April 27, 2007

Generating Revenue from Online Dance Videos

In this post I offer an introduction on how to profit from your online dance videos. I start with the more practical approaches – increase ticket sales, bookings and fundraising – and then move on to ways to generate revenue directly from the Internet. Some of these online revenue opportunities are definitely in their formative stages, but I think that they will grow in importance.

1) Audience Acquisition and Ticket Sales

One of the most important ways to use your Internet videos is to build audiences for your upcoming performances, dance events, dance classes, fundraisers and related activities. By adding video to your website and/or blog and integrating it into your overall marketing initiatives, you will capture the attention of more prospective audience members and encourage them to buy tickets and attend your programs.

2) Bookings

For some reason that I don’t really understand, many dancers and dance companies do not use their Internet presence – website, blog, social networking pages - for making a compelling case for why performing arts venues, theaters, festival organizers and others should book them. If you haven’t done so already, I would recommend adding a section to your website that says “Booking Information.” On this page it is definitely worthwhile to add one or more videos that highlight your offerings. If, say, you perform and teach, why not have one video for each of your different offerings? These videos along with good marketing copy will help presenters and others have a much better understanding of what you do.

3) Fundraising and Donations

I don’t mean to sound too depressing here, but I have not seen a single compelling example of a dance company using their dance videos as a component of an integrated online fundraising effort. The best approach to online fundraising is to raise money for a specific upcoming project. You can create a video where the members of you dance company speak directly to the Internet audience explaining the project and your need for contributions. Use a “charity badge” so that visitors can see how much money you’ve raised and can help promote your fundraising efforts on their own websites. And then send out a snail mail and email solicitation encouraging your audience to watch your online video and contribute to your fundraising drive.

4) Monetize Internet Video with Ads

An increasing number of video sharing sites offer tools for monetizing (generating revenue from) your videos. There’s no reason not to explore and experiment with these advertising opportunities to see what works and does not work. There are no truly established revenue models for online video. But at the same time, I’m confident that the dance community will figure out over the coming year what types of dance videos are most compelling and what are the best ways to monetize these videos. Imagine the benefits of a world where Internet revenue contributes a significant amount to your annual budget – this is definitely not outside the real of possibilities.

5) Online Sponsorship

If you already sell sponsorship packages to your financial supporters, there’s no reason not to expand these packages to your website and video content. In many instances extended exposure on your website, especially in the form of video promotions, can provide your sponsors with greater long-term access to your audience. Online sponsorship support can also enable you to create video documentaries, video access to your rehearsal process and mashup contents that let your audience re-mix your dance videos. And in the process of introducing these online video projects, you will generate more publicity, spur ticket sales and increase bookings.

6) Product Placement

This is unexplored territory, but it has always struck me that there are ways to integrate produce placements in online dance videos. The beauty of dance is that movement is a universal language. Ideas and emotions can be conveyed without the use of words. In addition, product placement avoids having to bombard ad-averse Internet audiences from watching 15 or 30-second pre-roll videos that are really annoying. So what better medium than dance is there for promoting different products to a worldwide audience? Just consider the creative service offerings of Pilobolus for starters. The question is how specifically can products be integrated into digital dance videos and who would sell these product placement opportunities to corporate advertisers? This commercialization of dance may not be for everybody, but it does seem like a growth field that can create a new revenue stream for dancers.

7) Digital Content Sales

Selling videos directly to consumers over the Internet is very much at this stage an unproven business model. And it may prove to be more challenging than monetizing videos through advertising. The main question is what type of online dance video content will the public actually purchase? Dance instruction seems like a good possibility – especially if it is made available for entire classes as well as individual moves and routines. Dance performances may sell if the video productions are shot in a way that is optimized for online viewing. And dance companies may seek payments in the form of donations for videos of works-in-progress and other programs.

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