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I had zero results from a three time ad campaign in the glossy ballet magazine/program (very expensive ads, the correct demographic, but perhaps no one spends much time really looking at those things.)
I do know of some artists who have had results from ad campaigns in magazines but those were typically in VERY expensive lifestyle publications and often produced no results either.
I also spent a fair bit of money last year doing direct mail postcards to an upscale purchased mailing list. Again zero results. The results I have had from my mailing were when I sent it to my own list of contacts, people who already knew me in some way or another. That produced a commission from a family to do three portraits that I don't think would have happened if they hadn't received my postcard. But no other results.
I had an interesting conversation the other day with a very senior executive from a major ad agency who helps big companies decide where to spend their ad money. He said direct mail only really works for low priced items -- the stuff we get in the mail every day: ads for pizzas, car wash places, etc.
I will continue to do mailings a couple of times a year to my own list of contacts but it will be a while before I do any other "mass" marketing. I am frequently reminded that this is a one-on-one business. As the art consultant Calvin Goodman often reminds me: "The art market is not the mass market."
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