Smart Arts - Creative New Zealand

1DEVELOPINGA WIDERAUDIENCEWellington band Fur Patrolwent on a nationwide tour in1999 as a support act toestablished New Zealand rockband Shihad (now Pacifier).As one of the two supportingbands, it went on tourknowing it would lose moneybut its purpose was todevelop a wider nationalaudience – particularly inAuckland, which has thehighest percentage of recordsales nationwide.Fur Patrol’s music can bedescribed as pop-rock andappeals to a cross-section ofmen and women agedbetween 15 and 35 years. Ingeneral, music fans arepredominantly young males.By aligning itself withestablished rock band Shihad,Fur Patrol hoped to give itsimage a harder rock edge.In 2000, Fur Patrol did afollow-up tour as the leadact for the UniversitiesOrientation. Its investmentin the 1999 tour paid off,both financially and in termsof audience development.A product description might look like the following examples:“A festival celebrating New Zealand children’s writers, including Fleur Beale, David Elliot,Kate de Goldi and Margaret Mahy, at the Christchurch Arts Centre from 2 – 4 May, 9amto 5pm each day.”“A contemporary dance show by three female choreographers, exploring the theme ofbody image to be shown at BATS Theatre for five days in the first week of July, from8pm – 9.20pm.”“An 80-minute, collaborative theatre production between two established Mäori andPacific theatre companies, which explores through a love story relationships between Mäoriand Pacific communities. Premieres at SiLO Theatre at the end of October for six eveningshows and two matinees.”These details will help determine your potential audience.Define what’s unique about your event, its points of difference and key selling points. Is itthe company name, the name of the writer or artist, the artform, the subject matter or thetitle? People often refer to a show by what they most recognise. For instance:“Are you going to the ballet?”“Are you going to Swan Lake?”“Are you going to the Royal New Zealand Ballet?”How you refer to your arts event is covered in more detail in chapter four, Communicatingyour message.Public“A market is a group of people with similar attitudes,” writes Peter Neville-Hadley in Makingthe Most of Marketing (see Appendix, page 73). No event appeals to everyone. Even if you’vegot a broad target market, your event will appeal to some more than others. You should directmost of your resources and time to attracting those who are the most likely to attend.Make a list of all the reasons you think people will come to your event. Then work outwhich of the three target markets – primary, secondary, tertiary – they fit into.For example, look at the theatre example described in Product:• primary target – people who are already favourably disposed to the companies’ work(including friends, family and flatmates)• secondary target – people who are interested in Mäori and Pacific theatre, the arts andissues in general• tertiary target – secondary schools.Imagine that you’ve jumped into a still lake. The ripples around you represent your targetmarkets. The closest ripple to you is your primary target and you can reach it without mucheffort. Your secondary target or ripple is further away from you so you will need to workharder to reach out to it. Reaching the third ripple or target will take still greater effort.Primary targets are primed to come to your show and don’t need as much persuasion astargets that are further away. Spend most of your efforts reaching the primary target andonly move on to the other targets once you feel confident that you’ve reached your primaryone. Attempting to reach people beyond your target groups should be regarded as a longtermgoal.Smart arts | Toi huatau10