The DCI 990s

[MikeN]

Oh, and John DeNovi marched VK in the day, if I remember right. So between him and Bob, DCI is keeping it "in the family."

Mike

[N.E. Brigand]

Should DCI be paying for marketing? Is anyone surprised that DCI is paying for marketing?

Yes. No.

I wonder if they're spending enough. In the world of not-for-profit theatre, I think roughly 10-20% of an organization's total budget is spent on marketing. I suppose DCI directly markets far fewer shows than your average theatre, although a typical theatre's total seasonal attendance is probably not so far from the total of DCI regionals plus championshiops.

[Slingerland]

Yes. No.

I wonder if they're spending enough. In the world of not-for-profit theatre, I think roughly 10-20% of an organization's total budget is spent on marketing. I suppose DCI directly markets far fewer shows than your average theatre, although a typical theatre's total seasonal attendance is probably not so far from the total of DCI regionals plus championshiops.

I don't think that's a good analogy, since the typical resident/regional theatre is advertising a season of productions that all play in one space. DCI is marketing a tour of events that happen in a hundred plus locations.

However, I seem to remember hearing that DeNovi's primary job was to bring in corporate sponsors for DCI, rather than doing consumer marketing. IF that's true (notice the qualifier), then DCI is overpaying for the services by a large amount. An in-house tree-shaker who knows who and how to pitch season sponsorships would be a much better investment, since they're not getting much for the current amount of cash going out on that front. Getting all the low-hanging fruit (Zildjian, Yamaha, Pearl) involved isn't much of a challenge; the goals should be tour sponsorships from Levis, or McD's or Target or Coke, all of which have much deeper marketing pockets and could provide the type of support that would help cover significant portions of the advertising and marketing expenses for the tour.

Edited August 20, 2014 by Slingerland

[N.E. Brigand]

I don't think that's a good analogy, since the typical resident/regional theatre is advertising a season of productions that all play in one space. DCI is marketing a tour of events that happen in a hundred plus locations.

Which is presumably harder than marketing a season in one venue, implying that DCI should be spending an even greater percentage of the annual budget on marketing than theatres do. But is DCI in fact marketing all the shows, or do most of them fall to the tour partners (like garfield)?

[garfield]

There are a few itemized categories that are interesting, namely "Occupancy", "Travel", and "Conferences, conventions, and meetings".

Occupancy (presumably hotel rooms and the like)

2009: $117,924
2010: $121,302
2011: $121,776

2012: $121,802

Travel

2009: $33,604
2010: $33,487
2011: $16,623

2012: $23,472

Conferences...

2009: $111,993
2010: $164,859
2011: $201,992

2012: $158,585

"Occupancy" and "Travel" are both listed as "Management and general expenses", while "Conferences" are listed un "Program service expenses".

[garfield]

The biggest five categories of expenses are:

DCI Show Expense
Judges and Program Staff
Donor Expenses
Fan Network Expenses, and
All Other Expenses

All of the "Other Expenses" are things like postage, phone, and miscellaneous stuff that, individually, make up less than about 3% of the budget. I'll pick out the biggest of these when we get there but, first, let's tackle the first four, and biggest, expenses.

First is "DCI Show Expense":

2009: $4,108,635
2010: $4,424,678 (plus $316,043 [7.7%] over 2009)
2011: $4,878,735 (plus $454,057 [10.3%] over 2010, plus $770,100 [18.7%] over 2009)

2012: $4,847,074

All of these are listed under "Program service expenses" as opposed to "Management and general expenses".

While there's no accounting of the specific expenses that went into these totals, it seems that the category name can include everything that goes in to producing DCI shows.

I did confirm that this category includes payouts to corps for performances.

[N.E. Brigand]

There are a few itemized categories that are interesting, namely "Occupancy", "Travel", and "Conferences, conventions, and meetings".

Occupancy (presumably hotel rooms and the like)

2009: $117,924

2010: $121,302

2011: $121,776

2012: $121,802

Are you sure Occupancy doesn't refer to rent or utilities for DCI's offices or storage?

[whitedawn]

John DeNovi is the guy heading DCI's marketing, and spearheaded Drumline Battle and SoundSport. He also threatens folks if he doesn't like what you have to say. (Oops, said that out loud...)

Isn't the Art Department Bob Jacob's company?

Mike

John DeNovi owns DSM.

Bob Jacobs owns the Art Department.

In my opinion, both are being paid far too much for far too little production.

[garfield]

Are you sure Occupancy doesn't refer to rent or utilities for DCI's offices or storage?

Nope, not sure at all and you surely could be right. In fact, I just scanned through the expense items and found nothing that refers to "rent" or the like so its entirely possible that "Occupancy" could mean "rent" paid for DCI's facilities. The only other category where "rent" may fall is in "Office Expense", which is $191m. (Personal observation is that $191m sounds like a lot for copy paper and the like. But we can't tell what's in Office Expense.)

Edited August 20, 2014 by garfield

[Jeff Ream]

I want to thank you for doing a masterful job of redirecting the discussion to DCI's marketing and away from personal discussions about the people paid for those services. Should DCI be paying for marketing? Is anyone surprised that DCI is paying for marketing? What DCI spends on their marketing, and to whom they pay for these services, is safely presumed to be known by the entirety of the drum corps BOD who, I presume, have influence on how DCI spends its money.

I would also contend that there is likely value in paying marketing people who are actually involved with the activity - I don't know, but that seems intuitive to me to get the best value for the marketing dollar.

i've been more impressed with their marketing since before you first rolled out the 990's. I see far more presence everywhere