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A Match Made in Heaven

Matt Lehrman

Founder & Executive Director

Alliance for Audience & ShowUp.com

June 5, 2009

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89 days a year over 100 Fahrenheit (37.8 Celsius)

Record: 122 degrees (50 Celsius)

It’s a Dry Heat

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“There is no list of best practices and no generally accepted operating model. If anything, we’ve learned

that different responses are required in different

communities, based on the community’s unique cultural landscape, marketing challenges, history of

collaboration and resource base.”

Alan Brown, Wolf/Brown

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• Started October, 1993

• Reversed a 20-year decline

• 90% Awareness

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2002 Survey of

Public Participation in the Arts

http://www.arts.endow.gov/research/NEASurvey2004.pdf

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a “convention & visitors bureau” for arts and culture

“The Alliance for Audience is a great entrepreneurial idea

born out of the Valley’s growing cultural sector…this type of creative thinking sets a great example on how we can work

together and make the most of our resources.”

March 5, 2004

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What is “Audience Development”?

Increase

Diversify

Target

Cultivate

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“Many organizations feel that they have neither the resources, the expertise, nor the institutional stamina to move far beyond their existing constituencies…”

“The mismatch between their rhetorical public genuflections toward long-term audience development and the reality of what they are able to do causes genuine discomfort.”

AEA Consulting

The Arts in ArizonaOctober 2002

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We spend most of our TIME picking the “low hanging fruit”

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We spend most of our BUDGET picking the “mid-level fruit”

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COLLABORATION is neededto pick the “hard-to-reach fruit”

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Empty seats:

– Drains budget

– Demands more advertising

– Pressures to raise ticket prices

– Strains program quantity & quality

– Diminishes pool of future donors

– Compromises mission

– Appearance of failure• to Audiences

• to Donors & Sponsors

• to Stakeholders

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“If they don’t want to come to the ballpark,nobody’s gonna stop them.”

Yogi Berra

I don’t know.

That’s not my thing.That’s not for me.

I can’t afford it.

Why I don’t attend:

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Pursuing Revenue or Audience Development?

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Today, ShowUp.com serves more than

60,000 unique visitors monthly who, on

average, visit ShowUp.com every week.

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Arts Marketing

Audience Development

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Arts Marketing

• Always Immediate

• A “Job”

• A Transaction

• Return on Investment

• Fiercely Competitive

Motto:

The only thing worse

than having no

audience, is having the

wrong audience.

Audience Development

• Short, Mid & Long Term

• A “Lifestyle”

• An Ongoing Investment

• Return on Engagement

• Fiercely Collaborative

Motto:

An empty seat never

recommended anything to

anybody.

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Audience Development is the responsibility to diversify and broaden audiences

● ALWAYS missionALWAYS mission--criticalcritical

● NOW businessNOW business--criticalcritical

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““““I just cannot believe that there are such wonderful things to doI just cannot believe that there are such wonderful things to doI just cannot believe that there are such wonderful things to doI just cannot believe that there are such wonderful things to do. . . . I know it sounds funny but, wow! I know it sounds funny but, wow! I know it sounds funny but, wow! I know it sounds funny but, wow! I cannot believe I waited this I cannot believe I waited this I cannot believe I waited this I cannot believe I waited this long to take my baby girl out to see something like this and long to take my baby girl out to see something like this and long to take my baby girl out to see something like this and long to take my baby girl out to see something like this and she is already 17 but boy we are hooked cannot wait to see the she is already 17 but boy we are hooked cannot wait to see the she is already 17 but boy we are hooked cannot wait to see the she is already 17 but boy we are hooked cannot wait to see the next performance..next performance..next performance..next performance..””””

Rosa MRosa MRosa MRosa M

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An empty seat never recommendedanything to anybody.