arts & business council

MetLife Foundation National Arts Forums Series

Arts and Business Council of Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Find the Right Partner: Leveraging Marketing Through Your Business—Arts Partnerships
11/18/2003

Moderator: Tracey Matisak, WHYY

Panelists:

• Jacqueline van Rhyn, Curator of Prints & Photographs, The Print Center
• Jane Golden Heriza, Director, Mural Arts Program
• G. Carol Johnson, Senior Managing Director, Corporate Community Relations, GMAC Residential Mortgage
• Lyn Strickler, Executive Vice President/Managing Director, Harmelin Media

Program Summary
In today’s economic climate, business and arts and cultural organizations need to be more creative than ever before. This forum presented by the Arts & Business Council of Greater Philadelphia, therefore, was designed to help businesses and arts and cultural organizations gain insights on how to leverage business/arts partnerships to expand their marketing reach. The forum was especially targeted to marketing professionals with the focus of helping them develop an understanding of what it takes to find the right marketing partner, how to be a strong partner, and, most importantly, the results that successful business/arts partnerships have achieved. The forum also described the different approach to business/arts partnerships that large and small businesses and arts and cultural organizations might take in order to be successful.

Goals
Prior to the forum, the following goals were identified as outcomes for the forum participants:

For arts managers:

• Provide ideas for what types of companies they can partner with
• Describe how to approach companies and create attractive sponsorship opportunities
• Identify examples of successful partnerships that have worked

• Educate them on benefits of partnering with arts and cultural organizations
• Provide ideas for how to find the right arts group to partner with
• Identify examples of successful partnerships that have worked

Part One: Presenter’s Remarks
The forum opened with a presentation by Mr. Daney, who made the following points in his introductory remarks:

Using a recent business/arts relationship, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals with the Delaware Theatre Company as a starting point, the speaker pointed out many issues that led to the success of the partnership.

First, a brief recap of the partnership—AstraZeneca had traditionally underwritten one or more of the Delaware Theatre Company’s main stage productions each season. A few years ago the company wanted to expand its support and approached the theater company with a suggestion to underwrite the long-standing Young Playwrights Festival (YPF).

For over a decade this Festival had been dedicated to the belief that artistic involvement of young people helps them to remain active in the arts as adults. Every year, high school and middle school students submit more than 300 scripts, which result in three plays chosen for full production. As a proud and involved sponsor throughout the review and selection process, AstraZeneca gave the Festival exposure at a high-profile Wilmington, DE, arts event and promoted the Festival to company employees by offering a "sneak preview" of the productions at the corporate campus. The company also involved employees to participate in the development stages of selection and production.

Through AstraZeneca’s support, the theater company was able to increase the Festival’s exposure and programming. For AstraZeneca, this outreach was a source of pride for the employees, who got involved in an important community activity. Being able to demonstrate their community involvement was helpful to AstraZeneca’s recruiting efforts, which is especially important in the highly competitive pharmaceutical industry.

• The relationship developed over a period of time; therefore there was a basis of trust to expand the relationship further. The company, in this instance, suggested that the relationship be expanded, but in other instances it would be completely appropriate for the arts and cultural organizations to identify opportunities for the expansion of the partnership.
• There were clear benefits for both the company and the theater as an outcome of their participation, and there were multiple opportunities for employees to be involved, which also helped to solidify the partnership

The value of arts to a vibrant business community
In the city of Philadelphia the arts have served as the foundation for the development of the Avenue of the Arts, which began with new performing art centers and theaters and also the transformation of Old City through galleries, theaters, and other arts venues and very successful "First Fridays" where artists’ works are exhibited. In a suburban area, ACT II Playhouse has helped transform Butler Pike in Ambler, PA, from a forgotten business location to a vibrant center of the community.

Overall trends in business
There is a trend toward sponsorship rather than philanthropy. When companies give through their philanthropic outreach they are typically giving to "do good" in the community. Now the trend is for companies to be more strategic and make connections in the community through their sponsorship/marketing dollars. This involves strategic business decisions for companies tied more closely to their business goals.

Sponsorship typically falls within the corporate communications/marketing arena and is a mix of advertising, PR, special events, and direct mail to build awareness and build business.

Sponsorships can help companies by increasing their brand awareness (visibility) and associating that brand with a good cause (arts and culture) and by helping to build business by cultivating prospective clients and thanking longstanding ones.

Trends for the Greater Philadelphia region
The two biggest trends are mergers and companies moving out of the region. Fewer and fewer companies are headquartered in the Greater Philadelphia region and, even if they are headquartered locally, their business interests are most often spread across many locations. Therefore, they do not necessarily concentrate all of their interests, their philanthropy, or their marketing in the region.

Examples include companies like AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, ARAMARK, and GlaxoSmithKline, which are located in the region but are more global than they once were. Comcast Corporation has not moved its headquarters out of the Philadelphia region, but with its recent merger, the company has more of a national agenda.

What makes good partnerships?
The two most important keys to successful partnerships—both for businesses and the arts—are preparation and clear and ongoing communication.

For businesses this involves examining the resources they bring to a potential partnership; researching arts and cultural organizations in the Greater Philadelphia Region that are compatible with the company’s business goals; making business decisions that are the right ones for the business; and finally evaluating the partnership as it progresses.

For arts and cultural organizations this involves similar steps: being clear about what specific assets your organization can offer potential business partners to advance their goals; researching business partners that fit with your mission, programs, capacity, etc.; providing straightforward proposals regarding cash and other noncash opportunities to partnersing; be clear about what the partnership will involve; and communicating and evaluating the partnership.

Differences for small or large organizations and companies
Small arts and cultural organizations should not spend a lot of time and energy targeting major corporations unless they have some personal connection (like a board member from a company, etc.). They, more appropriately, should target local small companies that might, in some way, would benefit from partnering with them.

Advantage to businesses of partnering with an arts and cultural organization
It’s important for arts and cultural organizations and companies to understand that arts organizations may have an advantage over other nonprofits in that they typically have audiences that attend events, performances, exhibits, etc. Not all nonprofits have this same advantage from a sponsorship viewpoint. This is often attractive to companies because arts and cultural events provide great opportunities for exposure of the company, entertaining of clients, and rewarding employees.

Part Two: Overview of Business/Arts Partnerships and Panel Discussion
The moderator provided information about the partnerships that were represented by the panel members. The partnerships involve both small and large companies and different sized arts and cultural organizations and included:

La Colombe with The Print Center
The Print Center was founded in 1915 with the mission to support printmaking and photography as vital contemporary arts. In 2002, The Print Center launched IMPRINT, Philadelphia’s first major billboard exhibition and among the city’s largest temporary public art projects. IMPRINT transformed the visual landscape of the City by focusing on the visual power of the art image to reach the public on familiar turf—driving, buying coffee, waiting for the bus, and reading the newspaper.

The Print Center approached La Colombe to use several thousand IMPRINT artist coffee cups at its Center City and Manayunk locations. Better yet, co-owners (and art champions) Jean-Philipe Iberti and Todd Carmichael recognized the potential for a more creative partnership. La Colombe paid for the creation of 50,000 copies of an additional cup describing the IMPRINT project to accompany the artist cups and helped to fund the distribution of all 300,000 cups throughout Philadelphia. The cups quickly became sought-after—forming a new generation of print collectors.

Inspired by this success, La Colombe intends to change its standard cup design to feature the winner of a competition co-sponsored with The Print Center. La Colombe and The Print Center have also discussed the creation of an ongoing series of cups.

GMAC Mortgage and the Philadelphia Department of Recreation Mural Arts Program
Philadelphia’s Department of Recreation Mural Arts Program (MAP) is a nationally recognized public/private initiative engaging youth, artists, and neighborhoods in creating art. Under the direction of founder and director Jane Golden Heriza, MAP has a 19-year record of success through the creation of an astonishing 2,300 murals throughout Philadelphia.

GMAC Mortgage, one of the largest mortgage and homeownership companies in the world, has become an indispensable partner to MAP. The key here is that MAP’s mission to enhance neighborhoods through art coincides with GMAC Mortgage’s devotion to service, advocacy, and activism in relation to homeownership. GMAC sees mural arts as a form of community revitalization and rejuvenation.

The formal partnership began in 1999, when the two organizations collaborated on Gateway to Chinatown, at 12th and Vine Streets. Since that initial partnership, GMAC has sponsored a number of additional murals. GMAC’s involvement doesn’t stop with sponsoring the murals; the administration and employees of GMAC get involved with the mural-making process on a personal level. GMAC has twice supported Mural Arts Month; sponsored a summer educational internship program for university students; and backed the documentary film Mural, produced by WHYY.

Harmelin Media who has partnered with a number of theater companies in Philadelphia
At the Walnut Street Theatre, Harmelin Media has co-sponsored such productions as Moon Over Buffalo, the world premiere of Camila and, most recently, the American premiere of the musical La Vie En Bleu. Harmelin has also partnered with the Philadelphia Theatre Company at which they have sponsored a number of productions over the years including the recent Topdog/Underdog, Dinner with Friends, Dinah Was, and How I Learned to Drive. As part of the sponsorship relationship, Harmelin uses the Theatre Company’s Tuesday preview performances to entertain 150 clients who are in the media.

At the Arden Theatre Company, Harmelin has sponsored the opening night performances of the five main-stage productions for the past three years. Harmelin brings clients to opening nights, which include a reception after the show and which give the Arden the opportunity to introduce new people to the work that they do. Harmelin also helps all of the theater companies in buying media and has also been a sponsor for the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, the presenting organization for the region’s Barrymore Awards.

Panel Discussion
The panelists made the following key points during their discussion and in response to questions from the forum attendees:

Many companies "follow the interests of their employees." Therefore, often the key to ultimately engaging companies as partners is to first involve their employees with the work of arts and cultural organizations.

Smaller arts and cultural organizations can often benefit from targeting smaller growing companies with less formalized partnership/community outreach programs in place and then develop the partnership into more extensive relationships as the companies grows.

The most successful partnerships are often ones that have many points of intersection between arts and cultural organizations and businesses. This can include volunteers, in-kind support, and cash donations.

Much can be learned about companies’ priorities through their annual reports, websites, and other printed materials. Company representatives are generally willing to talk/meet with organizations about their priorities and prospective partnerships.

The entryway into larger companies often varies from company to company. In some cases, partnerships are the jurisdiction of the marketing department; in other cases, partnerships may emanate from the community relations department.

Similarly, the larger the arts and cultural organization, the more diverse the ways business/arts partnership are handled. In smaller organizations, partnerships are typically the purview of the executive director and/or the development director, whereas in larger organizations, there maybe an entire corporate relations department.

Communication is key. Companies rely on communication to know if the partnership is having its intended impact. Limited communication from arts and cultural organizations often suggests to companies that the partnership is not working.

Many companies ensure that partnerships stay on track by limiting their relationship to an organization to a one-year period. In some cases, the partnership may go beyond, but the limited commitment gives companies the opportunity to opt out on an annual basis.

Arts and cultural organizations need to be able to clearly articulate the benefits of partnerships with the arts over what can be viewed as more pressing needs in the community such as homelessness, literacy, disease prevention, etc.

It is critical for arts and cultural organizations to not engage in or disengage from partnerships that require organizations to move away from their missions or require the organizations to make significant changes in their artistic product.

Companies have varying needs for external recognition of their community involvement. Therefore, arts and cultural organizations that have behind-the-scenes missions and programs should not be constrained from actively seeking partnerships with companies.

Partnerships for some companies can sometimes be constrained because of their need to follow the community involvement priorities of their business clients or their vendors, leaving little opportunity for partnerships with arts and cultural organizations. However, even under these more constrained circumstances, companies should consider partnerships with smaller organizations where more limited partnerships can be very beneficial.

Overall, the panel underscored the opening presenter’s introductory remarks that preparation and communication are the foundation of successful partnerships between the business and art and cultural sectors.