Collaboration, a win-win-win for audience development

Posted on August 12, 2009 by Shoshana

I can’t say enough about collaboration.  It is not only one of the 4 C’s of audience development, but something that definitely brings new hopes, opportunities, and direction for an artist or arts organization.The last few days I have been writing articles about collaborations.  One was about an art gallery that teamed up with a social cause organization that helps…

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The 5th C in Audience Development!

Posted on August 5, 2009 by Shoshana

Last night I did an hour consultation meeting with the Colorado Wind Ensemble.  I quickly explained about the 4 C’s of audience development: community, collaborations, connections, and caring. While speaking to them, a 5th C came up: Courage. Audience development takes courage for many reasons.  For one, you need the courage to be able to take the steps to build…

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Is audience development “marketing” in disguise?

Posted on August 3, 2009 by Shoshana

Last week I had an interesting discussion about whether or not the term “audience development” was simply a new term for something old, “relationship marketing.” Wikipedia defines relationship marketing as: Relationship marketing is a form of marketing developed from direct response marketing campaigns conducted in the 1970s and 1980s which emphasizes customer retention and satisfaction, rather than a dominant focus…

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Audience Development and the symphony orchestra-do you really want GenX?

Posted on July 8, 2009 by Shoshana

This morning my thoughts are on the symphony orchestra, the musicians and the audience.  I recently went to a CMF concert where the musicians were mainly GenX’ers (27-43), but the audience was still mainly Baby Boomer and Silent generation (44+).  Why is it that orchestra’s seem to have no problems with refilling the performer seats, but have all the troubles…

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Audience development – Shift from monetary goals to connecting with people through your art!

Posted on July 6, 2009 by Shoshana

I joined a forum that is addressing audience development head on.  I am realizing more and more about the shift that is needed.  The encouraging news is that there are some people on this forum that seem to get it, people like Kelly Tweeddale of Seattle, WA.  I have been admiring her comments due to the fact that they are…

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Shifting away from typical donation form letters is good audience development

Posted on June 29, 2009 by Shoshana

Happy Monday!  This will need to be a quick one due to a great deal of audience development work needing to be done today. Last week I was asked to look over a client’s set of donation ask letters for their annual fund drive.  One letter was for individual support and one was for corporate support. The individual letter was…

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Audience Development can save the arts, but do you know what it is?

Posted on June 22, 2009 by Shoshana

Last night I went to bed thinking about audience development, and I woke up thinking about it.  I seem to be eating, sleeping and focusing my life around audience development (as my fiance pointed out).  However, I feel that not many people know what audience development really is.  And since people do not know what it is, I do not…

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The 4 C’s in action proving audience development works!

Posted on June 17, 2009 by Shoshana

Yesterday I wrote an article about our local production of The Secret Garden.  The Parlando School for the Arts was savvy enough to use all 4 C’s in order to sell out the majority of their shows (on their way to a complete sell out).  Click here for all the details. If you don’t know about the 4C’s of audience…

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Good branding is good audience development!

Posted on June 9, 2009 by Shoshana

Today I spent half a day working with my client Terri from Color & Light Gallery in Denver on her brand.  We had a great time brainstorming for the right name and image and the exact look and feel for her business.  However, we started out asking some fairly basic questions in order to get to the fun part.  Here…

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I’m in a YouTube audience development mood…

Posted on June 3, 2009 by Shoshana

I’ve been thinking about how powerful YouTube has become. There are many ways you can use YouTube specifically for audience development.  I have highlighted some ideas in the past, but I thought maybe it was time for a helpful guide of “YouTube and Audience Development.” 1. Use it to connect with your audience before a show!  This is similar to having…

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“We had an enormously productive session with Shoshana Fanizza of Audience Development Specialists, discussing both long and short term strategies for marketing, outreach and audience development. In addition to recommending several new strategies, which we plan to incorporate into our marketing and outreach efforts, she showed us ways to refine and enhance what’s already working so that it will reach even further. Shoshana is knowledgeable, prepared and a total professional. We won’t hesitate to call on her again.” —David Srebnik and Cynthia May Listener Directed Productions, Inc – producer of Virtuoso Voices

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