An arts ambassador is a type of product ambassador. Put simply, this is someone who is enthusiastic about your product and encourages others to try it. They are known in the commercial world as, brand ambassadors or brand advocates. The important aspect of this way of working is that your message is passed on in a personalized way and the ambassador is motivated out of genuine enthusiasm, even when paid to do so.
Ambassadors tend to be very good communicators, connected to one or many communities. It has been said that most people know around 300 people including contacts such as the dentist and work colleagues. These contacts also know around 300 people each, so each of us has access to about 90.000 people. A good ambassador can tap into a lot of networks. Malcolm Gladwell, author of the bestseller, The Tipping Point reckons that once a word of mouth wave hits 150 people, it spreads into an epidemic. The kind of epidemic most arts organizations would welcome with open arms.
Word of mouth is not new. We all know about it, use it in both our private and professional lives. What is new is the way many arts organizations are managing word of mouth in a strategic way through arts ambassadors. The more sophisticated schemes use ambassadors to feed back information to the arts organization on the needs of the target market. The ambassador then becomes a living bridge.
If you think about what a team of people talking about your product in the marketplace can do, you start to see many possibilities. They can address a number of marketing concerns, for example:
they support differentiation of your brand: they support new attendees in understanding why they should choose your brand.
they address communities of interest: people who share a particular identity. Most ambassadors tend to be from the community they are targeting, students targeting students, parents targeting other families and so on.
they help arts organizations to address micro-segments: a small group or even one person. Ambassadors can provide tailored one to one connection and service to a target group.
they can augment your workforce and marketing action through being an extension of your organization out there in the marketplace. They have time to listen, to chat, to explain and to address concerns.
A key thing ambassadors provide of course is audiences, particularly new audiences. Theres no rule on how many ambassadors you need per project, but from information available it looks like one good ambassador can achieve between 25 to 105 audience members per year. So a team of 20 ambassadors can make quite a difference.
Arts ambassadors are in fact employed to do a variety of other things, such as distribute promotional materials, act as a roving box office and conduct action research.
Arts ambassadors have been used successfully by a variety of different arts organizations, from theatres, to carnivals to different arts venues working together across a city. There are of course some differences in the way they are used, for example a museum might train its ambassadors to give basic tours of the exhibits, a theatre might ask its ambassadors to accompany a new attendee, watch a show and discuss it with them afterwards.
Different approaches
There are several models of working with arts ambassadors. Two of the most common approaches are:
the promotion focused approach, where ambassadors function as a promotional tool. In this model, a team of community promotion and sales workers aim to target new attendees and increase attendance. The ambassador is primarily a sales representative for the arts organization.
the audience development approach, where ambassadors are a two-way bridge between arts organizations and audiences, often within a wider arts development program where their effect may be felt across the whole organization. In this model, a partnership develops arts organizations, audiences and communities by using an integrated range of activities including, targeted training, programming and commissioning. The ambassador is an advocate for both the arts organization and the target community. This approach requires that the arts organization and partners are responsive and flexible.
An example of a scheme that focuses on sales is one run by the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) who recruited 41 voluntary student ambassadors for their 2004 season. This team generated 488 ticket sales with the most successful ambassador selling 84 tickets. Tickets were sold via SMS (mobile phone texting) and the cost was offset partly by selling ring tones. LSO view the ambassador project as an investment project which brings in new attendees who they can then invite on to higher value attendance and membership.
An example of a scheme that took the audience development approach is the Arts Ambassador Unit (AAU) in the city of Manchester, in the north-west of England. This three year city-wide pioneering project which ended in 2001 aimed to target black and Asian audiences who were underrepresented at the time as audiences. The AAU employed 42 ambassadors and supported the development of 11 new arts projects, commissions, and a major season of black dance. A total of 33 venues and agencies were involved in the marketing of 112 different black arts events including 44 participative projects. They also trained 40 young black people in arts marketing and facilitated their placements in arts organizations. A recorded 31.000 people attended and participated in AAU supported projects. A survey demonstrated that overall representation of black audiences had increased from three to five percent, with certain venues achieving up to 30% representation at that time. Research showed that 43% of attendees cited ambassadors as their primary influence.
How to find ambassadors
Good recruitment is key to a successful ambassador scheme and unfortunately this is sometimes rushed as managers underestimate the skills and training required. Finding good ambassadors often requires good word of mouth promotion itself. Methods that have worked include:
asking current visitors, workshop attendees or staff for contacts.
putting out adverts in the local press, newsletters, website, radio.
distributing flyers and postcards through local networks.
stalls or posters at community events and meetings.
Ambassadors are entrusted with your brand. The way they talk about your program or event can have a powerful impact in the outside world. Its an important job which could make arts managers nervous, but surprisingly most schemes seem to just trust their ambassadors to get the job done well. However, some support their ambassadors in achieving this more than others. Some arts organizations pay their ambassadors and some hire a coordinator but equally many schemes use volunteers with very good results.
Many ambassadors volunteer because they love an arts form, to learn something new or to meet new people. It all depends on the relationship of the arts organization with the target market. Asking representatives of a low-income community to work for nothing may not be well received for example.
Ambassadors do get it wrong, for example saying an event is more exciting than it is, but this seems to be a rare occurrence and good briefing and training can make sure it stays that way.
The use of arts ambassadors appears to be growing in the UK. In 2002 there were around 50 known initiatives. Many more have been created since then. The ambassador method has also been tested outside Europe in the USA, Australia and New Zealand for example. Its a methodology that arts managers are still learning about and developing models of practice for. There is plenty of evidence that it works well for short-term sales and can be cost effective. There is still a need to look at the long-term impact of some of the more ambitious, longer audience development focused schemes.
Whether working with Arts Ambassadors is a blessing or a steep learning curve is partly down to preparation. Before recruiting a team of ambassadors, spend some time thinking about:
what you want to achieve and whether you are mainly interested in sales or also in social development.
making enough time to manage your new team of ambassadors.
how you will train them.
how you will replace those who leave.
how you will deal with ineffective ambassadors.
how you will make sure your box office, reception, service staff fully support your ambassador team.
how you will monitor how effective your ambassadors are.
Think of it as setting up a new department. There will be new challenges and demands to manage as a result of this department, but also new ideas, skills and relationships. New connections bring new horizons and that is one of the most exciting aspects of working with ambassadors: you can never quite predict what they will teach you.
Auteur: Mel Larsen mel@melanina.wanadoo.co.uk
