Gabor Egri on audience engagement and the future of cultural marketing in the digital age: "A mix of social media channels is always the right choice"

Gabor Egri, expert in cultural marketing, participated at the Akordaj – Spotlight on Music conference, where he discussed effective strategies to capture the attention of the audience in today’s digital communication. With extensive experience in promoting arts and cultural institutions, Egri offers valuable insights on how creative and ethical messages can reach target audiences. In the interview below, he discusses topics such as the use of artificial intelligence in marketing, the challenges posed by social media platforms and the importance of adaptability and creativity in training the next generation of marketing professionals.

A: The other day we talked here about how you can capture your audience’s attention. What are some recommendations you can make in this regard?

Gabor Egri: You have to have a clear message that you want to deliver, you have to have a clear message, you have to have a creative message, in a creative medium, or creatively constructed, or delivered through a creative channel, a non-usual tool. Always be true to your brand and always be honest. The combination of all of that and the necessary channels, and delivering your message over and over again, so being repetitive, repeating your ad, repeating your message enough times condensed into a 2-3 week period a month and you have a chance to reach the audience you want to reach, or to raise awareness of your brand and attract audiences to come to your concert or your event, whatever it is.

A: Lately we’ve seen an increase in the use of artificial intelligence. How do you see the future of cultural marketing? Will we rely more on artificial intelligence or is human expertise more important?

Gabor Egri: I believe in human expertise and I believe in people. At the same time, I cannot ignore technical developments. Artificial intelligence could be used, in my opinion, and it should be used in a way that will help us to achieve our goals. I don’t think it can do the things that we can do now, but at the same time I don’t think I see the full potential of artificial intelligence. I’d like to think we need people in the marketing department who are working on problems and going to work or working online utilizing the benefits of artificial intelligence. Rather than seeing artificial intelligence using us.

A: Companies that control social media platforms often implement changes without communicating this to users. As a cultural manager, how do you deal with these changes?

Gabor Egri: I think ethical marketing and ethical behavior are important in all aspects of life. And in my opinion this also applies to social media companies. If they cheat people and if they break the law, then we are talking about other things. If they upset someone’s feelings, then it’s another thing again. Most people would not realize, react or act at all. I don’t know how many would be willing to communicate to social media companies that they have breached a contract or are breaking the law. I am not at all in favor of illegal or unethical and unfair advertising.

A: What does an incorrect ad look like?

Gabor Egri: What is incorrect? It hurts my feelings, but my feelings are different from yours, so they cannot be measured. But our rights are the same. So if my rights are violated, or if they simply crossed a line that I would complain over, then I really would complain. It’s not very good that the customer relationships of these companies either don’t exist or you get an artificial intelligence generated response that ignores those sensitive things that you care about and actually want an answer to. That’s why I say customer relationships are very important. But we often fail to reach out to the customer relationship operators of companies, not just social media, but in other areas.

A: You have used and are using various social media platforms. Which ones do you prefer to promote artists and which ones would you use to promote a classical music magazine like Papageno?

Gabor Egri: I don’t think there is a general rule. There are case-by-case solutions. Facebook is the social media channel for seniors. If you want an older audience, then Facebook is the social media tool to use. So is Youtube, because Youtube is for everyone, so there’s no segmentation. TikTok, which started for young adults or teenagers, is now being used by older people. So these channels are evolving and changing. I would suggest that TikTok is better for telling a story. Of course, like many others, we use Instagram to share experiences, videos, images of what happened. And I think that’s a nice mix and, of course, you can include others. It depends what’s the audience you want. What products or services you’re promoting. So a mix of social media channels is always the right choice.

A: You have already had the opportunity to meet the participants of this conference. What was your impression of the students?

Gabor Egri: That they are very interested in what we are discussing. Yesterday I had a chance to meet them and I found out that the average age is 25. And I said ok, we will have to take breaks every 10 minutes. A 15-minute break after every 10 minutes. But I’m not disappointed at all. I don’t get the feeling that these young people who are constantly checking their phone messages. They are paying attention and listening and I’m trying to turn this class into a conversation. Even if I have to present things and ideas, I keep asking them questions and they, in turn, ask me questions. So my experience is absolutely positive. Four three-hour sessions over two days is a lot. It’s a lot for the participants and for the presenter, but it’s good.

A: What are your expectations from this course?

Gabor Egri: Just two things: for them to gain an overview of cultural marketing with a focus on art institutions and secondly, to see a development of their creativity, so ideas, initiatives that are born in them, so that in the future they can be more creative. To accept challenges, because in my opinion, challenges are about adapting and moving forward, not complaining. So you have to stay focused on the goal and find solutions to problems sometimes. And those two things I hope they take home with them.

Note: Akordaj – Spotlight on Music is a conference organized by Classical ME, JM Hungary and Scena Muzicală, which brought together classical music journalism professionals from Hungary and Romania in Timisoara with the aim of training the next generation of classical music journalists. The conference was co-financed by the Erasmus+ program.