I recently had the pleasure of flexing some marketing muscles and overseeing the marketing campaign for a client’s annual gala. The event had a theme akin to the recent movie musical, The Greatest Showman. 

(As an important first aside, The Greatest Showman is the best...

Think about your lobby like you would a retail store.

And I mean a fancy retail store--like the kind most arts administrators can't afford but that board members sometimes reference.  

There are missed revenue (in terms of long term patron retention, donations, and...

Subscription/membership marketing is SOOOO boring. And it takes grit--real shoe-leather sales like packaging and repackaging inventory--to meet ever changing demand. You need only step into an arts telemarketing room to feel the tedium. 

The work is so simultaneously bo...

I am, admittedly and proudly, a science fiction nerd and was rather disappointed this story (about, no joke, credible record of other-wordly aircraft visiting our planet) did not see more exposure last month. Though I suppose there have been more pressing and just as b...

Turn to cultural, political and religious studies to organize your communications around data.

LaPlaca Cohen recently published their 2017 Culture Track report and just a couple days ago I read this fascinating Washington Post article summarizing findings from a Pew stu...

[Originally Published by Americans for the Arts/NAMP: https://namp.americansforthearts.org/2017/10/18/please-do-your-own-facebook-advertising)

I make a decent amount of my living when advertisers do not follow the advice offered in the title of this blog post. And certa...

This video appeared in my inbox today. The headline is really what grabbed me: "Why you shouldn't copy someone else's marketing." I like this series a lot and recommend signing up for their regular podcast. A recent episode on video and audio file resources is particul...

Math for Arts Administrators Part V: Locate You and Your Organization in a Cynefin Framework

Chaos has been in the news of late: the U.S. White House, our global climate, the state of our geopolitical affairs--all have been described as in a state of chaos. For my rudim...

Overwrought and expensive web work stifles many nonprofit arts organizations.

Like most technologies, web design/implementation/maintenance costs have significantly decreased in the prior years. One need only look at Wix, SquareSpace, Strikingly, and other (admittedly s...

I almost always advise not spending out-of-pocket funds on "branding." Here's an analogy that explains why. 

Britain was faced with an artificial dilemma during WWII. It had limited air support and associated firepower and needed to decide how to use it. A "tactica...