Artfulchange is a San Francisco based collaboration of artists and environmentalists to use passion for the arts to make a difference. Artfulchange events catalyze social change and promote awareness, activism and action in everyday life.
Here’s what our industry panel said:
Christian Jurinka’s Attack!
One of the nice things about your target market is that they have a tendency to be out and about. Music lovers love live music, and when they are out enjoying and exploring the music, they are very open to new experiences. My initial thought is to build a calendar of all the live musical events that are in your local market based around the particular genre of music you target (Hendrix, Clapton, etc). At the same time, you can build a similar calendar for green events. Now that you have answered the question of where, as in, “Where is my target consumer?”, next is the how, as in “How do I connect?”
From a guerrilla perspective, there are always flyers, but for the rock crowd, they get overwhelmed with flyers already for other shows, etc. My suggestion is more in the direction of either people or stencils or posters. On the people side, recruit a bunch of people and perhaps all dress in costume and go to some events. At the events, connect with people, tell them what you are all about, pass out a flyer or maybe do something a little more solid like give out temp tattoos. In either case, if you are all dressed the same, it will create a stir so that not only will the people you interacted with know and remember you, but the buzz of you being at the events will trickle down to those that you did not connect with. On the stenciling side, maybe you can take an artistic, green focused approach to getting your message infront of your audience. Do a search on street stenciling how-to and you can learn about how to do this type of work. Two things to remember: First, use only spray chalk or chalk vs. paint. Second, keep in mind that some cities are not too keen on stenciling and have started to issue fines for those doing stencils. That being said, it may just be best to utilize the people side of things and recruit as many of your friends, dress the same and hit the streets.
You could also hit up music schools and music stores with your materials. Connecting with the people who run these business may also give you a chance to actually speak with their patrons in a more organized condoned approach as well. Last thought here, if you are going after people who are green-conscious, it would be easy for you to connect with your audience at yoga studios, health food stores, or even meditation centers. Again, see if you can get on their roster of education/entertainment.
For all of these events, make sure you are gathering people’s contact information, or have a way to connect with them. A internet connected iPad could go a long way in getting people to be a fan of you on Facebook. However you do it, you need to build up that database of followers.
—Christian Jurinka, Managing Partner at Attack!
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Andrew Loos’s Attack!
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Noel Chandler’s Attack!
These are two great questions that all start up companies/organizations need to determine as quickly as possible. Focused efforts = greater chance of success. That said, marketing without a target market is wasted effort, so rather than giving guerrilla marketing ideas without knowing, let’s start with two areas:
1) Defining your target market.
2) Defining your offering.
The Madlibs Format:
I recently found out about a great way to pitch your business or organization using a MadLibs format which can help you determine both of the above:
My/Our organization, _[company/org name]_, is/offers/has developed _[a defined offering]_ to help _[a defined audience]_ _[solve a problem]_ with/through _[secret sauce]_.
1) Defining Your Target Market
From Artfulchange’s website, their market in a broad sense seems like it could be “anyone who is into artistic/creative and concerned about the environment”, which is great, but in my opinion, it’s too broad. Start simple so people can understand what you do and build from there. Using the MadLibs format above you can define a more specific audience to speak to and also figure out what makes Artfulchange different (the secret sauce).
2) Defining Your Offering
What is it that Artfulchange does very well? Is it fundraising events/benefits? Driving sales of products/services that support causes? Lead activities that raise awareness? I would pick the one thing Jay (and the Artfulchange team) knows they do very well and make that it’s core mission, it’s reason to exist. So many things can be built from that. I see a lot of past events, which is great. I love events, they’re the perfect venue to showcase/sell art, educate people, let like-minded individuals meet, etc.
For example, let’s say that Artfulchange produces events where they promote artists who all opt-in to donate a portion of proceeds from the sale of their art (or ticket price/cover charge) at the event for specific causes.
Their Madlib might read:
Our organization, Artfulchange, is group of artists and environmentalists collaborating to help green organizations raise money and awareness through creative events.
With the MadLib above…
Target Market(s):
1) Artists interested in helping the environment, who want to be promoted and are willing to donate proceeds of their work to the cause.
2) Individuals interested in fun, creative, environmental, cause-based events.
The Offering:
Creative events that raise money and awareness for artists and environmental organizations.
Guerrilla/Event Marketing:
The great thing about art events is that they can be super fun to go to, even for those not interested in buying art. They’re a “scene” where money can be raised, but also organizations can set up tables to speak with people to raise awareness. Assuming we’re using the MadLibs format above, here’s a formula for event success I used with some other friends to build a monthly art event from 50 people in a pizza place to 1,000 regular attendees in less than 10 months:
Produce an Artfulchange “core” event showcasing 10-15 artists (or more if you already have access to a large enough venue and artists) and make sure each one of them brings 10-20 people: make it a condition of being showcased. Everyone knows 10-20 people and if they can’t commit to bring them, have them wait until the next event. This isn’t about having strict rules, it’s about ensuring a packed and successful event: 15 artists x 10-20 people is 150-300 people. Everyone who comes in is encouraged to sign up on the email list to be notified about the next event (people love knowing when events happen, even if they can’t attend) and you’ll begin building your email list.
Make Artfulchange core events a regular thing, at least 4 times a year, but for momentum in the first year I’d suggest every other month. These core events are the constant for the Artfulchange brand. Other events and happenings can fall perfectly in between where Artfulchange is a promotional partner, sponsor, etc. The important thing is for Artfulchange to establish itself with something easy for people to understand: Events (in this case).
Best of luck! 🙂
— Noel Chandler CEO/Co-Founder, Mosio
Inside Attack! 
Wow! This is great, thank you all so much. This gives me several great starting points. I will keep you all posted as I incorporate the feedback. Thanks again, Jay