3378 Promotion of tango in general
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 02:33:48 +0200
From: Ecsedy Áron <aron@MILONGA.HU>
Subject: Promotion of tango in general
Dear List,
As an attempt to change back to tango from the soap opera...
Does anyone have or know about marketing/PR/communication strategies to
promote tango in a given city/state/area etc., or to actually sell tango as
a product? (I am talking about tango in general: not just one
school/teacher, or a bunch of schools/teachers)
I am looking for good practices in the promotion of tango. I am merely
hoping that countries with more experience with capitalism have already been
involved in such a campaign.
If there is no written material but you have experiences with promotional
campaigns I'd like to have your 'tips for tango marketing'!
Thank you!
Best wishes,
Aron
Ecsedy Áron
***********
Aron ECSEDY
Tel: +36 (20) 329 66 99
ICQ# 46386265
https://www.milonga.hu/
"Follow those who seek the truth.
Run from those who claim to have found it."
Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2005 09:36:08 +0200
From: Eero Olli <eero.olli@ISP.UIB.NO>
Subject: Re: Promotion of tango in general
Part II:
SPECIAL TARGET GROUPS:
Sometimes one wants to target a particular group of people. We have done
this when we have seen that we need more young people into our milongas. We
try to target one group - for example university students. Be visible at the
university a few times during the month before a beginners class. Market at
one place only. We suspect that more of the people will stay, if the group
has people who know each other and can relate to each other. Next month we
could choose a different target group. In general however, we have not
marketed our classes for a particular group, only when we wanted to create a
better balance.
We have had guerilla gigs at places where we new some important business
people would be, because we wanted to few months later to get their company
to sponsor the festival (=buy many seats to the shows).
Offer dance classes for companies. It is a nice perk to give for employers.
Make a gift certificate for a dance classes. A great gift for anyone! You
can give them around for your business associates as a Christmas gift (which
does not cost you anything, if the classes are not fully booked). There are
always some people, whose cooperation and goodwill has been important during
the last year (restaurant owners, the waiters, club-owners, etc). If they
know how to dance....
If you have some great mucisians coming to town, why not try to get the
local music college interested, so that there will be lectures/sessions with
the music students. We want more tango!
Try to hook up the foreign musicians with a local band. A great opportunity
for them to learn more about tango. And you probably will get a concert out
of it, a local band with a foreign 'star'.
I hope that some of these experiences, can be used to create interest around
tango. I think that the best way to promote tango is to make more tango
happen!
Sincerely,
Eero
http:\\eero.no
I have previously been involved in a tango club in Bergen, Norway
http:\\www.bergentango.no
Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2005 15:38:35 +0200
From: Eero Olli <eero.olli@ISP.UIB.NO>
Subject: Re: Promotion of tango in general
> Aron ECSEDY wrote: I am looking for good practices in the promotion of
tango.
PART I
Hi Aron,
There is much that can be done. The offical approach would be
A) What is the purpose of the promotion.
B) Define an audience
C) Define the message you want to convey (keep it simple).
D) Increase visibility for you message in the right audience.
To start with, I would say that be conscious about marketing, but do not
spend much time and energy on it. It is more important to have a good
product (a great club with nice people). Build continuity in marketing
your regular work. One campaing will not achieve much. Think about rather
as community building - show glimpses of this great community you have - and
people will want to join.
High visibility for a bad product is bad publicity. If you have a
campaign, you need to channel the created interest into something.
We have marketed DANCING not show. Thus what matters is that the people
dancing are enjoying themselves, and not afraid to show it. We do not
pretend we are professional dancers. And frankly, I think that too much
show-dancing will just scare people off. It is not what people want to DO.
We show them things they could do THEMSELVES.
These are examples from things we have been doing over several years.
TARGET THE GENERAL PUBLIC:
We have arranged 3 large festivals and one mediums sized one. We used a
concert hall with 1400 seats, and we have a community of perhaps 200
dancers. Thus we needed to make sure that there would be 1000 non-dancers
coming. The storylines were that tango is an exiting dance, and some of
worlds best dancers and orchestras from Buenos Aires/Paris/etc are coming to
town. We feed the local and national media with stories and pictures of our
artists over a 6 month period. You can get quite many stories out of an
large event if you market - the decision to have an event, the orchestras,
CDs, dancers, shows... Use the least publishable unit approach. Do not give
everything away at once.
Locally, we made sure that we were visible at the right places. We had
several performance gigs:
First, one choreographed piece, almost like a 30 min theatre piece, that we
performed perhaps 10-15 times in town and nearby during the months before
the festival, (with press coverage). We had lots of fun making it, and many
people saw it. If this piece is good enough, you can actually sell it to
the crowd, or companies who need some entertainment to their dinner parties.
For dinner entertainment, a 15 minute piece, with only few people is better.
Second, outdoor milonga gigs. We would send a group of 3-10 couples just
dancing (no show) on different venues. We would bring our own sound
equipment and a roll of vinyl to dance on. This could happen at a few
plazas downtown with lots of people during nice weather. These are
important, because it is very easy to come in contact with people watching
us.
Third, our shopping-mal gigs. We did get shopping malls to pay for us to
dance in the malls. One to three couples would dance a 10 minute session
(mix of show and regular dancing) perhaps 4 times during 2 hours. Really
horrible, but lots of people would see us!.
Forth, our guerilla dancing gigs. We just love to dance. Go to a museum,
they have great stone floors. Dance without any music, or if you know the
people ask if you can play some music. At concerts dance hot tango to hot
music. The whole idea is to dance tango at places where people do not
expect it! Show that you love to dance, and the people who love to dance
will come to you.
We tried to have a separate group that has the responsibility of these gigs
(making arrangements, finding venues, getting dancers there etc). In
otherwords, separate from arranging the festival, regular classes and
milongas
* Obviously, you need flyers. ALWAYS! At every milonga, there should be
flyers lying at the door telling where people can find more information. In
addition, you want to pass out flyers during some of these gigs to people
who are watching. Never give a flyer to a person who does not stop to
watch. Talk to everyone who gets a flyer - "hi, there will be a world-class
show in September. We have beginners classes once a month. Hope to see you
there!" One way or other, the people who see something interesting must know
that they are welcome, what is offered, and where to look for more
information.
We have also had good success with business card size flyers. Only
information printed is the name of the club, milongas at Tuesday and Sunday.
Beginners classes every month. A phone number and web-page address. Let
MANY people carry these in their wallets.
* A web page is a must. Make sure that it is always updated and correct. No
excuses.
* We have used very little posters, and only at places where you are allowed
to post. These are put up by our members, often at work-places. Never any
glued/taped stuff outdoors, because many people react negatively to posters.
It looks shabby and does not fit well with the image of 'sophisticated'
dance.
* Send cool free CDs to local radio DJs. Local radios have often long 'talk
shows' - they do always need people they can talk with. Find a cool
story/angle, and let them know you are willing to tell about your burning
passion - tango. Ask if you can bring a CD or two with you.
* Make sure that people can by tango in the local record store. (it can be
best to pick one record store - help them to order the good stuff, and make
sure that everybody knows which store in town it is).
* Make sure that the newspaper has a review of CDs by the bands that are
coming.
* Find places where they play music publicly and give them a good tango
record.
* Forget about paid advertisement in newspapers (unless you get the paper to
sponsor your festival). But make sure that your milonga is included in the
'hot stuff happening in town this week' section.
I hope that some of these experiences, can be used to create interest around
tango.
Continues in Part II.
Sincerely,
Eero
http:\\eero.no
Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2005 19:17:47 +0200
From: Ecsedy Áron <aron@MILONGA.HU>
Subject: Re: Promotion of tango in general
Dear Friends,
I'd like to thank the milonguera/os, teachers and organizers, who wrote to
me in private, for taking the time and writing a really complete and
thorough set of PR tips-tricks-strategies, marketing ideas and also teaching
guides for 'quickie' demo tango lessons. I believe it is one of the most
marvellous thing about this international community that we can share our
experiences and exchange ideas. This time it was a true goldmine of ideas,
operating principles and methods.
Best wishes to you all,
Aron
Ecsedy Áron
***********
Aron ECSEDY
Tel: +36 (20) 329 66 99
ICQ# 46386265
https://www.milonga.hu/
"Follow those who seek the truth.
Run from those who claim to have found it."
