Mid-America Arts Alliance Marketing and Communications Committee

November 6, 2019

4:15–5:15 p.m. Crossroads Hotel

Kansas City, Missouri Private Dining Room

AGENDA

I. Welcome and Announcements Kym Koch Thompson, Chair II. Action Kym

a. Minutes June 2019 * III. Discussion Kym Koch Thompson and

Melissa Thoma a. Branding

IV. Other Business Kym V. Adjourn Kym ________________ * Action item

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Mid-America Arts Alliance Marketing and Communications Committee

Thursday, June 6, 2019 La Fonda on the Plaza Santa Fe, New Mexico

Minutes

In Attendance: Rich Vierk, Chair; Kym Koch Thompson, Chair; Melissa Thoma, Vice-Chair; Ed Clifford; Stacey Dillon; Michael Donovan; Linda Hatchel; Candy Henning; Amber Sharples Absent: Lona Barrick; Sandi Sanders; Hector Villarreal; Mildred Knape Witte Guests: Billie Barnett; Ken Fergeson; Gary Gibbs; Garbo Hearne; Ruth Keene; Nancy Lee Kemper; Holbrook Lawson; Dorothy Morris; Don Munro; Gregory Perrin; Dan Sabatini; Frank Uryasz; Suzanne Wise Staff in Attendance: Todd Stein, President & CEO; Margaret Keough, Director of Marketing and Communications; Angie Hart; Steven Crays; Regina Schneider Welcome and Announcements The meeting was called to order by Kym Koch Thompson. Koch Thompson welcomed everyone and shared that there were no action items since the minutes, workplan, and departmental budget had been approved during a previous meeting. Discussion Marketing Task Force Findings Margaret Keough shared that most recently, the Marketing & Communications Task Force discussed where staff members are spending their time. It showed that of the five team members, there are actually three who comprise the marketing team. One of those three is the graphic designer and she works on print and web materials, email design elements, and the digital annual report. That leaves Beth Maggard, communications manager, and Keough dealing with the rest of the pie. Keough places the exhibitions on the websites and manages those exhibitions websites. Maggard writes the press releases, sends email and provides social media. Keough was looking at the roles everyone plays. There is the exhibition side and all the communities they go to. Then there is artist services and Artist INC and the many cities it goes to. With each community there is a new group of people and community to engage. Additionally, there is Artists 360 in NW Arkansas and Interchange, the new social change grant program. Professional development through organizations has Engage in Houston and Kansas City. Grantmaking has year-long programming with the Regional Touring Program and special grant-making projects like Jazz Road and Artistic Innovations.

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Keough explained that maybe Mid-America would look at itself as major league baseball and all the programs are different teams. Each team has its own fanbase and entity, and Mid-America is there to push it up. A recent idea was to work with the program teams and work with an agency and then the in house team creates a series of templates and content calendars and then hands it over to the program managers to execute. Of course, that relies on those managers having some knowledge of marketing and communications. Another option would be to have meetings where the program manager meets with the marketing team and shares their needs and they provide the support based on their goals. Koch Thompson shared that the task force has been looking at how to move forward with marketing of Mid-America and its programs. Given Keough’s effort in capturing her teams time and to make the delineation between what is marketing and what is sales, what the organization has is two people marketing all the programs. With the other three, two are focused on sales and one is focused on graphic design. The question is based on where everyone wants Mid-America to be in the next three to five years, how is it determined to build out the marketing team? Is it built out based on the current budget spent on each of those programs? Is it that all marketing channels need to be engaged in all marketing programs or is it determined that some programs don’t need it? Where should the focus be on determine where to spend the team resource? Melissa Thoma explained that you also have to add Mid-America’s brand and awareness in the six states. There is programmatic marketing and big brand marketing. Big brand marketing in the non-profit world tends to support the development efforts in a big way. The programmatic marketing is much more tactical and has its own goal and objectives. Candy Henning asked about the budget that contains consulting fees of $33,000. She was wondering if that is allocating staff time or outside consulting? Todd Stein explained that when M-AAA applies for new grants for a new program, the program managers will incorporate a marketing budget into that grant. This specifically is to outsource some services for the tenth anniversary of Artist INC. Billie Barnett shared that Mid-America is calling itself different things and what should be used? Koch Thompson said that so far the task force has not discussed that specifically, but it is agreed that something needs to be decided upon and then used going forward. Once the brand is decided upon then all the programs would follow those brand elements. Although it has not been determined, it definitely needs to be. Keough shared that with the five employees their time is allocated to different areas with some of their time going to development, grants, and other portions of the operations. Gary Gibbs suggested that the focus for the marketing team going forward should be sales. Any arts organization that has a marketing department, it is incumbent on them to focus on sales, particularly with Mid-America stressing the importance of earned income. Koch Thompson agreed and it makes sense that two people are dedicated to sales. In the past, discussion has

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included there is not enough awareness of who Mid-America is and what it does. That is where it needs to be determined the team will focus on sales only or marketing the agency and its programs as well as sales. Thoma added that what often happens is that marketing often becomes a huge catch all and M-AAA would do well if in the next three to five years it understands the sales function and the marketing and communications function are two separate functions that support one another. Sharples feels that Mid-America has a crisis in branding. There is a lack of understanding within communities. The sales are important, but if you are driven to brand the organization by sales, then it will never become a priority. Koch Thompson explained that the effort made in branding the organization has been largely and almost solely through communication. Examples would be PR, materials, earned media, and people talking about Mid-America in the region. Very little has been through paid media, television, radio or advertising. Even digitally there is little or no presence. These are areas that with a little bit of budget, could make a huge impact on raising the brand awareness of the programs and the organization which would then aid in sales. Koch Thompson and Thoma feel that more resources are needed in Keough’s department to achieve the goal. For the short-term, Mid-America needs an outside resource that would help determine a brand strategy that is far reaching and the language of the brand to give consistent. That would then be beneficial in developing the templates for all the digital content so that everything going out has a brand message embedded in it. In the long-term, with enough fulltime employee resources, the in-house team could do it on an ongoing basis. Thoma explained that the cost of bringing in an outside resource varies widely and if you could skip some of the already completed research then maybe it could be done in the $25,000-$50,000 range. This would be in general, using market research from somewhere else. In Thoma’s firm, when an entire brand system is needed, then the price would be $100,000 and up. For Mid-America there is a lot of board expertise that can assist and really make it possible. Gibbs added that a large challenge is the name of the organization. For example, it’s the Tulsa Symphony or the Alley Theatre. You know immediately what it is. The Mid-America Arts Alliance does not describe what it is and does. It is a huge barrier to overcome. Henning agreed with Thoma that experts need to be brought in to do this work. It is not something that can be done by the organization. Budget and money are always a concern, but in five years a look back would show that it is money well spent. Koch Thompson explained that Thoma’s cost estimates are a bargain for what Mid-America would get. Where other cost might occur would be in changing of signs, letterhead, and the other brand marks. Koch Thompson asked if the marketing and communications model would be a part of the responsibility of the outside resource. Thoma explained that in the task force several models have been discussed. One is almost a retail model where M-AAA is the umbrella brand only. The program would have its own brand and identity with Mid-America underneath that.

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Personally, Thoma thinks it is dangerous, because in non-profits a lot of funders are investing in the organization, not a specific program. Another model is having the strategy happen with each of the programs. The programs develop the budget and marketing strategy. The marketing team actually works as an in-house agency. With this model, the program managers have to know marketing and sales strategy. A third model would be the marketing team working with external help to develop an overarching marketing strategy and help determine the resources needed for that strategy and then executing it together. Keough commented that you have to look at those who are served, what do they look for and who do they turn to. As a board, brand and region, it’s important that M-AAA is seen as a collective. Keough worries about the model where the marketing team relies on the program manager. Keough believes it’s a mission and service organization and it’s about who M-AAA serves. The programs can come and go, but the organization remains. In effective communications, using the “start with why” concept, the M-AAA programs are the “what” of the organization. M-AAA has to articulate the “why,” which is the basis of the mission. The why does M-AAA do this and why does it exist? Then you talk about what is being done to bring the why to life. Koch Thompson believes that the program manager should not be driving the marketing, sales, and communication strategy. It should be driven by the internal team in conjunction with the program managers explaining their goals for their programs. She also agrees that M-AAA should be the mothership brand and not driving it on the brand of the programs in and of themselves. They can have their own brands, but they need to be under the mothership brand. Koch Thompson believes that the team should start there. Stein asked what a healthy budget looks like? Thoma explained it varies by industry, but there are some rules of thumb. An organization maintaining marketing goal allocates 3-5%. An organization that has a growth goal with a need and objective, then 8-10% is not out of the equation. It would definitely help to get to the branding goals. Koch Thompson asked if those percentages are the same for non-profits. Thoma explained that it can be. Some non-profits will have very aggressive marketing budgets. Most non-profits are underfunded and marketing budgets cannot be as aggressive. If the organization could allocate 10% to budget, Koch Thompson asked how the allocation would happen. Thoma suggested that it would be to blend the programmatic designation with an overall M-AAA marketing strategy. Vierk added there is the issue of the M-AAA branding and the underlying products within M-AAA. Koch Thompson explained that the products, ExhibitsUSA or NEH on the Road will not change in any way, but the language will include the MAA branding like the phrase “brought to you by.”

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The M-AAA branding on the website and everywhere else will make it clear that these programs don’t come from anyone other than M-AAA. Vierk wondered if the model going forward was as a service organization or as a pass-through organization. More and more, the programs increasing the budget are the revenue generated programs. Thoma shared that there are a lot of strategies around naming. The brand research should provide some suggestions. Often times the research will turn up if the organization would benefit from a name change. She believes that some of the concerns with the name are because the overall brand awareness has not penetrated the constituent groups enough. Adjourn There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned by Kym Koch Thompson.

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Mid-America Arts Alliance Marketing and Communications Committee

4:15 p.m., Wednesday, November 6 Crossroads Hotel

Private Dining Room

DISCUSSION TOPIC: Branding

Background: Working in concert to the next strategic plan for Mid-America Arts Alliance, the Marketing and Communications Task Force has determined the need to clarify M-AAA’s brand promise and create a brand architecture for the organization. Finding brand unity will allow M-AAA to apply a cohesive brand across the enterprise in step with the strategic plan.

In this meeting, we will review the core ideas around branding and brand alignment. Along with creating a brand architecture, this first phase will also ask for recommendations for marketing strategy in phases two and three to allow for implementation and corresponding budget cycles.

Questions for discussion: 1. What is important for us to consider in this branding exercise? In past task force and

board discussions, we determined that our target audiences are familiar with M-AAAprograms such as NEH on the Road and Exhibits USA. But they are not always clear thatthese programs are sub-brands of M-AAA. How do we transition M-AAA from a group ofprograms or sub-brands to an organization with a master brand and sub-brandedprograms?

2. What do we want M-AAA and its brand to be in the next three to five years with its 50th

anniversary in 2022?

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