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1999). The promotion plan should address the availability of promotional tools and
communication channels that are normally thought of as being either impersonal or personal
and the latter have particular importance for the arts. Personal influence can be a crucial factor
in building the audience (p. 170) and this also applies to the use of social media. Personal
communication (selling, negotiating) is an important part of your overall communication
strategy, while impersonal communication channels include advertising, public relations or
publicity, in-house point-of-sales displays, exhibition materials and sales promotion (p. 171).
Building an audience for any form of performance, with well directed advertising and publicity
campaign positive as well as word-of-mouth, can be stimulated (Fitzgibbon et al, 1999).
Dickman (2000) points out that effective promotions demand an annual planned program which
combines both paid advertising and unpaid promotions. Setting a promotional budget is not
something that can be easily done. Budgets can account for 3 to 15 per cent in profits, but
organizations or individuals often set aside an amount of money and then try to spend it as
effectively as possible (p. 127).
Paid promotions include advertising (print, broadcast media) and direct marketing (mail,
telephone and online); they usually provide information which the public needs in order to make
a purchase decision (performance times, costs, exhibition dates, reservations and booking
numbers) (Dickman, 2000).
Advertising
Paid advertising media include: Print media (newspapers; magazines; trade journals and papers;
association publications; special interest publications; guidebooks and catalogues); Broadcast
media (radio; television; Internet); Display advertising (posters; billboards; information
displays). Media selection depends very much on the message and the target market (Dickman,
1997, pp. 60-61). On the advantages of paid advertising, Dickman (1997) states that they are
closely related to the degree of control the organization has. Paid advertising gives advertisers
the right to select the exact media which will be used, the precise message to be delivered, and
to specify the time, location, number of repetitions, and distribution of the advertisement.
Newspaper advertisement provides the organization with full control over the advertised
material i.e., its length, the exact wording and illustrations used, the day of the week in which
it will appear, the number of times it will be run and, for an additional fee, the page and position
of the advert. In radio and television, the advertiser has complete control over the script, the
setting, the actors, and all elements of the production of the advertisement. The advertiser also
controls the radio or television stations on which the advert will be broadcast, controlling the
time and frequency of the broadcasts (pp. 60-61).
Display advertising is one of the most popular forms of advertising in the arts and entertainment
industry, as it is cost-effective and highly visible. Posters may even become collectors’ items
or souvenirs. You can use volunteers or staff to hand out flyers, put signs in shop windows, and
set up displays at shopping centers. However, you must remember that in most cases, and
depending on the law, approval or permission may be required for distributing information in