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Volume Two
Issue Four
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Welcome to our April Monthly Update. This month our Client Feature highlights a specialist in audience building who, after an impressive career working within several arts organizations, has branched off on her own. Read on to find out how Donna Walker-Kuhne is cultivating new audiences.
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Client Feature: Donna Walker-Kuhne
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Donna Walker-Kuhne, President of Walker International Communications Group has an impressive list of experiences under her belt.
Trained first as a dancer and then as a lawyer, Donna returned quickly to her passion in the arts. Since then, her credits include nine years with the Dance Theatre of Harlem, the initiation of the National Audience Development Task Force and the Director of Community Affairs at New York's Public Theater.
In 1983 Donna started her own company putting her experience and talent in building culturally diverse audiences to work to help a wide range of organizations.
In the Q & A that follows, Donna discusses her work and the role that e-mail and the Internet play in helping to build audiences.
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Q & A with Donna Walker-Kuhne
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www.walkercommunicationsgroup.com
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YOU ARE CLEARLY VERY EXPERIENCED IN THE FIELD OF BUILDING AUDIENCES. CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE SERVICES WALKER INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS GROUP PROVIDES?
Walker International Communications Group is a marketing and educational consulting company that provides strategies for reaching target markets. We specialize in reaching ethnic communities and young audiences and provide lectures, symposiums, key note speeches, workshops and articles focusing on audience development. As part of our work, we prepare and execute audience surveys, marketing plans and design and execute E-marketing campaigns.
Our clients include theater companies, dance companies and museums as well as commercial productions on Broadway. The roster includes Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Hairspray, The Public Theater, Harlem School of the Arts and WNYC Radio.
HOW HAS YOUR PAST EXPERIENCE AFFECTED THE WORK YOU DO NOW?
My work at the Public Theater had a direct impact on Walker International Communications Group. At the Public, I had the freedom to develop relationships with demographically different audiences and find out what these audiences needed to see in order to feel welcome to our theater. I incorporate these same strategies at Walker International and work with many of the same groups. It has been a wonderful extension of my work in building audiences. I apply the same strategies for both commercial and non-profit institutions helping them identify their target audiences and find appropriate and effective means of reaching them to promote productions and continue building the relationships into the future.
HOW DO YOU USE E-MAIL?
We use e-mail extensively in our work because it is an efficient means to reach many of our audience members. We focus on younger multicultural audiences and they prefer e-mail blasts to direct mail flyers. We still do small mailings and many of our clients will do direct mail, but our work primarily involves sending out creative e-blasts with discount offers. The value for group leaders is that it provides them with a tool that they can easily replicate to their constituents. One e-blast has numerous lives.
Use of the internet also allows us to specifically target a message to a particular market and develop a customized campaign. For example, we are currently promoting Pride Night at The Public Theater for their current production of "Biro." We developed a relationship with Black Pride NYC and they agreed to cultivate their partner organizations within the gay and lesbian community to do a fundraiser. We provided the e-blast copy and they added on relevant language to explain the purpose and how to purchase tickets. This is a common method of promotion.
WHAT ADVICE CAN YOU GIVE TO ARTS MARKETERS FOR TODAY AND FOR THE FUTURE?
Arts marketers can expand their reach by tapping into the e-mail savvy potential customers. The challenge is building lists that are effective and useful. At WICG, we spend a lot of time gathering names and asking our cultural partners for names.
The biggest challenge today is financial resources and staff. Everyone wants results immediately. That's unrealistic in today's competitive market. Arts Marketers need time to discover, build and evaluate their efforts. That's how we will create long lasting audiences of the future which will culminate in audience members, donors and board members. It's the investment in people that takes us to the next level of effective marketing.
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Visit the Web Site for Walker International Communications Group
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Get Inside the Funder's Mind: Find out how to Secure Corporate Sponsorship in Today's Tough Marketplace
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You cannot afford not to learn how to secure corporate money! Come to the National Arts Marketing Conference "Sponsorship Saturday."
"Sponsorship Saturday" kicks off the Conference on October 2nd! This results-driven day includes:
-- A 3-hour Intensive Sponsorship "Boot Camp" led by one of the early pioneers in the field of corporate sponsorship. What makes a strong proposal? What do corporate colleagues really care about? How can you negotiate better?
-- Luncheon keynote by the Director of Community & Education Affairs, The Boeing Company
-- And much, much more!
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Visit www.artsmarketingconference.org for session details.
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Learn about PatronMail -- Request a Demonstration
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If you're thinking about joining the nearly 200 arts clients that use PatronMail -- give us 15 minutes and we'll allow you to "test-drive" a PatonMail account. During the demonstration, we'll talk about how the regulations of the anti-spam law are built into PatronMail.
The 20-minute demonstration can be scheduled at your convenience.
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Click here to request a demonstration
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Please watch for our next Monthly Update, coming May 26, 2004.
Our mailing address is: 850 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10019
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