Snapchat, Video, and Venue Tours – what’s new in arts marketing
I recently joined hundreds of arts marketers from across the UK to attend the annual Arts Marketing Association conference, this year held at the Belfast Waterfront. I went not only to gather new skills, hear interesting ideas and case-studies, and for my own learning but also to pick up any ideas or good practice that I think can be used by our sector. So below I have included some organisations to check out if you are looking for inspiration or practical steps to start or improve marketing your cultural product.
Wondering about snapchat?
Check out ‘The Point’ an arts venue using it, or Fanbytes, a business set up to capture the potential of snapchat.
Want to start venue tours?
The National Theatre in London are seasoned professionals at this and are keen to share their experience and learnings on it.
Want to create a video series for audience development?
London-based business Livity describes itself as ‘a youth-led creative network.’ They explained that to create a video series, five factors must be considered.
- Function – for yourself, but also for the audience. You may want to increase your footfall but a potential viewer isn’t searching the web for that! They may be looking for backstage access, a trailer for a show, or a tutorial.
- Structure – how is the video going to pan out, what do the audience want to see? If you don’t know then you need to ask them!
- Set – this is something that can become iconic, think about the use of a chair by the Apprentice, Big Brother, Graham Norton…
- Subject – what is the video actually going to be about? Is it a trailer or a tutorial for example?
- Personality – What is going to make the person stay on the video after the first few seconds and check out the next instalment?
Livity recommends that 3-4 of these five factors remain consistent throughout the series so people know what they are getting each time. If all five were the same then it would be the same video!
Wondering how to practically film these videos?
I learned that an iPhone or an iPad is a perfect way to do so and iMovie can be downloaded onto your device for free (newer versions automatically have it). When a writer is writing a novel, they might care what pen they use, but the person reading it just wants the story – this principle applies to the equipment used to create video. As long as it does the job then that’s all that matters.
These were just a handful of the tips, tricks and case studies I picked up across the two days. To find out more about the sessions I spoke about, the other ones I didn’t get to attend or just other useful articles, check out the AMA Culture Hive website here.
