click for Fun Guide!
BaltimoreFunGuide.com is the single best place to turn to on the internet to get complete, up-to-date information about leisure time activity opportunities in the Greater Baltimore region.
What is BaltimoreFunGuide.com?
BaltimoreFunGuide.com is the single best place to turn to on the internet to get complete, up-to-date information about leisure time activity opportunities in the Greater Baltimore region.
Why is this online calendar different than all the others out there?
While there have been previous attempts at producing online entertainment calendars, this one is different. It presents information for a complete range of leisure time activities in the entire Greater Baltimore area: music, dance, sports, fairs, festivals, outdoor activities, tours, parades, dining and more. BaltimoreFunGuide.com is also different because it is produced right here in our area, not in New York or somewhere removed from where the events take place.
Who produces the BaltimoreFunGuide.com?
BaltimoreFunGuide.com is the result of a collaborative effort, led by the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, of seven regional arts, cultural, broadcasting, tourism, promotional and marketing organizations. The Cultural Alliance leads the effort to increase awareness of, participation in, and support for arts and culture organizations in the Greater Baltimore area on behalf of over 90 member institutions.
Who are the Cultural Alliance's Private Label Partner organizations?
BaltimoreFunGuide.com provides a private-labeled calendar to each of its partners for their own web sites, thereby extending the market reach of the information contained in the BaltimoreFunGuide.com. Our partners are Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association, Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts, Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, Maryland Public Television, Baltimore Collegetown Network, 88.1 WYPR, the Greater Baltimore History Alliance and LiveBaltimore.
Who is eligible to have events included in the calendar?
Any individual or organization that produces entertainment events can send events for inclusion in the calendar, provided that they are not adult oriented and are open to the public.
How can event producers get their events on the BaltimoreFunGuide.com?
Most of the region's entertainment event producers have been contacted and given instructions on how to send their event information. If you have not been contacted, send an e-mail to BFG@baltimoreculture.org and you will be given instructions on how to send events. If you have a one time event, or produce events infrequently, you can submit your event directly to BaltimoreFunGuide.com on the main page.
Who sees the calendar?
BaltimoreFunGuide.com is being marketed to consumers across the region as the place to turn for entertainment information. These people include those who already attend entertainment events as well as those who have been identified as "inclined" to attend events. Because of our collaborative relationship with regional tourism organizations, the calendar information will also be seen by visitors to our region.
click for Fun Saver
As an important step toward fulfilling one of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance's main goals, increasing participation and attendance at cultural institutions and getting student connected to Baltimore, the Cultural Alliance and BCN introduced a new college-oriented permission-based e-mail program, called FunSaversTM in 2005.
Modeled on existing programs such as the airlines' "e-savers," FunSavers enables visitors to BaltimoreFunGuide.com to register for weekly e-mail notices about the availability of "last minute" half-price tickets. By targeting special offers to self-selecting consumers, this project increases attendance while enabling institutions to generate new revenue by filling empty seats.
What is the Fun Saver?
Fun Savers is a weekly permission-based e-mail that gives consumers offers for half-price tickets and admission to Cultural Alliance member organizations for the upcoming week.
Why is the Cultural Alliance making these offers?
FunSavers is the Cultural Alliance's newest service, and represents a major step in the fulfillment of the attendance-building for its member organizations. Research identified a number of barriers to greater consumer participation in arts and culture events, including price and spontaneity. By offering discounted admission and the ability to make decisions about leisure-time spending with a shorter lead time, FunSavers allows consumers a new way to increase their arts and culture participation and spending.
How can FunSavers help my organization?
This is an opportunity for performing arts organizations to sell excess inventory and, for other cultural organizations, to increase paid admission during slow periods. FunSavers helps Cultural Alliance members while introducing consumers to new experiences by reducing the "entry" cost. This project gives Cultural Alliance members a way to selectively fill seats or exhibition spaces that would otherwise be unsold.
How is this different from other discount ticket offers out there?
FunSavers is unique because it offers consumers a substantial discount (50%) on seats made available at the last minute. For cultural consumers who are flexible in their interests, and willing to make a spontaneous decision, the program offers the chance to explore different cultural disciplines. By standardizing the discount at 50 percent, these consumer offers are both simple and substantial.
How does the Cultural Alliance collect discount offers?
Each Monday morning, our members' marketing contacts receive an e-mail soliciting half price ticket and admission offers. The e-mail contains a link to an online form to complete by the end of the business day on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we compile up to a dozen offers and incorporate them into an e-mail that is sent to hundreds of Baltimore-area college students, faculty and administrators on Thursday morning. Offers are valid for the following week, Friday to Thursday.
Do my organization's offers have to be half price?
Yes. To maximize the appeal and simplicity of FunSavers to consumers, this project is marketed simply as a "HALF PRICE" ticket program.
Can I restrict the offers my organization gives to the Cultural Alliance for FunSavers e-mails?
Yes. For example, you may want to specify that this standard half-price offer cannot be combined with other discounts, or you might want to limit the number of tickets or admissions sold to each customer. You can also specify specific days or times for your offers; the discount does not have to be valid for the entire week.
How often can my organization be included in the e-mail?
Each e-mail will include up to a dozen offers. This is meant to ensure that consumers are not overwhelmed by the number of offers and so that all members are able to participate. This is also meant to ensure a diversity of offers for the consumer. The Cultural Alliance does not want its members to sell for half-price what they could sell for full-price. In our effort to avoid conditioning consumers to expect specific organizations? tickets at half-price, your offer may not be accepted more than once every few weeks.
How does the Cultural Alliance decide which offers to include in each week's e-mail?
We select offers by striving to provide a diversity of opportunities for consumers. That diversity will be reflected in cultural disciplines, geography and the size of our member organizations. No organization will be included more than once every few weeks, and preference will be given to organizations that have not been included in recent e-mails.
What else do we have to do to participate?
The submission form must contain clear instructions to the consumer for redeeming the offer by telephone, online or in person. We encourage you to specify an offer "code" or title for the customer to use when purchasing tickets to make redemption of your offer easier for the customer and your staff, and to help us track the results of the project on an ongoing basis.
Does the Cultural Alliance monitor these offers once they are made?
Yes. The Cultural Alliance asks participating member organizations to report sales after the offer week is over. This project is supported by The France-Merrick Foundation and we are expected to report the results of the offers to France-Merrick on a regular basis. We ask all participants to report their FunSavers sales to us as soon after the end of their offer as possible.
How often are these offers made?
Every Thursday, every week.
How can consumers sign up for the weekly e-mail?
At this link: http://www.baltimorefunguide.com/calendar/receiveOffersForm.do It's on the home page of the Fun Guide in the top right hand corner of the page.
click here to sign up
The Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance is committed to improving the business climate in which arts and culture organizations operate. FunSavers is another way to help members increase earned income through bolstering attendance.
