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Martin Lewis is currently hot stuff, and now enjoying guru status as the founder of moneysavingexpert.com. He appeared on Radio One recently and recommended different ways of having a cheap day out, and amongst the recommendations was attending museums.

Some of his ideas for a good day out were met with some ribbing from the presenter - who wanted to go on a date where you use a Pizza Express 2-4-1 voucher and have tap water, and then pop off to your local museum?

However, one thing of note was that the presenters didn't even realise that museum visits are free in the majority of museums in the UK. Does that mean that arts marketers are missing a trick? We can offer quality cultural experiences, when times are harsh and people have no money....for free? And yet, it's not necessarily common knowledge??

Fortunately, this is something that has recieved a bit of airtime on one of the nations biggest radio stations, also for free (I am sure Pizza Express also enjoyed a large uptake of their 2-4-1 vouchers after that as well...) But museum and art gallery's take heed: let people know that there's no charge for an engaging cultural experience....

I recently read Janet Adamy's blog article on Starbucks, and how they are trying to reposition themselves in the minds of consumers. Her article can be read here

The article showed how like many businesses, Starbucks was also being affected by the recession. The chain's heyday in the boom of the 90's and early 00's when people enjoyed treating themselves to a little luxury has like many other businesses come to an end, people are watching their pennies and in America the brand's reputation for a $4 cup of coffee is not doing it any favours. MacDonalds have also been capitalising on this with its own range of cheaper alternatives and an ad campaign stating that '$4 on coffee is dumb'. Starbucks has retaliated by trying to reposition itself in the minds of consumers, with baristas informing customers at the chain verbally that the average price of coffee is in fact less than $4. Starbucks are also offering price prmotions on food and coffee combinations and money off drinks when a previous till receipt is presented.

As ever, the commercial sector offers a good case study for arts organisations. In times where customers feel that life's little luxuries need to be put aside in favour of tightening belts and spending less, price promotion can be used to try and counteract this. It is interesting that Starbucks have not reduced its prices, but instead opted for promotions where their customers will in fact buy more due to the savings they will make, an interesting concept in trying to increase customer loyalties in these harsh times. Many arts events are in fact the price of a Starbucks experience: a coffee with syrup and cake being the opportunity cost of a quality arts experience that will last usually longer and definitely won't go straight to the hips.

Perhaps there is a new angle for arts marketers?

I went to a dance performance at The Drum last night and saw an interesting piece of work presented by the Association of Dance of the African Diaspora (ADAD).

Unfortunately I could only stay for the first piece of work, but it was a spoken word and tap dance performance. I've never been a huge fan of tap dance, but Imani Jendai's Tap Lyrical Journey was in fact an inspired use of Tap to express her life story as a young girl from Jamaica growing up in England. Tap was used to portray her mother, father, aunt, and the drudgery of life using a combination of tap shoes, a strange metal grater box and some strong moves.

If some of Imani's story got lost in her delivery: she was obviosly nervous, spoke fast and didn't always project her voice, well, she can be forgiven for expressing the story through her dancing: the parts where she really came alive and was transformed into the characters of her piece.

I have been researching case studies of social media in the arts and come across this interesting example. Many people are put off using ‘social media’ because it seems like you need to invest in technology, build blogs and generally be a bit of a techno whizz. I strongly believe that social media doesn’t need to rely on super shiny gadgets or fancy websites- in fact it’s so much more about the ‘social’ part than the ‘media’.

Which leads me to this example: At York City Art Gallery they recently invited people to comment and write messages under works of art using blackboard and chalk. It was for an exhibition curated by Tracy Chevalier (author of Girl with a Pearl Earring) who chose pieces from the gallery’s collection which depicted parts of stories. These were hung with a blackboard border and gallery attenders were invited to write suggestions for the beginning and ends of those stories around the artworks. This is not a new technology, but it is an application of the principles of sharing, commenting and engaging in a dialogue; which to me is exactly what social media is for.



[Original source for this case study is Jonathan Drori’s speech at the AMA event New Media New Marketing. Read the notes from that event here.]

I wanted to share two great examples of customer service from one of our member organisations, DanceXchange.

A few of us from the office went to see Bare Bones 6 – a DanceXchange production at the Patrick Centre, Birmingham. As soon as we were all seated in the space, we were notified by Artsitic Director David Massingham that, unfortunately, one of the dancers was unable to perform due to injury. He said that although this reduced the performing company from six to five the safety of their dancers must come first. David explained that three of the four pieces had been affected but so as to still give us a good show, nothing had been cut and that the company had been working over the last hour to try and alter the pieces so that they could still perform.

As a ‘seasoned’ performer myself, I can only imagine the levels of concern when an hour before curtain up, someone has to bail on their fellow performers, especially in such a very select group. The whole company, (dancers and technicians), must have worked really hard to make the show workable in that hour where a lesser company might have cancelled the event entirely. I must say I’ve no idea how they made a hugely interactive trio, where the dancers were completely intertwined and relied on the accompanying sound effects even to move, into such a seamless duet with less than an hour to practice. Their concern for us punters really came through and the company delivered a great show in the face of adversity.

The second example stems from my own ambition to lose some Christmas fat by taking up a dance class at one of DanceXchange’s varied opportunities. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no dancer. Well, that’s not strictly true. Give me half a chance on the dance floor on a Saturday night and I’ll tear it up good and proper ‘cause I got rhythm, girlfriend. When it comes to form though, (despite many a ballet, jazz and tap class as a child), I find I am somewhat less than graceful which, let’s face it, is a pretty large part of dance. I’m hoping that once I strengthen my ‘core’ I’ll suddenly turn into the next Martha Graham.

Anyway, after one of the classes, Maria (our painfully uber-flexible dance mentor) enquired as to whether anyone came from or through the Stirchley area on their way to class. The reason being that a lady had been in touch with DanceXchange to say that she’d really like to get involved with the classes but that she didn’t drive and suffered from agoraphobia and so wasn’t able to use public transport. The organisation told the lady that they would ask around to see if anyone could give her a lift in. To show their appreciation for giving the lady a lift to class, the organisation offered the helpful volunteer their own dance class completely free of charge.

Both these relatively small occurrences shed a completely new light on a company I had, all but recently, held very little knowledge of in terms of its personality. It’s really nice to know that as an audience member, dancer and a participant, the organisation really has its customers’ best interests at heart. I left both events with a warm, fuzzy feeling that DanceXchange really does care about its customers.

Thanks DanceXchange. We love you, too!