Source Stories

Thanks to the responses I’ve already received.  They are exactly what I was hoping for!  But I know there have to be more than two of you with stories to share about sources.  I think I’ll take a tried and true page from the marketing handbook and offer a little incentive.

Anyone who shares a source story (including those who already responded) will be entered in a drawing for….a batch of homemade, from scratch brownies.  As my wife and her coworkers (since mine live too far away to share with) can attest, I’m a pretty good baker.  I make it all from scratch: cakes, cupcakes, frostings, cookies, breads, even marshmallows (easier than you think and a great way to impress people). This weekend I made a raspberry, cream cheese filled sweet bread braid that looked straight from a bakery.  My first from scratch revelation though came as a teenager when I tried baking brownies from scratch.  The rich, dense, powerfully chocolaty result turned me off flat and stale boxed brownies for life.  Now I want to make a convert out of you.

Due to the practicalities of shipping perishable food oversees, I’m going to have to limit the baked goods offer to US residents.  I’ll be happy to share the recipe though.  I’ll even make a T-Cast for you on how to make them if you’d like.

So send in your source stories.  If not for brownies, then to help your marketing compatriots get better at using sources and maybe help yourself with it too.

Thanks,

Kevin Sheehan
Documentation and Baking Specialist

 

I would like to share our source failures, as we seem to have more of
those than successes at this point. Sources were never quite adopted in
our organization as one would hope they would be. They aren't utilized
in the ways that they can be.

Our current set up is that there is a different source code for each
season of our 3 brands ( one for single tickets and one for
subscriptions, if applicable) for each department. The problem is that
very few people use the correct source codes. Its almost as if people
memorize one code and just stick to using that. Its frustrating because
there have been times where marketing asks operators to use a certain
source code for a promotion and people forget, or can't be bothered with
it.

A major issue that we became aware of this year was that for certain
payment methods we set up for the web the ability for people to purchase
digital music downloads and also for merchandise. When the operator
would take the money and apply it to an order, and put in a random
source code we found that the money was actually being tied to the
campaign of the source code due to the way that this was set up for the
web. Which for the most part was incorrect. This was putting money to
the wrong campaign and fiscal years. The clean up required changing the
source code to the correct one and then going into the order and zeroing
out the transaction to make the money be applied to the correct FY. We
had thousands of these to clean up...

Right now we are trying to clean up all of the source codes and also
realize that winning this battle is more of a training issue than
anything else. Its been a journey, and we have learned along the way.
But it seems like a waste that we haven't truly taken advantage of what
source codes can offer our organization. So we'll keep trying :)

>>> "Kevin Sheehan"
4/5/2010 3:54 PM >>>

Thanks to the responses I’ve already received. They are exactly what
I was hoping for! But I know there have to be more than two of you with
stories to share about sources. I think I’ll take a tried and true
page from the marketing handbook and offer a little incentive.
Anyone who shares a source story (including those who already
responded) will be entered in a drawing for….a batch of homemade, from
scratch brownies. As my wife and her coworkers (since mine live too far
away to share with) can attest, I’m a pretty good baker. I make it
all from scratch: cakes, cupcakes, frostings, cookies, breads, even
marshmallows (easier than you think and a great way to impress people).
This weekend I made a raspberry, cream cheese filled sweet bread braid
that looked straight from a bakery. My first from scratch revelation
though came as a teenager when I tried baking brownies from scratch.
The rich, dense, powerfully chocolaty result turned me off flat and
stale boxed brownies for life. Now I want to make a convert out of
you.

Due to the practicalities of shipping perishable food oversees, I’m
going to have to limit the baked goods offer to US residents. I’ll be
happy to share the recipe though. I’ll even make a T-Cast for you on
how to make them if you’d like.

So send in your source stories. If not for brownies, then to help your
marketing compatriots get better at using sources and maybe help
yourself with it too.

Thanks,

Kevin Sheehan
Documentation and Baking Specialist


From: Kevin Sheehan
Sent: 4/1/2010 10:28:59 AM

Hello all,
I'm preparing for a new webinar (
http://www.tessituranetwork.com/network/Learning/Webinars/Upcoming%20Webinars/Making%20Sources%20Work%20For%20You.aspx
) on effective source usage and could use your help. Anna (
http://www.tessituranetwork.com/community/members/annawessely5607/default.aspx
) and I already have a nice set of best practices that we think will
help you get more from your sources, but we would also like to hear
about some of your successes and failures. Maybe you're doing something
great that we haven't thought of. Or maybe you have a problem we can
find a solution for.
Please don't be shy. I know many of you feel like you don't have
anything to say about sources other than that what you are doing isn't
working. Well, let us know what isn't working. Where is the chain
breaking down? Is the box office not using sources accurately? Are you
unable to get the reporting data you need? Do you have too many
sources? Do you not have enough? Are your appeals not breaking things
out the way you would like to see them? What is the result you want to
see?
When it comes to successes, small and simple are just as worthy as
large and complex. Have you been able to get your box office to improve
source usage accuracy a little? Have you seen some success for sources
you create for offers on the web? Have you come up with an appeal
structure that you like? If you are doing something that you like,
don't think it is too simple or obvious to share. For this conversation
nothing is too simple or too obvious.
Thanks in advance for joining the discussion! It will be a big help
for our webinar (
http://www.tessituranetwork.com/network/Learning/Webinars/Upcoming%20Webinars/Making%20Sources%20Work%20For%20You.aspx
) and the community in general.
-Kevin



This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com
because you subscribed to the Tessitura Marketing Forum. You may reply
to this message to post to the Marketing forum or visit the site to
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I would like to share our source failures, as we seem to have more of
those than successes at this point. Sources were never quite adopted in
our organization as one would hope they would be. They aren't utilized
in the ways that they can be.

Our current set up is that there is a different source code for each
season of our 3 brands ( one for single tickets and one for
subscriptions, if applicable) for each department. The problem is that
very few people use the correct source codes. Its almost as if people
memorize one code and just stick to using that. Its frustrating because
there have been times where marketing asks operators to use a certain
source code for a promotion and people forget, or can't be bothered with
it.

A major issue that we became aware of this year was that for certain
payment methods we set up for the web the ability for people to purchase
digital music downloads and also for merchandise. When the operator
would take the money and apply it to an order, and put in a random
source code we found that the money was actually being tied to the
campaign of the source code due to the way that this was set up for the
web. Which for the most part was incorrect. This was putting money to
the wrong campaign and fiscal years. The clean up required changing the
source code to the correct one and then going into the order and zeroing
out the transaction to make the money be applied to the correct FY. We
had thousands of these to clean up...

Right now we are trying to clean up all of the source codes and also
realize that winning this battle is more of a training issue than
anything else. Its been a journey, and we have learned along the way.
But it seems like a waste that we haven't truly taken advantage of what
source codes can offer our organization. So we'll keep trying :)

>>> "Kevin Sheehan"
4/5/2010 3:54 PM >>>

Thanks to the responses I’ve already received. They are exactly what
I was hoping for! But I know there have to be more than two of you with
stories to share about sources. I think I’ll take a tried and true
page from the marketing handbook and offer a little incentive.
Anyone who shares a source story (including those who already
responded) will be entered in a drawing for….a batch of homemade, from
scratch brownies. As my wife and her coworkers (since mine live too far
away to share with) can attest, I’m a pretty good baker. I make it
all from scratch: cakes, cupcakes, frostings, cookies, breads, even
marshmallows (easier than you think and a great way to impress people).
This weekend I made a raspberry, cream cheese filled sweet bread braid
that looked straight from a bakery. My first from scratch revelation
though came as a teenager when I tried baking brownies from scratch.
The rich, dense, powerfully chocolaty result turned me off flat and
stale boxed brownies for life. Now I want to make a convert out of
you.

Due to the practicalities of shipping perishable food oversees, I’m
going to have to limit the baked goods offer to US residents. I’ll be
happy to share the recipe though. I’ll even make a T-Cast for you on
how to make them if you’d like.

So send in your source stories. If not for brownies, then to help your
marketing compatriots get better at using sources and maybe help
yourself with it too.

Thanks,

Kevin Sheehan
Documentation and Baking Specialist


From: Kevin Sheehan
Sent: 4/1/2010 10:28:59 AM

Hello all,
I'm preparing for a new webinar (
http://www.tessituranetwork.com/network/Learning/Webinars/Upcoming%20Webinars/Making%20Sources%20Work%20For%20You.aspx
) on effective source usage and could use your help. Anna (
http://www.tessituranetwork.com/community/members/annawessely5607/default.aspx
) and I already have a nice set of best practices that we think will
help you get more from your sources, but we would also like to hear
about some of your successes and failures. Maybe you're doing something
great that we haven't thought of. Or maybe you have a problem we can
find a solution for.
Please don't be shy. I know many of you feel like you don't have
anything to say about sources other than that what you are doing isn't
working. Well, let us know what isn't working. Where is the chain
breaking down? Is the box office not using sources accurately? Are you
unable to get the reporting data you need? Do you have too many
sources? Do you not have enough? Are your appeals not breaking things
out the way you would like to see them? What is the result you want to
see?
When it comes to successes, small and simple are just as worthy as
large and complex. Have you been able to get your box office to improve
source usage accuracy a little? Have you seen some success for sources
you create for offers on the web? Have you come up with an appeal
structure that you like? If you are doing something that you like,
don't think it is too simple or obvious to share. For this conversation
nothing is too simple or too obvious.
Thanks in advance for joining the discussion! It will be a big help
for our webinar (
http://www.tessituranetwork.com/network/Learning/Webinars/Upcoming%20Webinars/Making%20Sources%20Work%20For%20You.aspx
) and the community in general.
-Kevin



This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com
because you subscribed to the Tessitura Marketing Forum. You may reply
to this message to post to the Marketing forum or visit the site to
search, read and post to the forums. In the interest of keeping the
forum posts from becoming cluttered, we encourage you to delete previous
message text from your reply before sending. Thank you!