Smart Arts - Creative New Zealand

Direct marketingDirect marketing involves finding your public and placing your promotional materialdirectly into their hands. For example, send a personalised letter to their home ratherthan place an advertisement in the daily newspaper for them to possibly see. Anotherexample of direct marketing is handing out flyers outside an event similar to your ownevent. You need to know your target markets and know what to place in their hands.Direct marketing is about quality rather than quantity. It is by far the most cost-effectiveform of advertising and helps you build closer relationships with your audiences. LikeChinese whispers, a message becomes weaker at every stage in a communication chain.If you can speak directly to your public you have a better chance of getting your messageacross intact. It also engenders a feeling of inclusiveness in the recipient, giving themfurther motivation to attend. And that’s what marketing is about – giving people reasons togo to your show.You need to get inside the heads of the people you’re trying to reach. How would theyrespond to what you’re planning to send them?4PIGGY-BACKINGIf another organisation isdoing a mail-out, you caninsert your material withtheirs. If this organisationis willing to write anendorsement for yourevent, even better.Contact listsWhen you’re compiling a contact database, which includes contact details forindividuals, make sure you comply with the principles of the Privacy Act(www.privacy.org.nz/top). The most relevant principles are:• Personal information must be collected directly from the individual concerned or from apublicly available source, unless the person has authorised an agency to pass on his/herinformation.• When you’re compiling a contact database from a source that isn’t publicly available(e.g. from box-office information), the person concerned must consent for theinformation to be collected and be told why it’s being collected.• Personal information must be kept secure and can only be used for the purpose for whichit was collected. It cannot be shared without permission.• A person has the right to ask to be removed from your contact database.There are no privacy restrictions on collecting and storing contact details for organisationsor businesses.Your type of event will dictate the best ways to locate targets for direct mail. With thefestival of children’s writers (page 10), you would need to source lists of local schools andany book groups; with the dance show (page 10), you should source lists of local dancegroups and women’s business networks; and with the Mäori-Pacific theatre production(page 10), you might like to use runanga, marae, or Mäori and Pacific business networks.Most tertiary institutions also have Mäori and Pacific student networks, which shouldprovide a good opportunity to market this production.Smart arts | Toi huatau42