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.