arts & Business Council of Miami’s Feb. 27 MAMP Lab at the Adrienne Arsht Center.

Abdul Muhammad, vice president at rbb Communications, delved deeper into creating content to engage your audience. He kept it simple, boiling it down to three points – listen first, know your audience and place and time.

He drove the point home by reciting one of his favorite quotes “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand, but the intent to reply.” He pointed out that key players in market research are:

  • Artificial Intelligence (“The Spy”) that uncovers patterns and trends from data and helps with more effective matches
  • Data Mining (“The Detective”) and Machine Learning (“The Matchmaker”).

He finished by giving concrete examples of companies doing content marketing right (Gatorade and Lane Bryant and their I’m No Angel campaign) and doing it wrong (Microsoft and their “Bae Intern” campaign and Bud Light’s #Up For Whatever campaign, which caused social outrage with the #Me Too Movement)

Following him were a group of expert panelists who each had their turn at the mic and said the following:

Lanie Shapiro, founder and owner of TouchPoll of South Florida: “On site surveys are very immediate and you have to be open to negative feedback to help make good changes.”

Siggi Bachmann, creative director of the New World Symphony: “Be grounded in empathy.”

Fernando Olalla, director of E-Marketing at the Adrienne Arsht Center: “Facebook Audience Insights provides lots of free data on your audience that helps you build your customer profile.” And, “Google Trends helps reveal exactly what people are really searching for and Hootsuite is a listening tool.”

Otmara Diaz-Cooper, CEO of Diaz & Cooper Advertising: “Work the marketing funnel and as you work down the funnel, it gets cheaper to market to your audience. Also, be careful of first impressions and biased assumptions. Become a ‘field anthropologist’ at your venue by observing your audience.”

The experts then each chose a table and shared their knowledge with participants one on one. That final step completed the lessons and tips they walked away with that day.

“The Miami Arts Marketing Project (MAMP) is a collaborative initiative that connects the entire arts community – museums, performing, visual and fine arts – to come together and learn from one another and help to grow our South Florida Community,” said Glynn. “The recent MAMP brought together some of the most creative individuals to explore, learn and continue our journey to enhance the quality of life for everyone in our community.”

The next MAMP Lab “Getting in the Media Spotlight Lab 2” is March 27 from 9:30 a.m. to noon at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. Click here to register.

 

 

 

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