June 2016 Sharing Form
PLAYHOUSE SQUARE, CLEVELAND
TICKETING SYSTEM: Spectra (formerly Paciolan)*
*Contract expires 1/18. Currently in process of creating and sending RFP’s. VERY interested to hear from anyone on Tessitura and Audience View.
KEY COMMENTS and INSIGHTS
BROADWAY SERIES
During the fall, we allowed season ticket holders to upgrade their seats into new locations as a result of adding a third week of performances. It was done by seniority over a four month period. Of the 15,000 or so households, only a small percentage actually “upgraded” their seat to a more expensive location. Most chose to move to what they considered a better seat within their same section and day of the week.
As of this writing, we are at 78% renewal, with a week or so to go. We are projected to end the 16/17 season with 32,000. By adding a third week, our projections are to grow to 36,000 over the next four years.
OTHER SERIES
We are completing year one of the Broadway Series in Akron, with a second year under contract. It is an interesting market with a much older demographic than what we are used to seeing. In 16/17, we will introduce balcony seating at $10 for each of the four shows.
This series has given one of our newer managers the opportunity to become involved with growing the subscription base and overseeing all of the marketing. In addition, it has allowed one of our coordinators the chance to advance the shows, oversee load-in and settle at the end of the run.
SUBSCRIPTIONS—General Commentary
We are looking closely at auto renewals beginning with the 17/18 season. This is a model the sports teams have been successfully following for several years. Though this option may be attractive only to the show-agnostic buyers, we feel that the function will free up our staff to deal with the heavy renewals that occur 1-2 weeks out from deadline (this year, our staff handled 10,000 inbound phone calls during the renewal period, even though online renewals have been available for several years now). Reduced paper and postage are of additional benefit, but our vision is about digitizing what we can, order to be ready for the younger audiences that will be arriving over the next five years.
E-MARKETING / WEB/ MOBILE / SOCIAL MEDIA INSIGHTS & COMMENTARY
We will be transitioning to a new marketing automation tool within our ticketing system. We have outgrown the capabilities of PacMail, the current product from Spectra. Automation will allow us to be far more efficient and deeply strategic with our campaigns. Though it will allow us to be more nimble, the feedback from others using automation is that the data generated will be overwhelming unless we figure out how to digest it and act upon it. (The upside is that is provides more data. The downside is that it provides more data.)
As part of this strategy, we will also be converting to a new CRM product by Sales Force. This will streamline use by our Inside Sales, Services and Group Sales departments. This tool will provide us with information on our customers that we can turn into upsell or better service opportunities. In addition to providing us with a comprehensive understanding of our customer’s purchase and activities path, we will use marketing automation to “feed” the CRM. Our goal will be to provide intel for our sales team to act upon. Every campaign will be about driving the upsell to a greater package, experience or donation.
On another note, we have begun to build a data base consisting of downtown residents. The boom in residential development is at an all-time high and is predicted to triple in size over the next few years. Studies have shown that the downtown residents are evenly split between baby boomer/empty nesters and millennials. We began with our ticket sales data (38,000 records in downtown zips) and will be going “old school” with social media, email, postcard and event marketing campaigns to collect email addresses and cell phone numbers. Our goal right now is create traffic for our District partner restaurants on nights when we do not have shows or after the curtains go up. It will eventually morph into an app where users can get access to last minute tickets and dinner/drink specials.
DIRECT MAIL STRATEGY AND RESULTS
Nothing new to report. This continues to drive our Broadway subscription sales. The only media we now buy is online, and have completely cut print, radio, TV and outdoor. Certainly, direct mail may play a role in the fall during the election madness, as we attempt to cut through the political clutter.
BEST ACCOMPLISHMENT
By far, our greatest accomplishment was relocating a group of long-term season ticket holders to seats outside of the Donor Circle with only a few stings and burns. We met for nearly 15 months to develop our communications strategy and prepare for fallout. The staff who executed the move was extremely well trained and the time spent with Spectra developing the systems and processes allowed us to track all movement and document conversations. We escaped unscathed.
YEAR ENDING FINANCIAL STATUS
Our year end is June 30, but so far we are ahead of budget with theater operations leading the way! Four weeks of Phantom will close the year in a very positive way.
ORGANIZATIONAL NEWS AND/OR UPDATES
We will be a host site for RNC activities, meetings and parties, as all of our spaces are on hold. As of this writing, we do not know where the delegates will be from, but we are planning for all staff hands to be on deck that week. Fortunately, our venue is outside of the secured zone.
We are also excited about the attention we have received from public safetly and Homeland Security. The investments they are making in security cameras and the like, will remain after the RNC has left town. The training they are providing at no cost is extremely valuable.
PROMOTIONS OF NOTE (GREAT SUCCESSES OR DISMAL FAILURES)
Though not a promotion, we installed a virtual greeter in our main walkway (two more to be installed this August within our two large Broadway lobbies.). You will be able to see them while on tour. Each has an iPad to provide guests with information on things like nearby dining, upcoming shows and a sign-up for our newsletter.
Our Community Engagement and Education department hosted our first “Dazzle Awards” (part of the national Jimmy Awards program). To gain exposure for the event, we focused our efforts on pushing use of the hashtag on Twitter and Instagram. We are so pleased that it trended locally on the evening of the awards ceremony and well into the next day (competing against the Cavs in an Eastern Conference Finals game on the same night!)
HOW OFTEN AND BY WHAT METHOD(S) DO YOU SURVEY YOUR AUDIENCES?
Broadway Series season ticket holders receive an annual voice of customer survey at the conclusion of each season. (We also participate in whatever annual survey the Broadway League might be doing).
All single ticket buyers receive a follow-up survey within 48 hours of their visit, regardless of genre. We keep this to no more than five questions (outside of demographic info). We have not taken a look at this for a few years now—it is been on automatic pilot. Having to comment on this served as a good reminder to audit what we’re doing and see if it is still effective or useful. So many times, we work on autopilot……
We use Surveymonkey for both of the above.
WHAT’S YOUR PAC’S TAGLINE?
“Inspiring Performance”
PLEASE LIST YOUR STAFF POSITIONS
Vice President, Ticket Sales & Marketing Director, Ticket Systems & Technology
Director, Inside Sales and Service Assistant Director, Marketing
Senior Manager, Brand Communications Manager, Digital Marketing
Manager, Destination Branding
Manager, Marketing & PR (total of 4)
Marketing Coordinator
Project Coordinator
PITTSBURGH CULTURAL TRUST
TICKETING SYSTEM: Tessitura
KEY COMMENTS and INSIGHTS
BROADWAY SERIES
We are right now closing our 2015-2016 PNC Broadway Season with a two-week engagement of Matilda (runs through June 12), which is presented in cooperation with our resident musical theater company, the Pittsburgh CLO. There have been some complaints from patrons over not being able to understand the actors. However, these complaints have been minimal and far fewer than what was reported in other markets earlier in the tour.
Overall, the 2015-2016 season has been the most profitable in our history even though it lacked a blockbuster engagement. Five of nine titles had a sell through of over 90%; exceptional exceptions where CABARET and BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY which both under performed.
Announced the 2017-2018 PNC Broadway season at a successful event attended by 1100 patrons at our Byham Theater—the largest turnout to date. Four shows (FUN HOME, FINDING NEVERLAND, THE KING AND I, and CURIOUS INCIDENT) provided performance numbers or in the case of CURIOUS a question and answer segment with an associate producer. Additional titles on season are: A CHRISTMAS STORY, SOMETHING ROTTEN, and AN AMERICAN IN PARIS. Our 5 season specials are: KINKY BOOTS, CHEERS LIVE, THE BOOK OF MORMON (3rd time in market), RIVERDANCE, and DIRTY DANCING. Overall, we’ve had a positive response to the season. Two months into the campaign, new acquisition sales are tracking ahead of last year at the same point in the sales cycle and renewals are even with last year. Our subscription base has remained steady for the last two years around 9000 sub seats in our one-week market.
In coordination with our Tony Award viewing party on June 12 we have 3 ad placements during the Tony Awards. The commercial spot this year was produced with a local firm using venue footage and show broll. This is a diversion from using an agency who had been localizing a Broadway Across America ‘experience’ ad for the last four years.
Our VP of Programming left last September and I am continuing to enjoy my new Broadway programming role and ‘being in the room where it happens’ in regard to what my team is charged with promoting.
OTHER SERIES
Our dance series is under new leadership. Randal Miller, previously a programming manager, is now director of dance programming and special projects. A millennial, Randal’s background is that of a hip-hop dancer and he has brought a wonderful new perspective and energy to the series. Randal is also programming a new series for the Trust entitled Multiple Choice, that is targeted to 20- and 30-somethings. The program consists of audiences choosing from: a) a mainstage event geared toward the age group (hip-hop, etc.) b) entrance to a food truck area c) a dj after-party or d) all of the above. Pricing differs based upon options but ticket pricing will be very affordable.
The Trust Cabaret series sold out on subscription this past season. The 2016-2017 season features Billy Porter, Karen Mason, James Monroe Inglehart, Judy Kuhn, and Lea Salonga. We raised prices and are on target for another sell-out season on subscription.
We launched a new programming initiative in 2016-17 entitled Bridge Series aimed at bridging the gap of family programming (which we do a lot of and geared toward ages 4 – 10) and our regular programming that is geared toward adults. We received wonderful corporate support for the line-up and overall it has received great feedback. Ticket projections for the series fell short of what was expected in the first year. We are finding that it is especially tough to attract late tweens and teenagers primarily due to their lives being over programmed. I would be curious to hear how others have been successful in targeting this age group. Whether it is better to put more resources toward marketing to parents or to the tween/teens?
Our wine flights and beer school events continue to sell out or sell well. Love it when a program goes on autopilot!
SUBSCRIPTIONS—General Commentary
I’d say the biggest item in this category is HAMILTON. We now have a good idea of when it will play our market, but we can not tease it until a season before it arrives.
SINGLE TICKETS
Jerry Seinfeld
Sean Jones
Boney James
Theresa Caputo
Alton Brown
Brit Floyd
Misses:
Gypsy Kings
Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage
The Trust programs a number of display galleries. At our Wood Street Galleries the current exhibition is ALL AROUND US: INSTALLATIONS AND EXPERIENCES INSPIRED BY BUGS. As stated by the curator: “This exhibition stands in awe of the quintillions of bugs that have inhabited our planet for millions of years and the complex relationship they maintain with our species. The works included here transform our tiny co-habitants superpowers into human-scale experiences, in an attempt to examine our conflicting relationship with insects.” – Ali Momeni
The exhibition features artwork made of bugs along with other pieces that have live insects. One piece has an American Cockroach driving a mobile robot. More info at: http://woodstreetgalleries.org/portfolio-view/all-around-us/
Family Shows Sales & Commentary:
Hits:
Wild Kratts Live
Good Night Moon
Air Play
Welcome to Here: An immersive sensory-friendly experience
Titus
Peek
The Sheep
Misses:
Superman 2050
The Big Wolf
Our Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival is underway now. We expect 400,000 visitors at the completion of the 10-day festival of music, art, and food.
E-MARKETING / WEB/ MOBILE / SOCIAL MEDIA INSIGHTS & COMMENTARY
The Trust has received a grant that will allow us to undergo a digital audit. This will entail a thorough evaluation of overall marketing efforts, including website evaluation, social media efforts, online advertising, email strategy, SEO and web analytics. It is likely that Capacity Interactive will be the vendor.
DIRECT MAIL STRATEGY AND RESULTS
Direct mail continues to be effective for us. We have done less broad-based distribution via direct mail opting for very targeted segmentation. Broadway patrons respond especially well to pre-sale postcards.
BIGGEST RECENT SNAFU
During our EQT Children’s Theater Festival in May we had an event entitled Les moutons (The Sheep), which was a live installation that recreates a country scene in an urban setting. We staged the event in a parking lot that we manage. There are several actors that play the parts of sheep, a wolf, and there is a Sheppard. It is freaky how well these actors behave like actual animals. It is very realistic to the point where a male sheep partially mounts a female sheep. At another point the Sheppard milks one of the sheep and provides the milk to children in the crowd. The milk is actually goat’s milk that is warmed in a bladder to a specific temperature to further simulate the real world. A mommy blogger took incredible offense to the people sheep acting like real sheep and blasted us on her blog which got some Facebook play thereafter. We have found this with other international children’s programs that they present a realistic view of life’s events to children and do not attempt to water down or sugar coat the nature of our world. We put out a statement about how we do not censor and how this performance has been well-received around the world. Ultimately, several patrons who attended the event came to defending the presentation on social.
BEST ACCOMPLISHMENT
Our public art programs have received a lot of attention. We installed a second round of artistic bike racks which landed us a national Buzzfeed feature and we announced Water Cube this passed week– a glowing public art piece that dispenses regular water and fizzy water and also serves as a bike repair station. Pittsburghers are loving it.
Also, we achieved an ambitious lofty goal of increasing our donor base from 2,000 to 10,000 in 5 years. A ‘Trust Culture’ branding campaign was launched in the final year that pushed it over the top. The effort was supported by matching gifts from a Pittsburgh foundation. Our annual report, which will be available at the PACC, provides testimonials from members new and old who have helped us get there. The campaign required a tremendous amount of coordination between Development/Institutional Giving and the marketing department as well as alignment with staff and our board of directors to have everyone take ownership and row in the same direction.
YEAR ENDING FINANCIAL STATUS
The Trust ended its fiscal year at December 31 with a balanced operating budget, continuing the history of having never run an operating deficit. The results were driven by two specific things. The first is the strongest Broadway year on record, as defined by the sell-through of available ticket inventory. Five of the nine attractions saw a sell-through of over 90%. The second major driver of 2015 was the Trust’s attainment of its 5-year 10,000 Member Campaign.
ORGANIZATIONAL NEWS AND/OR UPDATES
Following is a pick up from my CEO’s PACC report:
The Trust is enhancing its overall Campus Security Plan. Being responsible for over 14 square blocks in an urban environment, which can be populated by over 10,000 arts patrons in an evening is a serious responsibility in and of itself. Adding the other multiple layers of the Trust mission and spaces; public parks, retail and office tenants, parking facilities and outdoor festivals attracting close to 750,000 people annually present additional challenges. The Trust has added a Chief Security Officer position to oversee this critical and ever-changing area.
The Trust continues to manage operations for the August Wilson Center of behalf of the new owners—a consortium of Pittsburgh foundations. The owners’ parallel effort of facilitating content development within the African American community continues to go more slowly than they had hoped. The Trust has now been asked to program an additional season, extending to 2016-2017. This, combined with the Trust’s enabling of other mission-appropriate organizations to utilize the facility has now pushed the level of programming to the highest level ever – even under prior administrations. This appears to be a very promising sign, although questions remain concerning on-going sustainability.
As a result of the Trust’s role in the reactivation of the August Wilson Center, as well as the successful merger of a 40 year-old non-profit arts educational organization (Gateway to the Arts) into the Trust in mid-2015, the decision was made to separate the functions of the former Arts Education and Community Engagement department resulting in the Education Department and the Strategic Partnerships and Community Engagement Department. This allows greater focus to be placed on both of these critical areas.
The Trust has preliminary schematics for potential artistic redeployments of two of its properties. One is to convert a property that was built as a theater in the 1930’s into a downtown Cineplex, with up to six screens with a small live theater space. The other is to convert a Trust property into a small performance space, housing a local growing comedy troupe. As to the Trust’s Eighth Street Block development, the Trust has been meeting with world-renown firms, primarily focused on incorporating best practices of sustainability. The Trust is also working with a local developer to assure the highest design standards for a contemplated privately-developed residential project at one gateway to the Eighth Street Block.
For our flagship venue, the Benedum Center, we are in the process of doubling the number of women’s restrooms while adding a second member lounge and a general purpose meeting place. This is being accomplished by bridging into an adjacent property and building out the entire floor as an extension of our mezzanine level. The project is on track to be complete in the fall.
SPECIAL EVENTS
We have found that the gateway activity to attract younger audiences has been parties. Toward that end, we have had Chocolate Bar (restaurants and chocolatiers presenting chocolatey food and deserts with live music) that took place in our Benedum Center, have had a number of private happy hours prior to Broadway performances, and continuing our yearly Cosmopolitan Pittsburgh party that takes place during the summer.
PROMOTIONS OF NOTE (GREAT SUCCESSES OR DISMAL FAILURES)
For the third year, the Trust will be having a Christmas in July promotional event at the region’s largest farmer’s market that takes place Downtown in Market Square. The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust coordinates with the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership (our BID organization) and Cultural District resident companies to present entertainment that highlights the holiday season. Each participating arts organization either provides a discount or puts an event on temporary pre-sale. The offers are tied to a promotional code that unlocks offers. The Trust will be offering A CHRISTMAS STORY for this year’s centerpiece event. In previous years, sales have ranged from $35,000 to $128,000 with an investment of $8,000 in media and operational costs.
PLEASE LIST YOUR STAFF POSITIONS
Emily Balawejder Multimedia Specialist
Caitlyn Braun Show Marketing Manager
Dinah Denmark Publications Manager
Jamie Cuba Show Marketing Manager
Marc Fleming Vice President of Marketing and Communications
Kristin Garbarino Marketing Technology Manager
Jonathan Fobear Graphic Artist
Shaunda Miles Public Relations Director
Brian Nichols Digital Designer
Diana Roth Communications Manager
Derek Scalzott Show Marketing Manager
Kayla Wasko Marketing Technology Assistant
MISCELLANEOUS COMMENTARY, RAMBLINGS OR MUSINGS
The Official Ticket Source video has been picked up by 7 properties with interest expressed by a number of other markets.
POTENTIAL ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION TOPICS
Please note any that you are especially interested in covering during discussion/sharing time.
We have started using an online lottery service provided by Jujamcyn through our partnership with Broadway Across America. It works like this. We message out to targeted segments through email/social. Seats are located in prime locations for $25 or $30 and we determine how many win. ‘Losers’ are then provided with a special offer at reduced priced tickets in price levels that are in need of attention. Traditionally lotteries have been for sold out events as you may know. This use of a lottery is a means of moving discounted seats based upon a perceived demand, which may not actually exist. There is no way of patrons knowing how many seats were allocated to the lottery so you could use this service to move as many discounted seats as there are entries. We have had good results with 3 titles so far.
About 40% of our programming activity is festivals. Our festival programming includes: Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival – a ten day festival showcasing music and art, attendance averages 400,000 per year; Highmark First Night Pittsburgh – a New Year’s eve family-friendly alcohol-free event featuring 150+ events and activities with a televised countdown to mid-night program with a ball rising and fireworks, attendance 50,000; JazzLive International Festival – a 3-day festival featuring internationally renowned jazz artists, attendance 15,000; EQT Children’s Theater Festival – one of a handful of international children’s festivals that take place in the U.S. featuring stage events and outdoor programming and activities, attendance 20,000; the Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts – a 6-week program that takes place every 4 years featuring works that have never before been experienced in the U.S., multi-disciplinary, attendance 25,000 – 1.5 million.
With the addition of a senior manager in charge of security we are evaluating existing safety and pr procedures. There is a good deal of change happening in this area for our organization.
The Trust has an arrangement with the Elliot Marketing Group to provide detailed analysis on direct mail campaigns and to report on demo/psychographics for our audiences. We continue to use the RMA revenue management platform that interfaces with Tessitura to for ticket buying trends and to inform pricing and scaling decisions.
PEACE CENTER, GREENVILLE
TICKETING SYSTEM: Audience View
KEY COMMENTS and INSIGHTS
BROADWAY SERIES
1516
1617
OTHER SERIES
Our annual outdoor concert series, Rock the River, was rebranded in the summer of 2015. This year we increased the quality of performers and so far that adjustment has made a positive impact on sales. This year’s season includes: The Mavericks, The Fabulous Thunderbirds,
The Wood Brothers, The Lone Bellow with Aoife O’Donovan, Keller Williams, and The Revivalists. Tickets are priced $25-$35 with a VIP club experience for $50 (our on-site theater lounge that has a balcony overlooking the concert stage).
For the 2016-17 season, we have added a new chamber music series. It’s in our 400 seat hall and has four performances (Sept, Nov, Feb & May). The series can be subscribed to and we have 83 subscribers for the inaugural season.
SUBSCRIPTIONS—General Commentary
Broadway subscriptions for the 16-17 season have been incredibly strong. Credit should be given to the strong programming and the addition of a 12-month payment plan option. Of the current subscribers, around 40% have selected some kind of payment plan option. Renewal rate is around 75% and new acquisition is already double what it was at this time last season. The renewal deadline has passed and there’s still quite a bit of new acquisition efforts to come including three Save-A-Seat events scattered throughout June and July.
SINGLE TICKETS
Did ok: Foreigner, Cooder-White-Skaggs, Rosanne Cash, Seal (show is in August, but sales have not been strong out the gate)
E-MARKETING / WEB/ MOBILE / SOCIAL MEDIA INSIGHTS & COMMENTARY
Email and social media continue to be significate components of our marketing strategy.
We’re almost done with a responsive design update with the corporate peacecenter.org site. Our ticketing platform is already responsive so our email and banner ads all link directly to the ticketing pages.
Our social media strategies continue to work well. We’ve moved to 100% paid FB posts and are very protective of our brand and strategy. At this point, in an effort to control the brand and content, we have not allowed any “take-overs” by shows. Instead, we’ve opted to create unique content as sales and time allow. Our latest was a :15 promotional Instagram video for the kick-off of our outdoor series, Rock the River, that was simply a glass outside with a beer being poured into it and then the series logo appears.
DIRECT MAIL STRATEGY AND RESULTS
Direct mail does very well in our market.
Our 1617 season brochure is in the works with an announcement scheduled June 19. We follow up this direct mailing with quarterly tri-fold brochures highlighting three months of programming. This allows us to not only remind our patrons about our programmed season but also the “just added” shows that didn’t make it into the original brochure. These quarterly mailings move the needle the week they hit the mailboxes.
We occasionally do an oversized postcard mailing with similar type programming as sales warrant.
Our Broadway season materials are mailed in a renewal packet along with a Broadway season brochure.
YEAR ENDING FINANCIAL STATUS
The FY wraps August 31 and we will finish in the black.
ORGANIZATIONAL NEWS AND/OR UPDATES
This past season we celebrated our 25th anniversary. It was relatively low key with just a few, small events including a new art installation dedicated to our founding Foundation President.
The Education team added a new Chamber music program, Peace Chamber. This is in addition to the established poetry based program, Peace Voices. In addition to performances, both of these programs contain significant outreach and community engagement components.
SPECIAL EVENTS
In Feb 2015, we were the host location for the CBS News Republican Debate. Kudos to our entire production and operations teams for an outstanding event that utilized every square inch of our Concert Hall and Administrative buildings.
PLEASE LIST YOUR STAFF POSITIONS
VP of Marketing
Marketing Director
Director of Public Relations
Art Director
Social & Marketing Manager/Copywriter
Digital Marketing Associate
AT&T PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, DALLAS
TICKETING SYSTEM: Tessitura
KEY COMMENTS and INSIGHTS
BROADWAY SERIES
15/16 season saw a drop in subs from 9,500 to 7,500. 100% about programming.
Matilda was a difficult engagement as we had the show when the kids still had their intense thick accents. Press caught wind and it was a 2 week struggle. Sales suffered.
Love Letters (2 weeks in large hall), was an inexpensive surprise hit. Grossed $815,000 and is now the highest grossing play ever to tour through Dallas.
Jersey Boys repeat at Xmas did solid business. $1.7 M
IF/Then – we were first market after Adele Dazeem left – tanked.
Cabaret - $1.1M
Beautiful will hit $2.2M for 2 weeks
Beauty and the Beast (for 3rd time in 6 season) will do $750K for one week
OTHER SERIES
TITAS Modern Dance series subs held at 620. Individual performances all at or near budget.
Classical Series did very poorly except for big titles (Perlman/Ax and Israel Phil) – we are killing the subscriptions series and will just do opportunistic blockbuster recitals
Speaker Series continues to merit attention – thought without Neil deGrasse Tyson and Ira Glass as anchors, sub sales dropped
Off-Broadway Series is still seeking its footing. We will continue to try to make this standalone series of smaller touring theatricals work.
SUBSCRIPTIONS—General Commentary
Killed telemarketing after moving it in-house one-year ago. Manager left for NFL and couldn’t replace and keep phone room staff.
SINGLE TICKETS
Bonnie Raitt, Paul Simon (house record $305K gross), Weird Al, Monkees, David Sedaris, Branford Marsalis all sold out or headed there.
Sophia Loren speaking engagement was disaster despite grossing $105k.
Dwight Yoakam, Alan Cumming, Kenny G – jury is out for shows later this summer.
Due to avails limitations we have done 10 shows at an off-campus venue (The Majestic Theatre: 1750 seats) all of which have done decent business. George Thorogood, Keb Mo, Robert Cray, Herb Alpert and comedian Lavell Crawford were highlights.
Our ROI on digital spend (especially SEM) is the best of any marketing activity we do. Is this scaleable. Is this reliant on other marketing to drive search activity?
In ticketing system we are now tracking via source code every transaction: asking customer how they got to us to help inform marketing investment.
Spending lots of time developing our digital video content for social distribution – results (views and engagement) are astonishing. Does it equate to sales?
Examples:
BB-8 visits our campus during Jersey Boys, generated 42,000 views on FB. 2 hours of filming and editing, $100 boost. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52oDLmI6Nmo
“tasty” video introducing our Speaker’s Series #hearhere generated 8,100 views on FB. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7ULC78RQ9M
Conducted 30 minute FB Live broadcast from backstage on opening night of Cabaret. Cast interviews and on-stage tour. 2,800 views. https://www.facebook.com/attpac/videos/10154241168879669/
BIGGEST RECENT SNAFU
One night new media festival in October called Aurora lost $400,000 due to sponsorship shortfall and budget over run.
Classical Series lost lots of money. Programmed 2 Jewish themed events on Jewish Holidays.
Tented Peter Pan tour went belly up in Dallas. Ticket rev offset unreimbursed expenses to almost breakeven. But resulted in $275,000 budget hit.
BEST ACCOMPLISHMENT
Installed new analytics and sales trend reporting.
Major operational streamlining and cost-cutting.
Turned Matilda audability issues into customer service win by sending sampler CDs with “apology note” to all ticket holders. Got lots of compliments on that strategy.
YEAR ENDING FINANCIAL STATUS
Will lose $800K this year, programming and fundraising shortfalls. Next year projected to net $2M due to cost cutting and other improved operations
PROMOTIONS OF NOTE (GREAT SUCCESSES OR DISMAL FAILURES)
Broadway Bar Crawl – to engage Millenials just after season announcement. Organized events in 4 proximate bars. Trivia, swag and ticket giveaways. Got 450 new names for database.
PLEASE LIST YOUR STAFF POSITIONS
VP marketing and sales
Director, marketing
Director, publicity
Promotions Manager, Broadway
Promotions Manager, Concerts
Digital Marketing, Manager – website
Digital Marketing Manager – social media and advertising
2x Graphic designers
Marketing Manager - analytics
MISCELLANEOUS COMMENTARY, RAMBLINGS OR MUSINGS
How do we create our own in-house version of Travelzoo/Groupon?
How do we/should we engage with 3rd party brokers or aggregators?
DR. PHILLIPS CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, ORLANDO
TICKETING SYSTEM: Tessitura
KEY COMMENTS and INSIGHTS
BROADWAY SERIES: Yes, FAIRWINDS Broadway in Orlando
OTHER SERIES Subscription Jazz series; previous Chefs series. Upcoming Speakers, Dance and Family series.
SUBSCRIPTIONS—General Commentary Challenging in this market, but we only use Broadway and Jazz for subscriptions.
SINGLE TICKETS
BIGGEST RECENT SNAFU Our website often cannot handle the amount of web traffic we receive at an onsale.
BEST ACCOMPLISHMENT Our Broadway series is hugely successful; our director of education was nominated for the yearly Educators Tony® Award and received an honorable mention.
ORGANIZATIONAL NEWS AND/OR UPDATES Currently fundraising to build our third venue, a 1700 seat acoustic hall.
SPECIAL EVENTS We have a growing events and food & beverage department that activates the building both on dark nights and in open event spaces.
PROMOTIONS OF NOTE (GREAT SUCCESSES OR DISMAL FAILURES) Broadway subscription series – season announcement livestreaming (the first of its kind).
PLEASE LIST YOUR STAFF POSITIONS
VP, Marketing and Communications
Future: AVP: Sales
Senior Director, Show Marketing
Senior Director, Membership and Corporate Relationships
Director of Communications
Creative Manager
Marketing Manager
Public Relations Manager
Membership Manager
Digital Manager
Graphic Design / Social Media Supervisor
Membership Coordinator
SEGERSTROM CENTER FOR THE ARTS, COSTA MESA
TICKETING SYSTEM: Tessitura
KEY COMMENTS and INSIGHTS
BROADWAY SERIES
15/16 saw good growth subscriber growth in both our two week Broadway series and our one week Curtain Call Series. Having 3 blockbusters really helped us to grow our numbers. All of the Broadway show’s we’ve presented so far this season have surpassed their budget goals.
2 week Broadway series (except where noted):
The Lion King (4 weeks); 42nd Street; Cinderella; Newsies; Sound of Music (coming in July); Cabaret (coming in August)
1 week Curtain Call Series: If Then (with Idina Menzel); The Illusionists; The Book of Mormon (2 weeks)
Bonus options: WICKED and Riverdance
15/16 Broadway Subs: 13,255
15/16 Curtain Call Subs: 4,018
For 16/17, we anticipate a drop in subs numbers going from a blockbuster season into one filled with all new shows and no blockbusters. This is a normal pattern for us, with numbers going up a couple thousand for a WICKED or Lion King season and then dropping down again when we just have regular shows on the series.
Broadway Series: Beautiful; Elf; Matilda; Finding Neverland; An American in Paris; The Bodyguard
Curtain Call Series: Gentleman’s Guide; Fun Home; Curious Incident
We’re still in our acquisition campaign, but here’s what we have so far for 16/17:
16/17 Broadway Subs: 11,399
16/17 Curtain Call Subs: 3,199
OTHER SERIES
Dance
Our Dance series offers plenty of worries for us. It’s now down to runs of 4 performances for most companies, and even then, we start sales with the Balcony and half of the Loge sections of sale. With demand, we open the closed areas as needed. This season was:
15/16 Season: Mariinsky Ballet dancing Raymonda (6 perfs), Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, Alvin Ailey (5 performances plus low priced,1 hour “Discover Ailey” show); Royal Swedish Ballet
We also started a multi-year Nutcracker residency with American Ballet Theatre this season. We offered 14 performances and it was a great success, although we’ve decided to drop some of the mid-week shows for 2016 and just present 12 performances.
16/17 Season: Mikhailovsky Ballet in Le Corsaire; American Ballet Theatre (rep TBD); Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg with Red Giselle; Teatro Alla Scalla Ballet in Cinderella
15/16 Dance Subs: 1,981
16/17 Dance Subs (so far): 1,705
Chamber Music
This is the little series that can, it always sells 90 – 100 subs, the audience is the most engaged and enthusiastic of any we have and it’s totally mixed in age, which is surprising. We sell around 200 tickets to each of these shows, although our annual visit by the Emerson String Quartet comes close to a sell out at nearly 300.
15/16 Season: Emerson String Quartet; Dilijan Chamber Players; Fauré Quartet; Dover Quartet; St. Lawrence String Quartet
16/17 Season: Auryn Quartet; Takacs Quartet; Marc Andre Hamelin with Pacifica Quartet; Emerson String Quartet; David Finckel, Wu Han, Philip Setzer
15/16 Subs: 92
16/17 Subs (so far): 95
Cabaret Series
For the 15/16 season, we changed Cabaret into our Spotlight Series, because most the shows were in our bigger halls and wouldn’t be in our intimate Samueli Theater as in previous years. The series was: Kristin Chenoweth in our 3,000 seat hall, Cheyenne Jackson, and Lea Salonga in the 2,000 seat concert hall, Forbidden Broadway and The Hot Sardines in a small 300 seat cabaret setting (3 shows each). We sold out Lea, Kristin sold 80%, the small shows did well with around 200 per show, and poor Cheyenne, we had to cancel his performance due to lack of sales.
The 16/17 season is going back to a Cabaret Series with the small format, tables and chairs layout in Samueli Theater with Betty Buckley, A Jerry Herman Songbook show, Charles Busch and Steve Tyrell.
15/16 Spotlight Subs: 226
16/17 Cabaret Subs (so far): 194
Family Series:
We have two series, Discovery Series for kids 4-8, and Explorer Series for those 7 and up.
15/16 Discovery Series: Okee Dokee Brothers; Room on the Broom; Big Bad Wolf; Egg; Box Brothers
15/16 Explorer Series: Nufonia Must Fall; Pero; Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, which was part of our Broadway Series.
For 16/17 we have these shows on the Discovery Series: Goodnight Moonl; The Little Prince; Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters; Where the Wild Things are; The Painted Garden. The 16/17 Explorer Series includes: Walking the Tightrope; Elf (again from Broadway); Doktor Kaboom!
Jazz:
19 years ago we started a Jazz Club Series in our black box theater, and over the years we had amazing artists at the Center for series of wonderful, intimate performances. But in recent years, it’s been hard to make that model work and we were presenting more artists in the larger halls than we were in the small hall each season. Finally, for the 15/16 season, we gave up the subscription model and we started having Jazz weekends, with consecutive nights of performances in our concert hall. The first one in October, included Poncho Sanchez and Eddie Palmieri on Friday night, Ramsey Lewis and Sergio Mendes on Saturday and The Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club from Cuba on Sunday. These ended up being fairly successful, Buena Vista sold out, Lewis and Mendes made goal, Poncho & Eddie were a little soft. Then over Mothers Day weekend we scheduled our second weekend of jazz, with Charlie Musselwhite, Bettye LaVetter and John Mayall on Saturday, Lisa Fischer, Dr. Lonnie Smith and Gregory Porter on Sunday. We lost a little money on the Saturday night show, but sales were so bad for the Sunday (Mothers Day) show, we had to cancel it.
We have another weekend coming in October scheduled with SFJazz and Jazz 100 on Friday; Kamasi Washington on Saturday and Wynton Marsalis with Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra on Sunday.
SINGLE TICKETS
Sold well and made budget - David Crosby, Mannheim Steamroller, Loreena McKennitt; Yanni, The Beach Boys, Rain; Discover Ailey
Didn’t quite reach budget – Diana Krall, National Acrobats of China, Lila Downs; Mariachi Sol De Mexico
Didn’t do so well – Marc O’Connor’s Appalachian Christmas; Star Trek The Ultimate Voyage; Zoltan Maga
BEST ACCOMPLISHMENT
We had several exciting new initiatives during the 15/16 season: We opened a ballet school on campus in association with American Ballet Theatre that has been a great success. We even had to add additional classes to handle all the enrollment this year, which we had not expected, and we’re offering additional pre-professional classes for older teens for the next year. Also, daytime adult ballet classes were added to the schedule which have been quite popular.
For our Family series, we added a Sensory Friendly performance to several of the shows we presented to allow families with children on the autism spectrum or with other sensory sensitivity to bring their families for specially designed performance experiences. We didn’t sell huge numbers of tickets for the first season, but that wasn’t entirely the reason to do these shows and we’re offering three more performances for the 16/17 season.
YEAR ENDING FINANCIAL STATUS
We’re anticipating ending our 30th season in the black.
PLEASE LIST YOUR STAFF POSITIONS
Vice President, Marketing and Communications
Director, Public Relations
Director, Marketing
Manager, Creative Services
Manager, Digital Content
Manager, Group Services
Manger, Publications
Manager, Audience Development
Graphic Designer (2.5)
Publicist
Marketing Associate
Advertising and Promotions coordinator
Group Services Associate (2)
Marketing Assistant
Public Relations Assistant
VICTORIA THEATRE & BENJAMIN & MARIAN SCHUSTER PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, DAYTON
TICKETING SYSTEM: Tessitura
KEY COMMENTS and INSIGHTS
BROADWAY SERIES
The 15-16 season started very soft and slow, but ended very strong. PIPPIN, BULLETS OVER BROADWAY and BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY underperformed but ONCE, CINDERELLA and LION KING performed better than projected. Yay. Renewals were very strong this year and we exceeded our subscription goal finally. We are finding that full 6play packages are still a bit challenging to get folks to commit to – totally title driven.
Sales for 16-17 are progressing okay. We repriced our subs package in order to be able to give our subscribers a better deal so that when we have to discount single tickets their discount doesn’t immediately evaporate. This means we have to sell more packages to make the same revenue. Our season is pretty strong but so far that hasn’t really revealed itself in package sales. We are pacing fine but will have to have a strong push in the fall. Shows are: JERSEY BOYS (2nd), 42ND STREET, DIRTY DANCING, MOTOWN, KINKY BOOTS and CIRCUS 1903 with ELF as a special that patrons can swap into if they like.
Started the swap this season… subs must decide to swap by banking the value of the show they want out of no later than 8/7. They can complete right away with ELF or other Star Attractions we’ve booked so far or they can wait to use that money as other Star Attractions will be booked as the season goes on. Have to use it by 6/30 – can’t use it toward their 17-18 renewal. So far so good.
OTHER SERIES
Family series sales are good this year – we’re pacing a bit head of last year at this time. We do 5 shows – subs can take 4 or 5 at only $10 a show – so a package is only $40 or $50 per person. We changed to this pricing a couple of years ago, following the Cleveland model, but so far we haven’t seen a big upswing in sales. We still fight to find these patrons for some reason. Of course it’s all about the titles and this year we do have PINKALICIOUS, CAT IN THE HAT, A YEAR WITH FROG & TOAD, MUTTS GONE NUTS, and MUFARO’S BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS.
SUBSCRIPTIONS—General Commentary
SINGLE TICKETS
Web – Just redesigned our website (VictoriaTheatre.com) to give it a more contemporary and creative feel. We haven’t had any negative feedback about it so far! Site is responsive (desktop, mobile, tablet, etc.)
Social Media – We have a social media team made up of members from different departments at VTA. We’re trying to give a broader picture of VTA and felt this was the best way to do it. Current members of the team include Marketing & Communications, Development, Education & Engagement, Event Services/Citilites, and Ticketing. Marketing & Communications oversees all of the channels, but we encourage whoever’s running it to run with it! We meet monthly or every other week (depending on what’s happening) to get our plans in order.
Questions
This is still a significant part of our subscription campaign and our single ticket campaigns. With Subs, we follow up with as many recipients as we can by phone with our own direct sales team. That’s been a pretty fruitful formula. Gives them a reason to call and the people may have already looked at the brochure. For single tickets, we use a postcard as the first foray in the campaign – send it out like 4 weeks in advance and then all the other advertising follows. Response rates rely strongly on the title.
BIGGEST RECENT SNAFU
Not a huge deal but…we just started the Swap this year and we weren’t specific enough in the communication about it to our subs. You bank the value of the tickets to be used against another show. The cost of the tickets to show you’re swapping into may be more than what you’ve got banked – you have to pay the difference. Obvious? Not so much. Some complaints there. It’s such a challenge with messaging – you want to keep it simple enough that people get the concept and then call for more info. That’s what we say. But then when every detail isn’t spelled out they’re unhappy.
BEST ACCOMPLISHMENT
Our 150th Anniversary celebration has been great. If I don’t say so myself. We’re raising new dollars from new donors because of it. We’ve reconnected with old volunteers who saved it from the wrecking ball and old donors. It ties in with our Next Stage capital campaign nicely – as well as our Planned Giving initiatives. We’re getting really good press. We got funding to produce a 30 minute documentary with our PBS affiliates that’ll be driving me crazy all summer.
YEAR ENDING FINANCIAL STATUS
We should be in the black by a few thousand this year largely due to LION KING.
ORGANIZATIONAL NEWS AND/OR UPDATES
We’re going from a big budget year with 9 weeks of Broadway because of LION KING to a small budget year with only 7 weeks. And we don’t have as many Star Attractions booked (yet) so our budget is TIGHT. Makes it hard to expand what you’re doing.
SPECIAL EVENTS
We don’t do fundraising/gala type events. Boss hates ‘em and we don’t have a tradition of them.
PLEASE LIST YOUR STAFF POSITIONS
Vice President
Graphics & Publications Director
Graphics & Publications Manager
Digital Marketing Manager
Digital Marketing association (part time)
PR & Promotions Manager (who also does media buying)
KIMMEL CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, PHILADELPHIA
TICKETING SYSTEM: Ticket Philadelphia
KEY COMMENTS and INSIGHTS
BROADWAY SERIES
13 shows, 19 weeks, 146 performances, 16 Tony Awards, more than 45 Tony nominations
OTHER SERIES
Kimmel Center Presents – KCP consists of routed tours, one-offs and Co-presentations. There is emphasis on presenting shows that are going to entice key audience segments including but not limited to: families, pop/rock, and millennials.
Jazz @ the Kimmel - The Kimmel Center is committed to exploring America’s homegrown art form and engaging the Philadelphia region with a mix of rising stars, local and international jazz artists, and touring ensembles.
Philly En Vivo – A line of programming introduced during the 2014/15 Season which seeks to create a meaningful, ongoing relationship with Philadelphia’s diverse Latino and Caribbean communities.
Family Discovery Series - The Family Discovery Series was introduced in the 2015/16 season to bolster our family engagement at our venues. Families were able to create their own packages choosing from our KCP and Broadway programming.
SUBSCRIPTIONS—General Commentary
Note: Brief descriptions of each subscription, #s, trends, etc.
Broadway Philadelphia – The 2015/16 Broadway season brought us our highest recorded subscription renewal rate at 76%, which was 10% higher than the 14/15 season. New subscriptions were down this year, due to programming and some new initiatives that cannibalized inventory.
Family Discovery Series - This was the first iteration of this series, and the first time that we allowed series to be created over our different programming genres. The series sold a total of 379 packages.
Jazz Packages – The Kimmel Center offers a non-traditional jazz subscription that doesn’t guarantee seats, but allows patrons the flexibility to choose their own shows, at a discounted price, and receive ancillary benefits. The subscription model for jazz shows was discontinued in 2012 and returned in 2015 in the package model. In its first year back, 291 packages were sold - that increased to 470 packages sold in 2016.
PIFA Packages – In April we presented our third biennial Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA), spanning 16 days and over 60 performances. For the first time, we offered multi-show packages in which patrons could choose three or five performances, or all all-access passes. Despite direct mail, digital, and public relations support, we sold very few - we believe due to low show name recognition that in large part were late-buys.
SINGLE TICKETS (104 performances)
Pop Concerts: Audra McDonald, Melody Gardot, Chris Cornell, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Mark Knopfler, Gladys Knight w/The O’Jays, Giada De Laurentiis, Jethro Tull, Sandoval and Sanchez, Don Henley, Second City Live!, Christian McBride, Martha Graham Cracker, Fresh Cut Orchestra, Soulful Christmas, The Skivvies, Jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia, Rene Marie, Bebel Gilberto, 2 Cellos, Straighten Up and Fly Right, Metropolis, Jerry Blavat Salute to Street Corner Harmony, Korey Riker Workshop, Sutton Foster, Butler Byrd Workshop, The Chieftains, PostSecret: The Show, Jose Gonzalez with yMusic, Natural Born Pranksters, Bonnie Raitt, Ethan Bortnick, David Cross, The Wong Street Journal, Jazz Bridge, Sneaker Suites, Mi Voca Su Voca, Holding It Down, The Naked Magic Show, Brian Regan, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Amazing Tour Is Not on Fire, Mel Brooks, Megan Hilty, Kelli O’Hara, Jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia, Gregory Alan Isakov
Fine Arts/Classical/Dance & Commentary: Canadian Brass, Niv Acosta, So You Think You Can Dance, Philadanco Fall/Winter, The Exalted, Estuary, La Verita, Architecture In Motion, Knitting Peace, String Theory, Article 13, Rivers of Sound, Attack Point, My Soul’s Shadow, Hector Olivera, Prism (So Percussion), Prism (Parch).
PIFA brought many fine arts and dance performances that helped expand our audiences in many ways. Knitting Peace and La Verita were two examples of shows that were exceptionally well-received. Although these shows were not financially successful, they solidified our position and credibility among arts audiences.
Family Shows Sales & Commentary: Potted Potter, Disney in Concert w/The Pops, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Wild Kratts, Matilda, Rudolph, Joseph, Beauty and the Beast, The Sound of Music, Paper Planet, Peppa Pig Live.
We are really proud of the work we’ve done developing family audiences. Our family programming is a huge success. Between Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Wild Kratts (all within weeks of each other), we sold 12,095 tickets. This far exceeds our youth programming in previous years.
Other Categories/Genres Sales & Commentary:
n/a
E-MARKETING / WEB/ MOBILE / SOCIAL MEDIA INSIGHTS & COMMENTARY
We launched a new purchase path in February 2016 and a new website in March 2016. Launching and debugging the website took considerable time. The website CMS is Episerver. We have trained most of our staff how to use the CMS, and staff members have indicated wanting to be able to quickly make edits to their pages themselves.
We launched with a test of experiential video and experiential way of browsing on our homepage. Performance (load time) was a challenge at launch, so we analyzed the code for unnecessary database calls and utilized a CDN (separate dedicated server for video). We are implementing google experiments to have the ability to run a/b tests on pages.
Our new website and purchase path are both mobile responsive. Our web traffic has grown to close to 50% of sessions on mobile/tablet. We have transitioned to an agile methodology to launch future sprints, and we are spending time analyzing how to iterate and improve usability on desktop and mobile, by using a combination of live user tests, Fullstory and google analytics.
Google, email, and social were our biggest online traffic drivers in 2016. We added more upcoming shows to our weekly newsletter and did a genre classification project to tag all historical accounts with the genre of the shows they attended. We will test doing data pulls by genre to possibly simplify and amplify the data requests. We are undertaking an automation of some emails such as reminder and thank you emails.
DIRECT MAIL STRATEGY AND RESULTS:
Strategically, we execute three types of direct mail:
We were very happy with the sales trends after these direct mail pieces dropped.
BIGGEST RECENT SNAFU
For our June 2016 presentation of Riverdance, there was a snafu with the releasing of holds in the pit section of our house. The seats were held until confirmation was given of whether the pit would be used or not, which came in October. However, the seats were not released until very late May.
BEST ACCOMPLISHMENT
In March we launched a new website, developed by Adage Technologies and Sandstorm Design.
o Link: https://www.kimmelcenter.org/
o Launch followed more than a year of consumer research, design, and development and was built with each of our core audiences in mind
o It customizes the user experience with patron interests
o Serves as a central source of performance and artist information
o Some new features about which we are especially excited:
In April, we kicked off our third Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA)
o 16 days (including 3 weekends), more than 60 performances, more than 200,000 visitors- all culminating in a seven block free street fair
o PIFA showcased a breadth of local and international performances and installations
o 4 world premieres; 3 American premieres; 2 East Coast premieres; 4 Philadelphia premieres
o International arts and cultural organizations, and local partners, helped us put on dozens of events throughout the festival ranging from music and theater to visual arts and family-friendly acts at various venues throughout the city.
o The PR and Marketing teams worked strategically to secure media partners, which netted multiple front page stories and pieces in local publications and outlets, as well as placements in international and national publications such as La Opinion, USA Today, and Departures Magazine.
YEAR-ENDING FINANCIAL STATUS
We anticipate ending our fiscal year 2016 with a modest surplus compared to the prior fiscal year. Given that ticket sales were not as strong in the current fiscal year, we relied on other revenue generating sources within the organization such as facility rentals.
Our organization continues to have a solid balance sheet and we have not utilized our line of credit since June 2015.
ORGANIZATIONAL NEWS AND/OR UPDATES
o Kimmel Center, Inc. Board of Directors announces the contract extension of Anne Ewers, President & CEO of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts through the 2019-20 season. The Board unanimously voted to extend Ewers’ contract crediting her creative/ambitious artistic leadership and the Center’s strong financial stability throughout her tenure.
o The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts announces a new partnership with the Marian Anderson Award in which future Award ceremony events and galas will be done in partnership with the Kimmel Center. The announcement comes after 15 years of the Award Concert being held in the Kimmel Center’s Verizon Hall and gala festivities on Commonwealth Plaza.
o The local NBC station, WCAU-TV, installed a camera on the Kimmel Center’s Tier 2 balcony overlooking Broad Street, in both directions, and including a beautiful shot of Philadelphia’s City Hall. The continuous live picture is relayed back to the NBC studios in Bala Cynwyd and is used on air during news and weather programs where the anchors refer to it as "The Kimmel Center Campus camera." As part of the agreement, NBC will not use "The Kimmel Center" name in the event of negative breaking news.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Matilda Day
o The Marketing and Education teams partnered for a special event surrounding the November presentation of Matilda. A few classes from partnering schools added the book of Matilda to their curriculum. 150 students were rewarded with a day of activities, private performances and Q&A’s with cast of Matilda the Musical.
Yelp Elite Event
o The PR and Marketing teams built upon an already strong relationship with the local Yelp Community Manager to plan an event for Philadelphia’s Yelp Elite Members – a group with the greatest influence in the area. The team coordinated an evening to highlight the Kimmel Center Campus and its offerings including PostSecret: The Show, Academy Gold membership benefit, and a dessert reception by Garces Events. The teams collaborated on several promotional opportunities to bolster awareness of the Kimmel Center with this young, adventurous audience. The event was attended by 50 members of the Yelp Elite Squad and garnered 5-stars, 30 glowing reviews, and more than 60 shared photos.
PIFA Events
o To foster relationships with media, sponsors, artistic partners, and local influencers, the PR team planned several events to generate awareness and understanding of PIFA 2016, beginning with a media event on January 21. In an effort to stray from the traditional press conference, the team collaborated with catering partners Garces Events to build an innovative menu that reflected key performances of the Festival. The event, attended by more than 100 key stakeholders, was very well received by media, resulting in nearly 20 full-length media placements in the 24-hours following the event with additional coverage continuing to appear throughout the week. Of particular note was a story on BizBash.com which detailed the planning and execution of this non-traditional press conference and ran on the website twice within the past five months.
o In an effort to keep the Festival top of mind in the weeks leading up to the opening performances, a kick-off party was held on March 23. The PR and Marketing Teams worked with partner agencies to craft a highly curated list of local influencers to celebrate the return of PIFA and preview some of excitement to come. The evening’s festivities included performances, cocktails and dancing, a special hashtag, social media screens for real-time sharing, and PIFA sparklers for take-home gifts.
o The PR team planned a PIFA preview event on the eve of the Festival to give select media and a group of influential Instagrammers a sneak peek at the Plaza Installation, a performance of Knitting Peace, and remarks by President & CEO Anne Ewers about the impact of the Festival on Philadelphia. All in attendance were provided with important information about each program and relevant social media tags, resulting in a flurry of stunning photos flooding social channels that evening, drumming up more interest in the Festival - Knitting Peace in particular.
PLEASE LIST YOUR STAFF POSITIONS
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
Senior Director of Institutional Marketing
Director of Program Marketing
Director of Media Relations & Communications
Director of Advertising Sales & Promotions
Senior e-Marketing Manager
Institutional Marketing Manager
Marketing and Promotions Manager
Manager of Public Relations
Manager of Group Sales
Graphic Designer (2)
Marketing Coordinator
Marketing Content Coordinator
Marketing Assistant
ADRIENNE ARSHT CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS OF MIAMI-DADE COUNTY
TICKETING SYSTEM: Tessitura
KEY COMMENTS and INSIGHTS
BROADWAY SERIES
FY16 was a banner year for Broadway in Miami. We reached an all-time high of 6,719 subscribers and our weekly grosses were terrific. More specifically:
FY17 sub sales are trending ahead of FY16 by about 200; currently at 5,320; acquisition campaign is about to be launched.
OTHER SERIES
THEATER UP CLOSE (in our 200-seat black box)
FY16 was a down year, mostly due to half of the series being a trilogy that was sold as a one-day experience (yes, 9.5 hours at the theater), called the Hammer Trinity. Subscriptions fell by nearly 50%, going from above 900 to 490.
FY17 is looking much better. Subscriptions are already at 356 – we believe we’ll blow past last year’s number and start to gain back toward our FY14 numbers. The season:
FY16 was a hit and miss year:
CLASSICAL MUSIC
FY16 was a down year for classical music. Subscriptions were down to 445. The core season did not include A-listers; but we had two add-ons with A-listers doing non-classical music passion projects:
SUBSCRIPTIONS—General Commentary
We continue to believe that subscription is by no means ‘dead.’ We continue to pour resources into maintaining and growing our sub bases.
SINGLE TICKETS
Pop Concerts & Commentary:
Mail2. We had some disruption from their upgrade. Historical open/click through data was lost. We’re exploring WordFly, but not sure yet.
Promoted Posts on Facebook. We’re about 15 months into our ‘no organic posts – promoted posts only’ policy and continue to feel it was the right move. In FY16 so far, we’re on track to spend $25K over 75 posts with institutional messages only (no show), plus shows will account for another $50K to $60K.
Website: we completed our 3rd season with our ‘new’ website. Upcoming upgrades include:
Seat Geek. We met with them in Miami. Ultimately decided to pass – felt we’d be partnering with a known aggregator of the secondary ticket market – a market that we’re fighting against. This would be in contrast to the laws we’ve worked hard to get passed in the state legislature.
DIRECT MAIL STRATEGY AND RESULTS
While there is some internal resistance to direct mail (mostly from programming), we continue to believe it is a key way to grow sales by targeting return visits from our database.
YEAR ENDING FINANCIAL STATUS
We are on track to have our 9th consecutive year with a balanced budget.
ORGANIZATIONAL NEWS AND/OR UPDATES
Our Creative Services Team won several awards this year:
The first residential building across the street from the Center opened in May. 1,000 new residents expected. More real estate talk, but no other cranes in the air yet.
Our college student ticket program continued to find traction in FY16. We’ve sold nearly 1800 tickets this year ($20, all in), up from 1700 last year. Anyone interested in using the UTIX brand in your market, let me know.
In May, we participated in an Active Shooter Training with local law enforcement. Our entire staff was prepped, and encouraged to think about your ‘plan’ should the building be breached by an active shooter during business hours. SWAT and police and other first responders with full gear. Media coverage here:
http://wsvn.com/news/local/law-enforcement-practice-drill-at-adrienne-arsht-center/
Being Green. We created an info graphic for distribution:
Following the passing of Larry Rosen, co-creator and artistic director of our Jazz Roots series, we will be announcing later this year that Shelly Berg, Dean of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, will be named our new artistic collaborator.
Our tenant, the Café at Books & Books, as started to bring in some higher profile events, including:
10th Anniversary Gala. Held on April 21, honoring Adrienne Arsht. Showcase of talent included: Andy Cohen (host), 2 dancers from Alvin Ailey, 1 dancer from ABT, Stephanie J Block, Darren Criss, Estelle, Michael Feinstein, Nova Payton, Arturo Sandoval, Jon Secada, Miami Mass Choir, singers from Florida Grand Opera, and Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra. An 80 minute concert was available to the public, starting at $25. Dinner afterward for Gala tickets, on the stage. Adrienne matched all $100K tables – there were 10 of them.
We are planning our second annual ArtsLaunch, again on the first Saturday of September (Sept 10). It will be first opportunity for the public to get individual tickets for the majority of our season, plus free events and tours throughout the day.
We are also planning for a 10th Birthday celebration in October. Details TBD.
PROMOTIONS OF NOTE (GREAT SUCCESSES OR DISMAL FAILURES)
Swag Bags. For both our Classical Music and Jazz Roots series, we put together swag bags with Arsht branded items as well as promotional partners. For example, Jazz Roots bag had: a Jazziz magazine, a cd, 2 t-shirts, plus Arsht Center branded items: stress “a”, 10-year lapel pin, coasters, and matchboxes. These bags were used as a thank you to subscribers – not as a direct selling tool.
Comic Book. For the Hammer Trinity, we knew we wanted to reach a comic book/Lord of the Rings/Game of the Thrones fan. We hired an artist with Marvel/DC/DarkHorse credentials. Distributed at local comic shops and a comic con; as well as at a renaissance festival. We all felt the comic book came out great; sadly nothing moved tickets for the Hammer Trinity.
Secondary Ticket Market Campaign. Thank you Marc! We used the :72 second version in both English and Spanish. Created :30 second versions as well, distributed to and used by 9 TV stations, 22 Radio stations (plus 9 eblast outlets) – we were able to get a PSA schedule with a combined value of more than $300,000. Several press hits as well.
Our PR team was able to land a spot on the Miami Herald’s CEO Corner – a feature that publishes ramblings of community though leaders over a multi-month period. Our CEO was featured 12 times.
We continue an annual 30-minute special on NBC, promoting our entire Broadway season. It was started here several years ago by Crystal Brewe, and it’s still going strong!
Prince passed away on the same day as our Gala. CBS covered the gala with a nice clip, and at the tail end of the clip, put our Prince Facebook post on screen and read it out loud (!). Here is the clip:
http://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/medical/adrienne-arsht-center-celebrates-10-years-of-performances/vi-BBs5VzN?refvid=AAekO4F
Working with our institutional PR agency, we organized a FAM trip, bringing in journalists to Miami. Publications include: Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Paper Magazine/Refinery29.
PLEASE LIST YOUR STAFF POSITIONS
CAPA (COLUMBUS ASSOCIATION FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS)
TICKETING SYSTEM: Ticketmaster
KEY COMMENTS and INSIGHTS
BROADWAY SERIES
15-16 Season: Kinky Boots, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Motown, The Sound of Music, Beauty and the Beast, Dirty Dancing. Specials: Book of Mormon, Wicked
16-17 Season: Cinderella, Little Mermaid, Bodyguard, Cabaret, and Beautiful. Specials: Stomp, Riverdance
We’re a one-week market with app. 8,000 subs this season, which is a high for us. Single tickets are very strong this season. 16-17 subs are coming in ahead of last year.
Inspired by PlayhouseSquare’s model, we held an announcement party for subs and multi-show buyers and attracted about 700 people. (We experimented with an announcement party 4-5 years ago to mediocre results.) We worked with an event planner, who handled many of the details—very helpful! There was great energy in the house as the shows were revealed. We had musical performances from the Gay Men’s Chorus and the star of Beautiful—it couldn’t have gone better. (PlayhouseSquare was generous in allowing some of our staff to attend their Broadway season announcement party to get a sense of their event.)
OTHER SERIES
N/A
SINGLE TICKETS
The Lincoln Theatre has done very well with an intimate series called Backstage at the Lincoln—the artist and audience are seated on stage. Seating is very limited (100-125) and tickets are just $10. Artists are primarily local and from jazz, soul, and hip hop genres.
Smooth jazz does well—big hits with both Boney James and Dave Koz Smooth Jazz Christmas Tour (we program this every year and it comes close to selling out every time).
A big miss was Criss Angel’s The Supernaturalists.
E-MARKETING / WEB/ MOBILE / SOCIAL MEDIA INSIGHTS & COMMENTARY
We’re putting together an RFP for a new website—much needed! If you have a developer to recommend or thoughts in general about your process, I’d love to know. Previously, we have used developers in the Columbus area, but are open to working with someone out of state. If you’ve worked with an out-of-town vendor, I’m curious about your experience.
DIRECT MAIL STRATEGY AND RESULTS
Our local arts council has organized arts groups to participate in TRG’s community network, which is to ease mailing list trades and make them more targeted, run analytics about our data, and form a dataset that we can use for prospecting and research. We literally just uploaded our data a couple of weeks ago, so it is too early to talk about the experience. I should have an update for our December meeting.
YEAR ENDING FINANCIAL STATUS
CAPA has finished in the black for the last 30 years and we’re on track to do so again this FY.
ORGANIZATIONAL NEWS AND/OR UPDATES
CAPA continues to provide shared services support to several non-profit arts groups including the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, CATCO (Contemporary American Theatre Company), Opera Columbus, McCoy Center for the Performing Arts, Drexel Theatre (an independent movie house), and Lincoln Theatre. Shared services support includes marketing as well as finance, HR, ticketing, IT, development, and operations.
The Drexel has been closed for renovations for three months—allowing for upgrades to the lobby, concessions, three theatres and the marquee. We are scheduled to re-open in July.
We purchased an historic, disbanded church downtown about a block from our flagship theatre. We’re currently evaluating use of the space and potential renovation—acoustics are terrific.
SPECIAL EVENTS
CAPA has produced Festival Latino for the past six years. It’s a free, two-day festival on the downtown riverfront featuring great food, local vendors and artists, children’s activities, and local and national musical performers.
In September, we will again host “Twisted,” which features BalletMet, Columbus Symphony and Opera Columbus, joining forces to create a collaboration that put more than 200 artists on stage together throughout the course of the performance. It was incredibly well-received two years ago and we are increasing the number of performances from two to three.
PROMOTIONS OF NOTE (GREAT SUCCESSES OR DISMAL FAILURES)
Last summer, our local arts council kicked off a city-wide campaign called Columbus Makes Art / Art Makes Columbus. The goal is to raise awareness of the artistic talent living and working in our neighborhoods and telling their stories. They hope to sustain the program for 3-5 years. http://www.columbusmakesart.com/
HOW OFTEN AND BY WHAT METHOD(S) DO YOU SURVEY YOUR AUDIENCES?
Annually, online.
PLEASE LIST YOUR STAFF POSITIONS
Marketing Director
Marketing Managers—3 positions
Publicist
Art Director
Graphic designers—1.5 positions
Digital Marketing and video—2 positions
Administrative coordinator
Note: These positions support CAPA, plus six other arts organizations that CAPA provides shared marketing services to.
MISCELLANEOUS COMMENTARY, RAMBLINGS OR MUSINGS
Downtown Columbus is hot! We’ve seen a tremendous influx of new development, including condos and apartments for new residents, with more to come. We contribute tickets, etc., for welcome baskets for new downtown residents and businesses—but we are looking for other ways to meaningfully connect.
Has anyone had a great experience with Google grants?
The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, Las Vegas
TICKETING SYSTEM: Spectra (Paciolan)
KEY COMMENTS and INSIGHTS
BROADWAY SERIES
The lineup for the 2016-2017 season includes:
The Sound of Music, Beautiful, White Christmas, Fun Home, Motown, Finding Neverland, Matilda, American in Paris, Phantom
This year we are offering a Broadway Talks element….a pre-show chat for subscribers on select titles during the season.
OTHER SERIES
No other subscription series are planned for this year outside of our two resident companies – Nevada Ballet Theatre and The Las Vegas Philharmonic. We do bundle “like” shows when feasible that include a discount. Potential 2016-2017 series include: Family, World Stage (Celtic Thunder, Shaolin Warriors, Kodo and Taj Express) and Speaker (Deepak Chopra, Ira Glass, Garrison Keillor and David Sedaris).
SUBSCRIPTIONS—General Commentary
This year we took a different approach to marketing season specials within the series. We offered subscribers the choice of a 9, 8 or 7 show series versus 7 shows with the option to add the two season specials. Surprisingly, the majority of patrons are opting for the nine show series. As of this date, the break down is 9: 66% 8: 8% 7: 26%
We renewed at 85% and are in the midst of acquisition which is advertised to end June 12. Our goal is to reach a minimum of 10K subs, which will represent 66% of the house for a one week run. Based on the amount of “viable” subscription inventory (a.k.a. not the balcony), we can’t go beyond 10,300.
Given the large amount of balcony inventory, the primary benefit of subscribing is the ability to get in the que to move down or save on ticket fees. With this in mind, we will develop some smaller packages to help load in some balcony non-subscriber seats. (
We played the Hamilton card, but it didn’t result in a ground swell of new subscribers.
SINGLE TICKETS
We completed a move to a responsive design website in order to offer a more user friendly mobile experience. However, since our ticketing system is different than our website platform, the buying process doesn’t allow for a pick your seat experience which contributes to a high bounce rate on mobile.
We reconfigured the home page to include a search function by title, date, calendar or genre and added a section to highlight blog content. The event pages were redesigned to add a “You May Also Like” on each page as well as a side rail for CTA’s. Our new email platform, Fan One, provided the opportunity to also create device responsive email templates.
We are working toward developing an acquisition/retention strategy, but in the meantime we mail a monthly newsletter (donor & non-donor version), venue specific show listings, and pre-sale notifications to the entire database. Within 60 days of the show, we send targeted emails based on genre that may include an offer or highlight a floor seat price point. The Fan One email platform offers a degree of marketing automation, but we are still in the process of understanding all its capabilities and how we can use it to support our strategies. Thus far we are utilizing shopping cart abandonment and will be starting a birthday program shortly.
DIRECT MAIL STRATEGY AND RESULTS
Moving my team toward a “direct marketing first” strategy (e.g. email, on-line, direct mail, social) when it comes to developing marketing plans. Specifically, determine the best channels to reach the people under your nose and then layer on advertising. Consequently, we will probably mail more this year and spend more on on-line marketing, and try to leverage more partnerships that include like-minded databases. We mail show brochures up to four times a year depending on how many shows are booked per quarter. Postcards and self-mailers supplement these core mailings.
This year, we tried something different with our Broadway brochures as we wanted to ensure the best renewal rate possible. We produced three versions of the brochure and personalized the cover of two of them. The versions included:
BIGGEST RECENT SNAFU
Our forecast for return engagements of Broadway shows that aren’t on subscription. And hiring a web development company that probably works out of their garageJ.
BEST ACCOMPLISHMENT
Organizationally, we launched the first Heart of Education Awards which is designed to reward teachers for going above and beyond for their students. The program, which was funded by The Smith Center, included a $5,000 cash prize for the 20 finalists, a swag bag worth $750 in gifts, and a “red carpet” evening of entertainment hosted by Eric Bergen of Madame Secretary and Jersey Boys fame. We received 1,100 nominations, invited 800 + guest to the event and then announced the 20 finalists that evening. The goal is to attract and retain teachers in our school district, which is the 5th largest in the nation. Based on the feedback from our educators, this went a long way in terms of making them feel special. We anticipate many more nominations in year two!
YEAR ENDING FINANCIAL STATUS
Our fiscal year ends June 30, 2016……we estimate break even for the year.
ORGANIZATIONAL NEWS AND/OR UPDATES
Our VP of Development left the organization in December of 2015 and has been replaced with Tim Hanlon, who previously headed up the Wells Fargo foundation. Sponsorships have moved again, and will now be under development to leverage those relationships. Marketing team has grown in terms for positions, but we are still in the process of filling new positions. Since November, I’ve added a Director of Show Marketing and Marketing Manager and a new Direct Marketing team. The job market has become more competitive than even it was before as the economy improves.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Our season announcement event featured Penn & Teller and cast members from Beautiful and Fun Home. Next year we are finally going to move the event to the big hall and invite all subscribers. Up to this point, it was tied to a donor event. We participate in a number of off-site events that either align with our current patrons or target new audiences. We usually trade for the booth fee and we use volunteers to staff the booth.
PROMOTIONS OF NOTE (GREAT SUCCESSES OR DISMAL FAILURES)
For the second year in a row we tried to consign tickets to the Hispanic grocery stores to support our Mariachi performance. It probably cost more in labor to cut the commission check than we made. However, as part of the deal they advertise our show in their grocery flyer as an outlet to purchase show tickets. We also were able to utilize the university database for a Beauty and the Beast email which costs us 50 cents per sale in commission, so that one proved successful. And of course access to the Disney list proves valuable for their shows. We were able to turn Beauty and the Beast around to the degree that it helped compensate for the mis-forecasting of another show that starts with a B.
In order to move balcony tickets without reducing margins, we have been marking up the price so we can mark it down for secondary channels in order to show value to those providers. We have also been incorporating more trade based, or small cash outlet, partnerships with high traffic options (e.g. Downtown Summerlin outdoor mall, Galleria Mall, Townsquare outdoor mall). Outdoor movie nights have become a staple with the outdoor malls, so the trade usually includes signage in that area as well as showing our commercial before the movie.
PLEASE LIST YOUR STAFF POSITIONS
Las Vegas welcomed yet another arena to the entertainment mix this year ..T-Mobile arena with a 20K seat capacity. In addition to the arena, MGM plans to add a 5,000 seat venue in the Monte Carlo. Sands and Madison Square Gardens just announced plans for a 17,500 seat venue near the Venetian. This brings the number of casino showrooms and other concert venues to 32. Although these venues don’t directly compete with The Smith Center from a pure genre perspective, they still provide competition for the resident’s entertainment dollar. This reinforces the need for us to provide a unique experience for the entertainment goer in Las Vegas.
CINCINNATI ARTS ASSOCIATON
(Aronoff Center for the Arts / Music Hall / Weston Art Gallery)
Your Current Ticketing System: Spectra (Paciolan)
BROADWAY IN CINCINNATI: CAA does not present or market Broadway in Cincinnati, but is a financial partner.
2015-16 SEASON (December 2015 – May 2016)
2016-17 SEASON
SALES (as of June 2 – season campaign ongoing)
Subscribers: 14,806
Renewal Rate: 82%
New Subscribers: 2014
# of Subscribers 2015-16: 15,553
“CAA PRESENTS” 2015-16 Season
Our seasons are comprised largely of Broadway, resident companies, and rental activity, with a small number of shows directly presented by CAA. We offer direct or indirect marketing support to many of our Resident Companies and rental clients.
NOTALBE CAA PRESENTS + RENTALS (December 2015 – May 2016)
HIT: A Night with Janis Joplin, Wild Kratts Live, Mannheim Steamroller, Chris Young, Christopher Titus, 11ith Annual Laugh-a-Thon, Tyler Perry’s Madea on the Run, Festival of Laughs with Mike Epps, Bethel Music Worship Night, Pilobolus
SPECIAL NOTE: Wild Kratts Live sold out nearly two months in advance with minimal marketing expenditure, save a small yet mighty partnership with our local PBS station. The show sold out in Columbus (2 hours from Cincinnati) even farther in advance, and families from there traveled to Cincy to see the show (and many said they would return as they liked our theater and city so much!). Thanks, Columbus!!
PAR: Shen Yun, Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage, Celtic Woman, Jethro Tull
MISSES: In the Mood
E-MARKETING / WEB/ MOBILE / SOCIAL MEDIA INSIGHTS & COMMENTARY
YEAR-ENDING FINANCIAL STATUS
We are having a successful financial year thus far with about $300K net positive variance overall. This follows two record surplus years.
MUSIC HALL REVITALIZATION (Music Hall is our 140-year old classical arts venue, in dire need of renovation)
After nearly a decade of discussions, planning, and stops-and-starts, the Music Hall renovation project is finally a reality. Work began earlier this year as the venue was in use by its resident companies, and the project has now moved into full force after a shutdown of the venue in late May. As is no surprise, the project has increased in scope and cost, which now stands at more than $130M. Elements of funding currently include nearly $60M in fundraising, over $22M in public (City and State) funding and $46M in tax credits. A grand re-opening is set for October 2017.
During the renovation, the Ballet and the Opera will perform at the Aronoff Center, and we are thrilled that the Opera’s 2016 & 2017 summer seasons (June-July) will fill what has traditionally been downtime at the Aronoff. The Symphony/Pops and the May Festival will perform at the Taft Theater (three blocks from the Aronoff Center) which is managed by a subsidiary of the Cincinnati Symphony.
RESIDENT COMPANIES
CAA supports the work of twelve resident companies:
NEW PROGRAMS
Our new Arts in Healing program has been progressing nicely under the guidance of our Education and Community Relations department. We are working with the Veterans Hospital Treatment, Recovery and Activities Center, the University of Cincinnati Surgery Center, and the Hamilton County Foster Care program. Elements of the program include environmental play, instruction, creative writing, and social engagement.
SPECIAL EVENTS
ARONOFF CENTER 20TH ANNIVERSARY
We are winding down the Aronoff Center’s 20th Anniversary campaign. The majority of our efforts took place earlier in the season, but continues to a lesser degree as the season progresses through the summer.
The campaign included: media engagement (driven by a local communications agency), fan engagement/awareness (branding, photo ops, etc.), the commissioning of our first Economic Impact Study in fifteen years, 20th Anniversary celebration events, 20th Anniversary videos, social media campaign (#Aronoff20), downtown restaurant partnerships that include special themed menus and drinks, and an Anniversary microsite (Aronoff20.com).
In May, we did a fundraising event for the Aronoff Center’s Weston Arts Gallery to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Gallery and the 90th Birthday of the Gallery’s namesake, local artist and philanthropist Alice Weston. The event, titled ‘Alice in WestonLand’, featured a video interview with Alice, a brief 20th Anniversary retrospective of the Gallery, cocktail hour in the lobby, and dinner on stage at the Aronoff Center.
MISCELLANEOUS MUSINGS
HOW MANY SHOWS/EVENTS (PRESENTING, PRODUCING OR AS RENTALS) DOES YOUR PAC PROGRAM ANNUALLY
Upwards of 900 per year (combined total of Aronoff Center and Music Hall), including more than one dozen resident companies (Broadway, Symphony/Pops, Opera, Ballet, May Festival, etc.). Total includes meetings, graduations, weddings, and other miscellaneous events.
PLEASE LIST YOUR STAFF POSITIONS
THE KENTUCKY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
TICKETING SYSTEM: Tessitura
KEY COMMENTS and INSIGHTS
BROADWAY SERIES
This is a PNC Broadway Across America market.
2015/16 Season:
Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella – Sep 15-20, 2015
Dirty Dancing – Oct 13-18, 2015
Wicked – Nov 18-Dec 6, 2015
Disney’s Beauty & The Beast – Jan 19-24, 2016
Cabaret – Mar 8-13, 2016
Motown The Musical – Apr 12-17, 2016
The Phantom of the Opera – Jun 1-12, 2016
2016/17 Season:
Rodgers + Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music – Jan 17-22, 2016
Disney’s The Little Mermaid – Feb 14-19, 2016
The Illusionists – Live From Broadway – Mar 14-19, 2016
Beautiful – The Carol King Musical – May 16-21, 2016
Kinky Boots – June 13-18, 2016
The Book of Mormon – Nov 29-Dec 24, 2016
Riverdance – Apr 10-12, 2017
OTHER SERIES
Kentucky Center Presents – range of programming spanning all genres.
SUBSCRIPTIONS—General Commentary
BAA Manages.
SINGLE TICKETS
Broadway: 155,458 ($10,555,191)
E-MARKETING / WEB/ MOBILE / SOCIAL MEDIA INSIGHTS & COMMENTARY
E-Mail Marketing – Transitioning to WordFly for FY2017. Looking for improved functionality, mobile-optimized templates, better reporting/analytics, greater ease of use, and live user support at best price.
Digital Advertising – Partnering with MogoARTS Marketing on in-house presenting series and institutional digital marketing campaigns.
DIRECT MAIL STRATEGY AND RESULTS
We moved away from using direct mail specifically to market our own “KC Presents” shows in FY15 and YTD FY16, focusing on an institutional quarterly direct mail campaign.
Did not include track-able promotion codes, was distributed to build awareness re: diverse nature of programming at The Center.
Developing partnership with The Speed Museum to leverage combined equity and co-market to arts lovers in the region.
BIGGEST RECENT SNAFU
There was a rough start to the season. The biggest SNAFUs were related to ticket sales for great artists like Pat Benatar and Stephen Stills and “hot” properties like American Idol Live and America’s Got Talent. The economic environment coupled with audience malaise and a glut of live entertainment produced the negative condition. Our season was salvaged with surprise hits such as The Amazing Tour is Not On Fire and two shows of Impractical Jokers, among other later season offerings.
BEST ACCOMPLISHMENT
The Kentucky Center won the Republic Bank Foundation Arts Impact Award recognizing individuals and organizations which have demonstrated a significant impact in the Louisville community through the arts.
YEAR ENDING FINANCIAL STATUS
N/A
ORGANIZATIONAL NEWS AND/OR UPDATES
Conducted a brand benchmark study to determine patron perceptions of ongoing re-branding initiatives and address potential gaps.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Thunder at The Center. The Center opens its doors to 1,500 patrons for the annual kick off to the Kentucky Derby Festival which features a day long air show and world class fireworks demonstration.
The Kentucky Center, a national leader in arts and accessibility, hosted its inaugural Cultural Accessibility Summit honoring the Americans with Disabilities Act’s silver anniversary. Discussion topics included practical tips for arts inclusion, and strategies for local, regional and national advocacy for the arts. Keynote address given by Betty Siegel, Director of VSA and Accessibility at the John F. Kennedy Center.
PROMOTIONS OF NOTE (GREAT SUCCESSES OR DISMAL FAILURES)
We developed localized press kits for Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage which included miniature versions of the show’s iconic vehicle, the Starship Enterprise. These were distributed to local newsrooms and resulted in higher than usual advanced press and cameras on site during the show. Newsrooms love their toys!
The One Man Star Wars street team had presence at local Comic Con.
Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood preshow activity for children included KY Center coloring sheets featuring Center art and building sketches.
PLEASE LIST YOUR STAFF POSITIONS
Rob Thomas, Sr. Director of Brand Marketing and Communications
Curtis Schneider, Director, Ticket Services
Christian Adelberg, Sr. Marketing Manager
Chris Long, Digital Marketing Manager
Chip Hunt, Sr. Web Developer
Robbyn McClain, Creative Lead and Graphics Brand Manager
Sarah Passafiume, Associate Marketing Manager/Graphic Designer
Alix Mattingly, Media Producer and Content Manager
MISCELLANEOUS COMMENTARY, RAMBLINGS OR MUSINGS
To be discussed.
June 2016 Sharing Form
PLAYHOUSE SQUARE, CLEVELAND
TICKETING SYSTEM: Spectra (formerly Paciolan)*
*Contract expires 1/18. Currently in process of creating and sending RFP’s. VERY interested to hear from anyone on Tessitura and Audience View.
KEY COMMENTS and INSIGHTS
BROADWAY SERIES
During the fall, we allowed season ticket holders to upgrade their seats into new locations as a result of adding a third week of performances. It was done by seniority over a four month period. Of the 15,000 or so households, only a small percentage actually “upgraded” their seat to a more expensive location. Most chose to move to what they considered a better seat within their same section and day of the week.
As of this writing, we are at 78% renewal, with a week or so to go. We are projected to end the 16/17 season with 32,000. By adding a third week, our projections are to grow to 36,000 over the next four years.
OTHER SERIES
We are completing year one of the Broadway Series in Akron, with a second year under contract. It is an interesting market with a much older demographic than what we are used to seeing. In 16/17, we will introduce balcony seating at $10 for each of the four shows.
This series has given one of our newer managers the opportunity to become involved with growing the subscription base and overseeing all of the marketing. In addition, it has allowed one of our coordinators the chance to advance the shows, oversee load-in and settle at the end of the run.
SUBSCRIPTIONS—General Commentary
We are looking closely at auto renewals beginning with the 17/18 season. This is a model the sports teams have been successfully following for several years. Though this option may be attractive only to the show-agnostic buyers, we feel that the function will free up our staff to deal with the heavy renewals that occur 1-2 weeks out from deadline (this year, our staff handled 10,000 inbound phone calls during the renewal period, even though online renewals have been available for several years now). Reduced paper and postage are of additional benefit, but our vision is about digitizing what we can, order to be ready for the younger audiences that will be arriving over the next five years.
E-MARKETING / WEB/ MOBILE / SOCIAL MEDIA INSIGHTS & COMMENTARY
We will be transitioning to a new marketing automation tool within our ticketing system. We have outgrown the capabilities of PacMail, the current product from Spectra. Automation will allow us to be far more efficient and deeply strategic with our campaigns. Though it will allow us to be more nimble, the feedback from others using automation is that the data generated will be overwhelming unless we figure out how to digest it and act upon it. (The upside is that is provides more data. The downside is that it provides more data.)
As part of this strategy, we will also be converting to a new CRM product by Sales Force. This will streamline use by our Inside Sales, Services and Group Sales departments. This tool will provide us with information on our customers that we can turn into upsell or better service opportunities. In addition to providing us with a comprehensive understanding of our customer’s purchase and activities path, we will use marketing automation to “feed” the CRM. Our goal will be to provide intel for our sales team to act upon. Every campaign will be about driving the upsell to a greater package, experience or donation.
On another note, we have begun to build a data base consisting of downtown residents. The boom in residential development is at an all-time high and is predicted to triple in size over the next few years. Studies have shown that the downtown residents are evenly split between baby boomer/empty nesters and millennials. We began with our ticket sales data (38,000 records in downtown zips) and will be going “old school” with social media, email, postcard and event marketing campaigns to collect email addresses and cell phone numbers. Our goal right now is create traffic for our District partner restaurants on nights when we do not have shows or after the curtains go up. It will eventually morph into an app where users can get access to last minute tickets and dinner/drink specials.
DIRECT MAIL STRATEGY AND RESULTS
Nothing new to report. This continues to drive our Broadway subscription sales. The only media we now buy is online, and have completely cut print, radio, TV and outdoor. Certainly, direct mail may play a role in the fall during the election madness, as we attempt to cut through the political clutter.
BEST ACCOMPLISHMENT
By far, our greatest accomplishment was relocating a group of long-term season ticket holders to seats outside of the Donor Circle with only a few stings and burns. We met for nearly 15 months to develop our communications strategy and prepare for fallout. The staff who executed the move was extremely well trained and the time spent with Spectra developing the systems and processes allowed us to track all movement and document conversations. We escaped unscathed.
YEAR ENDING FINANCIAL STATUS
Our year end is June 30, but so far we are ahead of budget with theater operations leading the way! Four weeks of Phantom will close the year in a very positive way.
ORGANIZATIONAL NEWS AND/OR UPDATES
We will be a host site for RNC activities, meetings and parties, as all of our spaces are on hold. As of this writing, we do not know where the delegates will be from, but we are planning for all staff hands to be on deck that week. Fortunately, our venue is outside of the secured zone.
We are also excited about the attention we have received from public safetly and Homeland Security. The investments they are making in security cameras and the like, will remain after the RNC has left town. The training they are providing at no cost is extremely valuable.
PROMOTIONS OF NOTE (GREAT SUCCESSES OR DISMAL FAILURES)
Though not a promotion, we installed a virtual greeter in our main walkway (two more to be installed this August within our two large Broadway lobbies.). You will be able to see them while on tour. Each has an iPad to provide guests with information on things like nearby dining, upcoming shows and a sign-up for our newsletter.
Our Community Engagement and Education department hosted our first “Dazzle Awards” (part of the national Jimmy Awards program). To gain exposure for the event, we focused our efforts on pushing use of the hashtag on Twitter and Instagram. We are so pleased that it trended locally on the evening of the awards ceremony and well into the next day (competing against the Cavs in an Eastern Conference Finals game on the same night!)
HOW OFTEN AND BY WHAT METHOD(S) DO YOU SURVEY YOUR AUDIENCES?
Broadway Series season ticket holders receive an annual voice of customer survey at the conclusion of each season. (We also participate in whatever annual survey the Broadway League might be doing).
All single ticket buyers receive a follow-up survey within 48 hours of their visit, regardless of genre. We keep this to no more than five questions (outside of demographic info). We have not taken a look at this for a few years now—it is been on automatic pilot. Having to comment on this served as a good reminder to audit what we’re doing and see if it is still effective or useful. So many times, we work on autopilot……
We use Surveymonkey for both of the above.
WHAT’S YOUR PAC’S TAGLINE?
“Inspiring Performance”
PLEASE LIST YOUR STAFF POSITIONS
Vice President, Ticket Sales & Marketing Director, Ticket Systems & Technology
Director, Inside Sales and Service Assistant Director, Marketing
Senior Manager, Brand Communications Manager, Digital Marketing
Manager, Destination Branding
Manager, Marketing & PR (total of 4)
Marketing Coordinator
Project Coordinator
PITTSBURGH CULTURAL TRUST
TICKETING SYSTEM: Tessitura
KEY COMMENTS and INSIGHTS
BROADWAY SERIES
We are right now closing our 2015-2016 PNC Broadway Season with a two-week engagement of Matilda (runs through June 12), which is presented in cooperation with our resident musical theater company, the Pittsburgh CLO. There have been some complaints from patrons over not being able to understand the actors. However, these complaints have been minimal and far fewer than what was reported in other markets earlier in the tour.
Overall, the 2015-2016 season has been the most profitable in our history even though it lacked a blockbuster engagement. Five of nine titles had a sell through of over 90%; exceptional exceptions where CABARET and BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY which both under performed.
Announced the 2017-2018 PNC Broadway season at a successful event attended by 1100 patrons at our Byham Theater—the largest turnout to date. Four shows (FUN HOME, FINDING NEVERLAND, THE KING AND I, and CURIOUS INCIDENT) provided performance numbers or in the case of CURIOUS a question and answer segment with an associate producer. Additional titles on season are: A CHRISTMAS STORY, SOMETHING ROTTEN, and AN AMERICAN IN PARIS. Our 5 season specials are: KINKY BOOTS, CHEERS LIVE, THE BOOK OF MORMON (3rd time in market), RIVERDANCE, and DIRTY DANCING. Overall, we’ve had a positive response to the season. Two months into the campaign, new acquisition sales are tracking ahead of last year at the same point in the sales cycle and renewals are even with last year. Our subscription base has remained steady for the last two years around 9000 sub seats in our one-week market.
In coordination with our Tony Award viewing party on June 12 we have 3 ad placements during the Tony Awards. The commercial spot this year was produced with a local firm using venue footage and show broll. This is a diversion from using an agency who had been localizing a Broadway Across America ‘experience’ ad for the last four years.
Our VP of Programming left last September and I am continuing to enjoy my new Broadway programming role and ‘being in the room where it happens’ in regard to what my team is charged with promoting.
OTHER SERIES
Our dance series is under new leadership. Randal Miller, previously a programming manager, is now director of dance programming and special projects. A millennial, Randal’s background is that of a hip-hop dancer and he has brought a wonderful new perspective and energy to the series. Randal is also programming a new series for the Trust entitled Multiple Choice, that is targeted to 20- and 30-somethings. The program consists of audiences choosing from: a) a mainstage event geared toward the age group (hip-hop, etc.) b) entrance to a food truck area c) a dj after-party or d) all of the above. Pricing differs based upon options but ticket pricing will be very affordable.
The Trust Cabaret series sold out on subscription this past season. The 2016-2017 season features Billy Porter, Karen Mason, James Monroe Inglehart, Judy Kuhn, and Lea Salonga. We raised prices and are on target for another sell-out season on subscription.
We launched a new programming initiative in 2016-17 entitled Bridge Series aimed at bridging the gap of family programming (which we do a lot of and geared toward ages 4 – 10) and our regular programming that is geared toward adults. We received wonderful corporate support for the line-up and overall it has received great feedback. Ticket projections for the series fell short of what was expected in the first year. We are finding that it is especially tough to attract late tweens and teenagers primarily due to their lives being over programmed. I would be curious to hear how others have been successful in targeting this age group. Whether it is better to put more resources toward marketing to parents or to the tween/teens?
Our wine flights and beer school events continue to sell out or sell well. Love it when a program goes on autopilot!
SUBSCRIPTIONS—General Commentary
I’d say the biggest item in this category is HAMILTON. We now have a good idea of when it will play our market, but we can not tease it until a season before it arrives.
SINGLE TICKETS
- Pop Concerts & Commentary:
Jerry Seinfeld
Sean Jones
Boney James
Theresa Caputo
Alton Brown
Brit Floyd
Misses:
Gypsy Kings
Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage
- Fine Arts/Classical/Dance & Commentary:
The Trust programs a number of display galleries. At our Wood Street Galleries the current exhibition is ALL AROUND US: INSTALLATIONS AND EXPERIENCES INSPIRED BY BUGS. As stated by the curator: “This exhibition stands in awe of the quintillions of bugs that have inhabited our planet for millions of years and the complex relationship they maintain with our species. The works included here transform our tiny co-habitants superpowers into human-scale experiences, in an attempt to examine our conflicting relationship with insects.” – Ali Momeni
The exhibition features artwork made of bugs along with other pieces that have live insects. One piece has an American Cockroach driving a mobile robot. More info at: http://woodstreetgalleries.org/portfolio-view/all-around-us/
Family Shows Sales & Commentary:
Hits:
Wild Kratts Live
Good Night Moon
Air Play
Welcome to Here: An immersive sensory-friendly experience
Titus
Peek
The Sheep
Misses:
Superman 2050
The Big Wolf
- Other Categories/Genres Sales & Commentary:
Our Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival is underway now. We expect 400,000 visitors at the completion of the 10-day festival of music, art, and food.
E-MARKETING / WEB/ MOBILE / SOCIAL MEDIA INSIGHTS & COMMENTARY
The Trust has received a grant that will allow us to undergo a digital audit. This will entail a thorough evaluation of overall marketing efforts, including website evaluation, social media efforts, online advertising, email strategy, SEO and web analytics. It is likely that Capacity Interactive will be the vendor.
DIRECT MAIL STRATEGY AND RESULTS
Direct mail continues to be effective for us. We have done less broad-based distribution via direct mail opting for very targeted segmentation. Broadway patrons respond especially well to pre-sale postcards.
BIGGEST RECENT SNAFU
During our EQT Children’s Theater Festival in May we had an event entitled Les moutons (The Sheep), which was a live installation that recreates a country scene in an urban setting. We staged the event in a parking lot that we manage. There are several actors that play the parts of sheep, a wolf, and there is a Sheppard. It is freaky how well these actors behave like actual animals. It is very realistic to the point where a male sheep partially mounts a female sheep. At another point the Sheppard milks one of the sheep and provides the milk to children in the crowd. The milk is actually goat’s milk that is warmed in a bladder to a specific temperature to further simulate the real world. A mommy blogger took incredible offense to the people sheep acting like real sheep and blasted us on her blog which got some Facebook play thereafter. We have found this with other international children’s programs that they present a realistic view of life’s events to children and do not attempt to water down or sugar coat the nature of our world. We put out a statement about how we do not censor and how this performance has been well-received around the world. Ultimately, several patrons who attended the event came to defending the presentation on social.
BEST ACCOMPLISHMENT
Our public art programs have received a lot of attention. We installed a second round of artistic bike racks which landed us a national Buzzfeed feature and we announced Water Cube this passed week– a glowing public art piece that dispenses regular water and fizzy water and also serves as a bike repair station. Pittsburghers are loving it.
Also, we achieved an ambitious lofty goal of increasing our donor base from 2,000 to 10,000 in 5 years. A ‘Trust Culture’ branding campaign was launched in the final year that pushed it over the top. The effort was supported by matching gifts from a Pittsburgh foundation. Our annual report, which will be available at the PACC, provides testimonials from members new and old who have helped us get there. The campaign required a tremendous amount of coordination between Development/Institutional Giving and the marketing department as well as alignment with staff and our board of directors to have everyone take ownership and row in the same direction.
YEAR ENDING FINANCIAL STATUS
The Trust ended its fiscal year at December 31 with a balanced operating budget, continuing the history of having never run an operating deficit. The results were driven by two specific things. The first is the strongest Broadway year on record, as defined by the sell-through of available ticket inventory. Five of the nine attractions saw a sell-through of over 90%. The second major driver of 2015 was the Trust’s attainment of its 5-year 10,000 Member Campaign.
ORGANIZATIONAL NEWS AND/OR UPDATES
Following is a pick up from my CEO’s PACC report:
The Trust is enhancing its overall Campus Security Plan. Being responsible for over 14 square blocks in an urban environment, which can be populated by over 10,000 arts patrons in an evening is a serious responsibility in and of itself. Adding the other multiple layers of the Trust mission and spaces; public parks, retail and office tenants, parking facilities and outdoor festivals attracting close to 750,000 people annually present additional challenges. The Trust has added a Chief Security Officer position to oversee this critical and ever-changing area.
The Trust continues to manage operations for the August Wilson Center of behalf of the new owners—a consortium of Pittsburgh foundations. The owners’ parallel effort of facilitating content development within the African American community continues to go more slowly than they had hoped. The Trust has now been asked to program an additional season, extending to 2016-2017. This, combined with the Trust’s enabling of other mission-appropriate organizations to utilize the facility has now pushed the level of programming to the highest level ever – even under prior administrations. This appears to be a very promising sign, although questions remain concerning on-going sustainability.
As a result of the Trust’s role in the reactivation of the August Wilson Center, as well as the successful merger of a 40 year-old non-profit arts educational organization (Gateway to the Arts) into the Trust in mid-2015, the decision was made to separate the functions of the former Arts Education and Community Engagement department resulting in the Education Department and the Strategic Partnerships and Community Engagement Department. This allows greater focus to be placed on both of these critical areas.
The Trust has preliminary schematics for potential artistic redeployments of two of its properties. One is to convert a property that was built as a theater in the 1930’s into a downtown Cineplex, with up to six screens with a small live theater space. The other is to convert a Trust property into a small performance space, housing a local growing comedy troupe. As to the Trust’s Eighth Street Block development, the Trust has been meeting with world-renown firms, primarily focused on incorporating best practices of sustainability. The Trust is also working with a local developer to assure the highest design standards for a contemplated privately-developed residential project at one gateway to the Eighth Street Block.
For our flagship venue, the Benedum Center, we are in the process of doubling the number of women’s restrooms while adding a second member lounge and a general purpose meeting place. This is being accomplished by bridging into an adjacent property and building out the entire floor as an extension of our mezzanine level. The project is on track to be complete in the fall.
SPECIAL EVENTS
We have found that the gateway activity to attract younger audiences has been parties. Toward that end, we have had Chocolate Bar (restaurants and chocolatiers presenting chocolatey food and deserts with live music) that took place in our Benedum Center, have had a number of private happy hours prior to Broadway performances, and continuing our yearly Cosmopolitan Pittsburgh party that takes place during the summer.
PROMOTIONS OF NOTE (GREAT SUCCESSES OR DISMAL FAILURES)
For the third year, the Trust will be having a Christmas in July promotional event at the region’s largest farmer’s market that takes place Downtown in Market Square. The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust coordinates with the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership (our BID organization) and Cultural District resident companies to present entertainment that highlights the holiday season. Each participating arts organization either provides a discount or puts an event on temporary pre-sale. The offers are tied to a promotional code that unlocks offers. The Trust will be offering A CHRISTMAS STORY for this year’s centerpiece event. In previous years, sales have ranged from $35,000 to $128,000 with an investment of $8,000 in media and operational costs.
PLEASE LIST YOUR STAFF POSITIONS
Emily Balawejder Multimedia Specialist
Caitlyn Braun Show Marketing Manager
Dinah Denmark Publications Manager
Jamie Cuba Show Marketing Manager
Marc Fleming Vice President of Marketing and Communications
Kristin Garbarino Marketing Technology Manager
Jonathan Fobear Graphic Artist
Shaunda Miles Public Relations Director
Brian Nichols Digital Designer
Diana Roth Communications Manager
Derek Scalzott Show Marketing Manager
Kayla Wasko Marketing Technology Assistant
MISCELLANEOUS COMMENTARY, RAMBLINGS OR MUSINGS
The Official Ticket Source video has been picked up by 7 properties with interest expressed by a number of other markets.
POTENTIAL ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION TOPICS
Please note any that you are especially interested in covering during discussion/sharing time.
- Best practices for moving “dead wood”: what initiatives or (perhaps targeted) promotions have you enacted (that don’t include fire sales) to move seats that aren’t selling?
We have started using an online lottery service provided by Jujamcyn through our partnership with Broadway Across America. It works like this. We message out to targeted segments through email/social. Seats are located in prime locations for $25 or $30 and we determine how many win. ‘Losers’ are then provided with a special offer at reduced priced tickets in price levels that are in need of attention. Traditionally lotteries have been for sold out events as you may know. This use of a lottery is a means of moving discounted seats based upon a perceived demand, which may not actually exist. There is no way of patrons knowing how many seats were allocated to the lottery so you could use this service to move as many discounted seats as there are entries. We have had good results with 3 titles so far.
- Center presenting/creating festivals
About 40% of our programming activity is festivals. Our festival programming includes: Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival – a ten day festival showcasing music and art, attendance averages 400,000 per year; Highmark First Night Pittsburgh – a New Year’s eve family-friendly alcohol-free event featuring 150+ events and activities with a televised countdown to mid-night program with a ball rising and fireworks, attendance 50,000; JazzLive International Festival – a 3-day festival featuring internationally renowned jazz artists, attendance 15,000; EQT Children’s Theater Festival – one of a handful of international children’s festivals that take place in the U.S. featuring stage events and outdoor programming and activities, attendance 20,000; the Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts – a 6-week program that takes place every 4 years featuring works that have never before been experienced in the U.S., multi-disciplinary, attendance 25,000 – 1.5 million.
- Crisis Communication Plans: Do you have one? Can you bring a copy?
With the addition of a senior manager in charge of security we are evaluating existing safety and pr procedures. There is a good deal of change happening in this area for our organization.
- Data, Data, Data: Any new shifts in how your Center is working with Data? Hire a Data Analyst yet?
The Trust has an arrangement with the Elliot Marketing Group to provide detailed analysis on direct mail campaigns and to report on demo/psychographics for our audiences. We continue to use the RMA revenue management platform that interfaces with Tessitura to for ticket buying trends and to inform pricing and scaling decisions.
PEACE CENTER, GREENVILLE
TICKETING SYSTEM: Audience View
KEY COMMENTS and INSIGHTS
BROADWAY SERIES
1516
- Dirty Dancing
- Jersey Boys (return - opt out)
- Motown
- Disney’s Newsies
- Matilda the Musical
- Cabaret
- The Sound of Music
- Riverdance (opt out)
- The Bridges of Madison County
1617
- Gentleman’s Guide
- Curious Incident
- An American in Paris
- The Book of Mormon (return – opt out)
- Beautiful
- Something Rotten
- The Lion King (return – opt out)
- Finding Neverland
- The King & I
OTHER SERIES
Our annual outdoor concert series, Rock the River, was rebranded in the summer of 2015. This year we increased the quality of performers and so far that adjustment has made a positive impact on sales. This year’s season includes: The Mavericks, The Fabulous Thunderbirds,
The Wood Brothers, The Lone Bellow with Aoife O’Donovan, Keller Williams, and The Revivalists. Tickets are priced $25-$35 with a VIP club experience for $50 (our on-site theater lounge that has a balcony overlooking the concert stage).
For the 2016-17 season, we have added a new chamber music series. It’s in our 400 seat hall and has four performances (Sept, Nov, Feb & May). The series can be subscribed to and we have 83 subscribers for the inaugural season.
SUBSCRIPTIONS—General Commentary
Broadway subscriptions for the 16-17 season have been incredibly strong. Credit should be given to the strong programming and the addition of a 12-month payment plan option. Of the current subscribers, around 40% have selected some kind of payment plan option. Renewal rate is around 75% and new acquisition is already double what it was at this time last season. The renewal deadline has passed and there’s still quite a bit of new acquisition efforts to come including three Save-A-Seat events scattered throughout June and July.
SINGLE TICKETS
- Pop Concerts & Commentary:
Did ok: Foreigner, Cooder-White-Skaggs, Rosanne Cash, Seal (show is in August, but sales have not been strong out the gate)
- Fine Arts/Classical/Dance & Commentary:
- Family Shows Sales & Commentary:
- Other Categories/Genres Sales & Commentary:
E-MARKETING / WEB/ MOBILE / SOCIAL MEDIA INSIGHTS & COMMENTARY
Email and social media continue to be significate components of our marketing strategy.
We’re almost done with a responsive design update with the corporate peacecenter.org site. Our ticketing platform is already responsive so our email and banner ads all link directly to the ticketing pages.
Our social media strategies continue to work well. We’ve moved to 100% paid FB posts and are very protective of our brand and strategy. At this point, in an effort to control the brand and content, we have not allowed any “take-overs” by shows. Instead, we’ve opted to create unique content as sales and time allow. Our latest was a :15 promotional Instagram video for the kick-off of our outdoor series, Rock the River, that was simply a glass outside with a beer being poured into it and then the series logo appears.
DIRECT MAIL STRATEGY AND RESULTS
Direct mail does very well in our market.
Our 1617 season brochure is in the works with an announcement scheduled June 19. We follow up this direct mailing with quarterly tri-fold brochures highlighting three months of programming. This allows us to not only remind our patrons about our programmed season but also the “just added” shows that didn’t make it into the original brochure. These quarterly mailings move the needle the week they hit the mailboxes.
We occasionally do an oversized postcard mailing with similar type programming as sales warrant.
Our Broadway season materials are mailed in a renewal packet along with a Broadway season brochure.
YEAR ENDING FINANCIAL STATUS
The FY wraps August 31 and we will finish in the black.
ORGANIZATIONAL NEWS AND/OR UPDATES
This past season we celebrated our 25th anniversary. It was relatively low key with just a few, small events including a new art installation dedicated to our founding Foundation President.
The Education team added a new Chamber music program, Peace Chamber. This is in addition to the established poetry based program, Peace Voices. In addition to performances, both of these programs contain significant outreach and community engagement components.
SPECIAL EVENTS
In Feb 2015, we were the host location for the CBS News Republican Debate. Kudos to our entire production and operations teams for an outstanding event that utilized every square inch of our Concert Hall and Administrative buildings.
PLEASE LIST YOUR STAFF POSITIONS
VP of Marketing
Marketing Director
Director of Public Relations
Art Director
Social & Marketing Manager/Copywriter
Digital Marketing Associate
AT&T PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, DALLAS
TICKETING SYSTEM: Tessitura
KEY COMMENTS and INSIGHTS
BROADWAY SERIES
15/16 season saw a drop in subs from 9,500 to 7,500. 100% about programming.
Matilda was a difficult engagement as we had the show when the kids still had their intense thick accents. Press caught wind and it was a 2 week struggle. Sales suffered.
Love Letters (2 weeks in large hall), was an inexpensive surprise hit. Grossed $815,000 and is now the highest grossing play ever to tour through Dallas.
Jersey Boys repeat at Xmas did solid business. $1.7 M
IF/Then – we were first market after Adele Dazeem left – tanked.
Cabaret - $1.1M
Beautiful will hit $2.2M for 2 weeks
Beauty and the Beast (for 3rd time in 6 season) will do $750K for one week
OTHER SERIES
TITAS Modern Dance series subs held at 620. Individual performances all at or near budget.
Classical Series did very poorly except for big titles (Perlman/Ax and Israel Phil) – we are killing the subscriptions series and will just do opportunistic blockbuster recitals
Speaker Series continues to merit attention – thought without Neil deGrasse Tyson and Ira Glass as anchors, sub sales dropped
Off-Broadway Series is still seeking its footing. We will continue to try to make this standalone series of smaller touring theatricals work.
SUBSCRIPTIONS—General Commentary
Killed telemarketing after moving it in-house one-year ago. Manager left for NFL and couldn’t replace and keep phone room staff.
SINGLE TICKETS
- Pop Concerts & Commentary:
Bonnie Raitt, Paul Simon (house record $305K gross), Weird Al, Monkees, David Sedaris, Branford Marsalis all sold out or headed there.
Sophia Loren speaking engagement was disaster despite grossing $105k.
Dwight Yoakam, Alan Cumming, Kenny G – jury is out for shows later this summer.
Due to avails limitations we have done 10 shows at an off-campus venue (The Majestic Theatre: 1750 seats) all of which have done decent business. George Thorogood, Keb Mo, Robert Cray, Herb Alpert and comedian Lavell Crawford were highlights.
- Fine Arts/Classical/Dance & Commentary:
- Family Shows Sales & Commentary:
- Other Categories/Genres Sales & Commentary:
Our ROI on digital spend (especially SEM) is the best of any marketing activity we do. Is this scaleable. Is this reliant on other marketing to drive search activity?
In ticketing system we are now tracking via source code every transaction: asking customer how they got to us to help inform marketing investment.
Spending lots of time developing our digital video content for social distribution – results (views and engagement) are astonishing. Does it equate to sales?
Examples:
BB-8 visits our campus during Jersey Boys, generated 42,000 views on FB. 2 hours of filming and editing, $100 boost. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52oDLmI6Nmo
“tasty” video introducing our Speaker’s Series #hearhere generated 8,100 views on FB. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7ULC78RQ9M
Conducted 30 minute FB Live broadcast from backstage on opening night of Cabaret. Cast interviews and on-stage tour. 2,800 views. https://www.facebook.com/attpac/videos/10154241168879669/
BIGGEST RECENT SNAFU
One night new media festival in October called Aurora lost $400,000 due to sponsorship shortfall and budget over run.
Classical Series lost lots of money. Programmed 2 Jewish themed events on Jewish Holidays.
Tented Peter Pan tour went belly up in Dallas. Ticket rev offset unreimbursed expenses to almost breakeven. But resulted in $275,000 budget hit.
BEST ACCOMPLISHMENT
Installed new analytics and sales trend reporting.
Major operational streamlining and cost-cutting.
Turned Matilda audability issues into customer service win by sending sampler CDs with “apology note” to all ticket holders. Got lots of compliments on that strategy.
YEAR ENDING FINANCIAL STATUS
Will lose $800K this year, programming and fundraising shortfalls. Next year projected to net $2M due to cost cutting and other improved operations
PROMOTIONS OF NOTE (GREAT SUCCESSES OR DISMAL FAILURES)
Broadway Bar Crawl – to engage Millenials just after season announcement. Organized events in 4 proximate bars. Trivia, swag and ticket giveaways. Got 450 new names for database.
PLEASE LIST YOUR STAFF POSITIONS
VP marketing and sales
Director, marketing
Director, publicity
Promotions Manager, Broadway
Promotions Manager, Concerts
Digital Marketing, Manager – website
Digital Marketing Manager – social media and advertising
2x Graphic designers
Marketing Manager - analytics
MISCELLANEOUS COMMENTARY, RAMBLINGS OR MUSINGS
How do we create our own in-house version of Travelzoo/Groupon?
How do we/should we engage with 3rd party brokers or aggregators?
DR. PHILLIPS CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, ORLANDO
TICKETING SYSTEM: Tessitura
KEY COMMENTS and INSIGHTS
BROADWAY SERIES: Yes, FAIRWINDS Broadway in Orlando
OTHER SERIES Subscription Jazz series; previous Chefs series. Upcoming Speakers, Dance and Family series.
SUBSCRIPTIONS—General Commentary Challenging in this market, but we only use Broadway and Jazz for subscriptions.
SINGLE TICKETS
- Pop Concerts & Commentary: One of our biggest draws. Past fare includes: Josh Groban, Frankie Valli, Idina Menzel, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Upcoming: Cyndi Lauper, Chris Botti & Joshua Bell, Maks & Val
- Fine Arts/Classical/Dance & Commentary: The Orlando Ballet and Orlando Philharmonic are in residency here; we also host Opera Orlando and community dance groups. Pilobolus performs here annually and does a residency with our School of the Arts. We will be presenting Alvin Ailey and the Boston Pops next season.
- Family Shows Sales & Commentary: Slow burn, but always a win here. Family musicals in the Broadway series are hits, as are shows like Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.
- Other Categories/Genres Sales & Commentary:
BIGGEST RECENT SNAFU Our website often cannot handle the amount of web traffic we receive at an onsale.
BEST ACCOMPLISHMENT Our Broadway series is hugely successful; our director of education was nominated for the yearly Educators Tony® Award and received an honorable mention.
ORGANIZATIONAL NEWS AND/OR UPDATES Currently fundraising to build our third venue, a 1700 seat acoustic hall.
SPECIAL EVENTS We have a growing events and food & beverage department that activates the building both on dark nights and in open event spaces.
PROMOTIONS OF NOTE (GREAT SUCCESSES OR DISMAL FAILURES) Broadway subscription series – season announcement livestreaming (the first of its kind).
PLEASE LIST YOUR STAFF POSITIONS
VP, Marketing and Communications
Future: AVP: Sales
Senior Director, Show Marketing
Senior Director, Membership and Corporate Relationships
Director of Communications
Creative Manager
Marketing Manager
Public Relations Manager
Membership Manager
Digital Manager
Graphic Design / Social Media Supervisor
Membership Coordinator
SEGERSTROM CENTER FOR THE ARTS, COSTA MESA
TICKETING SYSTEM: Tessitura
KEY COMMENTS and INSIGHTS
BROADWAY SERIES
15/16 saw good growth subscriber growth in both our two week Broadway series and our one week Curtain Call Series. Having 3 blockbusters really helped us to grow our numbers. All of the Broadway show’s we’ve presented so far this season have surpassed their budget goals.
2 week Broadway series (except where noted):
The Lion King (4 weeks); 42nd Street; Cinderella; Newsies; Sound of Music (coming in July); Cabaret (coming in August)
1 week Curtain Call Series: If Then (with Idina Menzel); The Illusionists; The Book of Mormon (2 weeks)
Bonus options: WICKED and Riverdance
15/16 Broadway Subs: 13,255
15/16 Curtain Call Subs: 4,018
For 16/17, we anticipate a drop in subs numbers going from a blockbuster season into one filled with all new shows and no blockbusters. This is a normal pattern for us, with numbers going up a couple thousand for a WICKED or Lion King season and then dropping down again when we just have regular shows on the series.
Broadway Series: Beautiful; Elf; Matilda; Finding Neverland; An American in Paris; The Bodyguard
Curtain Call Series: Gentleman’s Guide; Fun Home; Curious Incident
We’re still in our acquisition campaign, but here’s what we have so far for 16/17:
16/17 Broadway Subs: 11,399
16/17 Curtain Call Subs: 3,199
OTHER SERIES
Dance
Our Dance series offers plenty of worries for us. It’s now down to runs of 4 performances for most companies, and even then, we start sales with the Balcony and half of the Loge sections of sale. With demand, we open the closed areas as needed. This season was:
15/16 Season: Mariinsky Ballet dancing Raymonda (6 perfs), Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, Alvin Ailey (5 performances plus low priced,1 hour “Discover Ailey” show); Royal Swedish Ballet
We also started a multi-year Nutcracker residency with American Ballet Theatre this season. We offered 14 performances and it was a great success, although we’ve decided to drop some of the mid-week shows for 2016 and just present 12 performances.
16/17 Season: Mikhailovsky Ballet in Le Corsaire; American Ballet Theatre (rep TBD); Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg with Red Giselle; Teatro Alla Scalla Ballet in Cinderella
15/16 Dance Subs: 1,981
16/17 Dance Subs (so far): 1,705
Chamber Music
This is the little series that can, it always sells 90 – 100 subs, the audience is the most engaged and enthusiastic of any we have and it’s totally mixed in age, which is surprising. We sell around 200 tickets to each of these shows, although our annual visit by the Emerson String Quartet comes close to a sell out at nearly 300.
15/16 Season: Emerson String Quartet; Dilijan Chamber Players; Fauré Quartet; Dover Quartet; St. Lawrence String Quartet
16/17 Season: Auryn Quartet; Takacs Quartet; Marc Andre Hamelin with Pacifica Quartet; Emerson String Quartet; David Finckel, Wu Han, Philip Setzer
15/16 Subs: 92
16/17 Subs (so far): 95
Cabaret Series
For the 15/16 season, we changed Cabaret into our Spotlight Series, because most the shows were in our bigger halls and wouldn’t be in our intimate Samueli Theater as in previous years. The series was: Kristin Chenoweth in our 3,000 seat hall, Cheyenne Jackson, and Lea Salonga in the 2,000 seat concert hall, Forbidden Broadway and The Hot Sardines in a small 300 seat cabaret setting (3 shows each). We sold out Lea, Kristin sold 80%, the small shows did well with around 200 per show, and poor Cheyenne, we had to cancel his performance due to lack of sales.
The 16/17 season is going back to a Cabaret Series with the small format, tables and chairs layout in Samueli Theater with Betty Buckley, A Jerry Herman Songbook show, Charles Busch and Steve Tyrell.
15/16 Spotlight Subs: 226
16/17 Cabaret Subs (so far): 194
Family Series:
We have two series, Discovery Series for kids 4-8, and Explorer Series for those 7 and up.
15/16 Discovery Series: Okee Dokee Brothers; Room on the Broom; Big Bad Wolf; Egg; Box Brothers
15/16 Explorer Series: Nufonia Must Fall; Pero; Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, which was part of our Broadway Series.
For 16/17 we have these shows on the Discovery Series: Goodnight Moonl; The Little Prince; Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters; Where the Wild Things are; The Painted Garden. The 16/17 Explorer Series includes: Walking the Tightrope; Elf (again from Broadway); Doktor Kaboom!
Jazz:
19 years ago we started a Jazz Club Series in our black box theater, and over the years we had amazing artists at the Center for series of wonderful, intimate performances. But in recent years, it’s been hard to make that model work and we were presenting more artists in the larger halls than we were in the small hall each season. Finally, for the 15/16 season, we gave up the subscription model and we started having Jazz weekends, with consecutive nights of performances in our concert hall. The first one in October, included Poncho Sanchez and Eddie Palmieri on Friday night, Ramsey Lewis and Sergio Mendes on Saturday and The Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club from Cuba on Sunday. These ended up being fairly successful, Buena Vista sold out, Lewis and Mendes made goal, Poncho & Eddie were a little soft. Then over Mothers Day weekend we scheduled our second weekend of jazz, with Charlie Musselwhite, Bettye LaVetter and John Mayall on Saturday, Lisa Fischer, Dr. Lonnie Smith and Gregory Porter on Sunday. We lost a little money on the Saturday night show, but sales were so bad for the Sunday (Mothers Day) show, we had to cancel it.
We have another weekend coming in October scheduled with SFJazz and Jazz 100 on Friday; Kamasi Washington on Saturday and Wynton Marsalis with Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra on Sunday.
SINGLE TICKETS
- Pop Concerts & Commentary: We had a lot of concerts and one-off shows this season, a continuation of a dedicated effort by Programming to fill our halls as often as possible. We’ve had some great successes, a few were so-so, and a couple were stinkers:
Sold well and made budget - David Crosby, Mannheim Steamroller, Loreena McKennitt; Yanni, The Beach Boys, Rain; Discover Ailey
Didn’t quite reach budget – Diana Krall, National Acrobats of China, Lila Downs; Mariachi Sol De Mexico
Didn’t do so well – Marc O’Connor’s Appalachian Christmas; Star Trek The Ultimate Voyage; Zoltan Maga
- Fine Arts/Classical/Dance & Commentary:
- Family Shows Sales & Commentary:
- Other Categories/Genres Sales & Commentary:
BEST ACCOMPLISHMENT
We had several exciting new initiatives during the 15/16 season: We opened a ballet school on campus in association with American Ballet Theatre that has been a great success. We even had to add additional classes to handle all the enrollment this year, which we had not expected, and we’re offering additional pre-professional classes for older teens for the next year. Also, daytime adult ballet classes were added to the schedule which have been quite popular.
For our Family series, we added a Sensory Friendly performance to several of the shows we presented to allow families with children on the autism spectrum or with other sensory sensitivity to bring their families for specially designed performance experiences. We didn’t sell huge numbers of tickets for the first season, but that wasn’t entirely the reason to do these shows and we’re offering three more performances for the 16/17 season.
YEAR ENDING FINANCIAL STATUS
We’re anticipating ending our 30th season in the black.
PLEASE LIST YOUR STAFF POSITIONS
Vice President, Marketing and Communications
Director, Public Relations
Director, Marketing
Manager, Creative Services
Manager, Digital Content
Manager, Group Services
Manger, Publications
Manager, Audience Development
Graphic Designer (2.5)
Publicist
Marketing Associate
Advertising and Promotions coordinator
Group Services Associate (2)
Marketing Assistant
Public Relations Assistant
VICTORIA THEATRE & BENJAMIN & MARIAN SCHUSTER PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, DAYTON
TICKETING SYSTEM: Tessitura
KEY COMMENTS and INSIGHTS
BROADWAY SERIES
The 15-16 season started very soft and slow, but ended very strong. PIPPIN, BULLETS OVER BROADWAY and BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY underperformed but ONCE, CINDERELLA and LION KING performed better than projected. Yay. Renewals were very strong this year and we exceeded our subscription goal finally. We are finding that full 6play packages are still a bit challenging to get folks to commit to – totally title driven.
Sales for 16-17 are progressing okay. We repriced our subs package in order to be able to give our subscribers a better deal so that when we have to discount single tickets their discount doesn’t immediately evaporate. This means we have to sell more packages to make the same revenue. Our season is pretty strong but so far that hasn’t really revealed itself in package sales. We are pacing fine but will have to have a strong push in the fall. Shows are: JERSEY BOYS (2nd), 42ND STREET, DIRTY DANCING, MOTOWN, KINKY BOOTS and CIRCUS 1903 with ELF as a special that patrons can swap into if they like.
Started the swap this season… subs must decide to swap by banking the value of the show they want out of no later than 8/7. They can complete right away with ELF or other Star Attractions we’ve booked so far or they can wait to use that money as other Star Attractions will be booked as the season goes on. Have to use it by 6/30 – can’t use it toward their 17-18 renewal. So far so good.
OTHER SERIES
Family series sales are good this year – we’re pacing a bit head of last year at this time. We do 5 shows – subs can take 4 or 5 at only $10 a show – so a package is only $40 or $50 per person. We changed to this pricing a couple of years ago, following the Cleveland model, but so far we haven’t seen a big upswing in sales. We still fight to find these patrons for some reason. Of course it’s all about the titles and this year we do have PINKALICIOUS, CAT IN THE HAT, A YEAR WITH FROG & TOAD, MUTTS GONE NUTS, and MUFARO’S BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS.
SUBSCRIPTIONS—General Commentary
SINGLE TICKETS
- Pop Concerts & Commentary: We are hit and miss with concerts, but we’re working on it. Our namesake venue the Victoria Theatre hit its 150th anniversary this year and we’re trying to do more and more music, since Broadway outgrew the venue. We did a special music series this year – the VIC150 music series – that features three genres of music that have been big for Dayton : Rock, Funk and Bluegrass. The rock date featured Buffalo Killers as the headliner, a band that has ties to both Dayton and Cincinnati, with two local bands opening, Motel Beds and Good English. Very well received but smallish audience – only about 400 in a hall that seats 1154. October brings the funk event (Zap Band – Dayton roots) and the bluegrass event (Lonesome River Band – not local – with local openers). We’ll see how those do. We’re basically trying to rebrand the venue as a music venue.
- Fine Arts/Classical/Dance & Commentary: Because our resident company Dayton Performing Arts Association is comprised of the Philharmonic, Ballet and Opera companies, we don’t present anything like this. That doesn’t stop them from doing Broadway themed Pops concerts however.
- Family Shows Sales & Commentary: It’s all about the title. Well known titles do well – lesser known ones not so much. But our single ticket sales are growing even if our subscriptions have been pretty flat. We have family activities in between the two performances we do on Saturdays. We used to do Sunday shows too but the demand wasn’t sufficient and we had to cut back a couple years ago. We lost folks who could only come on Sundays. Sigh.
- Other Categories/Genres Sales & Commentary:
Web – Just redesigned our website (VictoriaTheatre.com) to give it a more contemporary and creative feel. We haven’t had any negative feedback about it so far! Site is responsive (desktop, mobile, tablet, etc.)
Social Media – We have a social media team made up of members from different departments at VTA. We’re trying to give a broader picture of VTA and felt this was the best way to do it. Current members of the team include Marketing & Communications, Development, Education & Engagement, Event Services/Citilites, and Ticketing. Marketing & Communications oversees all of the channels, but we encourage whoever’s running it to run with it! We meet monthly or every other week (depending on what’s happening) to get our plans in order.
Questions
- How does everyone keep track of/control Facebook pages made by other people for your venues?
- What social media monitoring tools are you using?
This is still a significant part of our subscription campaign and our single ticket campaigns. With Subs, we follow up with as many recipients as we can by phone with our own direct sales team. That’s been a pretty fruitful formula. Gives them a reason to call and the people may have already looked at the brochure. For single tickets, we use a postcard as the first foray in the campaign – send it out like 4 weeks in advance and then all the other advertising follows. Response rates rely strongly on the title.
BIGGEST RECENT SNAFU
Not a huge deal but…we just started the Swap this year and we weren’t specific enough in the communication about it to our subs. You bank the value of the tickets to be used against another show. The cost of the tickets to show you’re swapping into may be more than what you’ve got banked – you have to pay the difference. Obvious? Not so much. Some complaints there. It’s such a challenge with messaging – you want to keep it simple enough that people get the concept and then call for more info. That’s what we say. But then when every detail isn’t spelled out they’re unhappy.
BEST ACCOMPLISHMENT
Our 150th Anniversary celebration has been great. If I don’t say so myself. We’re raising new dollars from new donors because of it. We’ve reconnected with old volunteers who saved it from the wrecking ball and old donors. It ties in with our Next Stage capital campaign nicely – as well as our Planned Giving initiatives. We’re getting really good press. We got funding to produce a 30 minute documentary with our PBS affiliates that’ll be driving me crazy all summer.
YEAR ENDING FINANCIAL STATUS
We should be in the black by a few thousand this year largely due to LION KING.
ORGANIZATIONAL NEWS AND/OR UPDATES
We’re going from a big budget year with 9 weeks of Broadway because of LION KING to a small budget year with only 7 weeks. And we don’t have as many Star Attractions booked (yet) so our budget is TIGHT. Makes it hard to expand what you’re doing.
SPECIAL EVENTS
We don’t do fundraising/gala type events. Boss hates ‘em and we don’t have a tradition of them.
PLEASE LIST YOUR STAFF POSITIONS
Vice President
Graphics & Publications Director
Graphics & Publications Manager
Digital Marketing Manager
Digital Marketing association (part time)
PR & Promotions Manager (who also does media buying)
KIMMEL CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, PHILADELPHIA
TICKETING SYSTEM: Ticket Philadelphia
KEY COMMENTS and INSIGHTS
BROADWAY SERIES
13 shows, 19 weeks, 146 performances, 16 Tony Awards, more than 45 Tony nominations
OTHER SERIES
Kimmel Center Presents – KCP consists of routed tours, one-offs and Co-presentations. There is emphasis on presenting shows that are going to entice key audience segments including but not limited to: families, pop/rock, and millennials.
Jazz @ the Kimmel - The Kimmel Center is committed to exploring America’s homegrown art form and engaging the Philadelphia region with a mix of rising stars, local and international jazz artists, and touring ensembles.
Philly En Vivo – A line of programming introduced during the 2014/15 Season which seeks to create a meaningful, ongoing relationship with Philadelphia’s diverse Latino and Caribbean communities.
Family Discovery Series - The Family Discovery Series was introduced in the 2015/16 season to bolster our family engagement at our venues. Families were able to create their own packages choosing from our KCP and Broadway programming.
SUBSCRIPTIONS—General Commentary
Note: Brief descriptions of each subscription, #s, trends, etc.
Broadway Philadelphia – The 2015/16 Broadway season brought us our highest recorded subscription renewal rate at 76%, which was 10% higher than the 14/15 season. New subscriptions were down this year, due to programming and some new initiatives that cannibalized inventory.
Family Discovery Series - This was the first iteration of this series, and the first time that we allowed series to be created over our different programming genres. The series sold a total of 379 packages.
Jazz Packages – The Kimmel Center offers a non-traditional jazz subscription that doesn’t guarantee seats, but allows patrons the flexibility to choose their own shows, at a discounted price, and receive ancillary benefits. The subscription model for jazz shows was discontinued in 2012 and returned in 2015 in the package model. In its first year back, 291 packages were sold - that increased to 470 packages sold in 2016.
PIFA Packages – In April we presented our third biennial Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA), spanning 16 days and over 60 performances. For the first time, we offered multi-show packages in which patrons could choose three or five performances, or all all-access passes. Despite direct mail, digital, and public relations support, we sold very few - we believe due to low show name recognition that in large part were late-buys.
SINGLE TICKETS (104 performances)
Pop Concerts: Audra McDonald, Melody Gardot, Chris Cornell, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Mark Knopfler, Gladys Knight w/The O’Jays, Giada De Laurentiis, Jethro Tull, Sandoval and Sanchez, Don Henley, Second City Live!, Christian McBride, Martha Graham Cracker, Fresh Cut Orchestra, Soulful Christmas, The Skivvies, Jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia, Rene Marie, Bebel Gilberto, 2 Cellos, Straighten Up and Fly Right, Metropolis, Jerry Blavat Salute to Street Corner Harmony, Korey Riker Workshop, Sutton Foster, Butler Byrd Workshop, The Chieftains, PostSecret: The Show, Jose Gonzalez with yMusic, Natural Born Pranksters, Bonnie Raitt, Ethan Bortnick, David Cross, The Wong Street Journal, Jazz Bridge, Sneaker Suites, Mi Voca Su Voca, Holding It Down, The Naked Magic Show, Brian Regan, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Amazing Tour Is Not on Fire, Mel Brooks, Megan Hilty, Kelli O’Hara, Jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia, Gregory Alan Isakov
Fine Arts/Classical/Dance & Commentary: Canadian Brass, Niv Acosta, So You Think You Can Dance, Philadanco Fall/Winter, The Exalted, Estuary, La Verita, Architecture In Motion, Knitting Peace, String Theory, Article 13, Rivers of Sound, Attack Point, My Soul’s Shadow, Hector Olivera, Prism (So Percussion), Prism (Parch).
PIFA brought many fine arts and dance performances that helped expand our audiences in many ways. Knitting Peace and La Verita were two examples of shows that were exceptionally well-received. Although these shows were not financially successful, they solidified our position and credibility among arts audiences.
Family Shows Sales & Commentary: Potted Potter, Disney in Concert w/The Pops, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Wild Kratts, Matilda, Rudolph, Joseph, Beauty and the Beast, The Sound of Music, Paper Planet, Peppa Pig Live.
We are really proud of the work we’ve done developing family audiences. Our family programming is a huge success. Between Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Wild Kratts (all within weeks of each other), we sold 12,095 tickets. This far exceeds our youth programming in previous years.
Other Categories/Genres Sales & Commentary:
n/a
E-MARKETING / WEB/ MOBILE / SOCIAL MEDIA INSIGHTS & COMMENTARY
We launched a new purchase path in February 2016 and a new website in March 2016. Launching and debugging the website took considerable time. The website CMS is Episerver. We have trained most of our staff how to use the CMS, and staff members have indicated wanting to be able to quickly make edits to their pages themselves.
We launched with a test of experiential video and experiential way of browsing on our homepage. Performance (load time) was a challenge at launch, so we analyzed the code for unnecessary database calls and utilized a CDN (separate dedicated server for video). We are implementing google experiments to have the ability to run a/b tests on pages.
Our new website and purchase path are both mobile responsive. Our web traffic has grown to close to 50% of sessions on mobile/tablet. We have transitioned to an agile methodology to launch future sprints, and we are spending time analyzing how to iterate and improve usability on desktop and mobile, by using a combination of live user tests, Fullstory and google analytics.
Google, email, and social were our biggest online traffic drivers in 2016. We added more upcoming shows to our weekly newsletter and did a genre classification project to tag all historical accounts with the genre of the shows they attended. We will test doing data pulls by genre to possibly simplify and amplify the data requests. We are undertaking an automation of some emails such as reminder and thank you emails.
DIRECT MAIL STRATEGY AND RESULTS:
Strategically, we execute three types of direct mail:
- Show-specific postcards
- Subscription brochures
- Campus-wide programming brochures, including all Resident Company activity
We were very happy with the sales trends after these direct mail pieces dropped.
- September – Campus-wide Season Brochure (85,000)
- October – Jazz @ The Kimmel – combo featuring 8 jazz shows (10,000)
- October – PIFA Packages – (45,000)
- November – Try Something New! – combo featuring SEI Innovation shows (20,000 list trade)
- December – Estuary (a new work)– stand- alone (5,000 list trade)
- December – Campus-wide Holidays @ the Kimmel (35,000)
- January – Metropolis – combo featuring organ shows (15,000 including list trade)
- January - Seth Rudetsky series - combo (20,000)
- February – African American Outreach Campaign (25,000)
- February – PostSecret – stand-alone (10,000)
- February – The Chieftains – combo with Riverdance (20,000)
- March – PIFA Festival Guide (85,000)
- March – Knitting Peace –stand-alone (17,000)
- March – PIFA – Movement (dance) combo – (10,000 w/list trade)
- March – PIFA - Sound (music) combo – (5,000 w/list trade)
- March – PIFA – Theater combo – (10,000 list trade)
- March – PIFA – Paper Planet – stand-alone (15,000 w/trade)
- April - Hector Olivera – stand-alone (10,000)
- April – La Verita – stand-alone (20,000)
BIGGEST RECENT SNAFU
For our June 2016 presentation of Riverdance, there was a snafu with the releasing of holds in the pit section of our house. The seats were held until confirmation was given of whether the pit would be used or not, which came in October. However, the seats were not released until very late May.
BEST ACCOMPLISHMENT
In March we launched a new website, developed by Adage Technologies and Sandstorm Design.
o Link: https://www.kimmelcenter.org/
o Launch followed more than a year of consumer research, design, and development and was built with each of our core audiences in mind
o It customizes the user experience with patron interests
o Serves as a central source of performance and artist information
o Some new features about which we are especially excited:
- Customized content: The site monitors users’ activity and tailors the experience by suggesting relevant events
- Direct content management load of information and Resident Company control of content -- with the new content management system, pages are built directly from Tessitura and Resident Company Marketing leads have the ability to make edits directly to their performance display pages.
In April, we kicked off our third Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA)
o 16 days (including 3 weekends), more than 60 performances, more than 200,000 visitors- all culminating in a seven block free street fair
o PIFA showcased a breadth of local and international performances and installations
o 4 world premieres; 3 American premieres; 2 East Coast premieres; 4 Philadelphia premieres
o International arts and cultural organizations, and local partners, helped us put on dozens of events throughout the festival ranging from music and theater to visual arts and family-friendly acts at various venues throughout the city.
o The PR and Marketing teams worked strategically to secure media partners, which netted multiple front page stories and pieces in local publications and outlets, as well as placements in international and national publications such as La Opinion, USA Today, and Departures Magazine.
YEAR-ENDING FINANCIAL STATUS
We anticipate ending our fiscal year 2016 with a modest surplus compared to the prior fiscal year. Given that ticket sales were not as strong in the current fiscal year, we relied on other revenue generating sources within the organization such as facility rentals.
Our organization continues to have a solid balance sheet and we have not utilized our line of credit since June 2015.
ORGANIZATIONAL NEWS AND/OR UPDATES
o Kimmel Center, Inc. Board of Directors announces the contract extension of Anne Ewers, President & CEO of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts through the 2019-20 season. The Board unanimously voted to extend Ewers’ contract crediting her creative/ambitious artistic leadership and the Center’s strong financial stability throughout her tenure.
o The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts announces a new partnership with the Marian Anderson Award in which future Award ceremony events and galas will be done in partnership with the Kimmel Center. The announcement comes after 15 years of the Award Concert being held in the Kimmel Center’s Verizon Hall and gala festivities on Commonwealth Plaza.
o The local NBC station, WCAU-TV, installed a camera on the Kimmel Center’s Tier 2 balcony overlooking Broad Street, in both directions, and including a beautiful shot of Philadelphia’s City Hall. The continuous live picture is relayed back to the NBC studios in Bala Cynwyd and is used on air during news and weather programs where the anchors refer to it as "The Kimmel Center Campus camera." As part of the agreement, NBC will not use "The Kimmel Center" name in the event of negative breaking news.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Matilda Day
o The Marketing and Education teams partnered for a special event surrounding the November presentation of Matilda. A few classes from partnering schools added the book of Matilda to their curriculum. 150 students were rewarded with a day of activities, private performances and Q&A’s with cast of Matilda the Musical.
Yelp Elite Event
o The PR and Marketing teams built upon an already strong relationship with the local Yelp Community Manager to plan an event for Philadelphia’s Yelp Elite Members – a group with the greatest influence in the area. The team coordinated an evening to highlight the Kimmel Center Campus and its offerings including PostSecret: The Show, Academy Gold membership benefit, and a dessert reception by Garces Events. The teams collaborated on several promotional opportunities to bolster awareness of the Kimmel Center with this young, adventurous audience. The event was attended by 50 members of the Yelp Elite Squad and garnered 5-stars, 30 glowing reviews, and more than 60 shared photos.
PIFA Events
o To foster relationships with media, sponsors, artistic partners, and local influencers, the PR team planned several events to generate awareness and understanding of PIFA 2016, beginning with a media event on January 21. In an effort to stray from the traditional press conference, the team collaborated with catering partners Garces Events to build an innovative menu that reflected key performances of the Festival. The event, attended by more than 100 key stakeholders, was very well received by media, resulting in nearly 20 full-length media placements in the 24-hours following the event with additional coverage continuing to appear throughout the week. Of particular note was a story on BizBash.com which detailed the planning and execution of this non-traditional press conference and ran on the website twice within the past five months.
o In an effort to keep the Festival top of mind in the weeks leading up to the opening performances, a kick-off party was held on March 23. The PR and Marketing Teams worked with partner agencies to craft a highly curated list of local influencers to celebrate the return of PIFA and preview some of excitement to come. The evening’s festivities included performances, cocktails and dancing, a special hashtag, social media screens for real-time sharing, and PIFA sparklers for take-home gifts.
o The PR team planned a PIFA preview event on the eve of the Festival to give select media and a group of influential Instagrammers a sneak peek at the Plaza Installation, a performance of Knitting Peace, and remarks by President & CEO Anne Ewers about the impact of the Festival on Philadelphia. All in attendance were provided with important information about each program and relevant social media tags, resulting in a flurry of stunning photos flooding social channels that evening, drumming up more interest in the Festival - Knitting Peace in particular.
PLEASE LIST YOUR STAFF POSITIONS
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
Senior Director of Institutional Marketing
Director of Program Marketing
Director of Media Relations & Communications
Director of Advertising Sales & Promotions
Senior e-Marketing Manager
Institutional Marketing Manager
Marketing and Promotions Manager
Manager of Public Relations
Manager of Group Sales
Graphic Designer (2)
Marketing Coordinator
Marketing Content Coordinator
Marketing Assistant
ADRIENNE ARSHT CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS OF MIAMI-DADE COUNTY
TICKETING SYSTEM: Tessitura
KEY COMMENTS and INSIGHTS
BROADWAY SERIES
FY16 was a banner year for Broadway in Miami. We reached an all-time high of 6,719 subscribers and our weekly grosses were terrific. More specifically:
- Kinky Boots: $1.12M
- Sound of Music: $1.26M
- Motown: $1.12M
- Phantom (2 wks): $2.56M
- Cabaret: $870K
FY17 sub sales are trending ahead of FY16 by about 200; currently at 5,320; acquisition campaign is about to be launched.
- The Illusionists (Oct 11)
- Dirty Dancing (Nov 29)
- An American in Paris (Dec 27)
- Beautiful (Feb 14)
- Jersey Boys (Apr 4)
- The King and I (May 9)
- Add-on: Annie – split week (Mar 3)
OTHER SERIES
THEATER UP CLOSE (in our 200-seat black box)
FY16 was a down year, mostly due to half of the series being a trilogy that was sold as a one-day experience (yes, 9.5 hours at the theater), called the Hammer Trinity. Subscriptions fell by nearly 50%, going from above 900 to 490.
FY17 is looking much better. Subscriptions are already at 356 – we believe we’ll blow past last year’s number and start to gain back toward our FY14 numbers. The season:
- After (Oct 27) – world premiere
- Sunday in the Park with George (Jan 19) - Sondheim
- Fuacata (Feb 23) – world premiere
- The Caretaker (Mar 30) – Harold Pinter
- Death & Harry Houdini (Apr 26) – House Theater of Chicago
- Add-on: we’re working on landing Kansas City Choir Boy with Courtney Love
FY16 was a hit and miss year:
- Movie music of Spike Lee and Terrance Blanchard (miss)
- Kenny G (sold out)
- Eddie Palmieri (hit)
- Frank Sinatra Jr. (sold out) – his second to last concert
- Vanessa Williams (slight miss) – Ms. Williams replaced Natalie Cole
- Patti LaBelle (nearly sold out)
CLASSICAL MUSIC
FY16 was a down year for classical music. Subscriptions were down to 445. The core season did not include A-listers; but we had two add-ons with A-listers doing non-classical music passion projects:
- Philadelphia Orchestra (miss)
- Jeremy Denk in recital (miss)
- Toronto Symphony (hit goal)
- Itzhak Perlman – in the Fiddler’s House (just missed goal at 84% of GP)
- Yo-Yo Ma’s BRIC (just missed goal at 82% of GP)
SUBSCRIPTIONS—General Commentary
We continue to believe that subscription is by no means ‘dead.’ We continue to pour resources into maintaining and growing our sub bases.
SINGLE TICKETS
Pop Concerts & Commentary:
- Buena Vista Social Club (sold out)
- SYTYCD (above goal)
- Chris Cornell (sold out)
- Straight No Chaser (above goal)
- Brian Regan (above goal)
- John Waters (above goal)
- Matisyahu (above goal)
- The Tenors (above goal)
- Zelda w/Orchestra (above goal)
- Buika (nearly sold out)
- Esperanza Spalding (miss)
- Ednita Naraio (above goal)
- Weird Al (on track to miss)
- Thalia (too early to tell)
- Hip Hop Nutcracker (sold out)
- Rioult Dance (miss)
- Peter London Dance (hit)
- Ayikodans (hit)
- Alvin Ailey (miss)
- Flamenco Festival (miss)
- Alvin and the Chipmunks (miss)
- Disney in Concert (sold out)
- Fantasia with Orchestra (slight miss)
- Marionetas (miss)
- Elizabeth Gilbert (hit) Monday night book talk and signing.
- Eric Ripert (sold out) $175 for a 5 course meal and talk.
- Cirkopolis is our big summer show. Our goal is 30,000 guests/$1.9 Million. Opens July 7.
Mail2. We had some disruption from their upgrade. Historical open/click through data was lost. We’re exploring WordFly, but not sure yet.
Promoted Posts on Facebook. We’re about 15 months into our ‘no organic posts – promoted posts only’ policy and continue to feel it was the right move. In FY16 so far, we’re on track to spend $25K over 75 posts with institutional messages only (no show), plus shows will account for another $50K to $60K.
Website: we completed our 3rd season with our ‘new’ website. Upcoming upgrades include:
- Moving to responsive design
- Flexible sub capability
- Online payment plans
- Mobile friendly gift certificate purchase
- Mobile friendly subscription purchase
- Custom mobile home page
- Intermediary video prior to entering homepage
Seat Geek. We met with them in Miami. Ultimately decided to pass – felt we’d be partnering with a known aggregator of the secondary ticket market – a market that we’re fighting against. This would be in contrast to the laws we’ve worked hard to get passed in the state legislature.
DIRECT MAIL STRATEGY AND RESULTS
While there is some internal resistance to direct mail (mostly from programming), we continue to believe it is a key way to grow sales by targeting return visits from our database.
YEAR ENDING FINANCIAL STATUS
We are on track to have our 9th consecutive year with a balanced budget.
ORGANIZATIONAL NEWS AND/OR UPDATES
Our Creative Services Team won several awards this year:
- Hermes Creative Awards – international awards for creative professionals. We won 5 and 3 honorable mentions.
- Summit International Awards – for agencies with billings under $30M. We won 5.
- Addy Awards – they removed the non-profit category this year. We won 1.
The first residential building across the street from the Center opened in May. 1,000 new residents expected. More real estate talk, but no other cranes in the air yet.
Our college student ticket program continued to find traction in FY16. We’ve sold nearly 1800 tickets this year ($20, all in), up from 1700 last year. Anyone interested in using the UTIX brand in your market, let me know.
In May, we participated in an Active Shooter Training with local law enforcement. Our entire staff was prepped, and encouraged to think about your ‘plan’ should the building be breached by an active shooter during business hours. SWAT and police and other first responders with full gear. Media coverage here:
http://wsvn.com/news/local/law-enforcement-practice-drill-at-adrienne-arsht-center/
Being Green. We created an info graphic for distribution:
Following the passing of Larry Rosen, co-creator and artistic director of our Jazz Roots series, we will be announcing later this year that Shelly Berg, Dean of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, will be named our new artistic collaborator.
Our tenant, the Café at Books & Books, as started to bring in some higher profile events, including:
- Miguel Cabrera’s Miggy Ball fundraiser
- Chrissy Teigen book signing (yes, John Legend was in tow)
- Andy Cohen book signing
- Eric Ripert book signing
- Establishing a Minster’s Council from historically Black churches, seeking to have informed exchange of what’s happening at the Center as well as in the community
- Hosting a symposium for a local group called BOMA, the Black Owner’s Media Association. We’ll host and sponsor all costs – our media agency and pr agency may co-sponsor with us.
10th Anniversary Gala. Held on April 21, honoring Adrienne Arsht. Showcase of talent included: Andy Cohen (host), 2 dancers from Alvin Ailey, 1 dancer from ABT, Stephanie J Block, Darren Criss, Estelle, Michael Feinstein, Nova Payton, Arturo Sandoval, Jon Secada, Miami Mass Choir, singers from Florida Grand Opera, and Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra. An 80 minute concert was available to the public, starting at $25. Dinner afterward for Gala tickets, on the stage. Adrienne matched all $100K tables – there were 10 of them.
We are planning our second annual ArtsLaunch, again on the first Saturday of September (Sept 10). It will be first opportunity for the public to get individual tickets for the majority of our season, plus free events and tours throughout the day.
We are also planning for a 10th Birthday celebration in October. Details TBD.
PROMOTIONS OF NOTE (GREAT SUCCESSES OR DISMAL FAILURES)
Swag Bags. For both our Classical Music and Jazz Roots series, we put together swag bags with Arsht branded items as well as promotional partners. For example, Jazz Roots bag had: a Jazziz magazine, a cd, 2 t-shirts, plus Arsht Center branded items: stress “a”, 10-year lapel pin, coasters, and matchboxes. These bags were used as a thank you to subscribers – not as a direct selling tool.
Comic Book. For the Hammer Trinity, we knew we wanted to reach a comic book/Lord of the Rings/Game of the Thrones fan. We hired an artist with Marvel/DC/DarkHorse credentials. Distributed at local comic shops and a comic con; as well as at a renaissance festival. We all felt the comic book came out great; sadly nothing moved tickets for the Hammer Trinity.
Secondary Ticket Market Campaign. Thank you Marc! We used the :72 second version in both English and Spanish. Created :30 second versions as well, distributed to and used by 9 TV stations, 22 Radio stations (plus 9 eblast outlets) – we were able to get a PSA schedule with a combined value of more than $300,000. Several press hits as well.
Our PR team was able to land a spot on the Miami Herald’s CEO Corner – a feature that publishes ramblings of community though leaders over a multi-month period. Our CEO was featured 12 times.
We continue an annual 30-minute special on NBC, promoting our entire Broadway season. It was started here several years ago by Crystal Brewe, and it’s still going strong!
Prince passed away on the same day as our Gala. CBS covered the gala with a nice clip, and at the tail end of the clip, put our Prince Facebook post on screen and read it out loud (!). Here is the clip:
http://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/medical/adrienne-arsht-center-celebrates-10-years-of-performances/vi-BBs5VzN?refvid=AAekO4F
Working with our institutional PR agency, we organized a FAM trip, bringing in journalists to Miami. Publications include: Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Paper Magazine/Refinery29.
PLEASE LIST YOUR STAFF POSITIONS
- VP, Marketing
- Marketing Director (x3)
- Marketing Assistant (x3)
- Promotions Manager
- Groups Manager
- Groups Assistant (x2)
- VP, Communication
- PR Manager
- PR Coordinator
- Sr. Director, Creative Services
- Creative Services Coordinator
- Graphic Designer (x3)
- E-commerce Manager
- E-commerce Assistant
CAPA (COLUMBUS ASSOCIATION FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS)
TICKETING SYSTEM: Ticketmaster
KEY COMMENTS and INSIGHTS
BROADWAY SERIES
15-16 Season: Kinky Boots, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Motown, The Sound of Music, Beauty and the Beast, Dirty Dancing. Specials: Book of Mormon, Wicked
16-17 Season: Cinderella, Little Mermaid, Bodyguard, Cabaret, and Beautiful. Specials: Stomp, Riverdance
We’re a one-week market with app. 8,000 subs this season, which is a high for us. Single tickets are very strong this season. 16-17 subs are coming in ahead of last year.
Inspired by PlayhouseSquare’s model, we held an announcement party for subs and multi-show buyers and attracted about 700 people. (We experimented with an announcement party 4-5 years ago to mediocre results.) We worked with an event planner, who handled many of the details—very helpful! There was great energy in the house as the shows were revealed. We had musical performances from the Gay Men’s Chorus and the star of Beautiful—it couldn’t have gone better. (PlayhouseSquare was generous in allowing some of our staff to attend their Broadway season announcement party to get a sense of their event.)
OTHER SERIES
N/A
SINGLE TICKETS
- Pop Concerts & Commentary:
The Lincoln Theatre has done very well with an intimate series called Backstage at the Lincoln—the artist and audience are seated on stage. Seating is very limited (100-125) and tickets are just $10. Artists are primarily local and from jazz, soul, and hip hop genres.
Smooth jazz does well—big hits with both Boney James and Dave Koz Smooth Jazz Christmas Tour (we program this every year and it comes close to selling out every time).
- Fine Arts/Classical/Dance & Commentary:
- Family Shows Sales & Commentary:
- Other Categories/Genres Sales & Commentary:
A big miss was Criss Angel’s The Supernaturalists.
E-MARKETING / WEB/ MOBILE / SOCIAL MEDIA INSIGHTS & COMMENTARY
We’re putting together an RFP for a new website—much needed! If you have a developer to recommend or thoughts in general about your process, I’d love to know. Previously, we have used developers in the Columbus area, but are open to working with someone out of state. If you’ve worked with an out-of-town vendor, I’m curious about your experience.
DIRECT MAIL STRATEGY AND RESULTS
Our local arts council has organized arts groups to participate in TRG’s community network, which is to ease mailing list trades and make them more targeted, run analytics about our data, and form a dataset that we can use for prospecting and research. We literally just uploaded our data a couple of weeks ago, so it is too early to talk about the experience. I should have an update for our December meeting.
YEAR ENDING FINANCIAL STATUS
CAPA has finished in the black for the last 30 years and we’re on track to do so again this FY.
ORGANIZATIONAL NEWS AND/OR UPDATES
CAPA continues to provide shared services support to several non-profit arts groups including the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, CATCO (Contemporary American Theatre Company), Opera Columbus, McCoy Center for the Performing Arts, Drexel Theatre (an independent movie house), and Lincoln Theatre. Shared services support includes marketing as well as finance, HR, ticketing, IT, development, and operations.
The Drexel has been closed for renovations for three months—allowing for upgrades to the lobby, concessions, three theatres and the marquee. We are scheduled to re-open in July.
We purchased an historic, disbanded church downtown about a block from our flagship theatre. We’re currently evaluating use of the space and potential renovation—acoustics are terrific.
SPECIAL EVENTS
CAPA has produced Festival Latino for the past six years. It’s a free, two-day festival on the downtown riverfront featuring great food, local vendors and artists, children’s activities, and local and national musical performers.
In September, we will again host “Twisted,” which features BalletMet, Columbus Symphony and Opera Columbus, joining forces to create a collaboration that put more than 200 artists on stage together throughout the course of the performance. It was incredibly well-received two years ago and we are increasing the number of performances from two to three.
PROMOTIONS OF NOTE (GREAT SUCCESSES OR DISMAL FAILURES)
Last summer, our local arts council kicked off a city-wide campaign called Columbus Makes Art / Art Makes Columbus. The goal is to raise awareness of the artistic talent living and working in our neighborhoods and telling their stories. They hope to sustain the program for 3-5 years. http://www.columbusmakesart.com/
HOW OFTEN AND BY WHAT METHOD(S) DO YOU SURVEY YOUR AUDIENCES?
Annually, online.
PLEASE LIST YOUR STAFF POSITIONS
Marketing Director
Marketing Managers—3 positions
Publicist
Art Director
Graphic designers—1.5 positions
Digital Marketing and video—2 positions
Administrative coordinator
Note: These positions support CAPA, plus six other arts organizations that CAPA provides shared marketing services to.
MISCELLANEOUS COMMENTARY, RAMBLINGS OR MUSINGS
Downtown Columbus is hot! We’ve seen a tremendous influx of new development, including condos and apartments for new residents, with more to come. We contribute tickets, etc., for welcome baskets for new downtown residents and businesses—but we are looking for other ways to meaningfully connect.
Has anyone had a great experience with Google grants?
The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, Las Vegas
TICKETING SYSTEM: Spectra (Paciolan)
KEY COMMENTS and INSIGHTS
BROADWAY SERIES
The lineup for the 2016-2017 season includes:
The Sound of Music, Beautiful, White Christmas, Fun Home, Motown, Finding Neverland, Matilda, American in Paris, Phantom
This year we are offering a Broadway Talks element….a pre-show chat for subscribers on select titles during the season.
OTHER SERIES
No other subscription series are planned for this year outside of our two resident companies – Nevada Ballet Theatre and The Las Vegas Philharmonic. We do bundle “like” shows when feasible that include a discount. Potential 2016-2017 series include: Family, World Stage (Celtic Thunder, Shaolin Warriors, Kodo and Taj Express) and Speaker (Deepak Chopra, Ira Glass, Garrison Keillor and David Sedaris).
SUBSCRIPTIONS—General Commentary
This year we took a different approach to marketing season specials within the series. We offered subscribers the choice of a 9, 8 or 7 show series versus 7 shows with the option to add the two season specials. Surprisingly, the majority of patrons are opting for the nine show series. As of this date, the break down is 9: 66% 8: 8% 7: 26%
We renewed at 85% and are in the midst of acquisition which is advertised to end June 12. Our goal is to reach a minimum of 10K subs, which will represent 66% of the house for a one week run. Based on the amount of “viable” subscription inventory (a.k.a. not the balcony), we can’t go beyond 10,300.
Given the large amount of balcony inventory, the primary benefit of subscribing is the ability to get in the que to move down or save on ticket fees. With this in mind, we will develop some smaller packages to help load in some balcony non-subscriber seats. (
We played the Hamilton card, but it didn’t result in a ground swell of new subscribers.
SINGLE TICKETS
- Pop Concerts & Commentary: Our booking strategy has been more “opportunistic” in the last two seasons. Trying to pick up routed shows and those that speak to our core audience of baby boomers. Some shows that have been booked for the 2016-2017 season include: Paul Anka, Johnny Mathis, Burt Bacharach, and Jethro Tull. This season we booked the Beach Boys, Englebert, Kristen Chenoweth, Bela Fleck, Alan Parsons, Yanni, Brian McNight, Botti and Koz. The Beach Boys and Yanni sold out. At this point, we have a couple of shows aimed at a younger audience – Straight No Chaser and Drumline.
- Fine Arts/Classical/Dance & Commentary: Our resident companies are fulfilling this aspect of our programming for the most part. In January of this year we featured the Royal Philharmonic and in April, Alvin Ailey.
- Family Shows Sales & Commentary: Our family shows continue to be a big hit with audiences as they are reasonably priced ($14.95 - $20.95) as they are a public performance attached to education matinees. Our current season included: Room on a Broom, Cat in the Hat, Elephant & Piggies and Clifford the Big Red Dog. For the 2016-17 season, we are booking a couple of shows not tied to our student matinees –Wild Kratts and Daniel Tiger. Although Kratts is at a much higher price point then our usual offering, it is selling well with very little effort.
- Other Categories/Genres Sales & Commentary: We added some acts outside of our wheelhouse this summer – Bobby Bones and the Raging Idiots and Dan & Phil Tour…..Bobby sold out with no marketing as Bobby plugged the show on his national radio show. Dan & Phil, which appeals to tweens, were booked with a 40 day sales window for a June 12 show. As of this date, we have sold 800 of the 2000 seats. Next season we have Lily Tomlin and Bob Newhart in the comedy category.
We completed a move to a responsive design website in order to offer a more user friendly mobile experience. However, since our ticketing system is different than our website platform, the buying process doesn’t allow for a pick your seat experience which contributes to a high bounce rate on mobile.
We reconfigured the home page to include a search function by title, date, calendar or genre and added a section to highlight blog content. The event pages were redesigned to add a “You May Also Like” on each page as well as a side rail for CTA’s. Our new email platform, Fan One, provided the opportunity to also create device responsive email templates.
We are working toward developing an acquisition/retention strategy, but in the meantime we mail a monthly newsletter (donor & non-donor version), venue specific show listings, and pre-sale notifications to the entire database. Within 60 days of the show, we send targeted emails based on genre that may include an offer or highlight a floor seat price point. The Fan One email platform offers a degree of marketing automation, but we are still in the process of understanding all its capabilities and how we can use it to support our strategies. Thus far we are utilizing shopping cart abandonment and will be starting a birthday program shortly.
DIRECT MAIL STRATEGY AND RESULTS
Moving my team toward a “direct marketing first” strategy (e.g. email, on-line, direct mail, social) when it comes to developing marketing plans. Specifically, determine the best channels to reach the people under your nose and then layer on advertising. Consequently, we will probably mail more this year and spend more on on-line marketing, and try to leverage more partnerships that include like-minded databases. We mail show brochures up to four times a year depending on how many shows are booked per quarter. Postcards and self-mailers supplement these core mailings.
This year, we tried something different with our Broadway brochures as we wanted to ensure the best renewal rate possible. We produced three versions of the brochure and personalized the cover of two of them. The versions included:
- Renewal: John, Your Seats Are Waiting For You….Renew By March 31
- Lapsed Subscriber: John, We Miss You At The Smith Center…Subscribe by March 31…..(for a $100 deposit, we will honor subscriber prices and fill your order before the general public)
- Acquisition: Guarantee Your Seats…..Purchase by June 12
- Personalized Note Card: A matching note card from our president thanking them for renewing, personalized by name and the number of seasons they have been a subscriber. Also included was the Broadway League iTunes card as a token of appreciation to get them in the Broadway spirit.
BIGGEST RECENT SNAFU
Our forecast for return engagements of Broadway shows that aren’t on subscription. And hiring a web development company that probably works out of their garageJ.
BEST ACCOMPLISHMENT
Organizationally, we launched the first Heart of Education Awards which is designed to reward teachers for going above and beyond for their students. The program, which was funded by The Smith Center, included a $5,000 cash prize for the 20 finalists, a swag bag worth $750 in gifts, and a “red carpet” evening of entertainment hosted by Eric Bergen of Madame Secretary and Jersey Boys fame. We received 1,100 nominations, invited 800 + guest to the event and then announced the 20 finalists that evening. The goal is to attract and retain teachers in our school district, which is the 5th largest in the nation. Based on the feedback from our educators, this went a long way in terms of making them feel special. We anticipate many more nominations in year two!
YEAR ENDING FINANCIAL STATUS
Our fiscal year ends June 30, 2016……we estimate break even for the year.
ORGANIZATIONAL NEWS AND/OR UPDATES
Our VP of Development left the organization in December of 2015 and has been replaced with Tim Hanlon, who previously headed up the Wells Fargo foundation. Sponsorships have moved again, and will now be under development to leverage those relationships. Marketing team has grown in terms for positions, but we are still in the process of filling new positions. Since November, I’ve added a Director of Show Marketing and Marketing Manager and a new Direct Marketing team. The job market has become more competitive than even it was before as the economy improves.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Our season announcement event featured Penn & Teller and cast members from Beautiful and Fun Home. Next year we are finally going to move the event to the big hall and invite all subscribers. Up to this point, it was tied to a donor event. We participate in a number of off-site events that either align with our current patrons or target new audiences. We usually trade for the booth fee and we use volunteers to staff the booth.
PROMOTIONS OF NOTE (GREAT SUCCESSES OR DISMAL FAILURES)
For the second year in a row we tried to consign tickets to the Hispanic grocery stores to support our Mariachi performance. It probably cost more in labor to cut the commission check than we made. However, as part of the deal they advertise our show in their grocery flyer as an outlet to purchase show tickets. We also were able to utilize the university database for a Beauty and the Beast email which costs us 50 cents per sale in commission, so that one proved successful. And of course access to the Disney list proves valuable for their shows. We were able to turn Beauty and the Beast around to the degree that it helped compensate for the mis-forecasting of another show that starts with a B.
In order to move balcony tickets without reducing margins, we have been marking up the price so we can mark it down for secondary channels in order to show value to those providers. We have also been incorporating more trade based, or small cash outlet, partnerships with high traffic options (e.g. Downtown Summerlin outdoor mall, Galleria Mall, Townsquare outdoor mall). Outdoor movie nights have become a staple with the outdoor malls, so the trade usually includes signage in that area as well as showing our commercial before the movie.
PLEASE LIST YOUR STAFF POSITIONS
- Vice-President of Marketing
- Marketing Assistant (open)
- Director of Marketing
- Associate Director of Advertising
- PR Manager (open)
- Content Developer (open)
- Marketing Manager
- Graphic Artist (open)
- Director – Direct Marketing
- Digital Specialist – Email
- Digital Specialist – Website
Las Vegas welcomed yet another arena to the entertainment mix this year ..T-Mobile arena with a 20K seat capacity. In addition to the arena, MGM plans to add a 5,000 seat venue in the Monte Carlo. Sands and Madison Square Gardens just announced plans for a 17,500 seat venue near the Venetian. This brings the number of casino showrooms and other concert venues to 32. Although these venues don’t directly compete with The Smith Center from a pure genre perspective, they still provide competition for the resident’s entertainment dollar. This reinforces the need for us to provide a unique experience for the entertainment goer in Las Vegas.
CINCINNATI ARTS ASSOCIATON
(Aronoff Center for the Arts / Music Hall / Weston Art Gallery)
Your Current Ticketing System: Spectra (Paciolan)
BROADWAY IN CINCINNATI: CAA does not present or market Broadway in Cincinnati, but is a financial partner.
2015-16 SEASON (December 2015 – May 2016)
- HIT: White Christmas, The Book of Mormon, Newsies, Beauty and the Beast
- PAR: Kinky Boots, Cabaret
- MISS: If / Then
2016-17 SEASON
- 6-show subscription (2 weeks): The Sound of Music, The Little Mermaid, Something Rotten, Matilda, Beautiful: The Carol King Musical
- 6th show opt-in (1 week): A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, The Illusionists
- Season Extras: The Phantom of the Opera (2 weeks), Mama Mia (split week)
SALES (as of June 2 – season campaign ongoing)
Subscribers: 14,806
Renewal Rate: 82%
New Subscribers: 2014
# of Subscribers 2015-16: 15,553
“CAA PRESENTS” 2015-16 Season
Our seasons are comprised largely of Broadway, resident companies, and rental activity, with a small number of shows directly presented by CAA. We offer direct or indirect marketing support to many of our Resident Companies and rental clients.
NOTALBE CAA PRESENTS + RENTALS (December 2015 – May 2016)
HIT: A Night with Janis Joplin, Wild Kratts Live, Mannheim Steamroller, Chris Young, Christopher Titus, 11ith Annual Laugh-a-Thon, Tyler Perry’s Madea on the Run, Festival of Laughs with Mike Epps, Bethel Music Worship Night, Pilobolus
SPECIAL NOTE: Wild Kratts Live sold out nearly two months in advance with minimal marketing expenditure, save a small yet mighty partnership with our local PBS station. The show sold out in Columbus (2 hours from Cincinnati) even farther in advance, and families from there traveled to Cincy to see the show (and many said they would return as they liked our theater and city so much!). Thanks, Columbus!!
PAR: Shen Yun, Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage, Celtic Woman, Jethro Tull
MISSES: In the Mood
E-MARKETING / WEB/ MOBILE / SOCIAL MEDIA INSIGHTS & COMMENTARY
- This summer, we will be doing the first refresh of our website since the launch of the new site in November 2013. The refresh will revise navigation on both the main and (responsive) mobile site to make it easier for users to find and locate event/ticket information.
- We are researching marketing automation providers.
YEAR-ENDING FINANCIAL STATUS
We are having a successful financial year thus far with about $300K net positive variance overall. This follows two record surplus years.
MUSIC HALL REVITALIZATION (Music Hall is our 140-year old classical arts venue, in dire need of renovation)
After nearly a decade of discussions, planning, and stops-and-starts, the Music Hall renovation project is finally a reality. Work began earlier this year as the venue was in use by its resident companies, and the project has now moved into full force after a shutdown of the venue in late May. As is no surprise, the project has increased in scope and cost, which now stands at more than $130M. Elements of funding currently include nearly $60M in fundraising, over $22M in public (City and State) funding and $46M in tax credits. A grand re-opening is set for October 2017.
During the renovation, the Ballet and the Opera will perform at the Aronoff Center, and we are thrilled that the Opera’s 2016 & 2017 summer seasons (June-July) will fill what has traditionally been downtime at the Aronoff. The Symphony/Pops and the May Festival will perform at the Taft Theater (three blocks from the Aronoff Center) which is managed by a subsidiary of the Cincinnati Symphony.
RESIDENT COMPANIES
CAA supports the work of twelve resident companies:
- ARONOFF CENTER: Broadway in Cincinnati, Cincinnati Ballet, Cincinnati Boychoir, Cincinnati Music Theatre, Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative, Contemporary Dance Theater, Exhale Dance Tribe, MamLuft &Co. Dance
- MUSIC HALL: Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Opera, May Festival
- Cincinnati Opera, May Festival (choral music), and Cincinnati Ballet: All organizations once again enjoyed successful and critically-acclaimed seasons. The Ballet is now doing their own ticketing through Tessitura (in the past, CAA sold Ballet tickets through our Spectra/Paciolan system). The Symphony/Pops, May Fest, and Opera also sell independently from CAA through Tessitura.
- Cincinnati Symphony / Pops Orchestras: The CSO will once again repeat its wildly-successful LumenoCity in August. This year, however, the unique digital-light-show-with-live-classical-music concert will occur in their new home at the Taft Theater, and feature a 360-degree lighting display that will envelop the whole auditorium. The event will feature an outdoor festival and multiple performances, with one performance simulcast by local PBS and NPR radio stations. The CSO has indicated that they will retire LumenoCity after this year.
NEW PROGRAMS
Our new Arts in Healing program has been progressing nicely under the guidance of our Education and Community Relations department. We are working with the Veterans Hospital Treatment, Recovery and Activities Center, the University of Cincinnati Surgery Center, and the Hamilton County Foster Care program. Elements of the program include environmental play, instruction, creative writing, and social engagement.
SPECIAL EVENTS
- In April, we celebrated the 10th year of our wildly successful, annual fundraiser Dancing for the Stars, which benefits our Overture Awards scholarship fund (the largest high school arts scholarship competition in the nation). Although the event did not sell-out this year, it did raise a record amount, netting nearly $100,000. The competitive dance style was Disco.
ARONOFF CENTER 20TH ANNIVERSARY
We are winding down the Aronoff Center’s 20th Anniversary campaign. The majority of our efforts took place earlier in the season, but continues to a lesser degree as the season progresses through the summer.
The campaign included: media engagement (driven by a local communications agency), fan engagement/awareness (branding, photo ops, etc.), the commissioning of our first Economic Impact Study in fifteen years, 20th Anniversary celebration events, 20th Anniversary videos, social media campaign (#Aronoff20), downtown restaurant partnerships that include special themed menus and drinks, and an Anniversary microsite (Aronoff20.com).
In May, we did a fundraising event for the Aronoff Center’s Weston Arts Gallery to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Gallery and the 90th Birthday of the Gallery’s namesake, local artist and philanthropist Alice Weston. The event, titled ‘Alice in WestonLand’, featured a video interview with Alice, a brief 20th Anniversary retrospective of the Gallery, cocktail hour in the lobby, and dinner on stage at the Aronoff Center.
MISCELLANEOUS MUSINGS
- We are implementing some facility improvements at the Aronoff beginning with a seat refurbishing project next month. Plans are for significant completion before the Opera season opens. There are more building and mechanical system replacements on the way.
- One of the most significant changes that we have experienced in Cincinnati is the growth and renaissance of the neighborhood surrounding Music Hall known as Over-the-Rhine (OTR). Once one of the most depressed and crime-ridden areas of downtown (the home of Cincinnati’s 2001 riots), it is a now a trendy new residential, entertainment, night-life, and start-up district – the ‘place to be’ in the City. The newly refurbished city-owned Washington Park across the street from Music Hall has anchored much of this community and development. The main impact on us is an increased level of activity and community-wide optimism. Family-based events are on the rise, Music Hall’s resident companies are performing in the Washington Park (the former home of the Symphony’s LumenoCity event), and the public feels welcome and engaged.
- Across town, the immediate downtown environment around the Aronoff Center continues to flourish as a night-life destination as well. Eighteen bars and restaurants have opened since the debut of the Center twenty years ago. This remarkable transformation is widely viewed as positive growth and is anchored by our facility.
HOW MANY SHOWS/EVENTS (PRESENTING, PRODUCING OR AS RENTALS) DOES YOUR PAC PROGRAM ANNUALLY
Upwards of 900 per year (combined total of Aronoff Center and Music Hall), including more than one dozen resident companies (Broadway, Symphony/Pops, Opera, Ballet, May Festival, etc.). Total includes meetings, graduations, weddings, and other miscellaneous events.
PLEASE LIST YOUR STAFF POSITIONS
- Van Ackerman, Director of Marketing/PR
- Curtis Trefz, Graphic Design / Marketing Manager
- Max Larson, Digital Marketing Manager
THE KENTUCKY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
TICKETING SYSTEM: Tessitura
KEY COMMENTS and INSIGHTS
BROADWAY SERIES
This is a PNC Broadway Across America market.
2015/16 Season:
Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella – Sep 15-20, 2015
Dirty Dancing – Oct 13-18, 2015
Wicked – Nov 18-Dec 6, 2015
Disney’s Beauty & The Beast – Jan 19-24, 2016
Cabaret – Mar 8-13, 2016
Motown The Musical – Apr 12-17, 2016
The Phantom of the Opera – Jun 1-12, 2016
2016/17 Season:
Rodgers + Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music – Jan 17-22, 2016
Disney’s The Little Mermaid – Feb 14-19, 2016
The Illusionists – Live From Broadway – Mar 14-19, 2016
Beautiful – The Carol King Musical – May 16-21, 2016
Kinky Boots – June 13-18, 2016
The Book of Mormon – Nov 29-Dec 24, 2016
Riverdance – Apr 10-12, 2017
OTHER SERIES
Kentucky Center Presents – range of programming spanning all genres.
SUBSCRIPTIONS—General Commentary
BAA Manages.
SINGLE TICKETS
- Fine Arts/Classical/Dance & Commentary:
- Pop Concerts & Commentary:
- Family Shows Sales & Commentary:
- Other Categories/Genres Sales & Commentary:
Broadway: 155,458 ($10,555,191)
E-MARKETING / WEB/ MOBILE / SOCIAL MEDIA INSIGHTS & COMMENTARY
E-Mail Marketing – Transitioning to WordFly for FY2017. Looking for improved functionality, mobile-optimized templates, better reporting/analytics, greater ease of use, and live user support at best price.
Digital Advertising – Partnering with MogoARTS Marketing on in-house presenting series and institutional digital marketing campaigns.
DIRECT MAIL STRATEGY AND RESULTS
We moved away from using direct mail specifically to market our own “KC Presents” shows in FY15 and YTD FY16, focusing on an institutional quarterly direct mail campaign.
Did not include track-able promotion codes, was distributed to build awareness re: diverse nature of programming at The Center.
Developing partnership with The Speed Museum to leverage combined equity and co-market to arts lovers in the region.
BIGGEST RECENT SNAFU
There was a rough start to the season. The biggest SNAFUs were related to ticket sales for great artists like Pat Benatar and Stephen Stills and “hot” properties like American Idol Live and America’s Got Talent. The economic environment coupled with audience malaise and a glut of live entertainment produced the negative condition. Our season was salvaged with surprise hits such as The Amazing Tour is Not On Fire and two shows of Impractical Jokers, among other later season offerings.
BEST ACCOMPLISHMENT
The Kentucky Center won the Republic Bank Foundation Arts Impact Award recognizing individuals and organizations which have demonstrated a significant impact in the Louisville community through the arts.
YEAR ENDING FINANCIAL STATUS
N/A
ORGANIZATIONAL NEWS AND/OR UPDATES
Conducted a brand benchmark study to determine patron perceptions of ongoing re-branding initiatives and address potential gaps.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Thunder at The Center. The Center opens its doors to 1,500 patrons for the annual kick off to the Kentucky Derby Festival which features a day long air show and world class fireworks demonstration.
The Kentucky Center, a national leader in arts and accessibility, hosted its inaugural Cultural Accessibility Summit honoring the Americans with Disabilities Act’s silver anniversary. Discussion topics included practical tips for arts inclusion, and strategies for local, regional and national advocacy for the arts. Keynote address given by Betty Siegel, Director of VSA and Accessibility at the John F. Kennedy Center.
PROMOTIONS OF NOTE (GREAT SUCCESSES OR DISMAL FAILURES)
We developed localized press kits for Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage which included miniature versions of the show’s iconic vehicle, the Starship Enterprise. These were distributed to local newsrooms and resulted in higher than usual advanced press and cameras on site during the show. Newsrooms love their toys!
The One Man Star Wars street team had presence at local Comic Con.
Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood preshow activity for children included KY Center coloring sheets featuring Center art and building sketches.
PLEASE LIST YOUR STAFF POSITIONS
Rob Thomas, Sr. Director of Brand Marketing and Communications
Curtis Schneider, Director, Ticket Services
Christian Adelberg, Sr. Marketing Manager
Chris Long, Digital Marketing Manager
Chip Hunt, Sr. Web Developer
Robbyn McClain, Creative Lead and Graphics Brand Manager
Sarah Passafiume, Associate Marketing Manager/Graphic Designer
Alix Mattingly, Media Producer and Content Manager
MISCELLANEOUS COMMENTARY, RAMBLINGS OR MUSINGS
To be discussed.