Austin Improv

Noe that I'm back in the advertising saddle, I have some ideas I want to put into place and try. To make this work, I'll need some dedicated people to help. More fleshed out ideas are coming later, but here are some key things I would like to do:

1) Divy up responsibility.
I want specific individuals to take on specific tasks on a recurring basis. For example, someone would become "First Thursday Coordinator" or "Special Events Liason" etc. These positions would be in charge of their areas and I'd just make sure work was getting done. I will by-and-large leave decision making power to these positions. So, if you have an area you'd like to run, please contact me.

2) Set specific quarterly goals for the committee.
I want the committee to have clear and transparent goals before the larger community. For example, put "X" number of videos on YouTube, flyer every 1st Thursday, flyer at least 3 special events, etc.

3) Hold monthly meetings and round tables.
I want to hold a monthly meeting as per usual, but try to hold a second monthly meeting as well. These will probably be "round table" like discussions on specific activities related to advertising, such as flyer design best practices, developing your troupe's website, sending out press releases, getting on community calendars, etc.

4) Weekly e-mail reminders.
In addition to forum posts and monthly meetings, I'd like to try to send out a weekly reminder of action items and who is responsible for each one. This way, people won't go a month between saying they'd do something and being reminded they said they would.

5) Establish a "code of conduct" for AIC representation.
In other words, if you represent the AIC advertising committee and are going to meet people for fund raising, ad-buying/selling, radio interviews, etc, we will request punctuality and a minimal dress code as you will be "officially" representing the greater community. Silly as it sounds, even at low-key places like KUT, they treat you different if you dress a little more formally.

I also want to work on finding new ways to advertise traditionally and non-traditionally, rebuild the special events lists of events around town we could flyer or work with, work with special events within our community that may need advertising like OoB or Summer Camp, and help troupes advertise themselves.


Finally, there will be two new rules in place for all advertising initiatives moving forward.

1) Absence is considered approval.
If you do not speak up in a timely manner in a forum post and if you do not attend a meeting of the specific committee (i.e., NOT just a general body meeting), that will be taken as your implicit approval for the initative and it will not be rediscussed in inappropriate settings (again, such as the general body meeting).
2) Silence is considered approval.
If you DO come to a meeting, but don't say anything, that will be taken as your implicit approval for the initaitve.

Wesley wrote:2) Set specific quarterly goals for the committee.
I want the committee to have clear and transparent goals before the larger community. For example, put "X" number of videos on YouTube, flyer every 1st Thursday, flyer at least 3 special events, etc.

Could we specify goals as a whole for the advertising such as X audience members who are completely new to improv by a certain time?

If you are volunteering to capture that information when we've thus far not even been able to get e-mail addresses, yes.

For the quarterly goals I want have objectives we can easily measure as far as productivity rather than results (a quantitative before qualitative approach), at least at first (as we've had trouble meeting productivity goals with regularity in the past). Once we get rolling on objectives regularly we can start analyzing how and if they are working.

We can make a general mission statement/list of goals for the committee and its efforts as a whole, but I'm not sure how we measure the success of such goals at the moment.
(Though I do want to re-explore some version of the surveys we used to have in an attempt to capture information for both advertising AND fundraising purposes. That WILL be on the committee agenda.)

I am very interested in the roundtable discussions especially those that pertain to promoting troupes.

Part of what I want to do with the Threefer is get troupes thinking about promoting themselves as a normal part of signing up for the show. With the new revenue structure (AIC gets the same cut as a troupe playing in the Threefer or Double Barrel) each participant has a vested interest in selling the show through. It's in everyone's best interest if the AIC can share what marketing knowledge we have between our member troupes.

I'd like to know what other troupes are doing, determine the baseline promotion you need (name, logo, website, mailing list, flyers, Spreadshirt, whatever), then document and help automate the process of making it happen.

Marketing is a chicken-egg deal with new troupes and as much as we say that troupes should promote the shows they're in, we need to step up and help them make that happen. Part of maturing as a troupe involves getting your promotional act together and I believe that takes more knowledge and effort than money.

Bob, let me know if you need help making some new promotional materials for the Threefer.