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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCentrum JCLTAC Narrative 12.2020centrum creativity in community Centrum tourist promotion program funding request of $12,000 to Jefferson County Lodging Tax Advisory Committee for 2021 Centrum respectfully requests $12,000 in support of marketing and promotions to visitors from outside Jefferson County in 2021. Our 2021 programming plan is for a hybrid -model of online and small, safe, in -person arts workshops and performances. We are acquiring $364,000 in new technology and performance tents (with support from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust) to help make this blended approach permanent. Our marketing plan provides an important pivot for our future - a way to keep our global customers engaged with Centrum, so they will return to Jefferson County and Centrum in the future, when it is safe and advisable again. ABOUT CENTRUM Centrum was created in 1974 in tandem with Fort Worden State Park —founded in partnership with Washington State Parks/Arts Commission/Superintendent of Public Instruction. We foster creative multi -generational experiences that change lives. During non -pandemic years, we offer a unique blend of performances and immersive hands-on arts workshops that provide experiences for artists throughout Washington, the nation, and the world. Mostly, these are learning programs that artists cannot get otherwise. Centrum's year-round offerings accommodate artist residencies (200 per year), and week-long immersive workshops for participants ages 4 to 98, where visitors live, learn, play music, create art, dance, sing, and write alongside masters of each craft. Programs include Jazz Port Townsend, Brazilian Choro, Chamber Music, Voice Works, Fiddle Tunes, Port Townsend Writers Conference, Acoustic Blues Festival, Ukulele, 7 Young Artist Project programs (with 500 Washington students, teachers, and chaperones mostly from outside of Jefferson County), as well as Artist Residencies, a 2-day Creative Aging Conference, and Communiversity— a six - part arts and lectures series. Public performances and events celebrate our programs. During non -pandemic years, Centrum draws visitors from 77% of Washington counties, 46 states, and many other countries including Canada, Austria, Switzerland, Brussels, England, Australia, Japan, UAE, Germany, Sweden, Peru, Norway, Poland, Spain, Uganda, and France. Annually (pre-COVID), Centrum drew 27,900 daily guest visits. In non -pandemic years: Centrum is one of the largest economic engines for Jefferson County, bringing some of the biggest numbers of tourists to Jefferson County, some of the most diverse tourists, and the biggest number of repeat visitors and overnight guests at the park. Most Centrum visitors stay in our county for up to 6 nights per visit. Centrum has many visitors from the 1-5 corridor and from throughout the U.S. These people learned about and came to Centrum through advertising, word-of-mouth, and our global roster of professional faculty artists who are emissaries for Centrum and Jefferson County. Centrum has had a steady rate of growth for our workshops since 1990 in non -pandemic years, generating more than $1.2 million of tuition, lodging and food services at Fort Worden State Park annually. In addition, 79% of charitable donations to Centrum come from families living outside of Jefferson County. 2020 ENGAGEMENT Beginning March 2020, Centrum was forced to postpone all in -person arts programs due to the pandemic. Due to uncertainty about when in -person programs could safely re -open, we created online versions of select programs in 2020 with instructors from across the U.S. Centrum presented: Mg Red Hot Strings ONLINE WORKSHOPS/PROG RAMS 2 days 80 participants Fiddle Tunes 7 days 500 participants Port Townsend Writers Conference 5 days 52 participants High School Writers Conference 3 days 9 students Ukulele Workshop 2 days 351 participants Creative Aging Conference 2 days 98 participants Water World 4 days 8 students Communiversity 4 events 292 viewers Jazz Voicings 6 events 210 viewers Chamber Music 1 event 42 viewers :)0DCAST CHt Communiversity 51 episodes 27,013+ listener downloads Crackin' the Vault Jazz Voicings On A.I.R From the Port Townsend Writers Conference Our workshops, presentations, and podcasts have kept participants, audiences, and master artists involved with Centrum and staged for reengagement in 2021. Based on forecasts for vaccines and herd immunity, Centrum plans to offer online -only workshops, performances, and events for the public at least through summer 2021. As soon as appropriate, we will shift to a hybrid blend of online and in -person, perhaps fall 2021. We have already resumed limited in - person Artist Residencies at Fort Worden as of June 2020 with pandemic safety measures. We expect to announce a full suite of 2021 programs for registration and ticket sales at the end of January 2021. A PATH FORWARD To sustain our market position, Centrum is committing to a 2021 marketing program of about $70,000. In the past, our outreach largely focused on trade journal print ads. This worked well because our programs cater to niche markets (fiddle music, acoustic blues, etc.) with specialized periodicals serving those markets. The premium for Centrum in 2021 is going to be flexibility and an ability to update our sales opportunities as conditions change. Therefore, we will shift to hybrid advertising in 2021 with a higher proportion of digital advertising (which can I be narrowly targeted) over print, but retaining both. Centrum waged a 2020 Facebook ad campaign for our ukulele workshop that performed exceedingly well. While past performance may not be a guarantee of future results, for a total spend of $1,037, we reached 87,008 households and an astonishing 4,171 click-throughs to our ukulele registration page. This produced 300 direct registrations, and with improvements on our website landing pages and messaging, we believe a broadening of this digital strategy will pay dividends for us in 2021 and beyond. The basis of our approach is as follows: • With a consumer shift towards staying at home, shopping from home, and following established industry trends, we will shift towards digital ads to improve efficiency and performance, lower costs, and allow us to track and control ad performance. • Limited print magazine ads early in the year will be designed to drive registrations, while also communicating potential program format changes to our hybrid offerings. • Marketing will pivot based on past years, with an emphasis on communicating nuances and format changes to our workshops, with an emphasis on an increasing share of digital ad spending — primarily via Google, Facebook, and Instagram. • Public relations, a -News, brochure mailings, and traditional marketing will remain mostly the same. CONCLUSION We believe Centrum is one of the best marketing arms for Jefferson County and Port Townsend. Relationships between Centrum, Jefferson County, the City of Port Townsend, and Fort Worden State Park are mutually beneficial. Centrum programs are a vital part of Jefferson County's economy, bringing thousands of visitors to sleep, eat, and shop in our community annually. Centrum guests often invest again in Jefferson County, returning as repeat visitors and new homeowners. Stories abound about Centrum's importance for the region's artists, residents, students, and the tourism industry. Many people say Centrum is the reason they moved to Port Townsend. During 2019 (the most recent full non -pandemic year): • Centrum served 2,031 registered workshop participants and 121 artists -in -residence from 17 foreign nations, 45 U.S. States, and 77% of counties in Washington. • 276 artists served as Centrum faculty teaching artists. • About 17,000 people attended Centrum performances, from 38 U.S. states, and 7 foreign countries. • Responding to our 2019 on-line ticket survey, while attending Centrum performances people from 21 states and 3 other nations reported staying 1,474 nights at paid lodging - hotels, motels, or inns - outside of Fort Worden State Park. Ascribing this rate to our annual attendance conservatively, we estimate that Centrum fueled more than 3,000 nights of lodging in Jefferson County outside of Fort Worden State Park during 2019. • Additionally, workshop participants accounted for about 10,000 bed nights at Fort Worden State Park. Centrum worked with William Beyers, Professor Emeritus at the Dept of Geography/University of WA, to calculate an annual economic impact by Centrum. Protocols were updated in 2014. Beyer conducted an extensive similar study for cultural organizations in King County. It is estimated that in non -pandemic years, Centrum's participants and audiences generate $3.126 million in expenditures each year, with 1/3 remaining in Jefferson County ($1.042 million). Our annual economic impact equates to 86 FTEs. Centrum will provide $1.157 million in paid wages and benefits for 32 people in 2021 which includes Centrum's staff and faculty artists. Centrum will measure the effectiveness of our promotions and events by: • Meeting or exceeding annual goals for online and/or in -person workshop participant enrollment. • Meeting or exceeding annual goals for ticket sales to audiences. • Reviewing participant evaluations following each workshop, including how participants heard about the workshops. (Centrum has a very high return survey rate, which helps shape future offerings). • Staff briefings to share participant feedback, production results, community input, whether needs were met, and changes to make in the future.