Authored by Doug Mowbray and Julie Begley

When bank robber Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks, he replied, “Because that’s where the money is.” As arts marketers you need to be aggressively utilizing digital “because that is where your patrons are…”

Consumers are on the Move

There is a massive shift in media consumption occurring across all demographics. People are broadly consuming media on their own terms and time, and that means digital. This activity continues to disrupt traditional media channels. The perfect example of this is when you receive a friend request from your mother on Facebook!

Ipsos Mendelsohn’s Affluent Consumer in the Digital World study, released in August 2011, shows how massive these shifts are. The study compared media consumption of the General Population versus Affluent Group - those with yearly household incomes over $100k. The average hours spent online per week was 21.7 for the General Population versus 26.2 for the Affluent Group, representing a 20% increase. While both audiences reflect very high levels of digital media consumption, the most interesting data shows how traditional media consumption has changed.  The Affluent Group was consuming 48% less TV and 53% less radio than the General Population.

These types of massive media consumption shifts within an audience that is a primary target for arts organizations raises several important questions. How are you evolving your media?   Does your current media allocation match your patrons’ media consumption?

Technology & the Pace of Change

New technology has a cost, especially the PCs, smart phones and tablets that change your media consumption habits. However, since the cost of technology is declining, we expect digital consumption to continue to grow. The pace of change in technology and its impact on how we consume media is stunning - the Olympics is a great example.

This summer’s Olympics in London was streamed through a multitude of media and interactive channels making it the most connected Olympics ever. Two years ago at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the Apple iPad was just a rumor and today there are more than 67 million sold.

As arts marketers you know that effective marketing is targeted marketing. Digital is highly targeted, measurable and cost-efficient media - ideal for engagement & activation, and digital campaigns can integrate search, social, display, video, mobile and tracking.

Arts marketing guru, Thomas Cott of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and You've Cott Mail, said it best when he pointed out to the audience at Dance USA in San Francisco this past June, in addition to measuring ROI, it is critical to evaluate Digital COI  - “Cost of Ignoring” Digital.

To hear more from Doug Mowbray, President and CEO and Julie Begley, Managing Director, MoGoARTS Marketing, REGISTER HERE for their August 22nd webinar, Digital Marketing: Today’s Most Actionable Direct Response Tool.