I requested an interview with an international performing arts organization a couple of weeks ago. My hope was to talk to someone, or a team of people, involved in the creative side to discuss how they put their performances together as well as the skills and effort involved in realizing the creative vision.
I received a return phone call from someone in the public and media relations department. We talked for a few minutes about my idea and how I was hoping to conduct the interview in person and perhaps get a tour of elements of the production so I could create a video to post online.
Then came a very revealing statement: there was no value in scheduling an interview with me because the performance was leaving our city so my online content would be irrelevant. I explained that my online audience is international and the content I produce is not meant to be temporal, it’s meant to showcase individuals and organizations. In fact, the content I produce is intended to generate ongoing interest — in their case for performances of their current show in other cities and future tours.
The PR guy was convinced that my online audience was restricted to my home city (Ottawa) and since the show was leaving Ottawa, I couldn’t help him with ticket sales and time was tight. “Thank you for your interest.”
Too often I hear from people or organizations who are too focused on short term results to recognize the value of long-term relationships and big picture opportunities that can contribute to the interest in or longevity of the organization. There are very few accessible big fish in “the pond”. In the digital era, it’s the aggregate value of the content, the number of voices sounding off on your organization, and getting access to the channels you can reach versus the channels you strive to reach which can have the greatest impact on you.
Photo: Talk to the hand by mag3737.
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