Okay – this is probably the longest post I’ve written. That’s because it’s actually part interview, part case study (of sorts).
If you stick with it, I hope that it makes for interesting reading, particularly if you are just getting into social media / digital marketing and more so if you are involved in an arts organisation.
How has social media helped a small arts (theatre) business?
I met up with Pete Toon from Mikron Theatre Company to find out. This isn’t a formal case study, as such, as some of the revenue ROI stats are hard to break out (more on that later) but I hope this post will give you a feel for what they have achieved from adopting Social Media into their marketing activity. And what you should think about if you are in this space and just starting out.
These are (once again) tough times for Arts organisations: a squeeze on everyone’s disposable income means reduced ticket revenues. And at a time of massively reduced funding from the Arts Council and local government. This puts those Arts organisations with limited cash reserves into jeopardy and they’re working harder than ever to attract new audiences, get the word out and boost revenues. All on a tiny marketing budget.
Enter stage left (the only theatre pun in this post, I promise) Mikron Theatre, who have been utilising social media since the end of 2009. They hoped it would fulfil some of the promise they had heard about and really increase attendances and boost ticket sales. And all through modest spending on their behalf.
So, has it? In a nutshell, yes.
And it’s also provided other benefits that Pete cited and which I’ll expand on later.
Before I get into the ’ How’ of Mikron’s social media success, a quick bit about them, for context.
Mikron (http://www.mikron.org.uk/) is a small independent theatre company, touring nationally in the UK (mostly on a lovely old canal narrow boat). They have been touring for 39 years. As they say themselves, Mikron is ‘the little touring theatre company with the reputation for tackling large scale subjects and turning history into vivid and dramatic entertainment… reaching audiences that other companies cannot.’
Pete Toon is the General Manager, (in commercial terms – he’s the MD) and also a professional actor in his own right – so he’s a busy man and has had to think through and expedite all the marketing both on a shoestring and with limited time.
My first question for Pete was why did Mikron change from traditional (mailings and phone calls) fund raising and marketing activities when they did?
Maybe an obvious catalyst was that the management team changed around 2 years ago with Pete and his wife and Mikron’s Artistic Director taking the reigns.
They are both young (they’ll thank me for saying that) and have ‘grown up with web’. So they were using email and mobile and also using Facebook in their everyday lives.
What they didn’t have experience of though, was how that kind of technology and wider social marketing techniques could be applied in a business context and specifically within the Arts world.
Then Pete attended Shift Happens. A light bulb moment for him. Shift Happens is an annual tech / marketing conference focussed around the Arts, held at the York Theatre Royal. Pete was at the 2009 conference and was fired up by the event in general but specifically by Arts / Social Media practitioner @documentally (also at http://ourmaninside.com/).
A Flickr set below from Pilot Theatre illustrates the 2010 event.
http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649
Basically this is what galvanized Mikron to get the most out of social media and (crudely put) make it work for them in getting not just more bums on seats but a sustained and active audience and supporter base.
What do Mikron use in the social media / web marketing infrastructure?
After the conference, Pete mapped out what channels he wanted to use and the start point for that was a redesigned and rebuilt website to act as the hub for all activity.
1. The website: The existing site had worked well but was a bit difficult to maintain quickly for non-programmer and was essentially a flat site which detailed mainly just tour dates and some of the company’s history.
The new site was rebuilt with a CMS. This needed to be (very) cost effective but also not be so beta buggy that the Mikron team (remember these are actors not programmers) would have to spend hours on forums figuring out any issues they hit. So they went for Perch, which has worked really well for them. The site design and build was done on a shoestring by Bob Lockwood. He did a huge amount willingly for a very competitive rate as a ‘Friend of Mikron’ (see later) so I’m giving him a plug here. Like all cobblers and their own shoes, his own site is under construction so his contact link is via Pete at Mikron.
Also, they haven’t been able to use paid for media (budgets) but have made sure the website is built with Search Engine Optimisation, well, optimised.
2. Facebook : They also setup a twitter account and Facebook page but didn’t rush into using them until they figured out what they wanted to use them for and how to talk and engage through them. Pete didn’t want to have sales channel approach, the idea was to extend the Mikron ’voice’ of being authentic, socially active but approachable.
Pete noted (what those already in marketing will know but was a new area for him) that their use of a new marketing approach wouldn’t be just about the technology, but more about the content they would create / use and the how best to honestly engage with everyone. The ‘everyone’ in Mikron’s case would be previous Mikron audience members, potential audiences; potential or existing venues, critics, existing or potential funders, the acting / theatre world peer group, wannabe cast members and folk in the boating and / or social history world.
The Mikron Facebook fan page was set up in November 2009 and at a time when the tour schedule was quiet: the idea being to make communication channel changes at a time of least activity and get things bedded in before the new season started.
There are (at time of this post being written) 613 Friends / Fans on facebook and 150 or so are active participants from all round the country. You only need those 150 to influence two or three friends each to come and see a show and you’ve got a great boost in revenue.
(Some will have been existing Mikron supporters of course but the point was something Pete and I discussed and I think it is valid).
3. Twitter : I asked Pete how he had fared with using twitter and anecdotally some of the connections Pete has made (as @mikrontheatre ) have had a direct effect on bookings for the shows in the 2010 schedule. he’s also made some great friends (not just ‘leads’).
The number of followers is pretty modest at 230 or so but there has been a fairly passive approach so far (time constraints) so Pete is looking to actively search out and forge links with Mikron prospective audiences / supporters in the coming weeks.
4. Flickr hasn’t been utilised as much as it could be but that is being addressed as part of promotional ideas for the 2011 40th anniversary year of Mikron.
5. Youtube also has some content from Mikron (including an old TV documentary) but it’s only really with this season that a content plan has been put together. They have thier own channel here
I can’t embed videos directly from within the channel here (not sure why) so here’s one I prepared earlier from wide open youtube.
6. The Blog : One of the actors (this year it is Adrian) has been writing a tour blog for the last couple of years – linked of course with the main site (http://mikrontour2009.blogspot.com/). The blog acts like a backstage pass to see what it is to work and tour with a small theatre company and to get to know Mikron in detail.
7. Audioboo: Pete has also been using audioboo more and more to record small audience interviews, cast thoughts etc. In fact, here’s the summation of my interview with Pete, captured on audioboo (much to my horror):
http://audioboo.fm/boos/161902-markkelly333-and-mikrontheatre-discuss-our-web-2-0-strategy
Content generation for these channels comes mainly from Pete and Marianne, but the four touring cast members also created content (e.g. the blog and via Facebook) and Facebook fans also share comments and links on the Mikron page.
The plan now is for all these channels to be pushed further to spread the Mikron word and build a community around Mikron and it’s ethos and content.
Mikron also still use direct mail for some on their database (and to get the tour programmes out). They also use email for those not on Facebook or twitter.
So has this integrated digital marketing approach worked for them ?
The only way to answer that is look at the targets that Pete and team set themselves at the onset:
1. increased footfall (therefore revenue) compared to previous years.
This caused Pete to frown a lot when I asked : That’s because it’s difficult to be really scientific and factor out macro effects like year-on-year changes in grants funding, the weather (which can have a big impact on ticket sales for a theatre company that often performs outdoors), other calls on peoples time (e.g. the world cup).
But some degree of base versus incremental sales has been seen, albeit anecdotally, rather than with a full revenue analysis available at this stage.
Shows have been fuller, more often, than in previous times.
2. New and sustained interest in Mikron
– as measured by web site unique visits, facebook fans and twitter follows.
The old website , with little in the way of concerted traffic driving activity (the url on flyers and show programmes only) gathered c.1,000 visits per year over a 6 year period.
Based on the stats for this year to date, the new site will be getting around 40,000 (Yep – that’s a figure I checked out) unique visits per year. Which is an enormous increase. In anyone’s book.
Aside from the shows themselves, Mikron has 40 years of content that is currently being digitised (music and lovely poster artwork as an example – see end of this post) which can become a revenue stream with eCommerce setup on the website.
Such a massive increase in site traffic makes that an interesting and useful proposition for the company.
3. Increased awareness of Mikron in the Arts space.
All that tweeting has meant the company have been in dialogue with other performers, culture practitioners, commentators and importantly, potential funders.
4. Increased audience / supporter interaction.
As well as an active fan base via the Facebook page, Mikron also have a loyalty programme (in effect) called ‘Friends of Mikron’. If you donate a regular amount on an annual basis you get first shout on ticket sales, news of shows / future work before anyone else and also an invitation to an annual meal and social with the cast and crew, followed by a show.
And more importantly – and why people actually become a Friend, is that you can help sustain a great theatre company.
But to do that first of all you need to know about the Friend’s scheme of course and the website and Facebook do appear to have really spread the word about that.
There has been an increase in the Friends of Mikron members year on year which is great for company in having planned income and a sustained audience network to rely on.
5. Improved auditioning process.
Using social media has meant that more drama graduates/new actors are aware of Mikron and also that they were running auditions at the end of last year. Having a lot of this administered via social media and then email cuts down on the office team’s time in arranging it all. It also gave Mikron a larger field to choose from.
6. Less-time intensive back office admin:
e.g to get a tour set up and kept running (in talking to venues and getting news of ticket sales and /or show changes ‘broadcast out’.) This has definitely improved with the use of both the twitter and facebook accounts.
For points 5 and 6 above, The use of social media means that more images and a greater background on the company is freely available. Previously, explaining to potential actors/venues what Mikron does was very difficult; Mikron can now aim people at the website of Facebook page to answer lots of questions.
I asked Pete if things could be measured more effectively? Or these results improved on? He was candid (and excited) in saying yes to both and he and the team are planning 2011’s activity and related metrics now.
In summary, there have been some great early wins for the company in embarking on a social media approach.
And lots to now build on into their 40th year.
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Sharing the love:
With a true social media philosophy, Pete wanted to share some learning’s.
So here are five things from him to think about if you are starting out :
Research! “I have read lots; a great start is this from documentally http://tinyurl.com/32fpvdh “
Use it! ” Don’t just leave it dormant, make sure you use it well (plan in some content ideas).”
Interact! “We have a creative brain in the arts so make sure you interact creatively, not just the big things make people tick. We have an audioboo of a boat diesel engine (I kid you not!).”
Choose carefully! “Don’t try and do it all at once, but choose your priorities. I’d love to do more video blogging but we simple don’t have times as yet.”
Make friends! “Social media is called social for a reason ..”
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Link to the Mikron audioboo account http://audioboo.fm/mikrontheatre
Some publicity posters from over the years …
Disclaimer from me:
I help Mikron out (less than I’d like to for time reasons) as a member of their ‘council of management’. That’s means I offer my time for free at times in the year when the artistic management team need help or want to kick around some ideas or have a proposal to be discussed. I’m not paid by them or offered any incentive by the other people I mention here.
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