NOVEMBER 2020

Our friends at Sonoma County Tourism (SCT) are launching a holiday-themed promotional campaign starting the week of Thanksgiving. The campaign will support both hospitality and arts offerings including art experiences and Sonoma-made gift giving ideas. We’re working on this campaign with SCT so that our arts and culture makers have their work seen and supported by audiences from all over who love Sonoma County.

And the icing on the [fruit] cake is that the SCT website is viewed by tens of thousands of potential patrons – a number that is expanded by seasonal promotions like this upcoming campaign.

In addition to the potential for your event to be featured by SCT, Creative Sonoma is featuring a landing page on our website that we will promote through the holidays to highlight all the ways shoppers and event seekers can connect to you, our local arts producers and makers. 

So…how do you get in on the action?

• Post your holiday events and offerings (including pop-up sales events, open studios, etc.) on our Creative Calendar, either exactly as you originally conceived them, or reworked to be enticing to an outside eye.
• If you want to be included in a link to artists, makers, and arts organizations offering art, products, and services for holiday gifting, update (or add) your profile in our Artists & Creatives Directory or the Organizations & Enterprises Directory and select the category “Holidays Shop Local”. 
• Make sure that your own social media sites are updated so potential patrons can find you when they are ready to buy.
• BONUS HINT: Partner with another hospitality or creative business to double your impact. It could be as simple and obvious as recommending a local wine and/or restaurant that pairs perfectly with your production or a recommendation for which craft beer to sip while using the functional art you sell. And if you do identify an official partnership (which will increase your changes of being featured in a special story), please let us know about it – email us at CreativeSonoma@sonoma-county.org.

 
SCT will feature a link in their promotions to the “holiday” tagged listings on our site, as well as offer you the opportunity to post directly to their site if you are a partner (and if not, please consider becoming a partner; link below).

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS

FOR EVENTS, ACTIVITIES AND EXPERIENCES

• Post your holiday activities to the Creative Calendar at CreativeSonoma.org. These can be live or virtual events, and can include pop-up sales and open studios from individual artists. Make sure select the category Holiday Event or Offer. This category can either be the “Primary Category” or the “Additional Category”. 
• Post your holiday activities to the SCT Events Calendar. If you are already a partner–or would like to become a partner–visit their extranet site HERE. 

 
ARTWORK, PRODUCTS, AND SERVICES

• Whether an individual, business, or organization, update your profile on CreativeSonoma.org and make sure to add Holidays Shop Local to your “Artist Type” or “Organization Type”. If you are feeling industrious, add a line at the top of your profile with a brief message like “Visit my Instagram page to shop for artwork!” or other appropriate year-round “how to buy from me” messages. 
• If your arts organization offers Memberships or Seasons Tickets, we’d like to promote that as a gift idea. Please add BOTH “Organization Type” categories, Holidays Shop Local and Museum and Gallery Memberships and/or Performing Arts Memberships or Season Tickets, to your profile. 
• If your arts organization offers Arts Classes or Workshops, we would love to promote those as well. Add the category type Adult Arts Education and/or Youth Arts Education to you profile. 
• If you have a storefront or gallery, become a partner with SCT. If you are already a partner–or would like to become a partner– and want to create or update your listing, visit their extranet site HERE

 
If you have additional questions about the Creative Sonoma directories, posting your event or offer to Creative Sonoma’s Creative Calendar, or need further assistance, please email CreativeSonoma@sonoma-county.org. 

PHOTO: Transcendence Theatre Company: Broadway Holiday Online