Kids and Cash/ Fric et Frimousses:
Children’s Programming: creating a
niche market for Alliances Françaises
Katharine Branning, FIAF New York
Federation of Alliances Françaises US
Washington, D.C.
October 24, 2014
Children: a growth opportunity for Alliances
françaises
– to attract new members
– to create a niche market
What’s up with kids?
• Kids use in the FIAF Library has exploded this
year; up to 23% of circulation from 5% three
years ago
• Adult membership numbers at FIAF are
stagnant, if not receding; seniors now
represent 54% of FIAF adult membership
buyers
Other considerations
• Changing trends in cultural consumption.
Everything is changing! Decreases in
traditional venues like opera, even college
football ticket sales are down by almost 10%!
• How do these changes affect us in Alliances?
Culture Track 2014
• Last April, Arthur Cohen, CEO of the arts
marketing firm LaPlaca Cohen, presented the
results from its 2014 edition of Culture Track, the
largest national tracking study focused on the
attitudes and behaviors of U.S. cultural
consumers, including trends in attendance,
motivators and barriers to participation.
• His findings give us much to think about! Among
the highlights of Culture Track 2014:
Finding #1:
Since 2011, increase in the percentage of people who
visit museums and attend performances of classical
music, jazz and musical theater—but there were
decreases for plays, classical dance and opera.
Finding #2: Frequency of attendance in
decline
• The individual rate of attendance has dropped since 2011, with
about half of respondents continuing to attend cultural activities
once or twice a month, but only 15% attending three times or
more—down from a previous 22%.
• NY Philharmonic : 15 years subscriptions comprised 83% of ticket
sales…today, 54%
Finding #3: Blurring boundaries:
culture now seen in broader terms
Culture now goes beyond the confines of traditional disciplines presented
by museums and performing arts organizations.
Almost 80% of respondents defined a visit to a public park as a cultural
activity.
Food and drink!
64% define attending a food and drink experience
as a cultural activity.
Finding #4:
Need for shared experience
• People value cultural activities as opportunities to
spend time with friends and family—a benefit that
they rank second only to general entertainment or
enjoyment value (83% and 93% respectively)
• Not attending solo: 28% of people overall state they
will not attend if they have to go alone—a figure that
rises to 43% among Millennials (ages 18 to 30)
Finding #5:
Motivations for attendance
What does it all mean?
• According to Arthur Cohen, “These findings reveal
audiences that are restless, curious and ‘culturally
promiscuous’—eager for new experiences they can share in
person with friends and family. We have also learned that
people rely above all on their emotions to tell them what
those experiences might be, outside of traditional
definitions of culture. If something enriches their senses, if
it enlarges their world, and if they can do it in company
they like, they are open to it. This is challenging news for
institutions that are trying to retain the loyalty of
audiences, but good news for organizations that are willing
to listen to what the public has to say.”
So what does it mean for an AF?
• We must maintain our brand image:
•
•
•
•
France
Quality
Affordable programs
Enjoyment
• We must rethink our cultural offerings (blurring!)
• We must start to seriously focus on families
• We must think in terms of being social
French education for kids in NYC
• I don’t know how it is in your town, but
competition for kid’s education in French is
tough in New York City
• There are French language schools, nursery
schools and daycare centers now in every
neighborhood of NYC
Family programs on the rise in NYC
• Family-oriented programs are now the new
cultural darling and potential money-makers:
There is programming for kids everywhere in
NYC:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Art museums
Kid’s Theater companies
Individual artist concerts and programs
Health clubs and YMCAs
Libraries
Birthday parties with themes
• Overachieving parents push their kids
relentlessly to attend these activities, and pay
hefty fees ($50-60 and above per ticket).
• Note: many of these programs are family
program activities, not just drop-off programs
for kids, but events where the entire family
participates.
New York Botanical Garden
Programs for Kids and Teens
Every day at the Garden, kids and
teens can embark on an exciting
adventure – the adventure of
discovering the world of plants.
Across the Garden and in two gardens
designed especially for kids, the
Everett Children's Adventure Garden
and the Ruth Rea Howell Family
Garden, hands-on activities introduce
youths of all ages to the thrill of
science exploration and of seeing what
seeds and soil can become.
There's something fun for families
every day!
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Look at art together and get creative during free, interactive
drop-in programs for kids and their parents or caregivers. For
more information about Family Programs, please call 212-5703961 or email familyprograms@metmuseum.org.
Jewish Museum NYC
• Family Programs offer a unique, engaging, and often
unexpected museum experience, full of fresh perspectives,
playful activities, and numerous opportunities for artistic and
cultural enrichment. Our diverse offerings for families include
lively concerts, innovative art workshops, immersive gallery
tours, and fun-filled Sunday programming.
Daniel Boulud loves kids, too!
Last month he treated six 2nd graders from PS 295 in Brooklyn to a $220, 6
course tasting menu!
Yet, we at AFs can give something
unique!
• BUT…the two put together, i.e., a quality Frenchlanguage exposure experience + a fun event for
kids AND parents - and there is only one: and
that is us
• Kids programming in French is truly the product
that the Alliances and Alliances alone can offer
• Play on our well-known brand name and develop
this program
Strategy #1: start with Membership
• Follow the example of museums, which all
offer family memberships, all AFs must offer
them as well. Many of you do, but if not, do it!
• For those of you that do, focus on developing
this potentially rich base
Why develop family memberships?
• This will enlarge your data base of members!
This is easy and no-cost solution to create
greater traffic into your building and events.
Family Members at FIAF
• FIAF has a special category called FAMILY
membership: for the same price ($150), cards
are issued to all family members. FIAF has 276
family memberships, and the average here is
@ 4 cards per family
Family memberships for Kids students
• In addition, a decision was made this year to offer
Family memberships to all FIAF students in the
youth classes (under the age of 18), which
represents 488 toddlers and 605 kids and teens
• A card is sent to the registering parent and the
child student, with an invitation to submit the
names of other family members for additional
cards
Counting by potential feet in the
door….
• Family memberships: the average number of
family membership cards distributed per family =
4 ; 276 x 4 = 1,104 which then brings the
percentage of potential FIAF member visitors up
to 54%
• Student family memberships: the average number
of cards distributed per student family = 3; so the
average number of Family cards issued per
student is 1093 x 3 = 3,279 or 33%
FIAF MEMBERSHIPS FY 2014:
17% revenue for families
Category
Price
Number
% members
revenue
(rounded up)
% revenue
(rounded up)
Youth
$35
239
12%
$8,226 4%
Academic
$75
179
9%
$13,332 6%
Senior
$75
628
31%
$46,873 22%
Individual
$95
538
26%
$50,395 23%
Family
$150
276
14%
$35,805 17%
Contributing
$300
58
3%
$17,220 8%
Supporting
$800
12
0.5%
$9,600 4%
$2,000
7
0.3%
$12,200 6%
$200
107
5%
Patron
Young Patron
TOTAL
2,044
$23,019 11%
$216,670
Family memberships don’t earn much
money:, but earn more than
money…
• Gets their feet in the door to discover your
quality family and kids programs!
• With this widened membership base, you can
increase @20% more potential clients in your
door
• It creates an image of your AF as a kid’s provider
of quality programming in French
• It enlarges your image for programming and
membership from beyond the traditional venues
• It fosters a pattern for cultural consumption,
encourages fidelity. Makes the customer want to
come back!
• It creates a new demand that wasn’t there before
Strategy #2: engage the entire
institution in the effort
At FIAF, all departments work together for family programming:
• Library increased the total number of items that can be borrowed;
increased budget line dedicated for the acquisition of children’s
materials; increased the number of kids story and activity programs
• Language Center creates workshops specifically for kids and parents
• Cultural programming plans specific family events and budgets
fund raising efforts and percentages to this activity
• Membership seeks to offer free or discounted offers to local
vendors of French kids products or restaurants
• Marketing works to specifically promote children’s activities
(brochure, flyers, targeted advertising)
No kids teaching program in your AF?
• No problem, you can still do quality kids
programming. Play on the AF brand
recognition in your town and build on it!
• Alliance française = French = quality
Strategy #3: Sponsorship
• Work on cultivating new sponsors that
perhaps you never approached : Jacadi, for
example, gives ($12,500) for FIAF kids cultural
events and snacks in the kids classes
Strategy #4: Establish partnerships
• Don’t have a theater or much space in your AF? Reach
out to your other cultural venues in town (what we do
in Montclair), local bookstores or restaurants
• Look for like-minded partners: BAM wants to develop
more programming in schools, especially in the
bilingual schools
• In-house: think of programs that unite the language
center + library + cultural events: story tellers, cooking,
fashion shows
• Délégation générale, AF Fédération, Fondation AF
Strategy #5: Advertising
• Social media works! FIAF won the Red Tricycle’s 2013 “Most
awesome Kids Language Classes in New York” poll
• Tweet and Facebook and other specific social media for
kids in your community
• Create a kid’s corner on your website (what we did for the
Library and Culturethèque as well)
• Create a kids flyer, even if it is only a simple listing
• Print a separate Kids brochure if possible
Kids programming at FIAF today
• Family Saturdays: an all-day open-house of
activities for families
–Performance event +
–CinéKids +
–Library activity
Development trends for kids for 2015
at FIAF
• More programming for the little kids, ages 1-2-3:
high demand, need to program more
• Finding the correct balance between iconic kids
programs (Guignol, Babar) with more current
contemporary artists
• more cooking workshops
Looking ahead for families at FIAF for
2016
• kids birthday parties
• cooking classes for kids and parents
• Creation of World Nomads Kids: to present high-quality
work for children in partnerships with various
Francophone countries
• Work closer with French partners: for example, the
department of cultural affairs at the Mairie de Paris is
very keen on children’s programming
And even bigger dreams!
• FIAF wishes to develop more robust programming for
children in order to bring to New York the extraordinary,
child-oriented work that is being developed in France and
around the world for kids by cutting edge French artists
(Olivier Py, for ex).
• And why not dream big? Commissioning of a special
performance piece that would create a platform of
presentation for children’s programming; from both French
and American artists
• FIAF wishes to establish itself as a leader in the
presentation of new productions for children with the
staging of major theater/music productions in FGH
Conclusion
• Bank on the AF image in your community
• Enlarge your membership base by offering
family memberships
• Expand children’s programming
• Create specific programs for families
• Market to kids and families and create your
image as a quality provider to this group
• Be creative and open-minded!