Coffeeloop

I went for a walk today and saw, for the first time, a guy propose to his girlfriend (well, I assume… proposing to a stranger is a pretty big call).

It set me thinking – a proposal, an engagement, they’re all promises of more to come. They are events in their own right, but they aren’t the end goal. The end goal in this case is marriage, which is in itself a process leading to a better relationship… and so on it goes.

This, to my mind, is where we’re at here in the Coffeeloop Cave. We’re exploring the process rather than expecting an end result. When we prototype concerts, we strip elements back, test them and objectively see what works: we throw things to the wall and see if they stick. When you take nothing for granted, you discover things – things you wouldn’t have found out otherwise. This might seem obvious, but that’s sort of the point.

Right now, I’m getting requests to talk about audience engagement and interaction with a number of arts organizations. I’m delighted about this; not only is it fabulously interesting, but it’s also terrifically flattering. But, in these situations, I find myself saying something over and over again that surprises people: getting the audience to engage is not, in fact, your aim.

I believe all you need to achieve is this: interest them in what you’re doing enough to give a damn. That’s it. I said it sounded obvious.

Now is not the time for a bait and switch. People smell rats far quicker than we’d like to think.

You don’t sell steak to a vegetarian hoping they’ll change after the purchase. You have to help them understand that they’re missing the best food available on the planet and then be happy to talk shop with them.

If any summary of the effects of the internet is possible, it is this: good products get the attention they deserve, and excellent experiences will flourish. Let me be clear: any mindset other than “build it and they will come” will fail. People can now find exactly what they love, and where, when and how to experience it. We only need to provide the opportunity.

I know of a famous venue that is planning to entice this ‘youf’ audience in through their hallowed doors: they’re going to host pop/alternative concerts on their second stage, showing they aren’t that stuffy and rigid, then sell them on their “real” content.

They know who they are. If someone from the venue is reading this, please get in touch. I would love to talk with you about how deeply patronising and fundamentally wrong this is…

I would suggest that if they don’t care, they’re not going to be your ambassador; they won’t tell their friends. I think that the ‘engagement’ has to follow like a marriage proposal. You need to get to know each other first, you need to understand the mindset of the other person; of course, not everything is going to work immediately, but you work through it. You talk about it and work it out. The only benefit with this kind of relationship is that, unusually, neither party is right or wrong!

Let’s follow the relationship analogy through. You don’t buy marriage (normally), rather, you find love first and go from there, right?

Your potential audience already exists, in the same way that your potential wife/fiance/husband already exists. You have accept that the lucrative ‘youf’ market isn’t in play. You appreciate that your marriage won’t be the same as The Waltons – and you won’t be as mass-marketable as Miley Cyrus.

Does that devalue your marriage?

Absolutely not. I’m getting tired of people comparing the ‘classical’ market to the pop market and despairing that there’s more money in the pop lands. This is absolutely true. And not in the slightest bit relevant. At no point should the two fuse neatly in the middle, as someone recently asked me to do for them. Money spent on “music consumption” is not earmarked as such in our budgets, but a willingness to spend on things we love is. Most of us don’t earmark a “budget for music consumption”, after all, but rather have a general willingness to spend on the things we love.

If we focus on widening access to the point that there’s no discernible content distinction or authenticty, who are we really benefiting? You might buy some bums-on-seats from curious one-off buyers, but more likely than not, you’ll end up at the same point you started, but you’ll have hemorrhaged money and audience members.

If you go through life aiming for the fix, you’ll miss the best bits. Don’t aim for the buoys in the water; go for an exciting journey.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 9:38 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.