Fine Arts Career Services

This week has been quite busy in the marketing department. As we get closer to the opening night of 101 Dalmatians, there are more and more deadlines to meet and events to attend as promotional efforts. The other intern and I worked at a table at the Austin Children’s Museum on Monday, and we will have a table at another “Yappy Hour” event on Thursday night. These Yappy Hours are directed toward parents in various parts of Austin, and usually gain a great deal of success in terms of interest and the collection of contact information at our table.

As of now, I am also in charge of putting together 150 goody bags to be given to children at another one of the events we’ll be promoting at on Saturday. The real challenge here, though, is that only $150 has been allotted for this project, so I have to fill each bag with under one dollar each. This is rather difficult seeing as how I only have a few days and cannot order things in bulk. But overall, everything is coming together for the show and our marketing efforts seem to really be making an impact. Many people already know about the show and have tickets.

This past week could have been extremely tedious and repetitive, but because I was able to allocate a good deal of the work to other interns in the office I was able to accomplish more large-scale things instead. Before shows and during various community events one of my tasks is to set-up and man a table to get the public interested in going to more shows. If they have a ticket to a show, I try to get them to buy one to another. If they have a multiple-ticket package, I try to get them to buy season tickets. Because The Long Center is very new, it is crucial that we work on building a committed group of patrons and performance attendees. However, this is not all said outright because most people have an immediate filter for any sales attempts. This is why we include an “enter-to-win” box on each of these promotional tables, which allow people to enter their names – along with their contact information – into a raffle for free “Long Center Presents Performance” tickets. As most people know, we only pick one winner and the rest of the contacts go into a spreadsheet of individuals to whom we can send promotional materials. Of course, The Long Center does not abuse the acquisition of these names, and sends very few things to them. But they are an especially valuable asset to an organization that is less than three years old.

The downside to these enter-to-win boxes, however, is that someone then has to manually enter all of the names, addresses, emails, and phone numbers into a database of Long Center contacts. This task is neither avoidable nor time-efficient, unfortunately – and can end up taking days at a time. This week we had about 600 raffle entries to enter because the work had been delayed for weeks due to other marketing endeavors. The other intern and I thought that we would both have to dedicate the entire week to the task. But fortunately, this happened to be a slow week in the box office and the two employees in that particular department had time to take on other departments’ work. I was able to give them about a third of the task to complete, which allowed me a good deal more time with which I was able to move forward in my 101 Dalmatians marketing project.

This has been my most exciting week at The Long Center to date. As I said in my last entry, my boss assigned me to a specific marketing project for 101 Dalmatians: The Musical! at our meeting last Monday. It involves researching animal shelters, rescue groups, and some pet stores in Austin and contacting them about promotional partnership opportunities for the show. The point that we’ve been pushing – both for marketing and moral purposes – is that fifteen of the dogs in the show were rescued from shelters and rescue groups and rehabilitated. One of the priorities of the management team is to promote the adoption of rescue animals and to inform people on the decision to get a dog.

So far, almost all of the organizations I’ve contacted have been extremely receptive. Most would be willing to help even without an incentive from The Long Center, but to create ideal, lasting partnerships we are offering them some special discounts and other deals that will help their organizations. In return they will help us market the show to their customers. At first, I was shocked to find how many shelters and rescue groups there were in Austin, but have since proceeded to contact over seventy. Later this week I will focus on responding to those that have replied positively, as well as contacting the stores I’ve identified in the for-profit sector that may be helpful. However, the more typical office-work has since started to build-up as a result. My co-intern and I are struggling with the balance between maintaining paperwork and donation requests and doing an excellent job on our projects. Nonetheless, I am so glad for this opportunity to be singularly responsible for a large marketing effort on one of our biggest shows of the season.

Every Monday, my boss, my co-worker (the other marketing intern), and I have a meeting to discuss what was accomplished during the week before and what tasks take priority in the coming week. We have two shows coming up in the next month that are very important in terms of marketing, so at our meeting my boss assigned us large projects to accomplish within the next few weeks. I’m very excited about mine because it involves a good community outreach program, but is still an important marketing strategy for one of our biggest shows – 101 Dalmatians: The Musical. My job will be to try to form partnerships with as many pet stores, dog rescue groups, shelters, and other similar establishments as possible. Apparently, 15 of the real dogs performing in the show were rescued from various shelters and pounds around the country. Many of them were injured, malnourished, or otherwise extremely unhealthy. The staff for the show nursed them back to health and gave them excellent living conditions, and then professional trainer Joel S. prepared them for the show. They are so gentle with the dogs, and are determined to find them permanent homes when the show’s tour is done. There will also be excerpts in each program to inform people of the gravity of the decision to get a dog, as well as information on adopting rescue animals.

I’m sure the rescue groups and shelters I talk to will be very excited. I’ve already emailed about thirty in Austin, and have at least twice that many left to contact. This show could really make a big impact on the animals in the community, and I am so glad I get to be a part of this effort.

One thing I have learned in this internship so far is the value of connections. I’ve always known that networking is a crucial skill, but the value of relationships with other individuals has never been more apparent.

Part of my job at the Long Center is to respond to people and organizations asking for donations for charity events. It shocked me at first just how many free tickets the Long Center gives away; on average I process three or four requests a day. I thought that The Long Center was wasting a lot of money by throwing it at these organizations, and it didn’t make much sense since The Long Center is also a non-profit relying on donations to continue running. But in seeing how the requests work and how we can use them later, I know that these free admissions into shows are much more than just a generous gift given in the name of art. We use these donations as one of our most effective advertising methods. When The Long Center publicly gives a valuable gift for the sake of a charity, it reflects extremely well on the organization and usually helps raise ticket sales. Also, the recipients of the gift are very accepting of promotional efforts and materials. Oftentimes they even run ads for donors in newsletters and advertise for The Long Center outside of the actual charity event. So the gain from these donations is clear – but what about the losses? Very few of our shows sell out completely every night they run. In fact, I have yet to see one perform such a feat. The free tickets are usually filled during emptier nights, so there is actually no loss for The Long Center at all. Of course, if the person had intended to buy a ticket to the show it would be a considered a loss for that particular performance. But usually those that have won are very receptive to promotions of other shows at The Long Center as well. Most importantly, though, I’d like to go back to the point I addressed initially: those people are then an asset in the future because The Long Center has established a positive working relationship with them. They are receptive to future promotional efforts and even look for ways to help sell tickets.

Therefore, ticket donation is an extremely effective way of raising ticket sales. It helps build The Long Center’s reputation, as well as advertises for that and other shows in the future at very little cost to the organization.

The opening week of Grease has begun. In the next 5 days I will do everything from fetching coffee for Taylor H. – the famous American Idol star gone Broadway – to trying to fill seats for matinee shows that aren’t selling as well. So far, I have delivered promotional materials and discount codes to countless schools and establishments in the area. Yet, even with the bustle around the production of Grease, there are other shows that require at least some attention that are immediately approaching as well. October is a hectic week at the Long Center because it’s an extremely popular time for ticket sales – whether they are going to music connoisseurs or groups of high school students.

Another big show called “Cirque Mechanics: Birdhouse Factory” goes up on October 20^th-21^st. It’s interesting to see how different the budget is for promotional materials from show to show. Grease, for instance, had at least 5 boxes of fliers and brochures, as well as hundreds of posters of various sizes. Cirque Mechanics, however, only has 50 posters and a few hundred postcards that are shared with another production. But this is certainly not for any lack of quality in the latter performance. It simply has fewer showings and fewer tickets to potentially sell.

Though it may sound unprofessional, I’m looking forward to working with someone who is actually famous. It will give me a clearer idea of the type of work I’ll be doing with professional classical musicians when I start my own business.

It’s amazing how fast-paced the work is in the marketing department. There is never a lack of things to do because any given show can always be pushed a little more to the public in a new, creative way. Also, every time we finish a show a new one is right there with its own deadlines and audiences to reach.

This week has been all about selling Grease tickets. We have so many promotional materials for this show – and my fellow marketing intern and I have reached the point where it’s hard not to overlap on establishments we’ve distributed to. All of this is because Grease is one of our biggest shows for the season at the Long Center, and hopefully we can nearly – if not actually – sell out each show. It is so popular, and there is such a demand for performances by Broadway casts, that there is no reason not to sell thousands upon thousands of tickets.

The other intern and I distributed fliers, posters, brochures, and buttons to about 30 local businesses and are currently working on appealing to high school theater programs with student and group discounts. Offering discounts to schools and other non-profit organizations is always a pleasure to me because it is positive for both the Long Center and the school. I think it’s so important to push for cheaper student tickets so that the youth can expand their musical experiences.

This week was really exciting in trying to prepare for the next three shows. The San Jose Taiko show – a Japanese art form using large hand-drums – was this past Sunday and I was able to do the promotional work ahead of time for it. The show sold much better than we thought it was going to, but not nearly enough to fill the performance space.

On Thursday I went to deliver the DVDs of commercials for Broadway’s 101 Dalmatians to two news channels. It was really informative to see the inside of an office for these TV networks – everything goes on in such a small space! Research, marketing, filming, and everything else that goes into a television station was all being done simultaneously in one large office sectioned off only by low cubicles. One of my favorite things about working in the marketing departments is that I get to see places like this while I’m doing promotional work. I also discovered about twenty new places in Austin that I would definitely want to go just by delivering show posters along the popular areas.

The past week at my internship has been so intense, but so much fun! I got to hang out with five touring stars from Juilliard, visit Sonic headquarters, and attend an awesome show for free. I love being able to explore the Long Center at will, with all of its enormous and intricate performance spaces and backstage areas. But mostly, being behind the scenes and seeing how these shows come to production is by far the most interesting. Of course, there’s still a lot of menial work to be done – but even my boss has to do that. I think it’s part of any marketing job. You end up doing a lot of promotional stuff that doesn’t take a whole lot of thought – just good people skills.

Also, the other marketing intern and I get along really well. We’re shockingly similar and have a lot of things in common between our goals and our interests. It’s fun to be able to work with her on projects – like a promotional raffle or sponsor advertising competition – but it’s also nice to have our own separate tasks. I feel like I’ve been given just the right amount of independence, but still get to work with a lot of great people. I’m definitely making the connections I was hoping to make on the job!

I only started a week ago at The Long Center for the Performing Arts and already I feel that I’ve contributed significantly to the regular tasks of the company. I happened to come in during one of the busiest times, so I was essentially thrown into the office atmosphere and allowed to find my own way of accomplishing the set goals. Specifically, I work in the marketing department, and my main responsibility will be targeting the proper audiences for each of the shows that come to the Long Center. On Friday, I distributed postcards and information to various arenas that I thought would produce optimal results in terms of ticket purchases for the show coming up this weekend. Also, one of my daily tasks is to update the Facebook and Twitter accounts for the organization with hooks for upcoming shows. The growth they have seen in the fan base through these sites in the past year has been so substantial that these are considered a major outreach media. The outlook on the internship for the remainder of the semester looks very good – I think that I’ll be able to accomplish a lot and bring some new ideas to the table. I’ll also learn multiple new skill sets that will be useful later in my career.