Creative New Zealand selects arts organisations to trial online marketing programme
Wednesday 17 November 2010, 9:11AM
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Three arts organisations will trial Optimise, a new audience development programme launched by Creative New Zealand to give arts organisations the skills to make better use of online marketing.
The NZ International Comedy Festival, Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust and Indian Ink Theatre Company will trial the Optimise programme which has been developed as a result of Creative New Zealand research into the marketing needs of arts organisations. The research findings demonstrated a strong need in the New Zealand arts sector for advice, guidance and best practice principles in online marketing.
Creative New Zealand Chief Executive Stephen Wainwright sees Optimise as an opportunity to lend practical support to the arts sector.
“New Zealand arts organisations are falling behind their international counterparts in their adoption and strategic use of online marketing channels. The NZ International Comedy Festival, Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust and Indian Ink Theatre Company have signalled their desire to improve their capability in this area. This programme will empower organizations to take advantage of new marketing opportunities.”
Louise Gallagher, producer of Indian Ink Theatre Company is excited by the opportunity to trial this new programme. “By using online tools such as social media, our website and new technology we want to engage our audience in ways that will be interesting for them and keep us in regular contact and dialogue with them.”
Learning new ways of doing this Louise says will be hugely beneficial to their marketing. “We are a small successful company and we want to be innovative and cost-effective. Because of our size we are able to act quickly and nimbly and therefore can evolve with technology if we know what we need to do”.
Creative New Zealand will work with Vicki Allpress Hill, of The Audience Connection (www.audienceconnection.com), to deliver the Optimise programme. This will include one-to-one coaching in selected participating organisations as they work on a new online marketing initiative; a series of workshops throughout New Zealand catering to different levels of ability and exposure; and case study presentations at the 21st Century Arts Conference of the outcomes of the coaching.