Is it Time for Plan B?by Heather Maitland (Arts Marketing Association, 2000, ISBN 1-903315-01-8 £4.50 [£2.50 for AMA members] plus 50p p&p.) This ten page booklet sets out to give in summary form the results of research into the problems of promoting new work. Under a limited number of headings — "What is new work?", "So what’s so special about marketing new work?", "Audiences for new work", "Managing the risk", the author presents extracts from research projects, including a number of representative quotations from customers. Her conclusion is that arts organisations often fail to meet the basic requirement to communicate with audiences, and there is no need for a Plan B — practitioners must concentrate on doing the simple and obvious things well — "Plan A". She ends with a checklist. It is well referenced, allowing the research to be followed up. As an occasional author myself, I know the agonies involved in trying to complete any publication by a deadline, but the title and cover give no idea of the contents or likely use of the booklet. The typeface too adds to the impression of dullness and is not at all easy on this reader’s eye. Like many other writers in the field, she uses the term marketing when the word promotion is to me more appropriate — but the battle to preserve distinct meanings for these terms has I fear been lost long ago. However, it is stimulating, worth reading, and I recommend it. I look forward to more publications from the AMA.
|