Arts Marketing Association AGM - Blind Data. Nottingham 29th November 2001.
The Galleries of Justice in Nottingham was a somewhat strange venue for the AMA AGM with keynote speakers standing in the dock and the membership in the somewhat hard jurors' seats. The day was an intensive mix of official business with interesting guest speakers throughout.
The AGM was the first item on the agenda for the day with the appointment of the Board Members for 2002. More details of the new board members can be found on the AMA members' pages at www.a-m-a.co.uk.
A brief presentation then followed in respect of the achievemnets of the AMA, most notably focusing on the AMA conference 2001, the most successful yet.
The attendees were then split into smaller groups to discuss and give comments on the outline programme for the 2002 conference, and give feedback on the proposals, which they were promised would feed back into the programming structure. The conference will take place at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall 25-27th July 2002.
The conference as yet untitles will focus on the skills, knowledge and expertise required for the best art to be enjoyed by the most people. The marketing planning process will provide the framework for the conference programme. Keynotes will focus on knowledge and experise and seminare will focus on skills.
Tim Drye - Director of Data Talk
The first keynore apeaker was Tim Drye from Data Talk, a statistical analysis company whose presentation 'How Do You Eat Your Sticky Bun?' was an exploration of how internal and external data are use to achieve marketing objectives and to really understand the audience's needs. A highly interesting presentation using a mixture of strategic models and practical examples to illustrate the uses of internal and external data.
The day was punctuated by lunch, after which followed a dilemma, the choice between two very interesting presentations, a practical session on internal data and a strategic session on external data. It was a pity that the sessions were run concurrently as they were both of relevance to all who attended.
The practical session was hosted by freelance consultant Beth Aplin and examined the question 'In matching customers to performances, how do we formalise and manage (in a strategic way) the data we have and then match that with intimate knowledge of the market?
Adam Thomas - Experian
The strategic session which was hosted by Adam Thomas from Experian, really managed to answer the latter part of the question from the practical session. Adam THomas is currently Head of Leisure within Experian's Micromarketing Division. the leisure business unti deals with a range of business areas within the leisure industry including drinks, travel, arts, gaming and health & Fitness. Adam's presentation drew on a range of case studies from outside the arts and explored the scope and the application of micro-marketing techniques, considering the opportunities for arts organisations and the sector as a whole. This was a fascinating presentation which looked at how you can get the best solutions through the most effective combination of internal and external data. The session looked at the benefits of Mosaic profiling in combination with psychographic profiling, retail sales, performance modelling and lifestyle contacts to create 'super-profiling' and creating specially tailored segmentation variables. Through the right combination of these techniques Adam demonstrated how target marketing and sales could be drastically improved. A more detailed synopsis of these techniques can be found on the Experian website www.micromarketing-online.com.
Sara Selwood, Policy Studies Institute
The final speaker of the day was Sara Selwood, a cultural analyst who edited the recent book The Uk Cultural Sector: Profile and Policy Issues (PSI, 2001) and also edits Cultural Trends. Her presentation reviewed the quality of information available to measure the impact and value of cultural activity in the UK. Her presentation stated with some effect that the data on the cultural sector is often incomplete, inaccurate of unavailable. This means that policy decisions and government initiatives are rarely based on an accurate picture of the sector, and little is known about their impact. Moreover, there is little evidence to show that those data that have been used to inform policy decisions. Despite the fact that the government has sought to increase accountability in the public sector and is moving towards evidence based policy, a considerable reform of data collection and standardisation within the cultural sector is called for.
A final plenary session brougth to a close this intensive but rewarding day.
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