Communication in Art World. What is in here for business people?

It has almost been three months as I have started my new job in Contemporary Art Organization as Marketing and PR Director. Before this I have worked in different companies but they all were B2C and never related to such areas as art and culture. With over 9 years of experience in PR & MKT I felt quite confident about new role in new organization but the more I spent time there and more I dug deeper I have found out that marketing and PR communication in the world of art is a totally different thing and requires many new skills also I have found out that there are many know-hows which could be effectively implemented in business world. As art people in general are more sensitive and see the world differently they are more sensitive to all PR and Marketing campaigns and what could perfectly work in business world would never work in art. I want to share some findings in this post because I think they can help to shape communication for business purposes up to excellent level as well.

“The right PR is like suspension in a luxury car,” said Bill Powers, gallerist and judge on the reality TV show Work of Art. “You kind of don’t feel it. And that’s how you know it’s good.” (Jovanovic, 2012).

1. Language

Communication language in Art world differs a lot from business environment. The nature of Art influenced even the language people express their thoughts in daily mailings. My first mails I wrote to external parties were so business-like that they perceived them as being offensive and not constructive however from my side in the mails I was just trying to reconfirm some agreements made before. The agency working with artists in London expressed some concerns to my boss about it. Good that he also previously worked in business environment and recognized the issue really fast. So, the first finding: do not rush, take breath and be over polite even if you talk about some real issues. People from Art world will get the message. Awareness about this type of people could be helpful in business as well because you never know the background of the person in fron of you.

2. Social Media

Social media approach is also very different. Of course some common techniques exist. You have to select right message for the audience, be consistent across the platforms and build a community but still it has many differences with business language and approach in general. People interested in art expect social media which represents particular organization, gallery or museum be a part of this art atmosphere, so you cannot post just short messages with promotion or contest or any other easy-to-digest information. People want to know what is behind of the masterpiece to feel a part of it (Black, 2012) and social media can provide this feeling through the photos, videos and extensive information which could not be covered on the website. That could be very useful for the business as well as part of engagement strategy. We rush in business trying to deliver targets and sales figures and as the result content of our communication suffers a lot. But providing high quality communication is important and could positively affect engagement rate.

3. Consumers? No! Participants

In business environment we think about our target audience as the consumers/customers and provide them information about the products and services the company produces. Of course we are concerned with consumer engagement, participation and receptiveness but not to the extent it happens in Art world. For museums, fairs, art exhibitions the target audience is not a group of people who is loyal or not loyal to the products it is a group of active participants who very often know about your product much more than even you do yourself. And that is a big challenge and opportunity at the same time. Participants can make any exhibition much more interesting by being there and contributing and knowing this marketing people should really care about them and involve actively (Richardson, 2015). This knowledge could be very helpful for business community as well and it is worth to look into parallel industry to reapply some good practices to raise the loyalty of the customers.

Reference:

Jovanovic, R. (2012, June 26). Believe the hype! How PR took the Art World. Observer. Retrieved from http://observer.com/2012/06/believe-the-hype-how-pr-took-the-art-world/2/

Black, M.L. (2012, November 05). 6 Social media tips for artists and gallery owners. American Express. Retrieved from https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/articles/6-social-media-tips-for-artists-and-gallery-owners/

Richardson, J. (2015, March 19). The audience is dead – let’s talk participants instead. Museum Marketing. Retrieved from http://www.museummarketing.co.uk/audience-dead-lets-talk-participants-instead/