The Queen’s HallAmbITion Roadshow Central | Thursday 27 May 2010

Andy Catlin, Marketing Manager

What? Where? Who?

What? Where? Who?

What? Where? Who?

Our Little Problem…

What I Want The Queen’s Hall To Be…

Click icon to add picturehigh quality

smart

open to all

willing to experiment

dynamic

What I Want The Queen’s Hall To Be…

high quality

smart

open to all

willing to experiment

dynamic

What I Think The Queen’s Hall Is See As…

distant

old fashioned

insular

conservative

out of touch

Click icon to add picture

What I Think The Queen’s Hall Is See As…

distant

old fashioned

insular

conservative

“the son of the manse”

The Goal

To use traditional and digital marketing tools to reposition The Queen’s Hall’s identity in existing and new audiences minds.

And with no additional expenditure.

(we like to think small)

The Strategy

A twin track approach of revisiting traditional marketing materials alongside investment in a range of digital tools.

(Hanging out with the cool kids whilst not scaring Mum & Dad)

Old Timey Marketing

We returned to:

Brochures!

Banners!

Direct Mail!

Meeting People!

(CUE: AUDIENCE GASPS!)

1. Website

Embedded video | Share/Like buttons | Links

2. Email Mailing List

1700 addresses

We have made it:

Regular

Reliable

Inclusive of entire programme

Useful

3. Social Media

We are using:

Facebook

Twitter

MySpace

Flickr

Foursquare

YouTube

Last. FM/Spotify/Grooveshark

Facebook

570 friends

Used only for major announcements

Debate over choice of creating identity vs Fan page

Twitter

1390 followers.

Our most successful and prolific social media tool.

An live, ongoing conversation/research tool/focus group/loudspeaker

3300 tweets in 18 months

MySpace

Very low interest and acquisition rates (a pitiful 27 friends)

Potentially of use for venue – musician contact but has been recently described as “a half deserted shopping mall”

Flickr

41000 views of my amateur happy snaps in one year (on some days our Flickr traffic exceeds our regular website)

All under Creative Commons licence so we encourage people to share and distribute

A more passive community but important in ‘opening up’ The Queen’s Hall to our audiences

Foursquare

56 friends.

We’re experimenting with it both as a location and a user.

Watch this space…

YouTube

Consumption, not creation.

Creating quality content is time consuming and technically demanding

Permission for recording live performance – and linking to it - is still problematic.

Last.FM, Spotify & Grooveshark

Various platforms for embedding, streaming and sharing music.

We can:

- preview future programming

- appear as a creator/influence maker/trusted source

Costs & Results

Costs? Flickr Pro account and the staff resources to find and create content

Web traffic increased year-on-year by 40%

We announce all our shows through Twitter and Facebook first and we immediately sell tickets

Costs & Results

Artistic – we have booked our first show via social media and commissioned an illustrator

Development – we have arranged our first sponsorship deal via social media

Costs & Results

New feedback channel from our audiences (both as direct feedback and as a “listening post” for specific topics)

We are now communicating in a new way with both existing and potential audiences.

We have repositioned The Queen’s Hall in a low/no cost way

Stuff we’re thinking about…

Stop asking for permission

“Change isn’t made by asking permission. Change is made by asking forgiveness, later” (Seth Godin)

Stop talking to ourselves

The people in this room are not your audience

(Image credit Sir Mike Coulter)

Stuff we’re thinking about…

A journey, not a destination

Social media isn’t just for Christmas… The resources will be required permanently

Split Personality

How does your real world experience match your social media one?

Stuff we’re thinking about…

I’m Not Listening To You

A new conversation with the audience?

More Human Than A Human

The tension between the personality of one person and the company.

Why? Why Not?

“You can either go with it or sit back and watch it happen, and I would rather be out on the field than in the bleachers.”

(Michael Stipe, R.E.M.)