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Volume Two
Issue Five
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Welcome to the May Monthly Update. In this issue Kathleen Drohan, Marketing Director for the Brooklyn Philharmonic, discusses marketing the 50th anniversary year of the orchestra on a marketing budget cut recently by 85%! Read on to find out how she is making things work...
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Client Feature: Kathleen Drohan and the Brooklyn Philharmonic
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Two years ago, Kathleen Drohan returned to the arts world to become the Marketing Director for the Brooklyn Philharmonic.
After a colorful career that has included promoting pop bands like NSYNC, writing and researching for the television program "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego" and marketing a travel web site, Kathleen is now in the process of redefining the Brooklyn Philharmonic's marketing strategy just in time for the orchestra's 50th year.
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Q & A with Kathleen Drohan
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TELL US A BIT ABOUT THE BROOKLYN PHILHARMONIC AND YOUR ROLE WITHIN THE ORCHESTRA'S ADMINISTRATION.
The Brooklyn Philharmonic is a NYC-based freelance orchestra and the only professional orchestra in Brooklyn (although one of many in the greater NY area). The BP is renowned for its innovative concert programming and has won 22 ASCAP Awards for Adventuresome Programming. The group does a subscription series of five concerts at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and performs an extensive series of educational and community concerts throughout Brooklyn. These concerts are particularly exciting to me. Through these, we are able to bring the BP's music to more then 75,000 Brooklynites a year, many of whom would never have previously considered going to a classical music event.
I am in charge of all marketing and communication for the Brooklyn Philharmonic. Therefore, I am responsible for all subscription and single ticket sales, all communication with the public, our arts colleagues and the press. I have also taken on a major branding campaign with the group.
WHAT KINDS OF CHALLENGES DO YOU FACE MARKETING THE BROOKLYN PHILHARMONIC?
A few come to mind. When I arrived at the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the orchestra was on the eve of its 50th anniversary celebration. There had been several marketing directors over the years, some of them part time, and while each had tried to build on the "brand image" he or she had inherited, they did not embark on an overall image campaign. Rather, that was held for the 50th anniversary. So that became one of my first tasks with the group -- to take the images of the organization and to create an overall look and feel that was consistent throughout the organization.
Another challenge comes from the fact that the BP serves two audiences -- the very sophisticated arts public in NYC and the greater Brooklyn population. Certainly, these audiences overlap, but as a marketer I need to create messages and materials that speak to the needs of both groups.
Finally, and all my marketing colleagues will understand this, there have been significant budget cuts in the marketing (and all other) departments. My current budget is 85% lower then that of the previous marketing director. This has necessitated careful analysis of every marketing effort to make sure we are getting the most efficient use out of every penny we spend. Through making strategic decisions we dropped the marketing cost per ticket sold from approximately 56 cents spent per dollar taken in 2001 to about 10 cents in 2003 for the subscription campaign. The single ticket campaign has been even more effective.
SO HOW DID YOU DO IT?
We looked into marketing to targeted groups by analyzing every concert and looking at who, beyond our typical audience, may be interested in the concert. We then target our marketing to those groups and have been able to significantly stretch the dollars we spend. We have also partnered with groups, such as alumni institutions, community and religious groups and corporate groups and have been able to leverage their internal communications to reach their memberships.
We made the decision to focus our marketing budget on these targets rather then a 'one size fits all' ad campaign and it has made a tremendous difference in ticket sales.
AND HOW HAS E-MAIL HELPED WITH THIS EFFORT AND MARKETING THE BP IN GENERAL?
We couldn't have the successes we're having without our e-mail campaigns. We are able to reach our subscriber lists often to promote all BP events. We would never have been able to afford this kind of communication offline. With only five subscription concerts, we have very few opportunities to let our audience know what we are doing. Through PatronMail we have implemented monthly e-mails to our patrons to promote upcoming events, solicit donations and let them know about interesting developments at the BP.
Also, our community concerts never had a marketing budget to speak of. We would get a small local audience to attend, but could afford to do little more then send a press release to publicize the events. We are able to let our most targeted audience members know about all our events.
E-mail has also allowed us to enforce the BP brand look and message that we have been trying to build over the past two seasons. With the e-mails we send, our message is reinforced even when patrons aren't attending our concert.
In short, e-mail has been crucial in helping me take a budget that was 85% decreased and make it almost 500% more effective the previous budget.
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Visit the Brooklyn Philharmonic's Web site
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Back by Popular Demand! It's "Making Culture Count 2.0"!
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The last National Arts Marketing Conference's most popular session was the closing plenary featuring new data on arts audience behavior presented by The New Yorker magazine and LaPlaca Cohen.
This year's conference will feature brand new and updated information from their just-completed second study. See more conference happenings and register online at www.ArtsMarketingConference.org. Click below...
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Visit the Arts Marketing Conference Web site
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Learn about PatronMail -- Request a Demonstration
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If you're thinking about joining the nearly 200 arts clients that use PatronMail -- give us 15 minutes and we'll allow you to "test-drive" a PatonMail account. During the demonstration, we'll talk about how the regulations of the anti-spam law are built into PatronMail.
The 20-minute demonstration can be scheduled at your convenience.
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Click here to request a demonstration
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Please watch for our next Monthly Update, coming June 23, 2004.
Our mailing address is: 850 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10019
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