Marketing // Current

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4 days ago

Arts in Crisis (And Not Just From the Economy)

"American arts organizations are threatened, but it is not the economy that poses the largest threat.

It is the decision-making of boards and staffs in response to economic challenges that has much greater long-term implications for the health of our arts ecology.

While arts funding only fell 6% last year, many arts organizations are making drastic cuts to their programming. Many have canceled performances, eliminated educational programming, shortened seasons, or closed altogether. Others are "dumbing down" their product; there is a widespread call to make programming more accessible (read boring). Still more are cutting their marketing dramatically; after all, they argue, who will notice if we spend less on communicating our (reduced) programming?

These approaches to dealing with the current recession all assume that cost is the underlying problem of the arts; conventional wisdom suggests that an arts organization can "save its way to health."

But this is wrong, dangerously wrong.

Arts organizations across the world have a revenue problem, not a cost problem. We are a remarkably efficient industry, doing more with less. But we do not yet know how to create the revenue streams we need to do our work in a consistent manner.

And what creates revenue for an arts organization? Good art supported by strong marketing. Arts organizations that consistently do good work and are aggressive about their marketing are the ones which succeed, both programmatically and financially.

Cutting programming and marketing, the current favored strategy, therefore, ensures that future revenue will fall. This initiates a viscous cycle; less art and marketing yielding less revenue leading to more cuts in programming and marketing, less revenue, etc. etc.

Taken to its conclusion, an arts organization simply gets too small to matter.

This is why our arts are in crisis today. We can survive the current economic downturn if we keep our programming vital and work harder than ever to convey our message. Those arts organizations who compete well will survive and recover when the economy recovers. Those that continue to cut away at their programming are likely to become irrelevant.""American arts organizations are threatened, but it is not the economy that poses the largest threat. It is the... more

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5 days ago

Michael Johnston on Oil, Iraq, and ETFs

Beginning next week, the Iraqi government will auction off oil contracts to foreign firms for the first time since Western... more

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6 days ago

PETA Alert: Fiat underscores eco-friendliness using unique advertising campaign

We've seen some pretty cool advertising in our time, but a new European marketing campaign from Fiat is surely one of the... more

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7 days ago

THAT ALBUM LOOKS GOOD ON YOU.

How a new t-shirt line is offering a new distribution method for music sales

Music has long inspired the creation and sales of products in every category from electronics to clothes. Iconic consumer brands like Apple, Volkswagen, and Nike masterfully exploit the emotional allure of music time and time again to drive campaigns and branding efforts. (Who knew a car commercial could give you goose bumps? Thanks, Nick Drake.)

We'll probably continue to stick with vintage tees scored on eBay, but the emergence of boutique music-oriented fashion brands, such as Lyric Culture and i/denti/tee, allows consumers to literally wear their favorite song lyrics on their sleeves. And even iconic maestros have leveraged their own musical masterpieces to generate interest in less commercial passion projects - as Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse recently did on behalf of their haunting David Lynch collaboration, Dark Night of the Soul. While such novel tactics may utilize music to help sell more consumer products, the inverse equation rarely holds true, with such doing little to improve upon methods of digital music distribution. (After all, did any of those faddish USB-drive distributed albums really spark album sales?) However, despite the sad state of music sales, a new distribution method, The Music Tee, has industry insiders excited as of late.

The Music Tee is a savvy collaboration between indie fashion label LnA (best known for their simple white tees) and music arbiter Invisible DJ (best known for curating in-store playlists for SoCal staples like Ron Herman and Juicy Couture). Featuring original album art on the front of a tee and a playlist on the back, the shirt also boasts a URL code-embedded hangtag that allows the wearer to download the album. It's doubtful that the advent of the Music Tee distribution model will stop anyone from renewing their RapidShare Pro account, but it could ultimately drive some people to pay for music once again - and may reinvigorate the concept of the complete album in this age of disposable singles. The shirt has even sparked new controversy in the music industry as to whether sales will count towards Nielsen Soundscan figures: Nielsen reps have said they have no intention of counting the sales, but the record labels behind each shirt can reportedly impart sales figures to Nielsen upon receiving them from Invisible DJ. (No finite conclusion to the matter has been reached as of press time.)

The inaugural Tee, dubbed the "mix tape" shirt, features an eclectic mix of tracks from the likes of The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, Alice Russell, Theresa Andersson, WAZ, and more. The first artist-specific shirt - The Mos Def Music Tee, featuring Mos Def's forthcoming album The Ecstatic - drops on July 7th. A Downtown Records collection of Tees featuring Miike Snow, Santigold, and Cold War Kids is also in the works, along with an extended line of "mix tape" shirts to be sold exclusively at upscale fashionista emporium Shopbop. Should The Music Tee concept take off, we're hoping it will not only give artists some much needed sales, but that, in this age where most music consumers never even see liner notes, it will also reinvigorate the art of the album cover. While it's certainly nice to hang an LP on your wall, being able to wear it may be even cooler.How a new t-shirt line is offering a new distribution method for music sales Music has long inspired the creation and sales of... more