Insights from the Marketing Forum
L-R: Bill Irwin, Marketing Meg, Pedro Tochas at Pitch’d Circus and Street Arts Festival 2023
When tickets are slow-selling for an event, the first thing I’m asked to do is to reduce the price or offer a discount, and honestly, it’s the last thing I do. I know it isn’t the price. It’s frustrating for them because they think it’s the answer, but it’s often much deeper than that.
You can imagine my delight when the insights from the Performing Arts Forum Marketing Forum revealed that audiences feel they are getting good value for money. Audiences may be coming to events less frequently, but when they do, they feel they are getting bang for their buck.
Advocating for the Audience
Another largely refreshing piece of information for me was hearing the echo of being ‘the audience advocate’ as mentioned by Conall Ó Riain of Cork Midsummer Festival. I don’t always get the best reactions when I share marketing forms, but I stand by asking the artist to think about the audience. Some of the typical questions I would include in a form for an artist are:
Five reasons why your audience will enjoy the show
How will the audience feel watching your show
Making your show accessible through language is so important. It helps me understand it in order how market and sell tickets at the minimum. If I don’t understand your show, the audience won’t understand your show, and there won’t be an audience.
I want to give a mighty thank you to the Performing Arts Forum for hosting the Marketing Forum. As a marketing freelancer and one-woman marketing team, it can be quite isolating, and imposter syndrome and doubt can creep in. Am I doing things right? Am I even in the right career? This forum was great to see yes, I am doing the right things and no, I’m not alone with these marketing problems!
Photo credits:
Throwback to Pitch'd Circus and Street Arts Festival 2022 with Pedro Tochas and Bill Irwin.
Taken by Andy Jeffers
Bonus Photos:
Bill Irwin and Pedro Tochas with Rocky (my collie/springer).
We had gotten Rocky in July, and he was meeting Circus celebs two months later!
