Art Print Issues by Barney Davey

Start Your Own Art Marketing Group

I've been inspired by my previous post, Visual Artists - 30 Ways to Get More Art Collectors. This suggestion goes deeper than the one-liner ideas proposed in that post.

Here it is: Create your own viable sustainable distribution channel in the form of a referral network. You start it and you will be king or queen at least long enough to mould it to your needs and desires.

In another career, unrelated to the art business, I was involved in a Business Networking International (BNI) group. BNI has more than 4,000 chapters worldwide. Each chapter consists of local business owners seeking use a strong referral market to grow their business.

BNI is successful because it monitors the level of participation from each member. It has a motto, "Givers Gain." The idea is to meet for breakfast or lunch weekly and exchanges referrals among the members. Each meeting, one member gives a presentation on his her business. The other members give a clocked one-minute presentation. I'm here to tell you it works although the monitoring can be somewhat onerous at times. And, the pressure to produce quality referrals can be difficult.

Create Your Own Power Marketing Partners

Within each BNI group, there are Power Marketing Partners. These are mini-groups comprised of professions that have a natural affinity to each other. For example, an insurance agent, a financial planner, a real estate agent and mortgage broker all have clientele in various stages of need that should allow easy referrals. This is especially true when you have gotten to know someone and have had positive feedback on how they conduct themselves.

My thought here is to start an Art Marketing Group based on BNI's Power Partner theory. As a local artist, who would be your best candidates for such a group? I think it would be a picture framer, an interior designer, an art gallery, an upscale home furnishings, decorative accessory boutique or high-end gift shop. It might also include a home builder, or a local hip coffee shop or restaurant that likes to support the arts.

I used to get my haircut at a salon that has a gallery and supports local artists. (She's closed on my current days off.) The wife of one of the members of my former BNI group runs a day spa and also does shows and uses her walls to support local galleries. If you have a winery, or even a local brewery, you might include them.

Begin with a Core Group of Your Best Prospects

Start small. Get a core group of three or four like minded promotional marketing oriented members together to hammer out some details. There is lots of information on running referral groups to be found on the Internet. I suggest making yours less demanding than the typical BNI group. Instead, make it more toward planning joint ventures and events that would benefit all the members. Putting lots of restrictions and "must do" on creative types would probably fail anyway.

Decide what you want to do. Have a semi-annual or quarterly event. Have monthly meetings to exchange ideas and referrals. Figure out how to pool marketing dollars and create interest with the local media by doing something extraordinary. Decide how much work, effort and expense will be required. There is no point in recruiting a great prospect if she or he is not capable of making the full commitment to the success of the group. Meet regularly to keep up enthusiasm and to encourage or help anyone struggling to stay on board.

Don't Let Anyone Struggling to Keep Up Let You Down

Keep tabs on the strugglers, but don't let anyone take the group down. Be firm they have to produce or they will have to be replaced. If you get the right people to start, this will be far less of a problem.  That means being tough and smart enough to not include friends who fit the description, but whom you already know to be over involved or incapable of making the necessary contribution.

This is not a quick fix suggestion. It will take some time, leadership and organizational skills to get an idea like this off the ground. Do it right though and you will have others clamoring to participate when they see the success you are enjoying. Tie-in with an established local charity to create a win-win for it and your group. You will be able to tap its membership and visibility with local and regional media to add more buzz to your events.

Six Degrees of You

The parlor game, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, spawned all manner of conversational tidbits and even a humorous television commercial for the Visa check card. This entertaining YouTube clip explains how it works. I recommend you put the power of it to work for you!

I gave a talk to a packed house in Atlanta last week. The presentation was titled Making Art and Money in the Digital World. It was graciously promoted and hosted by Atlanta's premier giclée printing operation, Digital Arts Studio.  I'm guessing I could easily make blog posts of half the 70+ slides in my the PowerPoint presentation.

Those who can help you are closer to you than you think

One slide from my talk is the subject of today's missive. Six Degrees of You. It's been part of my presentation for this topic for more than a year. Essentially, I have been conjecturing you are only six contacts away from anyone in the world. I was using a form of Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking intuition to make that assumption. Just last week, it hit the news that Microsoft researchers had proven I was wrong... but not by much. The MS researchers found the average to be 6.6 degrees of separation.

My point has been there are people who can greatly help you, some just for the asking. Others may require some schmoozing to get what you want, and some will snub you and you will never know why. As a art marketer, one of your top priorities ought to be compiling a list of those people who are in the best position to help you advance your career. The second part of that task is to use Six Degrees of You to seek them out.

You Miss 100% of the shots you don't take. - hockey great, Wayne Gretzky

The final part is to know exactly what you want from them, how to succinctly ask them for it, and to eloquently provide the Features, Advantages and Benefits of why they should help you. It's no different than making a pitch to a private investor. Just know what you want and why and what's in it for the other guy. In the case of those you ask, it might be nothing than noblesse oblige, or it could be to return a favor, or it might be a way to demonstrate and exercise their personal power. Their motivation only matters insofar as it  might help you how to best present your suggestion for help.

If this sounds like a lot of work and bother, you are right. But when it comes to ROI (Return on Investment), only well done publicity comes close to offering you a similar rich payoff as does using the personal power of influential people.

If you are focused, ambitious and believe in yourself, nothing can stop you

If I am anything, I am a realist. I know suggestions like this are much more complicated to put to use than to say or think about them. Still, when you think about how just one, two or three powerful people can make an enormous difference in your career, what reason do you have to not professionally pursue them? Compared to how much effort and expense you put into preparing for a consumer or trade show, or into an advertising campaign, it is really not that daunting. The hardest part for some may be convincing themselves they are worthy of the desired attention. If that rings true for you, try reading my previous post, The Power of Believing in Yourself.

To help you with the elevator speech you should have memorized so you can easily and glibly respond to, "What do you do?" and "What do you want?", try the 15 Second Pitch site. It's free! There is real value in being able to quickly pointedly tell others about yourself. You will need to be able to elaborate, but this is a good start.

If you haven't started using the Personal Brain mind mapping tool, the project of identifying and connecting those who can help you would be a great way to get started.

Now, you've got ideas and tools. Just add your own ambition and go for it! Don't forget to write me from the top!

HDExpo Puts Art in the Hospitality Picture

Changes in the tradeshow scene regarding the art business have been frequently reported here. The traditional industry shows such as ArtExpo and Decor Expo are well off their peak years in size, as are the publications that support them. And, the total number of shows serving the industry are at lows not seen in decades. No matter what factors you use to account for the downward trend, they are sadly there and showing no signs of resurgence.

Tradeshow Woes Are a Problem Across Many Industries

It's not just art and picture framing shows that are on their heels. You needn't look hard to find evidence of contraction in all kinds of industries. Given such a multi-industry trend is surely a cause to wonder if there are alternative shows worth either attending or exhibiting for artists and publishers.

There Are Bright Spots To Be Found

One growing show growing increasingly important to many art publishers and self-representing artists is the HDExpo. It is the sister tradeshow to Hospitality Design magazine, which also is growing in size. These entities primarily serve complete design needs for hotels, restaurants and corporate centers.

Gaining traction in this market is a way to create a steady cash flow from a distribution source outside the gallery and online channels that are top of mind for most artists. Not to say the field isn't competitive. It is, but I have always maintained there is ample room in the most crowded fields for artists who bring a fresh perspective to the scene.

Hospitality Design Magazine Publishes Largest Issue Ever

As a former trade magazine rep, I drooled with lust when I saw the most recent at-show copy of Hospitality Design. At 448-pages plus cover, it resembles a mid-size city phone book. I hadn't seen a trade pub that size since the heyday of Decor magazine's show issues for New York or Atlanta many moons ago. The combination of growing importance of the HDExpo show and the size of the magazine puts an exclamation point on their momentum and the market they represent.

Las Vegas Is a Boom Town for Home Furnishings & Hospitality Design Shows

Las Vegas is also home to the World Market Center. It is the host site of the Las Vegas Market, which also is bucking the downward trend as a huge fast growing international home furnishing marketplace. The common wisdom for decades was no venue could successfully compete against the IHFC show and the concurrent shows in High Point, NC for the home furnishings market.  In just a few short years, the Las Vegas Market has proven there can be a viable alternative to the IHFC.

To Be An Effective Marketer in an Industry, You Must Be a Student of It

Effective marketing is a multi-year strategy. The first stage is to become educated about potentially lucrative markets important and new to your business. If you have your own designs on seeing your originals and reproductions used in the hospitality industry, learn all you can about the shows mentioned here and the markets they represent. You likely don't have the budget to tackle them all. But spending time studying them is a great first step towards getting your foot in the door at one of them at the appropriate time.

On the HDExpo Web site, go to Expo/Exhibitor List/Product Category Search. Start with the Artwork: Prints/Reproductions/Photography category and work your way through all the other appropriate categories for ideas on companies to approach, or to see what those exhibiting are doing on their on Web sites. It will be time well spent to study this terrific resource. And, of course, if you can actually go there, all the better. This year's May 14-17 conference and May 15 -17 exhibition dates are upon us. If it's too quick for this year, tickle it as a must for 2009.

Surtex Offers Artists Yet Another Alternative to Galleries and Selling Online

The Surtex show runs May 18 - 20 at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan. Surtex bills itself as a licensing show for original art and design and offers a different kind of distribution and income from the hospitality business. Surtex is a terrific venue for artists who want to license their work. It's a show to walk the first year and then to decide if paying for exhibit space makes sense. Many artists are able to make connections there by respectfully and tactfully approaching publishers and licensors when they are not otherwise busy in their booths. The better you prepare for these shows, the better your experience will be.

Noah G Pop Puts Pizazz in ArtExpo New York 2008

Pop artist Noah G Pop rocked this year's 30th Annual ArtExpo New York show, which took place February 28 - March 3. It is obvious he seeks to put more glide in your stride, more hip in your dip, more zig in your zag and more cut in your strut. In other words, this dude knows how to throw a party and have fun. That he manages to do it around promoting his art makes him just that much cooler.

When it comes to enjoying success in the art business, marketing and promotion are the twin synergistic generators that drive (AIDA) attention, interest, action and desire. Noah gets this in spades and that he effectively executes around making these waves as a SOLO exhibitor makes all he does more impressive.

Putting POP in Promotion, Party and Prints

In Noah's case, you find a confluence of terrific visual art and fun promotion creating a memorable experience for all involved. You can see for yourself, his party and attendant promotion pack as much punch as his art.  Both deliver on the promise of visual treat and stimulating exciting times.

His art is themed with the Pop influences of decades past, but as with any talented artist, he manages to make it current and specific to his artistic vision. It is no surprise he did well with his Jene NYC piece, shown here. It is hot, colorful, sexy, glamorous and fun. All the things one can hope to experience when attending ArtExpo New York.

The Fun Is Back, Let's Hope It Stays

Noah singlehandedly managed put back into ArtExpo a component that has been missing for some time. And, I'm sure he did it on a budget that would put to shame some of the corporate or show producer managed invitation only parties that run on the sedate side. The history of the experience of ArtExpo was there were always happenings. You didn't dare miss the show or the parties around it. The exciting open-to-all party element has been sadly missing in the past few years. As the show declined in size, it lost some of the zest that had made it special. Thanks to Noah G Pop, the fizz is back and the buzz around his art and his next party, which he already planning for next year are already in full swing.

Here is the content of his post-show email. Read it and you'll see he hasn't stopped having fun. And, while you are reading it, think about how you can put some fun of your own into your own art promotion:

3 More Important Things I Want You to Know Direct from the Noah G POP Playbook:

1)     First, I would like to thank everyone that attended my opening night bash at the Star Lounge and believe me there were a lot of you.  Our counter finally stopped somewhere north of 400 guests including artists, models, actors and a whole plethora of all-around cool people.  The vibe was definitely one of peace, love and FUN, FUN FUN!  I so much appreciate the support of each and every one of you.  Personal highlights for me included my Mom and Dad, my brother David, my sister Farrah, NYC Fashion Designer Grace Edwards, Iconic NYC Socialite, Philanthropist and Human Rights activist Zelda Kaplan, two of my favorite artists, world-renowned Painters Fabian Perez and Ford Smith and of course, it wouldn't be a party without the Naked Cowboy.  Also, special thanks to Rob Base who showed up and performed his hit single, "it takes two to make a thing go right". 

Now, for those of you that missed it; DON'T PANIC!  I will be hosting an evening of art, music and modern dance at the Grand in April (details to follow) and believe it or not, we have already begun planning our opening night bash for ARTEXPO NY 2009 (seriously).  Cue the cocktail music!  Yes!  This one will be bigger and better (think skylight cruise) and YOU ARE INVITED SO SAVE THE DATE!!!

2)    I would like to thank everyone that stopped by my booth to look at my work.  Thanks to your support and interest in my art, we had another killer show selling at least one of each piece with the big winner being Jené NYC who now has 5 new homes.  Thank you, thank you thank you. 

3)     I just saved a bundle on my car insurance!  I kid again.  I wanted to take a moment to speak to all artists but particularly my fellow SOLO artists.  Sharing your gift with the world can be a wonderful and magical experience.  It can be filled with excitement and joy but can also be stressful at times.  As someone that has personally experienced the broad spectrum of emotions that can accompany an event like artexpo, I applaud you for having the guts and the drive to share your art with the world.  For those of you that had a great show, I congratulate you and for those of you that would have liked to have a better show, encourage you to keep pushing, keep learning from your experiences and keep striving to share yourself and your art.

With this in mind, if I can be of any assistance to you in the future, please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions, comments or simply to bounce some ideas off of each other.  After all, we artists have to stick together.  Be on the lookout for Noah G POP Management in 2008.

I thank you for all of the support that I have received over the past year and of course, most importantly, Enjoy my art!

With much love and respect,

Noah G POP

For more information call 646.413.2366or email me at noahg@noahgpop.com.  Friend requests at www.myspace.com/noahgpop.

www.noahgpop.com

Some other observations about this year's ArtExpo

The final tally on its Website for exhibitors has a count of 467 companies. It's possible there are more, but even with last minute additions, it's hard to believe the exhibitor list came anywhere near the 600 touted by show management for the '07 show. The number of blog posts about the show is down from last year too. Here are a few I found you might find interesting:

Manuela Valenti looks like she is making good on her ArtExpo experience. It looks like she used this video in her booth. Regardless, it's terrific use of video to promote her art. Congrats!

Natasha Wescoat provides insight on her ArtExpo Las Vegas experience

Adan Lerma provides a running commentary on his experiences in 2007 & 2008 here

It's great to see Noah putting forth his energy into ArtExpo. For all the show has suffered from changes in the marketplace, revolving ownership and other circumstances out of its control, it remains the single best place to showcase artists in the print medium. There is still no place like the Big Apple for such a show. The Las Vegas show last fall proved nothing can come close. Let's hope the promise of young energetic talent like Noah G Pop and his contemporaries help revive the show's sagging fortunes.

Broken Links - a metaphor for marketing. Plus the art of the 15-second pitch.

Broken lines, broken strings,
Broken threads, broken springs,
Broken idols, broken heads,
People sleeping in broken beds.
Ain't no use jiving
Ain't no use joking
Everything is broken. ~ Bob Dylan

My apologies. If you tried to use the broken link to the article in on art in the July issue of License! Global Digital Edition magazine in my previous post. It's been fixed with many thanks to Sue O'Kieffe who notified me. It's linked again above to the proper page in the digital version of the July issue. To apply for your own digital subscription, use this link: https://www.advanstar.com/subscriptions/subscribe.asp?subid=180&ac=a&cid=&esc=L0707W

If you think about it, links to your customers and prospects are the lifeline to your business. When they are broken, so is your business. Conversely, the more links you have and the stronger they are, the more prosperous your art business will be. Good links are at the heart of very important Google page ranks. The smart folks there long ago figured out relevancy in search results are directly tied to both quantity and quality of links to any given Web page. Of course, it's more than that, but if you have a Web page and don't put in some time working on creating links to it, you are never going to achieve the results you want in page rankings.