The creative standstill between viewers and streamers has come to a head. As streaming slowly inches its way to overtaking the conventional ways of watching television, the divide between what viewers want and what is being produced grows. Audiences have made it clear that they prefer the formats of the past overcurrent releases, but streaming companies are refusing to make changes to their current format, especially regarding the sitcom.
With little success in larger-scale government oversight so far, it begs the question: how is the marketplace for DAFs changing and innovating in the response to these singularizing criticisms? Is the market listening and self-correcting as a way to preempt such legislation? Given the broad variety of DAF sponsor organizations, it is evident that the field, while large, is not a monolith and deserves to be measured at its innovative margins. Newer sponsors have revealed themselves to be particularly aware of the controversies yet remain focused on the opportunities these accounts provide and are demonstrating new approaches to DAF sponsorship aimed at greater payout rates and democratization of their platforms.
While institutional philanthropy is in a boom-time, foundations have not monopolized such growth. The renewed interest in donor advised funds (DAF) since the pandemic has triggered meteoric growth in the amount of assets stored in DAFs, with recent figures showing over $229 billion stored across 2 million DAF accounts, receiving roughly $86 billion in annual contributions, and granting nearly $52 billion in 2022.
The use of generative AI (GenAI) tools is becoming increasingly prevalent in marketing, particularly for smaller organizations or nonprofits seeking innovative ways to engage audiences and improve workflow efficiency. This article dives into data collected through a survey that was sent out to museum professionals in Pittsburgh and Cleveland to better understand how and if they are utilizing generative AI tools in their marketing strategies.
This month, music and film are at the forefront as each battles with the future uses for burgeoning tech. While AI-generated film visuals seem to be coming up short, progress toward realistic AI-generated music is starting to send shockwaves. On the consumer side, music streaming tools are being released to allow more listening experience customization. Across the industry, artists are celebrating ways that some these new tools can enhance their work, while speaking out against potential impacts on jobs, compensation, and creative freedom.
This article is cross-posted on the blog Analysis from TRG Arts.
With the arts and cultural annual conference season in full swing, we’re thrilled to see the priority that integrated patron loyalty now has in field dialogue. Prioritizing patronage can have a real impact—on year-over-year revenues, the volume of people attending and visiting arts and cultural organizations, organizational relevance, and more.
AMTLab contributor Christine Sajewski discusses strategic uses of internal arts marketing data, as illustrated through a hypothetical performing arts organization, the Ugly Duckling Ballet. Read the full report here.
This week, Opera America announced the thirteen opera companies selected to share $300,000 in grants to support programs and projects that increase first-time opera attendance and return visits. The individual grants range from $7,500 to $30,000. The thirteen companies (and their projects) are:
In past articles we tackled analysis of gamification as a tool for arts organizations as well as some methodology about how to design a game or game elements. This post will relate to how gamification can be used as a tool for marketing efforts. Gamification can be message, channel, and even marketing education. A game can be a marketing channel of its own for your organization or it can reside within a number of other channels.
Game design is, unfortunately, something that not many people are skilled at. The chances of being able to find and hire an experienced game designer in your area is slim. This leaves two options: consultants, or the process of educated trial and error. The iterative process: create a game, try it out, go back to the drawing board and improve it, try again. Almost anyone can ultimately find success in designing a game layer for use with a marketing, development, or educational effort
Are you the one who used to think the number of fans reflects the effectiveness of a social media campaign? According to a recent Technocrati study, Facebook likes ranked as the most important metric when evaluating a social marketing campaign. However, this changes when people are getting more sophisticated about using social media—they do not take seriously the “like” button anymore. Now, we need to realize that social influencers, who can spread a brand’s message effectively, considerably determine the success of a social media campaign.
"Video games sit at the confluence of history, technology, and art in such a way that's found in no other medium a place where influences from every creative field meet, mix, and recombine." -Daniel D. Snyder, The Atlantic. When most people conjure the image of a gamer they generally think of the past: a nerdy 18-25 year old male, probably white. The face of gaming has changed significantly over the last twelve years and now both men and women, young and old, and people of all races are engaged in games on a regular basis. Simply put, almost every conceivable group of people is now engaged in gaming, just not all groups are engaged in all types of gaming.
According to a report put out in 2012 by the Entertainment Software Association, the average American households have at least one dedicated gaming consul, PC, or smartphone and 49% of US households have an average of two. Roughly a third of game players in the US are over the age of 36, one third are between the ages of 19 and 35, and the remaining third are 18 and under (meaning that two thirds of gamers in the US are adults and that the average age of a game player in the US is 30!) Also, gender wise game players are now split evenly with 47% of all electronic gamers being women.
"What we are seeing in games is art at a world class stage design that is almost unmatched anywhere else. It has been very exciting to me to see so many ideas that integrate social good and efforts to make the world a better place through games." -Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States
The way in which people are engaging with games is changing. Console gaming (Microsoft X-Box, Sony Playstation, and Nintendo Wii) has been on the decline over the last couple of years while social media gaming and mobile device gaming has been on the increase. Similarly board gaming has also been on the rise (according to the 2011 US Census section on Arts, Recreation, and Travel) for the last twelve years with the explosion of number and quality of titles and has drawn increasing numbers of 'board game geeks' who wish to connect with people in person in the face of an increasingly electronic world.
So who plays games? What games do they play? Electronic gaming wise, women tend to skew towards games like The Sims (which is the "World's Biggest-Selling Simulation Series", and "Best Selling PC Game of All Time"), dance and fitness games, and social media gaming. Men tend towards first person shooters, strategy games, and sports games. Both men and women tend to engage in role playing games in roughly equal numbers. In the board gaming world less information is out there about consumption and engagement but it can be assumed, somewhat safely, that similar propensities exist throughout different platforms.
How can the arts harness this? As arts groups such as The Tate, The Royal Opera, Jacob's Pillow, and other groups explore game like content and applications they can use this data to fine target the apps they create towards market segments. As an industry, any arts group can use a game dynamic in order to drive deeper engagement in marketing or development. Activities such as the Glass Hunt on the Oregon Coast have proven successful at driving interest in art through a game layer, in this case, a scavenger hunt. Other groups such as 2am theatre have used applications such as scavengr to drive similar efforts in a combined physical and electronic fashion. In the arts, a typical marketing campaign has a one way thrust: "buy tickets, come see our show". With games, can be enticed to have longer involvement time-frames and be induced to repeat engagement.
Has your organization explored the possibility of using a game dynamic? Was it through social media, an app, or through an old school scavenger hunt? What did you find successful? What were your challenges? This series will continue in two more weeks with an exploration of how to approach game design, test games, and implement them. If you have questions regarding this topic or any others please ask them in the comments section!
Libro express (translation: Book express) is a new initiative and collaborative project between Madrid's libraries (las bibliotecas), the Community of Madrid (la Comunidad de Madrid), and Renfe (Spain’s state-owned train company). Libro express is the only library book lending machine of its kind in Spain and in Europe.
In the next two months a multi-part series will be published on this blog outlining how to assess, develop, implement, refine, and measure gamification as a potential tool for your arts organization. This first round of tools will allow you to better discern whether your organization is ready for the project, and if patrons would engage with a game project.
