Slush Monkey

Waiting

noreply@blogger.com (Heather Clark) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 04:45:00 +0000

Much of home buying, and I've come to realize home renovation, is spent waiting. In the 4 month long closing process we waited for people to process paperwork and realize what we didn't currently have in our file.

Upon closing we started our renovation process and then came more waiting. First we gutted it and waited for mold remediation. Which happened and we got a clean bill of health for the house. Then we started the slow weekend battle towards getting the kitchen back together. While I played assistant, the man friend fixed the subfloor, rebuilt walls, and laid down hardwood floors.

Then all of a sudden, we had the floors sanded and finished and two days later the cabinets were installed. Given that that was 3 months after we moved in, life became grand! But of course, more waiting was involved. Our countertop came in 2 1/2 weeks later.

We've reached a point now where we are waiting again. Our final paperwork has all come together for our rehab loan, but now we wait for them to release our second and final payments. As first-time home buyers, we will also get a significant tax credit. Waiting on that too.

In the meantime, there's a long list of painting projects, that in our beginning over-eager days of renovation we already bought the paint for. Man-friend will be pulling drywall (also from the over-eager days) out of the garage and patching in the rest of the downstairs hall. Someday we'll have a floor upstairs! And maybe be the sole residents of our little home with Boomer, instead of having squirrel residents. They kind of cramp my relaxation.

Guess I should update my blog

noreply@blogger.com (Heather Clark) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 23:42:00 +0000

I blogged for work today... I suppose I should update my own blog!

If you're interested in learning about the 33rd America's Cup, head on over to Chicago Sailing's blog.

When Seth Godin offered advance copies of his new book Linchpin I jumped all over it. Of course, this month has been crazy busy since I received it and I'm taking much longer than I want to to read it... Sigh. But, I can tell you what I have read is awesome.

It's also made me want to pull out another book, which could be difficult as those are still in boxes in the guest bedroom, RenGen by Patricia Martin. Read together, they should make an interesting commentary on societal trends in work and leisure.

Side note to Hilsberg: Seth is awesome and sent me a second book. You get it first, then Dossett.

In the midst of trying to read a book, The Long Room celebrated its 10th Anniversary, Chicago Sailing had a highly successful Strictly Sail and I started advising people on their social marketing campaigns. Yup, I'm an "expert."

The man-friend and I have cooked multiple times in our mostly working kitchen and have only had to call the plumber back once. Adventures in plumbing success! We even agreed on tile, just need to figure out how to pay for it. This Sunday some of my friends are coming over for brunch, V-Day (that dreaded holiday) and to see the house!

It's time for one of these!

2009 in Review

noreply@blogger.com (Heather Clark) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 22:20:00 +0000

I'm really going to try to keep a blog updated this year. For realz. But first, last year in review.

January, 2009 started with a worsening economy and lots of cold job leads. By the end of the month, things looked grim. I took a chance on a very shady Craigslist post regarding some employment with an athletic facility that involved marketing and customer relations. Which in February lead to Chicago Sailing...

Within two months of starting at Chicago Sailing, I'd traveled from the North Branch of the Chicago River to Belmont Harbor aboard a houseboat. (Remember when Chicago was trying to get the Olympics? So glad that didn't happen!)

I spent a harried 6 months learning a different business (though still a leisure activity), new "life skills", and meeting lots of very interesting people... More about that later! Once October rolled around, I realized how busy I had been and had something even more pressing to work on.

See, one Saturday in late March or early April, the manfriend and I were getting ready to go out. He had worked the night before with one of the Long Room bouncers who has a day job working as a real estate agent. We had been tracking Craigslist and looking at 2 or 3 bedroom apartments to move in to when our leases were up at the end of July (coincidental, no?). Jeremy had been talking about houses you could buy, in Chicago, for under $200,000.

By the end of April, we had a contract on our little piece of property in Chicago.

A classic Chicago bungalow, on 1 1/2 city lots, the picture of the outside is much better than the inside. Over the course of 4 months we discovered mold, evidence of squirrels and many involved projects. We finally closed at the end of August and spent one month trying to get it ready to move in to! THIS WAS NOT ENOUGH TIME.

It looked good on the outside.

On the inside we chilled in our bedroom, luckily it's big and about the size of a studio. Last week we got running water on the first floor. And a working kitchen. The joy I hold for things such as running water cannot be explained to people who have not gone through a rehab!

So, in short, 2009 held a new job, moving in with the manfriend and a homestead of our very own - desperately in need of repair. I'm hoping for a calmer 2010, but in the meantime, lots of posts to process!

I love Seth

noreply@blogger.com (Heather Clark) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 18:19:00 +0000

Learning from the MBA Program

Read it

Exploring Chicago...

noreply@blogger.com (Heather Clark) — Thu, 28 May 2009 04:44:00 +0000

This past weekend the man friend and I headed out to the suburbs. We had a few things on our to-do list - looking at appliances and kitchens. We were pretty successful on both items.

For those Chicago people, we went to Abt Electronics in Glenview. WOW. There were a lot of things to look at. Including a fountain. Their appliance selection was pretty amazing. I had no idea how far dishwashers have come.

We also headed to a home store for kitchen cabinets and counter tops in Aurora. Houses are expensive, but it still beats renting in my book!

On our way out to Glenview we took Milwaukee north from Irving Park, which was an interesting drive. There were lots of Polish delis and other neighborhood spots that you could go for years without knowing.

On our way back from Aurora we accidentally ended up on 290. Per usual, the traffic was horrendous on the way into the city. So, we hopped off 290 at 25th and headed north into Maywood.

View Larger Map

Hopping on to Washington, we headed east toward the city. Maywood proved an interesting community to drive through. Brick bungalows lined the street in a community that seemed quiet. We passed through a brief forest/park and crossed over a river and were suddenly in Oak Park. It was interesting to see the difference a river makes.

Oak Park had beautiful homes that were much larger than the homes we had just seen in Maywood. Each house was on a larger lot as well. With CTA buses and trains in Oak Park, this is one of the few suburbs that I have an interest in living in.

Oak Park's eastern border is the city of Chicago's Austin neighborhood. We decided to take Chicago Ave into the city and discovered a part of Chicago that reminded us of third world countries. I would not make the drive alone or at night.

The street was lined with empty store fronts. The stores you did see were liquor, dollar stores, and the occasional cheap cell phone place. On occasion you would see a fast food style restaurant or a beauty salon. The one thing this stretch of the city has is plenty of churches. There was a store front operation on every other block.

We took this all the way to Western, traveling between Humboldt Park and Garfield Park.

Turning up Western we made our way to Bluebird in Bucktown, our default and one of our favorite restaurants in that area.

Ahh Chicago, you gave us an interesting tour.

For all those Arts Administrators

noreply@blogger.com (Heather Clark) — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:56:00 +0000

Great post from Adam Thurman... His point regarding taking a year is a valid one.

The other thing I've been up to...

noreply@blogger.com (Heather Clark) — Wed, 06 May 2009 03:47:00 +0000

So about 6 - 7 weeks ago the man-friend and I were cooking dinner and he started talking about these houses in Albany Park that were selling for $150,000. In short, we determined that we should investigate. When again were we going to get the legitimate opportunity to buy a single family home in Chicago at a price we can afford on the brown line?

For the last month and a half we have learned a whole lot about buying a home.

The first weekend we drove around just looking at the outsides of buildings and the areas they were in. Were these places we would be happy with? As it turns out, they were. So then we looked on the insides (luckily we have a friend - Jeremy Segal with @ Properties to show us the ropes). There was one really terrible place and a few others that we could actually see ourselves living in, with enough work.

So then it became about financing, which is when I learned the two biggest take aways I have found thus far.

1. Your credit score is not as bad as you think it is. Ok, that may not be true for some. But for me, I was totally scared that the random times I got caught up with work and forgot to pay my utility bills had ruined my credit score. Not true at all. There are other factors involved, such as assets to debt. I have always maintained low balances on my credit cards and consistently paid them off, this certainly helped. There are things you can do to improve your score, now is the time to do that. Especially with credit cards increasing interest rates and tightening their lending.

2. The myth of "pre-approval." Jeremy hooked us up with a few brokers and we filled out a form. What we then got back from that is a Good Faith Estimate. That means that a broker thinks they can secure you financing at that interest rate. After you decide to make an offer, your broker can provide you with a pre-approval letter.

I guess there could be a third, your offer is just a starting point especially with bank owned properties.

At this point we have made an offer on one property and were asked for our best and final offer due to their being multiple offers. Now we play the waiting game. Either way I'm having a panic attack when we hear.

Long time coming...

noreply@blogger.com (Heather Clark) — Wed, 06 May 2009 03:35:00 +0000

Ok, it has been a few weeks to say the least. And I have been busy!

Recently the man-friend and I traveled to outside of Detroit to visit his family. We played with little kids and laughed along with his family. On our way back we stopped in Ann Arbor for lunch at the Arbor Brewing Company. Having so much fun over lunch, we decided to stay the night. We got a room for cheap at the Lamp Post Inn and re-lived the college life for a day. Luckily we timed it on a Monday, during which many of the bars that the man-friend frequented in his college days were holding all day happy hours. Umm, $3 beers? Score. Weather was crappy, but boy did we have fun.

I've been working a bunch for Chicago Sailing. The season started April 11th and it has been a crazy ship to keep running. At the end of each day I crash hard on the couch, as the roommate can attest.

Boomer has a new roommate as well. The roommate's dog arrived this past Saturday. Per usual, Boomer is proving that he is not an alpha dog. It has been awhile since he has voluntarily climbed on my lap without seeking attention. He's done that a couple of times in the last few days. It's fun to watch these two figure out how to play with each other and sort out personalities.

A must read

noreply@blogger.com (Heather Clark) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:08:00 +0000

For everyone starting a theater company... Courtesy of The Mission Paradox.

One thing that theater companies also fail to discuss is when they will stop producing work. If you remain a small ensemble, focused on doing work that showcases your ensemble members, eventually you will reach a point where that is no longer possible.

A difference of scale

noreply@blogger.com (Heather Clark) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 22:52:00 +0000

In my past life as a theater marketer and fundraiser I worked really hard to get two nickels to rub together. A good day at my last place of employment was $500 in ticket sales. An amazing day was $1,000. We had a capacity problem when we brought in over $1,500 - our staff of 1 couldn't support that many calls!

Today, a rainy and unseasonably cold Monday, my new job brought in over $2,000. That translates into 4 new clients. To achieve that same sales goal, without ticketing fees, you need 100 new clients for most small theaters.

I sent out a team of 3 to the Addison el stop today, handing out brochures to people on their way to work in the morning and on their way to the Cubs game in the middle of the day. Cost = $125 (brochures were printed last year)

If I get 2 new customers out of that effort, I've made a huge return. And the beauty with sailing is that once people are taught the basics, they can handle our small boats. We keep making money off of them because they keep wanting to go out.

Often theater people talk about how small an audience there is for your work. It is rare for me to go see a show and not run into someone I know, they are usually in the industry. I'd guess this is true for other industries as well.

More theaters should think about ways to create their own industry audience. How do you give patrons a participatory element in your programming, that will keep them coming back for more?

There isn't really a thorough line to this post, I'm talking about a couple of different ideas.

1. how much effort it takes to get patrons in the door of theaters
2. ways to create an 'industry' member mentality within your audience

Run with these ideas where you want!

Where I have been blogging...

noreply@blogger.com (Heather Clark) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 22:47:00 +0000

So I've been a little slow on the blog updating recently. That's because my day job has been quite exciting recently. The sailing season officially opened this past Saturday in Belmont Harbor. My office is a house boat. Yup! I look out my window and see ducks a lot of the time. It's a very different setting from the number of window-less theater offices I have worked out of.

My job as the Marketing and Events Manager takes many different forms. I've been twittering away since I joined the company and am proud to have 130 followers in just under 2 months! Another of my job duties is maintaining the company's blog. Now that the season has gotten going, I expect that I will have a lot more posts over there!

12th Night

noreply@blogger.com (Heather Clark) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:56:00 +0000

Yesterday I went to see 12th Night at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. It was actually quite enjoyable. Could have moved a little bit quicker and used the full stage better, but the director interpreted the text very well. And what's not to like in a Shakespeare mistaken identity love story?

It has been a few weeks since I've made it to the theater. On my current list of must-see's is The Tempest at Steppenwolf and God's Ear at the Viaduct. The House's Rose and the Rime has been extended, using the slot they had originally planned for Alan Infinitum.

Apparently the Chopin just got its liquor license. Fantastic news for this Chicago mainstay.

World Theater Day

noreply@blogger.com (Heather Clark) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:27:00 +0000

Is tomorrow!

I've seen some folks twitter about e-mails they have received from theater companies, specifically Chicago's experimental theater power-house The Neo-Futurists. Sadly, I haven't seen a whole lot in Chicago's press. Chris Jones' blog has not mentioned anything. Time Out featured Abraham Levitan's collaboration with Dog & Pony. (Kudos to D & P who I worked with in the past.)

What's going on? I know the League hosted a meeting to organize and secured Daley's support - tomorrow is World Theatre Day in Chicago. The last I heard from them was 2 weeks ago.

My two cents: We are missing out on a major collective marketing opportunity, to reach out to people who might not know about Chicago's role in the international theater community.

A friend of mine who now lives in Madrid, commented on the emphasis on World Theatre Day in the city. She sent me one of the posters posted all over the city. When she lived in Chicago she was dragged to all sorts of obligation theater, now she is excited to be in a city celebrating it's theatrical opportunities all month long and especially tomorrow night.

So, in short, if you don't have plans for tomorrow night... Go see some theater! And if you're in Chicago, order a round in honor of being the best theater city in the country. Make sure those around you hear what you're celebrating!

In Search of Dolphin Leather

noreply@blogger.com (Heather Clark) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:31:00 +0000

A good reminder from Seth Godin, read it.

Don't run after the dog...

noreply@blogger.com (Heather Clark) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:46:00 +0000

This is my own version of a PSA: If you ever get a dog in your life, for whatever reason - companionship, children want one (Obama), accidentally, etc. please remember this.

When your dog gets loose, and it will, don't run after it. Because your dog will think you're playing a game and continue to run around. Or your dog will get scared that it's going to get in trouble and not want to get caught.

Instead very calmly crouch down and call it over with your sweetest "here puppy" voice. Alternately, if that doesn't work, run in the opposite direction calling your dog's name so you know they'll notice you're doing something. I've done both to recapture my dog at different points.

Boomer and I have captured a few runaway dogs in our days walking around Chicago. Yesterday was a puppy, who very nearly got flattened on Addison just west of Western.

I love stuff like this

noreply@blogger.com (Heather Clark) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:31:00 +0000

This video was forwarded to me by my father yesterday. The e-mail seems to have originated with a friend of his from his trade group, i.e. someone my father's age.

Who isn't going to smile after watching that video? And they totally tied it in to T-Mobile, because they understood that people seeing a random dance party were going to take out their phones and take a picture. T-Modile went to a lot of trouble to make this an international campaign, hiding cameras in order to create a commercial and Youtube video.

This is similar to a local campaign that occurred in Chicago. Meijer is apparently a midwest version of Target. I'd never heard of them until I read a blog about their headless horseman campaign in Chicago.

Meijer wasn't concerned with making a commercial, so they didn't use a lot of cameras to capture reactions. They were concerned with capturing phone numbers and raising awareness. I think they succeeded in that goal.

A great post from Seth Godin

noreply@blogger.com (Heather Clark) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:24:00 +0000

An awesome post from Seth regarding trade guilds.

I have felt similarly regarding the League of Chicago Theaters for many years. The League's most popular program for its members is discounted ad rates. Without fail these have been print ads in Chicago's dying papers. Last year, they finally got radio ad discounts beyond NPR... though I don't think that the radio industry is doing that much better. What about the many blogs that people now use for their news and events? How about Facebook? Or, the CTA (most people still notice ads on buses and trains as long as they are riding them)?

In January the League blogged about Web 2.0. Deb posed a lot of questions and eventually ended with, "Did it sell any tickets?" Can you ever attribute one single part of your marketing campaign as being the pivotal driver for a single ticket purchase? Or do theaters often measure the last impression prior to a ticket purchase, instead of the achievement of the marketing campaign as a whole?

Last week Thomas Cott alerted me to this article from Adage. The largest age group on Facebook is 35-45, even I was shocked! Not only that, the fastest growing age group is 55+. Denying the importance of Facebook and other social networking sites in any sort of community, audience-based industry is going to put you out of touch with your audience. In Kris Vire's words - You Will Die.

Some unrelated things

noreply@blogger.com (Heather Clark) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:24:00 +0000

As I mentioned this morning, About Face is in dire straights. When I signed on to Facebook this afternoon, I saw a video of one impassioned plea for support. There is a call out for videos on About Face's website as well. They should be applauded for using the best that the web has to offer for stating their case. I'm curious to see what develops and how they use this work further.

This morning I caught up on Kris Vire's blog and noticed that Kelly Kleiman had received a call from Bob Falls. Kelly's take on the conversation is on her blog at WBEZ's website, very interesting.

Rob Kozlowski made an excellent observation regarding the discussion on his blog. Check it out here.

As you were.

Shows to See...

noreply@blogger.com (Heather Clark) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:49:00 +0000

There's a lot of theater going on right now. I have been bad about going out to see it, February was a busy month. And who wants to go out in January? It's too bad, given that I am a regular theater consumer, what about those that are not as avid fans?

So here's my list of shows to see:

Beer
The Neo's with Metropolitan Brewing
Closes this weekend, so if you're interested go see it soon (I'm going Saturday)
More info here.

Rose and the Rime
The House Theatre's show at the Chopin
Last November and December the House got a lot of bloggers going with their save theater end of year campaigns. Kris Vire discussed it here.
Regardless, they do good work and need support of the community that they helped create. Even if, in my opinion, they aren't doing a great job marketing the show right now.
Seeing it Sunday, get your tickets.

Stupid Kids
About Face Theatre became the first Equity company in Chicago to have massive budget problems. Yesterday they launched a $300,000 "Save the Theater" campaign, after canceling their last show of the season. I suspect the community, especially the LGBTQ section of it, won't let them fold. But just in case, go see the currently running show before it closes!
Get tickets and read more about the appeal.

The arts won, sorta

noreply@blogger.com (Heather Clark) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 03:48:00 +0000

Check out these articles for ongoing debate regarding the NEA stimulus money.

Wall Street Journal: The Arts Need Better Arguments

NY Times: Count the Arts In

Of course, there are still people saying that the theater industry did a good job. See the League's blog. I'd hazard a guess that the letter writing campaigns did not elevate the NEA above the other issues. It is more the personal contacts that were used in the last week that actually had sway. That's slightly similar to what lobbyists do, right?

If you encountered someone in the business world that refused to use e-mail, is that an excusable idiosyncrasy? Doubtful.

What about a PR professional who didn't read blogs?

You have to stay relevant in relation to the world you engage in. Is letter writing, even if delivered through e-mail, consistent with what other people lobbying our national government are doing? I don't think so.

It's time to re-evaluate our engagement with our audience, including the government.

Making art like soup

noreply@blogger.com (Heather Clark) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 02:07:00 +0000

As a child, like most children, I refused to eat cauliflower. It was weird. Vegetables weren't meant to be white. I doubt that I was unique, especially given that my roommate still doesn't eat cauliflower.

In the last few years I have learned to like a lot of edible things including cauliflower. Especially cauliflower soup. So when the man-friend got a couple heads of cauliflower I determined I would make some soup.

On epicurious.com I found a recipe for cauliflower soup with cumin and lime. Interesting enough as it is, but there was one additional hook. The cauliflower was purple.

I'm not sure if this head of cauliflower is like the varicolored carnations you see, in which the carnations are just put in a solution of dye and change colors or if there is a natural variety of cauliflower that happens to be purple. There are purple carrots and potatoes so I guess it is possible.

The long and short of this metaphor is that my soup turned out bright purple.

I think that purple soup might entice a number of people to try cauliflower. It was quite exciting. And if you trick someone to eat something that actually is a mild vegetable that is just a little off-putting on one level is that a bad thing?

Food is something enjoyed on many different sensory levels; taste, texture, smell, and look. Art is enjoyed in the same ways.

Why not camouflage serious art with a little color to introduce people who are scared to it? Kind of like the gateway drug that high school musicals and Broadway in Chicago does for theater?

The debate rages on

noreply@blogger.com (Heather Clark) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:52:00 +0000

Are arts professionals - artists, fundraisers, janitors, ushers, and the list goes on - actually employed? Are those 'real' jobs? That is the question raised by the $50 million allocated for the NEA in the stimulus plan.

The latest report from the NY Times is that a deal has been reached on a $789 billion dollar stimulus plan, read the article here. Leaving out the proposed NEA funding.

Chris Jones' article has sparked an ongoing debate with two pages of very interesting comments. Check it out again and read through what has been said. I believe that Luke is being sarcastic, unfortunately his comments do nothing to further the argument that the arts have a relevant argument for receiving stimulus money.

Andrew Taylor had a great view on the argument, read it here.

LA's Culture Monster blog had an interesting post regarding Senator Tom Coburn which sparked debate regarding 'artistes' and navel gazing.

The can of worms that has been opened with this debate is at the core of the issues debated during the National Performing Arts Convention. We will not increase federal funding or support if we cannot collectively advocate for $50 million to stave off incredible job losses (at the heart of what the stimulus plan is supposed to do).

As arts professionals continue to debate this issue, I don't see anyone raising more effective tools for galvanizing support other than writing letters. I guess there are those wonderful Americans for the Arts ads... In times like these, are letter writing campaigns effective?

The auto industry poured millions into lobbying for a bail-out. I'd be curious to see if the total spent lobbying comes relatively close to the $50 million earmarked for the NEA.

Who is lobbying for the arts? How are our advocacy organization - American for the Arts, TCG, etc. - furthering our cause in the national press and with law makers?

There is a lot of traffic right now regarding the role of government funding in the arts and its role in society. Over the next few posts I am going to take some time framing my own arguments for support.

Google Reader

noreply@blogger.com (Heather Clark) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:33:00 +0000

Ok, I was out last night with a friend who works in the marketing and communication field. She admitted to not knowing what Google Reader is.

Access Google's getting started guide here and start using it! The Reader is a brilliant way to organize all of the blogs you are reading or should be reading. It allows you to keep updated in a very short period of time.

Do it.

The perverse incentive

noreply@blogger.com (Heather Clark) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:41:00 +0000

This is something I've been ruminating over for the last week and a half, based on a post from Andrew Taylor. Read his post here.

Andrew defines a perverse incentive as 'a policy that is intended to promote one outcome, but that instead creates the opposite, or fosters a countervailing negative effect.' Immediately the applications for this phrase within marketing departments and budgets for theaters came to mind, which I commented on when I first read the blog and want to elaborate further.

Marketing is the under-appreciated sidekick of theater. I have seen many organizations with marketing budgets so minuscule that they can barely mail to all of their mailing list. And those budgets keep getting trimmed in deference to the art. Unfortunately that is a downward spiral, as most companies don't then trim income projections for ticketed income and individual giving. Marketing directly contributes to those bottom line numbers.

So a case study:

Problem, you can't balance your budget. You're a theater company and the prevailing attitude is to protect the art at all costs. So you trim from the marketing budget, because for some reason the a large portion of the theater profession does not embrace the connection between marketing and a ticket buying audience. It's the art that brings people in the door, right?

Your marketing director creates a plan for utilizing whatever meager budget they have and praying for enough media coverage to make up the difference.

Marketing is the game of hitting a receptive audience with multiple messages and reminders, driving them to eventually purchase tickets or donate money (when coupled with a fundraising ask). Adam Thurman posted a great case study of the White Sox's season ticket campaign here.

Now of course, some of your existing audience can be classified as a fanatic consumer. They will get that season brochure piece and purchase tickets immediately, filling in their calendar at once. That's a small segment of your audience. The rest will put that on the table or in a pile and forget about it, because everyone receives hundreds of marketing messages a day - even the fans.

To attract the rest you need to hit them with reminders. One way you do this is through press. Though at this point, print is shrinking. You can't count on getting your show reviewed any more, let alone getting that preview article to goose early ticket sales.

Without any money for advertising, what's a good marketing professional to do? Well you turn to e-mail and social networking - aka "free marketing tools." Which are free in the monetary sense for the most part, but extremely time sensitive (aka $$). Not only are they time sensitive, if you haven't laid the ground work you aren't going to get a ton of success.

Seth Godin blogged about the saturation point of the internet a little while ago. I can't find the post right now, but his point was this: Although the internet is unlimited in scope, your audience has a limited ability to take in new messages. To combat their saturation of content you have to provide year-round relevant and interesting content. As a theater consumer, interesting content is not that your tickets are on sale. I stop reading those messages there are too many of them.

Ultimately, what ends up happening is you do not bring back as many of your past ticket buyers as you should. Not because they aren't interested in your work, but they simply miss your message in the hundreds of other messages they have received. You also, without advertising, press, and targeted street marketing efforts, don't attract as many new audience members.

This effects your ticket income. And unfortunately your individual contributed income as well, as the development ask at the end of the year is only effective if these individuals have received relevant and interesting messages throughout the year. In the coming year you face even lower income projections and often you trim your marketing budget again.

See the cycle?

Now, how do you break it? As a company, you choose shows that are well known and bring in a lot of new audience members and you trim other budgets in order to maintain a level earned income.

YES!

noreply@blogger.com (Heather Clark) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:29:00 +0000

The Chicago theater critics have a disproportionate number of Chris's. Time Out Chicago has two, Christopher Piatt (editor) and Kris Vire (his own blog is Storefront Rebellion). The Tribune has the impressive Chris Jones, who I don't always agree with but commands an impressive ability to sell out shows in Chicago.

Mr. Vire had a great post on Time Out's theater blog here.

Mr. Jones has joined the debate over the $50 million stimulus aid for the NEA. Read his article and join in on the great debate here. His thoughts are similar to what I said a little over a week ago.