Breaking Ground in the LA Art Scene: Dream City Studios

The Breakdown

Mission & Challenge

Grow Social Media followers & build a regional art community
Promote Los Angeles art and history of LA
Show case local art, artists and Dream City Studios
Create sales funnel through online social media community to sell art online through website
Build E-commerce integration into pre-existing website

Services Offered

Market & Competitor Analysis
Social Media Management
Social Media Growth Hacking
UX Design
UI Design
E-Commerce Website

The Outcome

Created worthwhile educational content that targeted art collectors, artists and art brokers who where based locally and regionally in Los Angeles and the state of California.
Created and Optimized Facebook page based upon research that suggest clients target market was engaging and more actively present of Facebook than Instagram.
Actively managed clients Instagram account, through posting multiple stories and post per day while constantly interacting with community and foster new community growth.
Refreshed website to a more modern look and feel, while retaining the Dream City studio branding.
Optimized and Integrated E-Commerce platform into preexisting website as well as improved UI/UX Design.

The Results & Impacts

Grew community from the original 146 followers to 1579 which is a 981% increase in followers in less than six months through organic posting and community engagement.
Dramatically increased sales through online E-commerce integration.
Helped prepare and promote turnout to the 2019 The Other Art Fair presented by Saatchi Art in Los Angeles through community outreach, stories, cross-promoting, and community interactions.
Catapulted Dream City Studios business to a future proof online sales strategy by allowing them to sell art, communicate, capture leads, all online.

What the Client Thinks

“I am Los Angeles-based fine artist. Amplific Laboratory helped me dramatically increase my social media following and upped my content quality and posting frequency. They also rebuilt my website to add e-commerce capability so I can now sell limited edition prints directly to the public. They are great people, easy to work with, and affordable.”

Harry Chandler

Founder, Dream City Studios

The Goal

The founder of Dream city studios is a 5th generation Angelino. His ancestors arrived in the 1880s when Los Angeles was a small town of only a few thousand in which they helped build it into a great city. Fast forward to the thriving metropolis that Los Angeles is today, the client finds his art and inspiration reflecting not only the history but the modern-day sights and sounds of what LA and Southern California encompasses.

With several original art series finished and more constantly in the works, the client was in need of increasing their sales and moving older artwork out of the studio to make room for new projects. The client was also in need of marketing help in preparing for The Other Art Fair by Saatchi Art which is one of LA’s most sought-after art fairs.

Dream City Studios realized through attending local arts walks and communicating with other local artists and gallery owners that there was indeed a niche local art community that was online and active. With realizing this our client was in need of building a sales funnel and online community where they could communicate and display old, current and future art series and projects while funneling prospective client into a sale. Their hunch in where to build this tribe of art followers was geared towards the all so popular social media platform of Instagram.

But what our client soon realized that creating an online social media based community was nothing like painting, sculpting, or drawing; it involved technologies that were far different than a stroke of a brush or pen. Plus with the ambition of wanting to continue creating new art pieces while also running their current business, Dream City Studios needed specialized outside help to fulfill this new ambitious goal!

The Gap

This is were Amplific Lab came into the story. We quickly started our market research and discovery phase of the project. To understand the local Los Angeles Art scene and what kind of community we would be dealing with and how we could best communicate with them. We soon realized that there was a divided in our research.

A Target Market Divide

Our research concluded that there were two different market segmentation that would impact our overall strategy and implementation for our client. 1. An an active younger generation of art enthusiasts whom could not afford original pieces of art, but could help grow our clients niche online art community. 2. Less active, more financially sound collectors, brokers and artists whom might not be your best cheerleader when wanting to build a niche online art community but could afford a little more than just a print.

These findings quickly dictated the strategy after discussions with the client. Through our initial research, the clients original thoughts of wanting to become a local art influencer soon turned into: what is the best way we can target these financial sound collectors and brokers…

Our market research and these new findings started to blanket the whole encompassing business and its online presence. Concerns of the website started arising, sales funnels, E-Commerce, UI/UX Design and more. After presenting several different viable options to the client, a final decision was made and the creation of the machine began.

The Gamble

The first main decision that was enacted around our strategy revolved around the initial clients inquiry of creating an online social community. Instead of just an Instagram only social media presence, Facebook also became a priority. From data driven statistics, Amplific Lab quickly recommended to the client that they should also pursue Facebook marketing due to their being a higher percentage of actively engaged users that fit their ideal target market. Instagram, however was just as important due to the clients specific industry of Art and how the content would resonate well with the platforms community and generate positive engagement.

An Online Sales Funnel

The second phase of the project was based around the actual sale of the art online and how to push the perspective client through a functioning sales funnel with an end goal of a conversion. To successfully accomplish this an E-Commerce integration on the client pre-existing website was required.

The decision was made that the website would allow customers to buy prints, books, calendars etc. but a separate inquiry would be needed in purchasing an original piece. This would allow for anyone that found Dream City Studios art through our social media marketing efforts to be able to go to the website and buy a more affordable high quality print, yet keep the prestige of originals to only serious buyers.

The design of the E-commerce site was extremely important not only for simplicity of allowing customers an easy checkout but also for navigational purposes to easily find what they were looking for. It was also key to introducing them to new series of art that they might not have previously known about. That was were the UI/UX design of the project came into affect. Simple navigation, beautiful design, ease of use, yet proven UX strategy to convert sales.

Building A Community

With the build underway, it was time to work on social media outreach and community building. Organic posting that concentrated on consistency, relevancy, and good timing really kept the algorithm working in our client’s favor. A powerful community outreach campaign with a healthy sprinkling of growth hacking techniques really started to get the ball rolling through seeing good engagement numbers, new followers, and consistent better analytical numbers. All of this effort was in anticipation of the lead up the 2019 The Other Art Fair our client was invited to.

We needed to prop our client into a position that would give them relevance within the local art community and also gain them enough followers to make the studio seem reputable at quick glance. Once the date started to get closer, our team started a marketing and collaboration campaign to work together with other local artists to help amplify the message and sell more entry tickets.

LA Traffic Scream Dream City Studios copy

The Gain

The art fair was a success for our client and all of our hard work had paid off. The social media marketing campaign helped sell more prints and original pieces than expected which is always welcoming to our clients.

Our client walked away with a roadmap to success thanks to our custom build strategy and a major jump start in their overall long term business objectives. Including a future proof online sales strategy that incorporated many technological integration with their pre-existing website that allowed them to sell art, communicate with existing customers, capture new leads and close new sales.

Amplific Lab also overwhelmingly surpassed the clients expectations by growing their original social media following from a meager 146 follow to a substantial 1579 followers (a 981% increase) in less than a six month time frame. We also left our client with a social media posting strategy, content strategy and training to help set them up for success once we had stepped out of the picture.

Dream City Studios story is one of many that Amplific Lab has helped revitalized and bring current into the competitive globalized 21st century of an online first business mentality. Our underlining goal with all clients is to not only improve or optimize your business but to substantially increase your overall profit and have a competitive edge.