“Why don’t more people attend?”
Is it because we don’t have a large enough advertising budget – a more compelling social media presence – a better PR angle – an updated logo – enough telemarketing staff – or a more sophisticated database? Is it that we serve uneducated and unenlightened communities – that a lack of arts education leaves a market of just older, educated & affluent participants – there’s so much competition from other sources of entertainment – the economy – or any of a zillion other excuses arts & cultural managers cite daily?
Each may be a symptom. But here’s the fundamental cause: YOUR EXPERIENCE FAILS THEM.
Here’s how:
- Your DEVOTED audience is already passionate about your company and the work you do, but they crave more than you are willing to deliver. They actually want to LIVE in your realm. (Think about how a devoted sports fan might decorate his or her home and share their zeal with their family and friends!) Sure, they’ll buy your season tickets and give you a standing ovation, but their loyalty could – and would – do so much more to get more people to attend, if only you focused on them as much as you focus on your art.
- Your ORIENTED audience (think of them as the people who subscribe to the local newspaper and eagerly pick up the weekly arts section to find their fun) is already open to your company’s communications. Whether print, web, radio, email or TV – what do they want? They want their expectations aroused. They want a promise that previsions the experience to come. You’ve heard the advertising adage, “sell the sizzle not the steak” – so go right now and pull up your latest advertisement and explain how it answers your prospective audience’s most obvious question: “Why should I care?” That’s the moment where your experience failed to meet your audience.
- Your UNINSPIRED audience couldn’t care less about what you’re doing. (You know plenty of people who fit this category – they have time & money, and lead happy/fulfilling lives doing plenty of things other than attending the kinds of arts & cultural activities that you offer.) What does it take to in INSPIRE them? It’s simple, really – you need to be producing or presenting your work in ways so extraordinary as to be unmissable! This is no mere marketing tactic. To actually inspire audiences demands that you exercise your organization’s mission to its utmost ambition. This is the painful “He’s just not that into you.” moment. The hard truth is that more people don’t come because you’re not offering them anything that they care about. Deal with it!
- Your ASLEEP audience doesn’t even know you exist. There’s a vast population out there that will NEVER seek you out. As Yogi Berra famously said, “If they don’t want to come to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them.” Except that arts & cultural organizations have a special power (which I prefer to think of as a responsibility) to assert our organizations’ mission – whether theatre, music, dance, visual arts or whatever – outside of their traditional “ballparks” and play them on the home fields of our audiences – wherever that might be. Parks, beaches, town squares, in traveling buses, parades, in abandoned buildings and pop-up storefronts, in lots and festivals and everywhere there are people to be found. Your experience fails when you hold on to the outdated belief that your art should only be experienced in places, times and manners that you set, unilaterally.
We are not merely presenters and producers whose job is to preserve our world’s arts & cultural heritage. We – and the organizations we lead – are explorers, innovators, role models, advocates and champions for the causes of creativity, education, tolerance, respect, appreciation, justice, inclusion, beauty, perspective, divergence, openness, originality, talent and the limitlessness of human potential.
The better question to ask is: “What must we do to assert our mission in ways that engage more people?”
# # #
