Developing digital engagement

The Arts Marketing Association (AMA) launched its first Digital Marketing Academy in June last year as part of Arts Council England's Audience Focus programme. The first cohort of 'fellows' who participated in the programme graduated this March and, in what seems like a relatively short space of time, a group of eager arts marketers have made real change to marketing strategies and initiatives in their organisations. Some have also made strides in cultural change and the ways in which their organisations view and conduct digital marketing activity. Many of the fellows applied to join the academy with just a seed of an idea, not knowing exactly how to change for the better what they were already doing and wondering how their work on digital marketing could really make a difference – to their organisation and ultimately the arts and cultural sector as a whole. One of the aims of the academy is for arts marketers to devise, test and develop digital marketing experiments, and then to share learning across their organisations and throughout the sector.

One of the benefits of this style of working was getting the buy-in from the rest of his organisation because the end-results were tangible and available quickly

The learning outcomes included audience segmentation, breakthroughs in the use of Google Analytics, the development of a crowdfunding website, data analysis and auditing, increased knowledge of Facebook advertising, exciting A/B email testing, analysis of social media strategy and investigations into staff digital functions and organisational structure.

The fellows were asked to think differently, try something new, implement new marketing initiatives and inform strategic shift and cultural change. The learning from both fellows and mentors has been documented on our blog and topics include overcoming the fear of failure, the digital dilemma and the power of listening. Findings and outcomes from the experiments are being shared with the wider sector through case studies on CultureHive.

The Digital Marketing Academy is about changing the ways in which we work as arts marketers: in an agile way, in an experimental environment and practising digital marketing iteratively. Steve Woodward from A New Direction developed a new online platform bringing teachers and arts organisations together. He had a clear idea of what he wanted to develop but needed the impetus of the academy to set his ideas in motion. He relished the experimental style of working – a cultural shift for him and his organisation. The scary moment came when Steve launched his new platform in beta mode – a new way of working, an unpolished, unfinished product going into the public domain. And yet more research, learning and exploration came out of this method because users understood that feedback was encouraged and welcomed by the organisation in order to improve and launch the platform formally. Steve changed his work processes, adopted an agile working method and implemented short experimental periods. One of the benefits of this style of working was getting the buy-in from the rest of his organisation because the end-results were tangible and available quickly.

Dawn James and Holly Connelly, joint fellows from Tricycle Theatre, also commented that “focusing on small experiments around a bigger project ensured we could acquire new skills and make progress in bite-sized chunks”.

Successful applicants were paired with a mentor, ranging from digital marketers from the business world to international social media experts, digital strategists and consumer behaviour experts. There were also online workshops and facilitated Action Learning Sets throughout the programme. These encouraged real digital marketing experiments on real audiences in real organisations. The entire programme took place online which meant no travelling and no extra expense.

April 2015 saw the online launch of CultureHive Digital Marketing Academy 2.0, with twenty-five new arts marketers and eight digital experts joining the academy. Members continue to come from a range of arts and cultural organisations, this year including Sadler’s Wells, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and New Writing North. The number of mentors has increased and there are online workshops planned as part of the initial training for fellows. Steve Woodward sums up his experience as a fellow: “You feel challenged and empowered to try new things, explore and take risks in your practice within a positive and supportive environment.”

Verity Sanderson is Programme Producer of Arts Marketing Association.
http://a-m-a.co.uk/

CultureHive Best Practice is managed by the Arts Marketing Association, in partnership with The Audience Agency, part of Arts Council England’s Audience Focus programme, supported by Lottery funding.