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Promoting: If they don't know, they won't come.

Larry Ward

Organizers of even the most successful events cannot afford to sit back and hope that crowds will continue to show up year after year. The results of inaction could result in no crowd at all. To avoid this disaster, appoint a Publicity/Promotion committee and make certain that its members develop an effective promotional strategy early in the planning process.

Remember, you are not selling a product; you are selling the benefits of the product. The benefit you are selling is entertainment! A festival is essentially show business. Consider these benefits as part of the entertainment package when creating the image for your festival:

• Excitement, fun, happiness
• Relaxation
• Social interaction
• Prestige, ego satisfaction
• Education

Members of the publicity committee need to be aware of the following concerns:

1. Much of what is promoted - entertainment, for example - will be arranged by other committees. Therefore the publicity people must have a good working relationship with everybody helping with the festival.
2. With so much to do, timing will be critical in many instances. Establish a timeline.
3. Be sure local and regional people whom the media are likely to contact for what is going on know exact times, dates, and your media contact's name and telephone number.
4. Supply the local tourism sector (motels, service stations, restaurants) with printed maps and schedules so they know times and directions to events and can pass that information on to their customers and guests.

Read More Here...

Guerrilla Promotion and Artist Development

David Codr Founder of Musicpage.com

After promoting or producing around 1,000 concerts, managing bands, booking tours and scouting talent, you pick up a few tricks of the trade. That's how I started doing artist development work. The gang at Festival Network Online asked if I would share a few of my artist development techniques in this newsletter.

So if you are looking for some artist development techniques, read on.

How to Get 3,000 New Fans in the Next 12 Months, For FREE

Running a web community like Musicpage.com, I get a lot of artist development questions from our artist users. When I do, one of the first things I do is ask how many fans a band or performer has. If I get a non-specific answer like "a lot" I know the band isnt doing a very good job of collecting information or growing their fan base.

Most bands have figured out how to get people to become their friend on facebook or twitter, but that's not a real fan base. A fan base is more than a list of names. A real fan base is a growing entity with its own quirks and personality.

Maybe its best to consider WHY you are trying to build a fan base. Sadly, most artists think its simply to have the biggest list. But your fan base shouldn't be about quantity as much as it is about quality. In the most simple terms, building a fan base is all about cultivating a list of your customers.

Think about it, why do you advertise and promote your shows? You're trying to reach a group of people who will come to see you play. Well if you get the names and contact info for people at your current shows, you can go straight to the source when you start promoting your next show. This is much more effective than just running ads or handing out flyers to reach your fans the next time.

Reaching out to your existing fans is your "Sure thing" while your other forms of advertising are there to add to your total. When you combine tactics this way, you will see a dramatic increase in the number of people who attend your show.

Most bands that do try to collect their fan's information have a clipboard on the front of the stage or at their merch table - and that's about all the effort they put into collecting their fan's info. But collecting your fan's information is crucial. Aside from your performance, its literally one of the most important things you will do at your shows.

Thing is, people dont like writing down their contact info on a sheet of paper that anyone else in the bar can see. So you end up with a lot of fake names or illegible emails. The clipboard also usually only gets a few names a night. So you're getting low quality and low quantity, a bad combination.

I tell bands I work with to print up "Fan cards" an old one is pictured here (click to enlarge). Fan cards are 3x5 index cards with pre-printed fields for; name, address, city, state, zip, age, birthday, facebook and myspace addresses, phone and cell phone numbers.

You always want to get someone's zip code when getting their email address for your list. This is especially important for touring acts. Having a zip code allows you to only email people who are close enough to the venue to make it out to the show (if its a single show announcement rather than a list of all upcoming shows).

Read more here...

Art Festivals: Frequently Asked Questions & Other Practical Matters

"I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man's." - William Blake

When I first started the art festival guide I had a somewhat clear organization and, once I decided on the main points to cover, I kept to my outline more or less faithfully. During the course of art festivals, I would think of bits and pieces and almost all of them fit neatly into my chapters...almost. Another phenomenon that occurs in art festivals is that some of us get a lot of visits from artists that want to entertain the idea of embarking upon the art festival adventure. Most of them ask the obvious questions but some pose a few practical and sometimes not so obvious questions. There is so much more to know!

On an average year, whatever that may be, I figure I spend about 30% of my time making art, 30% selling art, 30% on the various business tasks and 30% taking care of the home front. If you notice, that adds up to 120%, not counting sleeping and eating, which is the appropriate amount of time to dedicate to making a living as an artist. Seriously, I have never worked so hard or so long on anything, although the rewards of making a living as a living artist are without question worth every minute of every day and the minutes in between. Nobody said it was going to be easy!

While you are starting out and still not knowing who to ask, I will just answer the most frequent questions that came pouring to my booth and my website and that logically made me fashion this last chapter as a summary of Frequently Asked Questions. They are arranged in no particular order; I simply jotted them down as people asked both in person and online although I guess I tried to address them in order of importance or at least relevance to the business. You might call them tricks of the trade, nuts and bolts, tips from the experienced or frequently asked questions. I will also try to answer them succinctly since I have already explained most points in the previous chapters. Well, I might throw in a story or two, but that's to be expected by now. So here are my loose ends, whatever didn't neatly fit into the previous chapters, I kept for this last one. Now you can't say nobody told you!

Judge and Jury: What to Expect When Entering Art Shows
Annie Strack

Entering an art show, at any level of your career, is a wonderful means of gaining validation and recognition. For beginning artists, receiving appreciation from people other than friends and family can be very encouraging. Competition is an excellent way of building up a resume, especially if one is fortunate enough to win an award. Plus, more people may see your work, increasing the possibility of sales and getting into galleries. 

Overpricing

Many years ago, a certain art professor showed his portfolio slides to a class I attended, as a sample of how to put together a body of work for presentation. His beautiful ceramic perfume bottles were quite impressive and skillfully made.  Along with the images were prices for each item, which averaged in the range of $600 each, which was his example of pricing to the class.

Not long ago, I happened to speak with an artist who by chance got the same talk from the same art professor with the same slides. She, however, had the presence of mind to raise her hand and ask "How many of these perfume bottles have you sold?"  The answer: Zero.

The Power of Personality
by Bob Baker

When you promote yourself via e-mail or with the words you use on your web site, you have a choice. You can be straight-forward and matter-of-fact (also known as bland and boring). Or you can communicate with pizzazz.  

12 Tips for Selling More Art in a Recession
by C. Sharp

Fellow artists and gallery owners share 12 tips for holding your ground during a recession. 
Fine art isn’t always easy to sell even when the economy is good. Now with this latest economic downturn, artists everywhere are commiserating about how to ramp up their marketing mojo to help them survive. In some ways it’s not all bad. Crisis is often an opportunity in disguise, challenging artists to focus their energies and to keep at least one eye on the big picture. Here are some suggestions on how to survive the recent economic slump.  

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