Buying arts advertising

Since my blog can sometimes skew a bit heavy on the "theory of marketing" side of the ledger I thought it would be good to make this post a bit more practical.

So let's talk about buying advertising.  First, I'll give you some advice on how to make your buying decisions and second I'll talk about a major mistake I almost made in buying advertising.

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1.  Understand your demographics

The typical arts patron (be it theatre, dance, museums, etc.) has three things in common:

-  They have a college level education or higher

-  They are between 45-64 years old

-  They have a "middle class" income (which of course is all relative to where a person lives)

Any advertising you chose to purchase HAS to be able to reach the typical arts patron.  Which leads me to point 2

2.  Don't fight the demographics

I know your art is cutting edge.  I know you want your audience to all be upwordly mobile 27 year olds.  I get it.  Really.  I do.

But if you base your advertising schedule on attracting this audience to your work you are fighting the demographics of the typical arts patron.

This is almost always a mistake.

Am I saying that you shouldn't try to attract a younger audience?  Nope.  Over the long term building a diverse audience base (in terms of age, gender and race) is vital.

But the more money you need to earn from ticket sales the more you need to draw in the typical arts patron.

Think of it this way.  If you have $2,000 to spend on advertising plan on spending $1,500 to bringing in the people most naturally inclined to participate in the arts. 

Spend the other $500 on building new audiences.

3.  It is better to have high visibility in two ad vehicles then low visibility in lots of places.

I'll use Chicago print advertising as an example.  Here in Chicago we have probably 8 -10 places people run arts advertising.

If you don't have a lot of money to spend then running a larger ad in 2 of those places is a smarter strategy then running a smaller ad in 5 of those places.

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Now about the mistake I almost made.  I was planning to purchase radio time for the day job.  I picked my ad schedule then I called a professional media buyer to ask for advice.

The media buyer, who I really appreciated, talked me through the schedule.

In the midst of our conversation it became clear that I was picking radio stations based on how much I listened to the station.

But here's the thing, I'm a 31 year old guy.  The primary arts patron (especially for theatre) is a 50+ year old woman.

What does that mean?

It means that the radio stations I listen to, or the newspapers I read, or the TV channels I watch doesn't matter in the slightest . . .

Because I AM NOT THE AUDIENCE.

When you purchase advertising you must remember that . . .

YOU ARE NOT THE AUDIENCE

Placing an ad in the newspaper or radio station you "like" is just asking for trouble.