Wednesday, April 10, 2013
If all goes as planned, four weeks from now I'll be flying to Portugal to do two marketing workshops with artists in Lisbon and Porto. When I first got the invite, I did the natural thing: I…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:46AMMonday, April 8, 2013
Go to any arts conference and you can hear the chatter. How can we build new audiences? How can we embrace technology? I want to move the art forward but the current audience will not allow …
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:42AMFriday, April 5, 2013
Roger Ebert looked at the tools almost all of us have, social media and the internet, and had a choice to make. He could have used it the way many of us do. He could have numbed himself out …
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:09AMTuesday, April 2, 2013
Yesterday, everyone clearly had their guard up. The more incredible the story was, the less likely they were to believe it. Here's what you have to remember: People are like that EVERY DAY, …
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:39AMThursday, March 28, 2013
Behind all great marketing there is a promise. The promise of a great cup of coffee. The promise of fast delivery. The promise of great design. The promise of low prices. The promise of conv…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:24AMMonday, March 25, 2013
It was my second year of law school. I was preparing to do oral arguments for a mock trial. A mix of laziness and arrogance caused me think that the case was open and shut. I believed that t…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 08:56AMWednesday, March 20, 2013
You can't market what you don't understand. You may have misread that sentence. You may think I was saying that you can't market what they (the public) doesn't understand. That's true. But c…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 10:15AMMonday, March 18, 2013
Marketing is about leveraging assets. The trick is that in order for something to be an asset, you have to own it. For example, you own the emails and direct mail address that were given to …
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:30AMThursday, March 14, 2013
. . . never existed. The days when people had fewer options for their time and attention were not better days for the arts. Easier days, maybe, but not better. The days when you could market…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:40AMMonday, March 11, 2013
I'm very fascinated by the recent discussion of working for exposure/free that has kicked up. This is a particularly vital conversation for the arts because so many artistic fields rely on a…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:30AMFriday, March 8, 2013
Arts marketing plans have their purpose, but I have found that having a set of specific marketing principles is much more useful. For example, at my day job, here are our some of marketing p…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 10:10AMWednesday, March 6, 2013
Plans (marketing plans, business plans, etc.) are useless. Yet, you must plan. Let me explain both those statements. It is cliche, but true, no plan survives contact with the real world. At …
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 10:00AMMonday, March 4, 2013
Here's my the video of my TedxBroadway talk. Reminder: The early bird deadline for The Gift Sessions my arts marketing workshop in Chicago, ends tonight at midnight. Use the promo code Parad…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:30AMFriday, March 1, 2013
Here's my #1 rule when it comes to market research: Never ask a question if you aren't willing to accept AND act upon the answer. This is a particularly relevant set of criteria for those of…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:30AMWednesday, February 27, 2013
This is one of the most subtle, and difficult, parts of the marketing process. A key to success is not only knowing your audience but also knowing if that piece of audience you selected is w…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:33AMMonday, February 25, 2013
As we move into the spring, a few recommendations for you: 1. Uncommon Service - I truly believe that the ability to define and deliver superior customer service is going to be the thing tha…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:30AMMonday, February 18, 2013
This week I'll be down in Philly at the Audience (R)Evolution Convening which is presented by The Theatre Communication Group (TCG). The focus of the convening is audience engagement. One de…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:19AMThursday, February 14, 2013
What's happening around you? What's happening within the community you call your audience? What is your competition doing? Those are marketing question. They don't feel like marketing questi…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:33AMTuesday, February 12, 2013
Note: This will be the featured post for a while. If you're on the website scroll down for new posts. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:42AMYou may know Adam Thurman from his TEDx talks at TEDxMichiganAvenue and TEDxBroadway. I hope you know him from his website, Mission Paradox. And I hope you’ll get to know him at the fi…
SOURCE: 2AMT at 09:30AMFriday, February 8, 2013
Note: This post originally went out to people who get my newsletter. If you just get the blog you aren't getting the full picture. Sign up for the newsletter here ---------------------------…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:30AMWednesday, February 6, 2013
The rich and well established have always expected superior service. When they stayed at the Four Seasons or shopped at Nordstrom they expected to be treated with care. They expected their i…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:11AMMonday, February 4, 2013
What you are trying to do is damn near impossible. You are trying to get people to leave their warm, comfortable, connected home and come to see a piece of art they have to experience, not c…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:18AMTuesday, January 29, 2013
Earlier this week I had the honor of being a part of TedxBroadway. The video from the event is still forthcoming but for now I wanted to share the text of the talk. It's called the The Power…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:30AMWednesday, January 23, 2013
No one cares that you can't make a full time living from your art. No one cares that technology has segmented audience and made it incredibly difficult for even well made art to achieve crit…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:00AMWednesday, January 16, 2013
In addition to my life as an arts marketing consultant/international spy, I'm also the Director of Marketing for one of the largest nonprofit theatres in Chicago. So it's my duty to let you …
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:00AMMonday, January 14, 2013
Every couple of days I send out a report to the entire staff at my day job. It details the sales that have happened each day and gives the cumulative progress toward the bottom line revenue …
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:48AMFriday, January 11, 2013
You can convince yourself that no idea is big enough, or ambitious enough to satisfy you. You can convince yourself that you must get published by that big NYC publishing house to have "made…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:11AMWednesday, January 9, 2013
Most of the time it doesn't work out. The first book doesn't sell very well. Neither does the second. The people don't come to the show. The music doesn't get a lot of downloads. When people…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:30AMMonday, January 7, 2013
Figuring out what to do next is your real job. It doesn't matter what your job title is. It doesn't matter whether you work solo or with a team. Your real value is determined by your ability…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:38AMWednesday, January 2, 2013
Promise me (and yourself) that this year you will: 1. Make more art - If you produce two plays a year, this year produce two plays and six workshops. If you write one book a year, this year …
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:30AM 
