Commercial Artistry is Dead

I’m announcing it here. I’m saying it now. While commercial artistry will continue to work for mainstream celebrities with built in audiences, gone are the days of the new artist being “discovered” and invested in by distribution companies. Commercial Distributors of artistic works are spending less and less on new risks and pouring more and more into established platforms and celebrity artists, hoping they can put off their eventual demise a few more years. The reality is that, like the music industry and the publishing industry, all of the rules are changing for artists everywhere. With so many artists navigating their own way and building their own audiences, while maintaining the rights to their work, the old way of doing business will NEVER return. Now is the age of the artist who is willing to invest in the business of their brand. It takes longer to build your own audience, but the rewards are immense. No longer do you have to share 90% of your profits with a distributor. No longer do you have to rely on them to market your work. In fact, if you do, you’ll end like most other artists, living off meager royalties/sales, working other jobs to keep afloat and not understanding why your work has not found a larger audience.

Being a successful artist requires more than talent and the discipline to create. You have to have the discipline to market and the curiosity to learn new skills and explore new territory in branding your work. The second half of the equation is completely different from the first. Consider yourself an inventor. Step one is creating the prototype. Step two is creating an awareness of the problem your art addresses in society and then demonstrating that you have the solution.

Consumers are still hungry. They are just listening differently. Their buying habits are less influenced by what advertisers tell them, and are more influenced by word of mouth. We’ve regressed back to the days prior to the media revolution. Imagine you have no TVs, no newspapers, no magazines to spread your message. Return to spreading it through impacting people one at a time and then add the internet back into the equation to tell everyone about the impact you're making. If you make a difference in people’s lives with your work, they’ll tell their networks about you and today their networks are no longer those who just live down the street.

Be courageous. Take responsibility. You have to rely on yourself…because the old model is DEAD.

Come join me, Corey Blake, for a conversation about your core values at the Illinois Arts Alliance Foundation's "One State: Together in the Arts" conference June 1st, 2009 at 3pm. We'll discuss how to infuse your core values into your marketing materials!

Diversifying Your Audience by Diversifying Your Organization

I’m presenting at a conference at the University of Puerto Rico on “Representations of Race and Culture in Advertising and Marketing” next week. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the conference will look at the influence of cultural identity on service delivery, and is designed for the engineering/research community to help set the agenda for designing “Inter-cultural Service Systems.”

In other words, can the interaction between the ‘server’ and the ‘servee’ be enhanced, if you allow for differences in cultural identities between the two in advance? While the conference is designed for PhD’s in Engineering looking at systems creation, artists, arts administrators and arts advocates have long valued that recognizing and embracing cultural differences and commonalities can be a positive force in art creation, as well as in building a following.

Here are three things you can (and many of you already) do to work to diversify your audience:

1. Collaborate. Think of the “Looks Like Chicago” series, a collaboration initiated by Silk Road Theatre Project and also involving the League of Chicago Theatres, Remy Bumppo Theatre Company, Congo Square Theatre Company and Teatro Vista. This “inter-company” subscription package gives “audiences a chance to see one ethnic-specific work from each of the four local companies.”

2. Diversify your board, staff, and suppliers. Word of mouth marketing is still a powerful force in attracting patrons. Who is talking about you? What is the spectrum of backgrounds of the people with whom you interact daily?

3. Do a 5 Second Marketing Review. If you look at your web site, brochure, poster, flyer for less than 5 seconds. What is the overall impression? Will people of all backgrounds think “this is for me.” Even if your mission is to promote a particular cultural heritage, don’t forget to include images of audiences, education programs or community events as well.

What are things you have done that have worked well? What didn’t work? What are three things you can do at your organization to reach out to new audiences?

Join us for Monday Evening with the Arts on June 1

As the host city of Peoria, Illinois, we are thrilled to present Monday Evening with the Arts during the One State Together in the Arts Conference. We hope every conference attendee signs up to attend one of the following tours. Each of them promises to showcase Peoria in wonderful and magnificent ways:

ART AND HISTORY TOUR
Peoria has a rich and colorful history - and you can experience it! Step back in time at the century-old Peoria Women's Club with a tour of its second floor theatre space. In the main floor salons, musical artists will perform and a buffet dinner will be served. The evening will be capped off with a guided art and history charter bus tour of downtown Peoria and the West Bluff Historic District with tour guide historian, Bernie Drake, of the Peoria Historical Society. (Registration is limited. The first 50 registrants have reserved spaces on the tour bus - 20 more registrants can enjoy tour/dinner/entertainment at the Peoria Women's20Club by driving/walking)

UPTOWN ARTS TOUR
Charter buses will head 'uptown' to the Peoria Players Theatre, the oldest community theatre in Illinois, for a special preview of their upcoming show, "Altar Boyz." A short walk takes you next door to the Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences, the largest private downstate museum in Illinois. Here you will see a special Smithsonian exhibit - "Within the Emperor's Garden: The Ten Thousand Springs Pavilion", enjoy a buffet dinner, and be entertained by live music. You will reboard the charter buses and head to Peoria Heights where you can step off to see the Don Kettleborough Art Exhibit on display at Picture This Gallery or stay onboard for a scenic ride on Grandview Drive, once dubbed by Teddy Roosevelt as "the world's most beautiful drive!"

DOWNTOWN ARTS TOUR
Peoria has some beautiful and unique art gallery spaces - and on this tour, you will experience two of them! A charter bus takes you to the Peoria Art Guild to enjoy live music, artist demonstrations, and the photographic work of Elijah Sansom and sculpture by Sandra McKenzie-Schmitt. Members of the Bohemian Art Society and Contemporary Art Center will also display selected works. The tour also features the Prairie Center of the Arts, a 120 year-old former rope factory, where members of the Peoria Ballet will dance to a new piece of work set to original music by Peoria Symphony violist, Lowell Koons. You’ll meet Fred Jones, Professor Emeritus Western Illinois University, whose art exhibition and retrospective will be in the gallery from May 29th through June 30th. And Fred and Maria Michalis, both Artists' in Residence, will be available to discuss their work. Food and drinks will be served at both locations.

Please let us know you'll be joining us!

Core Values, Assessment, Evaluation

I really like the idea of core values and it's interesting when you're thinking about arts education as well. A lot of artists and arts organizations fret about assessment and evaluation in their programs.

I see them both as an extension of the core values idea, taking the time to articulate what it is you are trying to impart in students, naming the journey you hope to take or perhaps the end result you hope to create together.

I'll be curious about your session and how the identification of core values might help arts educators to consider assesment and evaluation in a new light.

Lara

Marketing Materials that Impact

We've all heard it before: Art is a business. And let me tell you that's the truth!! While I loved my university training (BFA, Theatre), I spent 10 years getting over the anger that they never taught me how to generate an income from my art. I've actually done quite a bit of research and have yet to find a single educational program that teaches the business of artistry and that is such a shame because talent and the development of the art itself is only 25% of the equation. Over the years, I have built numerous successful businesses around artistic endeavors and I can tell you without a doubt that the other 3 ingredients (in equal parts) are:

1. Marketing
2. Networking
3. Publicity

Today, I'll discuss marketing as it is the first ingredient I recommend artists focus on when working to generate revenue for their work.

When I speak of marketing, I'm referring to any materials an artist uses to introduce or update potential buyers or clients on their work: websites, brochures, business cards, one sheets, flyers, mailers, stationery, even the signature line of your email!

What is most important in regards to marketing is the quality of its presentation. Listen up here! The quality of your marketing materials is a direct reflection of the quality of your craft/your talent. People will immediately equate their impression of what you use to sell yourself with the quality of what they will receive if they purchase your artistic services, or an artistic product you have created.

This is a lesson I learned as a filmmaker in Los Angeles. The first short film I produced, "The Boy Scout" had a limited budget of $35k. We wanted to shoot on film and we had elaborate stunts, costumes and sets. We went out of our way to produce a high quality press kit that looked like a million bucks, complete with articulate language about the project, bios on the team, and a great poster photo we shot, all presented in an elegant folder with our company logo embossed on it. Eventually, more than 45 people came together on set to assist us, including an award-winning cinematographer and an entire stunt team (who trained our actors in their studio for three months!). What we ended up with was an award-winning final product because our marketing materials impressed talented people to jump aboard and lend their expertise. Why? Because these marketing materials demonstrated that we were a group worth getting involved with. People equated our marketing materials with how our final product would look and feel.

I have since taken these high standards for marketing materials and translated them into my other artistic endeavors. I NEVER skimp on marketing. My goals with our materials are to:

1. Design Them Beautifully: You have 2 to 3 seconds to visually stimulate a viewer. You have to capture their attention and that doesn't happen through your words, it happens through the visual design and layout which evoke a positive emotional reaction if created well.

2. Word Them to Reflect the Heart of the Art: If the design has done its job, the viewer goes on to read some of the language. This is where your words must be concise and capture the heart of your product/service from the unique angle that is you!

3. Call Them to Action: They felt something from looking over your design. Then they loved what they read. Now what? This is where the all important Call to Action comes into play. What do you want them to do? Whatever it is (call me, email me, buy this, pass this on to 3 people), tell them what you want them to do!

Marketing does not have to be expensive. What it does have to do is inspire. Hit their soul with the design, hit their heart with your verbiage, and then hit them over the head with your call to action!

And...Come join me for a conversation about your core values at the Illinois Arts Alliance Foundation's "One State: Together in the Arts" conference June 1st, 2009 at 3pm. We'll discuss how to infuse your core values into your marketing materials!

The Value of Truth

Some artists have an exceptional ability to use language to convey an idea. Others are brilliant with metaphor. Still others excel visually or through movement. I was watching James Lipton being interviewed by Dave Chapelle for the 200th episode of the show Inside the Actors Studio. Throughout the episode, they played back various moments where guests of the show described what they believed acting was. Harrison Ford’s comments struck an epiphany in me. He talked about how hard he worked to “live” in front of that camera. To expose the ugly, weak, frail pieces of a character as well as the strength, optimism and courage that a person exhibits in their life. It struck me that that desire to live in front of others is the strongest asset that I brought into the world of writing from my previous career. If you’ve ever read my books (Excalibur Reclaims Her King, Edge! A Leadership Story, From the Barrio to the Board Room), or the fiction of those I have coached (Duckey and the Ocean Protectors, China Girl), what you’ll find above all else are moments of very vulnerable truth. I do not have a huge vocabulary. I do not have a colorful way with language, or description. But I do have a way of bringing the truth of a moment to life.

When I work with artists at defining their core values, I bring my desire to expose their truth to the table. My goal is to help them to uncover what lies at the heart of their creativity so they can then use that as a selling point for their work.

If you don't know who you are, how can you sell yourself? If you have yet to articulate who you are, how can others? Clients, customers, investors...they all make determinations about you in seconds. What are you telling them with your website? With your brochures? With your business cards? With your art itself?

If you are truthfully exposing your core values, then your marketing materials will do one of two things: Turn people on, or turn people off. And that's exactly what you want. Ignite the fires beneath those who love your work, and turn away those who are not inspired by it. Let them love your work, or hate it...what's most important is that they feel something powerful.

Come join me for a conversation about your core values at the Illinois Arts Alliance Foundation's "One State: Together in the Arts" conference June 1st, 2009 at 3pm.

Or visit my Web site at www.writersoftheroundtable.com.

Telling Your Story

The inspiration behind my discussion of core values has everything to do with story. As artists we have to create significant buy in from audiences and from those who can hire us for our services--that's how we get paid for our work. We do that through inviting them into our world - which we do through story...Every single person we run into can fall into one of these two categories:

1. Fan Club
2. Client

It is the telling of our story, which we do through our core values, that helps these people to understand who we are at a subconscious level.

Let me use an example to explain.

One of my friends from college is a series regular on one of the biggest shows on FOX right now and I was recently discussing branding with her. Here is a part of that discussion:

In publishing, the big publishers pay an author for the quality of their fan base, more than they pay for their talent. I work from the assumption that Hollywood is the same. The more people who are going to tune in to the TV just to watch you, or go to the movies just to see you, the higher you get paid for your work and then in turn the more you can invest in building your brand (which can eventually be far more than acting--it can include philanthropy and other businesses if you want it to).

Right now, because of your exposure, a large number of people are going to Google and typing in your name because they are curious about who you are. Of those who love the show, the majority (my assumption) see you as a hot new face that gives the show a fresh feel. You have piqued their interest. So when they look for you on the internet, you have an opportunity to invite them into your story.

Consider how audiences think. Audiences form an opinion on a brand over the course of time. The first time they see an actor they might say, "hmm..interesting. Hey honey, what's for dinner?" The second time they see you they might say, "I like her, she's good. I need a new pair of shoes." The third time, they might say, "I remember liking her. What's her name? Jonathan stop pulling your sister's hair..." The fourth time might be when they say, "Hey, I like that actor." And they still don;t even know your name!!!

Once we understand how people who view art think, we can then be strategic in how we help them to feel about our work.

This process begins with defining our core values and infusing them into our work and into how we communicate with the world about our work.

Join me!

Let's further the conversation of core values at the Illinois Arts Alliance Foundation's "One State: Together in the Arts" conference June 1st, 2009 at 3pm.

On my next post, I'll discuss marketing and the process of building material that impacts (and doing it affordably!)

For more information on myself or Writers of the Round Table, you can visit our site at www.writersoftheroundtable.com.