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Take Two Monets and Call Me in the Morning

Today’s blog post is written by Jordan Simmons, Senior Account Executive, PatronManager. 

No less a medical luminary than Florence Nightingale once said, “Little as we know about the way in which we are affected by form, by color, and light, we do know this, that they have an actual physical effect. Variety of form and brilliancy of color in the object presented to patients are an actual means of recovery.” A new pilot program being run by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts aims to test that position; the museum will now allow doctors to “prescribe” museum visits for patients under their care!

Doctors that are members of the Médecins francophones du Canada, a professional organization of French-Canadian physicians, are now able to send up to 50 patients, along with their caregivers, to experience the museum free of charge. As quoted in the Museum’s press release, Nathalie Bondil, Director General and Chief Curator of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, says, “I am convinced that in the 21st century, culture will be what physical activity was for health in the 20th century. Cultural experiences will benefit health and wellness, just as engaging in sports contributes to fitness.”

The MMFA is at the forefront of research into wellbeing and the arts, with 10 clinical studies currently underway on how art can impact outcomes in the areas of eating disorders, autism spectrum disorders, intellectual challenges, cancer survivors, as well as those living with heart conditions, epilepsy, language or sensory disorders, and mental health issues. They are also currently studying how exposure to art affects seniors and people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease.

I’m sure anyone reading this blog post can probably recount dozens of artistic encounters that have made their heart race, calmed them down, made them cry, focused their mind, or provoked other emotions — the fact that art affects us seems obvious on the face of it.Read the Article

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The Next Chapter of the Internet and the Arts

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My annual December blog post aims to help us understand what mattered most in the world of technology over the past year. And, I take a look ahead to where technology is going — and how this will affect the arts.  

This year feels different from the past few years. In my more recent previous year-end posts, the changes felt incremental. This year it seems as if we’ve arrived at the end of a big and important chapter in the history of the internet, and we’re just now turning the page and taking a glance at what’s to come.

The chapter-ending signals are many. To start with, we’re essentially finished with the adoption phase of the internet. For the past decade, we’ve been tracking the arts audience’s usage of the internet to get a clearer understanding of what portion of our audience is online — and how many of these patrons we could effectively build digital relationships with.

That story is basically told. Everyone is online, and pretty much everyone has a smartphone. And by everyone, I mean 85-95 percent of your audience. Even older patrons are online, and they are behaving just like everyone else. While they may not be on Snapchat, they do have fast internet, so they are checking their email and buying products and services online, and their expectations of speed and service are just as high as anyone else’s.

This year’s story also includes a big black cloud of data breaches. Read the Article

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Renewing Remotely

Today’s blog post is written by Jason Silverman, Client Cultivation Specialist, PatronManager.

Growing up in Chicago, IL, I was exposed to the arts from a pretty young age. There was one regional theatre in particular that I was, and still am, very fond of. I participated in their educational programs as a child and attended multiple performances with my family and school every year, thanks to affordable tickets and an exciting variety of production options. As a college student over my summer breaks, I worked in their education department as a camp counselor and later, a camp director. I was also interested in learning more about marketing, so I started to do additional part-time work for their marketing department. Before each performance, I would get out in front of audiences and pitch the next season to renew current subscribers and sign up new patrons. While shows were going on, I would be on the phone doing the exact same thing talking to current subscribers and multi-ticket buyers. To say I am invested in this organization’s success would be an understatement.

After I graduated college in New York, I knew I wasn’t going to be moving back home to Chicago, but I did not want to miss out on helping this organization with their annual season renewal campaign. So, how did I manage to convince them to hire me for this annual task working from a different state? This was in the nascent days of Google Drive, so I had a wild idea: they could import all of their subscribers’ information into a Google Sheet, password-protect it, and send me a cheap cell phone registered to the area code of that theatre. (This theatre’s clientele tends to lean older, and they are wary of a call that’s not coming from an area code they recognize, especially if that call is a sales call.) We decided to give this wild idea a try and… it was extremely successful. So successful in fact that I’ve now been handling season subscription renewals and donations for this theatre for seven years — a mere 800 miles away in the comfort of my own home.

Why has this worked out so well? Sure, you could do the same thing with an outside service, but I believe it’s the personal touch that has made me into a one-man subscriber renewal machine. When I call a subscriber, I’m calling from a place of experience. I know what the theatre provides and I can speak to what happens behind the scenes as well as what’s going to be onstage next season. I’ve been involved in some capacity with this theatre for almost 20 years, and that familiarity comes across as passion over the phone and people respond to that.

So how do you take my experience and turn it into a boon for your business?Read the Article

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Craft Beer and the Arts — A Perfect Combination

Today’s blog post is written by Kevin Patterson, Senior Account Executive, PatronManager.

One of the benefits of traveling for work with PatronManager is getting to visit different cities. While business is a priority, there are always a few chances to stop at local craft breweries and sample new beer. Craft brewing has exploded in America. In my home state of Indiana, there are over 120 active craft breweries (that’s a lot). With so many breweries brewing different styles of beer for every conceivable taste, it would seem a difficult feat to develop a loyal following that could sustain a business. Yet craft brewing is flourishing across America. As a percentage of the beer market, it has increased to 12.3% according to the Brewers Association. Why?

Tap handles at a brewery in Seattle, WA — notice the lack of a single major brewer?

As a fan of craft beer and a former craft brewer myself, I think there are three main reasons for the success of craft brewing in America today. These reasons are simple enough to understand, and if arts organizations focused a little more on them, they just might be able to ferment the benefits that would lead to similar success. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist!)Read the Article

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Dream Big, Arts Marketers!

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Earlier this month, I attended the National Arts Marketing Project Conference (affectionately known as NAMP) for the first time in several years. It was a great event! There was a very well-balanced mix of sessions, and I appreciated the attention given to inclusivity and accessibility, like the rule that all comments addressed to a whole room of people must be spoken into a microphone.

I led a session on the last day of the conference called “Take These NAMP Dreams and Make Them Real,” a wrap-up session that gave attendees time to work together and summarize what they’d learned over the previous two days, and create an action plan for following up on new ideas. We discussed surprises and successes, and wrote up our to-do lists for the following days, weeks, and months.

The hour went by quickly. People shared lessons and takeaways from their favorite sessions, and a few big themes emerged:Read the Article

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Four Ways to Bring Out Your Inner Leader

Today’s blog post is written by Paul Miller, VP Sales – Non-Profit Ticketing, PatronManager. 

In my post last month, I wrote about making a pledge to yourself to be the best leader you can be in 2019. According to this report, published by Arts Council England, whether you’re in a “leadership” position at your organization or not, basic leadership skills are required for every role in our industry. And if we are going to survive the challenges ahead of us, the current leadership model has to become one that is less hierarchical and more “facilitative, flat and diverse.” Your colleagues in current, traditional leadership roles will have to both accept and help guide this effort, but it’s incumbent upon us as individuals to be our own agent for change and growth.

The report included this graphic (pictured right) which illustrates four key leadership values and the essential behaviors associated with each one of them. In this post I will summarize each of these areas and share some ways you can get started with building the leader in you:Read the Article

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