External Relations: Arts Marketing and PR
93-821
Units: 6
Description
The success of arts and cultural institutions in the 21st century and beyond will depend upon creative, unconventional and coordinated long-range approaches to communicating with their stakeholders. This is even more true as organizations continue through and emerge from the circumstances of the global pandemic. Communication is a core activity of any arts enterprise. External Relations frames and holds together the brand of all stakeholder communications across earned and contributed income streams (marketing = earned; development = contributed). Today’s communication professionals are crucial to their arts organizations; they maintain existing audiences, secure new audiences, create future donors, and create the brand for the institution. They interact with all aspects of the organization, from personnel to fundraising.
This course provides readings and professional presentations to guide the understanding of successful marketing and communication. From an understanding of this thought leadership, students engage in a project-based method to investigate hands-on the opportunities addressing the changes within the arts audience and the shifting digital landscape for marketing the arts in the United States. The focus of the course is marketing and communications within a nonprofit arts organization, recognizing that the audiences rarely distinguish the difference. Yet, due to budget AND purpose, marketing not-for-profit arts organizations is significantly different as compared to a for-profit entertainment venture. This course will provide each student with marketing principles and theories, as well as opportunities to actualize theories with assignments and a final project utilizing current technologies.
The course requires active, practical engagement and intellectual rigor.
Learning Outcomes
Students will understand the complexity of establishing and maintaining a BRAND
Students will identify the components of a brand style guide
Students will recognize the shifting paradigm from targeting to segmenting and engaging with interested audiences and donors (aka Content Marketing)
How to make holistic choices when Pricing & Discounting to reach audiences including models of institutional loyalty programs (memberships, subscriptions, flex plans. . .)
How to work with press agents and the press
Students will gain a practical understanding of the communication funnel (awareness, acquisition, and retention) and the tools available at each stage
Recognize the role of advertising as a means to acquire new, target audiences
Understand the power and failings of Web 2.0 aka social media and the role content marketing and influencer marketing have on brands and products
Understand the emerging role of AI in marketing and pr
Prerequisites Description
None