Culture Flash

After years of investing in new technology and online communications, many arts and cultural groups are finally seeing a payoff, just in time to help them weather the worst economic climate most charities have ever seen — and one that disproportionally threatens arts groups.

For several years, Internet marketing has been viewed as a way to supplement traditional practices. But now, with the tight economy, some groups are counting on online communication as a way to save money while still reaching a wide audience and reducing traditional marketing and communication budgets.

“The interest in using electronic media is accelerating because of the rate of adaptation of new technology, but also because there is an interest in shifting resources away from expensive traditional direct mail and traditional advertising in the media, whether it is newspaper or radio,” says Marc Scorca, president of Opera America, in New York.

The ability to cut costs and still maintain strong relationships with patrons is paramount to arts and cultural organizations amid problems that have accelerated the closing or the near closing of several institutions.

Organizations that represent arts groups like the League of American Orchestras, Opera America, and the Theatre Communications Group agree that new technology can save them money. A high percentage of their members, they report, are already using some form of online communications, although some are more sophisticated than others.

Among the online tools that arts groups are using to reach audiences are online-only promotions, videos of performances, podcasts, online education programs, and participation in social networks. Those tools have helped several organizations cut back on expensive print ads and on broadcasts to promote programs.

‘Happier to Buy Online’

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington, expects to reduce its marketing budget by 20 percent this season through increased Internet marketing.

The center has steadily increased its online marketing to sell tickets in recent years while reducing its print and direct-mail advertising, says its president, Michael M. Kaiser.

“We are finding that people are happier to buy online and to be marketed to online as well, and that saves very substantial sums of money,” he says. “We are also able to change what we are able to use to promote to people, both donors and potential ticket buyers. Using electronic media, we can use a lot more clips and a lot more actual parts of the pieces and performances by artists. Electronic media allow us to do a lot more in-depth marketing.”

In general, ticket buyers and donors alike seem to appreciate the increased level of information and personal contact available electronically. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, for example, began a new digital communications program — with in-depth online marketing and the ability to send specialized e-mail messages, or e-mail “blasts,” to supporters — to coincide with the introduction of a new Web site in 2007.

Not only is the new program the “most immediate and cost effective sales tool” for the symphony, says Eileen A. Jackson, vice president for marketing and communications, “but what we are hearing from ticket buyers is that it improves the level of customer service. They feel more connected, more valued, and better informed.”

Multimedia Component

The Internet also supports fund-raising efforts for some arts groups.

In New York, for example, the Brooklyn Academy of Music announced a $300-million capital campaign last month. As part of the campaign, which will run through 2012, the academy, often known as BAM, has created a Web site to promote the “BAM Next Stage Campaign.” The site features artists talking about the academy, alongside testimonials from supporters.

Joseph V. Melillo, the academy’s executive producer, says the approach is “unusual” for a capital campaign. But the organization has increased its proportion of ticket sales online, he says (to 30 percent this fiscal year, from 11 percent in 2005), and would have missed an opportunity had it not incorporated a strong Web component into its fund-raising effort. During the campaign’s “quiet phase,” before the Web site’s unveiling, the academy had already raised $160-million toward its goal.

In the continuing recession, nonprofit groups that use technology and keep up with innovative approaches will enjoy a competitive edge, says Teresa Eyring, executive director of the Theatre Communications Group, a national association of theaters with headquarters in New York.

“What is key in times such as these,” she says, “is to be able to continue to focus on your mission and focus on your art and keep your community engaged in what you are doing as an organization.”

Everyone’s a Critic

Unlike traditional marketing, online communication is interactive. Several arts groups have made use of social networking and blogging as ways to get ideas from supporters and to get them and other people more involved in the organizations.

In 2005, Brian Dickie, general director of the Chicago Opera Theater, became one of the first opera executives to begin a blog. A midsize opera with a short season, the theater has always had to look for ways to save money. The low-cost nature of online communications had an immediate appeal, says Colleen Flanigan, director of marketing and public relations.

Since it began, Mr. Dickie’s blog, called Life as General Director of Chicago Opera Theater, has had close to 157,000 views from around the globe. Mr. Dickie shares his experiences as a director, asks his online audience to vote on which composers the opera should perform, and recommends other Web sites and books of interest. The opera is also active on several social-networking sites, including Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube, and it provides links to Yelp, a user-driven review site where patrons are encouraged to post their opinions on the opera’s programs. The reviews may not always be flattering, but the organization says it wants to open a forum for discussion.

A ‘Constant Conversation’

The Brooklyn Museum, in New York, also uses its Web site to link to reviews of programs and exhibitions that people have posted online. “People are going to post good and bad, and that’s OK,” says Shelley Bernstein, who supervises the museum’s online presence. “We are going to link to them. We are going to honor them.”

In January the museum went further, creating a new level of membership called 1stfans. People can join by giving as little as $20, compared with the usual $55 membership. The goal is to “grow a sense of ownership with membership,” says Ms. Bernstein.

As 1stfans, donors can go to monthly First Saturdays, an exclusive series of late-night events at the museum; read messages from artists or experience conceptual art on Twitter; and receive updates via Facebook, Flickr, and e-mail.

“It is very much like a constant conversation,” says Ms. Bernstein. “Museum membership is constantly in people’s minds when they are 1stfans. Every day they may be having a conversation with an artist online or getting information from me.”

The new program attracted more than 200 members within two weeks of starting, many from outside the New York area. “We’ve seen all these people joining as 1stfans who live far away but join just because they like the new way we are using Twitter,” says Will Cary, the museum’s membership manager. “They like to see what artists can do with this space and to interact with them on it.”

Ringtones at the Ready

Regular, personalized online communication, whether through e-mail or Web sites, is what many groups believe will hold on to supporters’ attention. At least one performing-arts group, though, is expanding into another form of digital communication as well.

The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra has begun using cellphone text messages to communicate with patrons, says Jessica DiSanto, director of communications.

“With what most nonprofits are facing right now, with a lull in giving and concerns regarding budgets and expenses, this is a very efficient and not expensive way to reach the younger demographic,” she says.

The texting program was started in November as part of the orchestra’s Happy Hour at the Symphony concert series, which features short programs with popular music and draws a younger audience, usually newcomers. “There are so many ways audiences want to receive information,” says Ms. DiSanto, “and texting seems a 21st-century way of two-way communication.”

Unlike orchestras and other performing groups elsewhere, which ask those in attendance to silence their cellphones, audience members in Indianapolis are asked at the beginning of the performance to vote via their cellphones for what the last selection should be. The orchestra can record the cellphone numbers of the respondents and later send announcements and updates to willing patrons.

The orchestra has also attracted more than 100 people to sign up on its Web site for text messages via cellphone. The goal is to notify patrons instantly about changes to programs, and to offer promotions, says Ms. DiSanto.

“We want to be in their pocket,” she says. “We know that people are busy, and more and more find it difficult to make decisions of what to do on the weekends or on the evenings. We want to be on top of their minds. If we can do that via mobile messaging, that’s what we want to do. And all permission-based — we don’t want to annoy people.”

The symphony has gone so far as to celebrate digital technology in its performances; a show called “Video Games Live” combines multimedia elements and orchestral arrangements of music from games like Kingdom Hearts and Halo 2.

To the Rescue

For a group in Santa Cruz, Calif., technology isn’t just a tool to save money and expand audiences, but a means of rescue.

Shakespeare Santa Cruz, a theater group housed on the University of California campus there, came close to closing at the end of last year, says Dana Werdmuller, director of marketing and public relations. The organization is separate from and financially independent of the university but was housed there for several years despite a growing deficit, which the university kept track of. The university continued to house the troupe, but with the understanding that Shakespeare Santa Cruz would have to make up the deficit.

After the national economic crisis hit last fall, however, the university said it could no longer allow the group to continue to operate on that basis. Two months of negotiations ensued, and a compromise was reached on December 12: the group could continue only if it raised $300,000, entirely in cash from individuals, within 10 days. The goal seemed unreachable; during an entire season, the troupe usually raises about $450,000.

It couldn’t spend money in an effort to raise the cash, and there wasn’t time for a traditional print campaign. Instead it sent e-mail messages to its news-media contacts and sent different messages to the 6,300 supporters on its database. Word also went out on the group’s Web site, as well as via supporters on social networks like Facebook and MySpace. On YouTube, Marco Barricelli, the artistic director, explained the organization’s plight and made a case for saving it.

Shakespeare Santa Cruz raised more than $416,000, from 2,050 donors locally and across the country. The largest donation was $30,000, but most were $50 to $100 and came through the Internet, says Ms. Werdmuller.

“It is absolutely undeniable that the Internet saved Shakespeare Santa Cruz,” she says. “Of course the people really did, but the tool made it possible.”