Advertising & Marketing

Like so much in life, there is a time and place for everything. This is true for advertising.  It’s quite common for many business folks to lump advertising and marketing in the same category.  They are not the same yet “coexist in similar space.” Ever since the beginning of the printing press the “64 thousand dollar question” in advertising is how can we know if it’s working?  It is crucial that serious, concentrated conversations are had for an audit of your advertising budget dollars.  

Often advertisement expenditures in the art world are high on the list for galleries (also Art Fairs) and museums alike.  First, back to advertising vs. marketing.  “Marketing is your creative messaging.” It relates to who and what your business is and who are the clients that you cater to.  

It is also the means to attract new clients in “new markets.”  Your messaging must reflect your personal mission and vision of your company.  If it does not, you could be wasting thousands of dollars.  Do you have powerful tag lines that you use and repeat? Often there are specific marketing/messaging concepts that reflect certain exhibition themes.  Are these themes used in all of your marketing, advertising, and public relations?  

Ad Campaigns

Advertising is the actual vehicle and platform to where that message goes.  This is usually purchased space or time.  For example, radio/print/newsprint, social media, digital, magazines, social and editorial, etc., pose a question.  Do you have a specific ad strategy, and what is it saying (that’s the marketing)?  These are talents and skill sets that often are different entities or people.  

Are you doing these in house or are you working with outside agencies and designers.  If you are lucky you have a single talent that you can message, as well as design and create ads.  It is easy to overlook your messaging doing it off-site.  The term “ad campaign” is still a buzz word in great marketing and advertising.  Do you understand the impact that “an ad campaign” can have in adding to sales and profits compared to one-off ad blitzes? 

There is not a hard and fast rule about the various platforms.  Most often a business will use a diverse range of forms to combine disciplines.  There is no doubt that the quality of your marketing and advertising will affect your brand as well as your sales.  Knowing how, when, and why to use various messaging methods is essential for success and growth.  Ivan Barnett at Serious Play is a huge believer in long-range “campaigns” with marketing that captures the attention of your clients.  This includes different social media platforms.

Know Your Client

“Knowing thy client inside and out must be specifically” profiled.  If you have never done this, you are missing out.  Barnett adds that the landscape of “marketing” and advertisement is usually in flux.  Demographics can change as can the advertising media itself.  Over the many years of being a creative director for one of the nation’s most unusual galleries, marketing was always the juice that kept him going.  Do take some time and look at some of the campaigns that Barnett initiated.  Exhibitions just using wording like “new works” or “holiday exhibition and group show” are becoming outdated as advertisements.  For a real call to action, a perfect example are new movie and book titles.  Great titles ground your exhibition in intrigue and again can affect sales. 

Ivan would love to sit down with you and map out and enter exhibition/events season.  However, if you have not drilled down and codified specifically who your ideal client is, then you have work to do.  Finding your sliver of the marketplace is fundamental, not unlike auto brands. There is a specific consumer for specific brands.  For example, are you a Ferrari,  Porsche, Jaguar, or a Bentley. 

The future financial growth of your business is dependent on your messaging.  Barnett suggests a deep audit of your advertising and marketing budgets to really dissect your past, present and future strategies.  The above also has to do with “re-branding.” This discussion comes into play when tackling your advertising and marketing plans.  When a product is “repackaged,” it is a monumental task, with one foot in your old brand and one foot in your new direction.  For long established businesses, this may be necessary.