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Jim Royce

Jim Royce is Director of Marketing, Communications and Sales for Los Angeles' Center Theatre Group: Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum and Kirk Douglas Theatre. His blog will soon appear at JimRoyce.com.

Is Advertising Really Dead?
by Jim Royce

Seth Godin, author of Unleashing the Ideavirus, Free Prize Inside! and Purple Cow, wrote, "when advertising is creating only noise, the remedy is to create more noise to get attention. When there is too much noise. Marketing is dead." He goes on to say that brands and idea stand out when something enables chatter and they becomes "remarkable" by virtue of their unique voice or natural ability to stand above the racket. For Godin it's like a long drive in the countryside, seeing one field of cows after another and in a flash one cow is "purple." It provokes instant memorable conversation.

"The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about." Oscar Wilde

Ideas and products can be sticky, but need constant refreshment to remain sticky. Apple's iPod has been transformed into so many useful models over time that people keep talking about it and buying millions of new versions, including one packaged in the iPhone. If we had only the original model, we would not be talking about it any more.

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On which medium does your organization spend the MOST money each year?

• Print (magazine/newspaper)
• Direct mail
• E-marketing (Web and e-mail)
• Radio
• Other

Click here to answer & see results

Marketing Sherpa's E-mail Award Winner Gallery 2007
Here's a quick way to keep an eye on the corporate world's e-mail success. Take a look at the Marketing Sherpa 2007 e-mail marketing award winners. You'll see their picks of best 39 e-mail campaigns of the past year -- including best B-to-B campaigns, best e-mail newsletters, best retail promotions, and even best podcasts from brands, such as Sprint, Olympus, Nickelodeon, Dell, AAA, Doubleday, and The Motley Fool.

Privacy commissioner slams Ticketmaster for collecting private info.
A Canadian privacy commission discovered that Ticketmaster was requiring ticket purchasers to share their personal information and e-mail address with outside parties.

Six Tips to Win Back Inactive Subscribers
The age-old question, "How do you win back e-mail subscribers who are no longer paying attention to your e-mails?" Lots of good tips and techniques here.

Gene Carr, President of Patron Technology, has been keeping a blog for the past year, in which he provides a snapshot of his perspective on what's going on in the e-marketing world now, and how it relates to arts marketing. Here are some excerpts of recent posts.




Don't Take It From Me
My friend and colleague Stephanie Miller, VP of Strategic Services for Return Path, was at the Email Insider Summit, a corporate e-mail marketing event last week, and on her blog she summarizes her observations. And when I read her post, I recognized that a lot of what I've been saying holds true in the corporate world. Here are a few of her key points...

A Clever Kind of Family Concert
One of our clients e-mailed about a new kind of family orchestra concert, and it surprised me that I hadn't heard of anything like this before. Up until now, family concerts meant adults sitting with their kids listening to a concert designed for kids. Now the Arts Viva Symphony Orchestra in Chicago has a new spin on that, called "Music for Life." Here's what they say about it....


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If you'll be in New York this weekend for the APAP conference, we'd like to invite you to a FREE off-site seminar!

This is a "how to" session. We'll focus on key ways to improve your e-mail results. Learn:

• Great e-mail design: Learn effective e-mail design and layouts with PatronMail.
• How to achieve excellent open rates: Learn how to write subject lines and plan the right frequency for your campaigns.
• The nuts & bolts on getting started: You know everybody is doing this e-mail thing -- now you can see exactly how to get started for yourself.