Following the Canadian Orchestra Website Review, Calgary Philharmonic Bassist (and TAFTO 2008 contributor), Matt Heller, posted an article at his blog the other week which questioned the value of posting contact information for musicians. Based on the parameters Matt approached the topic I would agree with his conclusions, especially with regard to obligating musicians to provide personal information. I’m glad Matt posted his article as it sums up the frustrations I hear from orchestra managers working on a project that requires requesting information from musicians for the organizational website…
Marketing
You Say Tomato…
Yesterday, I received two orchestra press releases, both of which referred to their music director in the subheading as a "beloved" figure. "Beloved," really? The use of this particular adjective in the context of each PR (announcing the respective orchestra’s upcoming regional tour) projected an entirely self-serving image. Granted, writing creative PR copy can become a bit monotonous but marketing professionals need to be on guard against allowing such grandiose language to creep into their print material. As a tool to combat this problem, here’s a creative, team-oriented way to make the copy writing process more efficient…
A Marketing Professional’s Dream
The story is a shorter, modern day real-life Red Violin: a confirmed Stradivarius more or less fades from public attention for 40 years only to resurface in a bank vault practically across the street from a major symphony orchestra. This is precisely the case with the Lipinski Stradivarius violin and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO) concertmaster, Frank Almond…
Raisin Brahms
In case you haven’t seen it already, there’s a terrifically funny commercial from the Americans for the Arts created by the Leo Burnett agency. Although I don’t think the ad will have much impact on the general cultural consciousness but there’s no escaping the fact that this is one clever and creative spot. By pure chance I sat next to a creative agent from Leo Burnett on one of the longer …
Do Preview Clips Sell Tickets?
I had a fascinating conversation yesterday with someone in the business about whether or not preview audio clips have any impact on selling concert tickets. Conventional wisdom would dictate that giving people a sample of something before they buy is usually a good thing and clips via an orchestra’s website has any measurable impact on ticket sales one way or another.