Whose Messiah are You?

This past Christmas noted conductor Kent Tritle had multiple “Messiahs” : Musica Sacra, The Oratorio Society of New York and the "sing in" at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center to name a few.  Same man, same music, yet very different experiences. For example

• Musica Sacra is a professional chamber choir, priding itself on expertise and authenticity.
• NY Oratorio society is 100 year old  NYC tradition.
• The  "Sing-in" is a community sharing event with 3000 singers and multiple conductors who may be cheered on by their respective chorus.

NYC has the advantage of a very dense population.  Everyone is there, and there is something for everyone if you know where to look. However it is unlikely to apply to the chorus in the wilds of suburbia. We have to pick and choose. Being mindful of your community mindset matters.

Research in the performing arts by the excellent arts researchers Wolf /Brown shows how different the audiences can be.

Net result is that marketing  these Messiahs can be very different not because the music is different, but because the people who prefer the varied experiences are different.

Choral Nation Question for the Week Who is your brand target, and what really differentiates your Christmas program from all the other choices someone may have?  Knowing that, how will you go to market? Now is the time to think about it. Christmas is coming! (and I'll bet you are taking the summers off!)

Links to help you

Here is the interview with Kent on NPR

Desciption of the Messiah “sing-in” is here: 

Lastly the Research from Wolf /Brown. It’s a free download from their website made possible in part by the Doris Duke Foundation found here.

How NOT to get to Carnegie Hall !

Last night I was fortunate enough to attend Conspirare’s “ Big Sing” produced by Carnegie Hall.   It was a Master class on how to sing, and how not to market.

A “big sing” is a free event where artists invite the audience to join them and live and learn their way. This should have been a resounding success. Conspirare is the Austin based professional choral powerhouse led by the infinitely gifted Craig Hella Johnson. The event was produced by Carnegie Hall  as part of their neighborhood out reach, which is celebrating its 35^th anniversary. It was presented at the beautiful new (?) Frank Sinatra School for the Performing Arts in Queens.

Why do I call this a master class?

Well mostly because the audience was smaller then the choir itself. Excluding those from the presenting organization, it numbered less then 25. I had more people in my college 8 am neuro-biology class

Despite what was likely a very large disappointment, the artists kept their remarkable musical standards. connected with their audience, and Mr. Johnson led, taught, cajoled and consoled his way through the program in a way that will long be remembered. The group is to be commended for grace under no fire.

So what did Carnegie get wrong?

I  do not have the inside track but it appears they badly misread their situation. There was no built in audience base. This was a new artist, in a new venue, with a new format, at a bad time, with lousy accessibility. While this was Conspirare’s first trip to NYC and Carnegie's first time in this venue, they apparently did not lay the ground work with their potential audience. Consider these observations

1. They had no notable online presence. A Google search  finds mostly mentions from Conspirare’s home town of Austin. For NYC there is one blog mention, no calendar or newspaper mentions, no use of Choral Net or VAN.  Carnegie does not list it under neighborhood concerts. An online press release finds it burried in a number of activities. It might as well have been a whisper campaign.
   
2. It was a Tuesday night, at a commuting high school, when school was on vacation. No students attended.
   
3.  Potential commuters were ignored with a 7 pm start time, no parking suggestions and the  directions on the link on the Carnegie website goes to THE WRONG location. And not in a small way

Choral Nation,  Has this ever happened to you? greater expectations then results? Feel free to share what you did to "master" the situation !

A Decline at the Met is a Good Thing !

Yes it's true

According to the Wall Street Journal the average age of the audience at the Metropolitan Opera has declined. While printed reports and on line reports differ in the magnitude, the direction remains the same.

To what do they own this acheivement?

The singers have always been great.
Carmen is still Carmen and the Ring is still the Ring.

Yet something has changed.

Could it be updating presentations to be more visually engaging, with better story telling and a few unexpected operas (last seasons "the Nose" comes to mind).

Or perhaps its the fact that 14,000 GOOD seats are sold on rush at $25 due to a grant?

Or is it the over all re-make and re brand of Lincoln Center?  No longer a square of stodgy art, but a vital fun gathering place for all ages with a kick-ass fountain?

Or perhaps the digital age has allowed sampling of opera to build engagement among a younger audience on some place other then the radio.

Or even the 7:30 start time, which makes for an easier attendance for working people.

Well the answer is yes yes yes yes yes and yes.

Sailing the marketing ship is not just hoisting an advertising sail and hoping for a good wind. More often then not it's getting all the oars to pull together in a new direction at the right time. In this case the credit belongs to Peter Gelb

So there's the question Chorus Nation. Who is setting your ship's direction, and are all the oars pulling the same way?

Who am I anyway?

A major challenge for the community chorus is acting like " professional marketers", when you are really a hardy band of volunteers. Sometimes there is a graphic artist on staff, sometimes a marketer ( who is always very very busy), and so often a well meaning spouse who is being put out of the house. And  while every one is well meaning ( well except  for the person who comes to meetings just for the food), it's still very hard to keep all these creative brains on the same page.

Where do you start? How do you keep it all together?

One way to think of it, is the same way you think about yourself.  Consumers  evaluate brands as if they were people. You have a name, you have a personality and you have a reputation.  So do brands .They have a name ( Campbell Soup) they have a personality ( nurturing, motherly) and they have a reputation (consistent quality, MMM MM good).

What major brands do, is write this down,  get it agreed through out the organization, and share it with everyone that touches their name.  There are fancy forms and eye catching graphics, but the thrust of it all is people evaluate brands and if they were people. Do I like you? and do I like what you do? Why?Write it down, that's the key

So  Choral Nation, Give it a try. If its easy.. your more then half way there. If its hard.. at least you know what your challenge is.

Marketing will Kill the Arts!

Really?

Marketing is nothing more then a philosophy of doing business.

A Marketing organization believes that the knowing and understanding the customer, better then they know themselves, will lead to profitable growth.

Perhaps it was best put by Fats Waller, the great jazz pianist, " Find out what they want, and how they want it, and let 'em have it just that way."

This puts fear in the hearts of some.  Will this not lead to nothing but a christmas seasons of Messiahs, Spring Broadway Singalongs and the occasional Faure Requiem programmed in the middle?

If so Chanticleer would cease crowing, Seraphic Fire would be peddling matches and Craig Hella Johnsons's Conspirare would be blowing in the wind. And they are not. They are all vibrant successful inspiring practitioners of the choral arts.

Aiming for the lowest common denominator is not Marketing, it is "Selling". It is doing what everyone else does in the hopes that you will make a quick buck. There is nothing wrong with that if your market truly only wants blue jeans, white toyotas and vanilla ice cream.

But if you really understand the Choral Audience, research  and the examples above suggest a different view. There are many types of people in the choral arts world. Who lives in your community? what else do they support?  Where do they eat? What do they celebrate? Who do they care about? As the wise musician listens before he sings, the wise marketer listens to the consumer before they create,

so there is today's question Choral Nation

When was the last time you had a  real heart to heart with your audience?

The NJ Choral Consortium went Wild !

ok, well maybe not wild,  but they were very kind.

I was recently the key note speaker for the NJ Choral Consortium  a group dedicated to growing the choral arts in NJ. In an effort to be constantly improving  I asked  the attendees to fill out a Survey Monkey survey for feedback.

While the results were very positive and very helpful, what was quite interesting was what some of them  did not want to hear about:  organizational process and design.

This is fairly common.  In a volunteer world, we are often rewarded as managers, not leaders. The difference? Managers work IN the system, Leaders work ON the system.  So instead of championing  our consumer and their needs, we champion our department and our needs (Finance decides ticket prices, Music decides repetoire, and Advertising is predictably late with the poster).
This almost never results in success. Un- coordinated committee agendas leads to conflicting messages.
Confused consumers do not buy.

When you last picked up a product from the shelf, did you wonder about the many different executives made how many different decisions?  Probably not. You look at the total package and said "yes I like this" or "no I think not." The same is true when people purchase your concert.

To be successful, a chorus needs a successful  marketing process as much as it needs marketing people.
And it needs someone to lead it, not manage it.

So there is today's question Chorus Nation

 Who is LEADING your marketing process?

What's Wrong with this Picture?

Well, to be honest, there's nothing wrong with this picture. It's what it's telling us that is the challenge.
No matter what the "high end" art form, among those most likely to participate ( the college educated) Arts participation is in decline.  And not a little bit either.

While we can blame this on education, or the internet, or the recession (which surely did impact the last set of numbers), there is another contributor. Demographics.  A study by noted researcher Russel Belk in 1982 found that arts attendance in the theater and symphony were directly correlated to life stage. Young single people were twice as likely to go out as newly married (have you tried to get a baby sitter lately?).

 In 1982 the baby boom, that  "pig in a python" moving through our demographic curve was sitting solidly in the single  people stage  remember yuppies?). 30 years later, there is good news. The baby boomers are becoming empty nesters and retirees. If past data holds, they may be ready to re-enter your  arts world.

The question is.. Choral Nation... are you ready for them?