Attention spans are in the eye of the beholder?

Posted on March 11, 2015 by Shoshana

Yesterday, I posted a guest post about taking into account your audiences’ time. This post was all about creating a shorter door to door time to re-introduce the arts back into people’s lives. Today, I found an article about Binge-Watching Theatre. The first thing I did was do a double take to make sure it was an experience that was…

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Guest Post: How not to hog your audiences’ time

Posted on March 10, 2015 by Shoshana

Since it is my birthday today, I have a special guest post to share with you. My friend and colleague, Conductor and Composer Stephen P. Brown, is also someone who is constantly thinking about audience development, especially for the classical music sector. He firmly believes that if we make changes to how we communicate and present classical music, making it…

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Friday Fun 3/6/15

Posted on March 6, 2015 by Shoshana

Happy Friday!  I wanted to leave you this week in the Friday Fun zone.   Hell is a half-filled auditorium. – Robert Frost bit.ly/969yip Have a great weekend! -Shoshana

How should we treat volunteers and donors?

Posted on March 5, 2015 by Shoshana

Two incidents came up to start this discussion again. The agency that had finally gotten back to me with a message of “hope to see you there,” and no instructions to RSVP for the orientation, canceled the meeting without notifying me that it was canceled. I showed up, but they didn’t. Lucky for me it was only a few minutes drive,…

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Don’t underestimate “new” in audience building

Posted on March 4, 2015 by Shoshana

After many years of scanning news items for arts stories, today I had that jaded feeling again. There wasn’t anything really new and exciting.  I have mentioned before that one of the main reasons people attend the arts is to experience and discover something new. Are we providing this for our audiences? The younger generations don’t necessarily want to go…

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Do gimmicks build audiences?

Posted on February 26, 2015 by Shoshana

I am a big fan of CBS Sunday Morning. Last Sunday, Filling movie theatre seats with gimmicks, was one of the featured stories of the day. As many of us know, tickets sales for movie theaters are down. We can blame the expensive ticket pricing, the addition of Netflix and other on demand services, the upgrades to our home theater…

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Subscriptions, dead or alive, with special guest Al Stilo

Posted on February 11, 2015 by Shoshana

After many years of debate of whether subscriptions are dead or alive and well, the topic has recently become hot again. I met Al Stilo at the 2011 National Arts Marketing Project Conference, and I was delighted to find out that his company, Aurora Theatre in Lawrenceville, GA (the Atlanta area) is not only mainly subscription oriented, but is rather successful…

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Random thoughts for audience development

Posted on February 10, 2015 by Shoshana

  It’s been a while since I did a random post. I have so many thoughts on my mind, it is time to share. You want volunteers, right?  I had an experience where I went to an organization to let them know I was interested in volunteering. They told me to follow up online and fill out their form. I…

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The Tin Man Syndrome

Posted on February 5, 2015 by Shoshana

I had lunch with a past client.  I remember him telling me that after my work with his organization a few years ago, his audiences were blooming!  I was very excited to hear these results.  However, I was updated with the news that the current structure in the organization has abandoned those plans, and now they are losing audiences. This…

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Create a landing page for best audience building

Posted on February 2, 2015 by Shoshana

There have been many times where I have wanted to get more information about an event, and the link takes me to the main website. I then have to search for the event. Sometimes I find it right away. Sometimes I end up clicking on “upcoming” and then have to search in a list, click on the event, and maybe…

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Carol Olson

“Working with Shoshana was the next right step for our 76 year old community chorus. She directed the organization to be patron centered and to view all patron interactions from their perspective. We experienced a 71% increase in audiences last season. That’s because we have a new viewpoint: from the outside in, instead of the inside out. It’s a continuous process, but we have experienced exciting results! Thanks Shoshana!” —Carol Olson, Executive Director of VOCI (Voices of Canton, Inc.)

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