2006_Q_and_A_Don_Lucoff

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PMP continued its Arts Marketing and Audience Development Program this April by inviting two experienced music publicists and a direct marketing database expert to conduct up to five days each of meetings with music performers and presenters. Each year since 2001, PMP has invited two consultants for such meetings, including arts marketing experts Deborah Obalil and Kate Prescott, new music publicist Aleba Gartner, and internet marketing specialist Vicki Allpress.

Arts Marketing and Audience Development Marketing and Publicity Consultations with John Elliott, Don Lucoff and Cindy Byram

From April 10 – 12, jazz publicist Don Lucoff met with 15 groups: 88 Keys Productions, the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Ars Nova Workshop, International House Philadelphia, Jazz Journeys Educational Institute, the Kimmel Center, Montgomery County Community College, Musicopia, the Painted Bride Art Center, Peregrine Arts, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Settlement Music School, and Siora. From April 24 – 26, world and folk music publicist Cindy Byram met with 11 groups: Compassionate Heart Productions, Dikoma Aesthetics, the Kimmel Center, Network for New Music, Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour (PennPAT), the Philadelphia Classical Symphony, the Philadelphia Folklore Project, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Relâche, Spoken Hand Percussion Orchestra, and SRUTI, the India Music and Dance Society. From July 24 – 28, direct marketing database expert John Elliott met with 16 groups: Ars Nova Workshop, Slought Foundation, Peregrine Arts, Curtis Institute of Music, Relâche, Latin Fiesta, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Network for New Music, Center City Opera Theater, Piffaro, Academy of Vocal Arts, Philadelphia Classical Symphony, Philadelphia Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe, Montgomery County Community College, Mendelssohn Club, and the PRISM Quartet. Organizations participating in the consultancy span various relationships to jazz, classical, world and folk music; some are musicians who perform primarily within these formats, while others are classically-based ensembles pushing the boundaries of genre or presenters who host national and international artists throughout the season. PMP sought to offer each of these groups expertise in the business of familiarizing media with the particulars of these genres and the performers who sustain them, as well as offering strategies for strengthening their direct marketing capacity in order to target audiences more effectively and measure campaign results. PMP 36

Q Straight Talk: Don Lucoff

PMP: What is the value of marketing collaborations among groups that are working along parallel tracks? DL: Well, that issue came up with almost all of the groups with whom I consulted. It’s very clear that in Philadelphia, many of the arts presenting organizations work in a very focused manner. Yet, they speak to a very similar demographic. If you look at the Kimmel Center, the Gershman Theater, and Zanzibar Blue, all three organizations are within walking distance of one another. And if you put the Philadelphia Museum of Art into the mix, which is not too far away, I think those organizations are operating independently but chasing the same demographic, relatively. So I suggested that they find synergistic ways to work with one another, to find some common ground where they can all benefit. In the case of the Art Museum, they’re not really a conflict for a Zanzibar Blue, per

se. Their jazz programming is three Fridays a month, they start relatively early, and they’re attracting their ongoing museum members. But perhaps they could do a cross-promotion with Zanzibar Blue where patrons show a ticket for the late set and get a price reduction. And maybe there can be some sort of reciprocity going back from Zanzibar to the Museum; anyone who shows their receipt from a show at Zanzibar gets a dollar off their Friday night series or something like that. That was just one example that I used. PMP: Do you find these sorts of collaborations in other cities? DL: If you look at New York City, there’s a lot of competition. The clubs don’t directly help one another, but during certain times of the year, during JVC Jazz Festival, for example, and during the International Association for Jazz Education Conference, clubs will offer discounts and reciprocity with jazz concertgoers so they can come to a late set at the clubs for a reduced rate. IAJE registrants can also go to jazz clubs at a reduced rate. So there are some ways that it works in New York, and that’s a much more cutthroat environment as far as the jazz audience goes. PMP: What are your views on some of the existing collaborative marketing efforts in Philadelphia? DL: A lot of organizations tend to go right to Philly Fun Savers, the discount ticketing website. But there was one group in particular that said it really dilutes their product if they throw it up online because their audience gets used to it and they’ll just wait till the last minute and buy tickets cheap. But there are others that feel it’s an essential and critical part of their marketing. I bring it up because there’s also a lack of strong

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Below, on left: Don Lucoff

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print media support in this market. And when you don’t have consistent media support from your largest daily paper, you have to look for other ways to co-op and do other creative types of marketing. PMP: Did you offer suggestions on developing a stronger online presence? DL: I told them all, virtually, that they should find ways to create programs with, for example allaboutjazz.com, which is very strong in the Northeast. Also to maybe approach some influential bloggers, you know—tastemakers. I feel that this is a tremendous growth area. I’ve hired a new media jazz publicist this summer who’s complementing our traditional PR efforts here, and we’re getting a lot of good response. It’s a brave new world out there! You know, we’re the first jazz PR agency to do that. PMP: Do you find there are advantages to publicizing interdisciplinary work as opposed to strictly music? DL: Absolutely. Somebody like Jason Moran, who has made a new record having to do with music that was commissioned by various art institutions around the United States, the Walker Art Center in particular, with their works in mind, is giving me a new way to promote an artist. Now Jason Moran is into the art world. It makes him relevant to art trade publications. It makes him appealing to the Museum of Modern Art, where he’s going to be doing a program of his music and talking about art and music and how they influence one another.

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