Quick Facts:

Arts Place began the Orchestra Consortium as a technical assistance project funded by the George and Frances Ball Foundation and the Indiana Arts Commission.

Participants:
Anderson Symphony
Marion Philharmonic
Muncie Symphony
Richmond Symphony

Nationwide, only 4% of the adult population attends orchestra concerts regularly.

East Central Indiana is host to four orchestras: Muncie Symphony Orchestra, Marion Philharmonic Orchestra, Richmond Symphony Orchestra, and Anderson Symphony Orchestra. Together they make up the Region Five Orchestra Consortium, a project started by Arts Place in 2004.

The Region Five Orchestra Consortium was formed after Arts Place staff initiated discussions with representatives from each of the four orchestras and found that they all had similar needs but not enough resources individually. Collaboration among the groups could potentially increase continuity within the organizations, provide a greater support network, and allow the groups greater resources. The Consortium took form after Arts Place received funding from the George and Frances Ball Foundation to enhance technical assistance services. The grant complements technical assistance that Arts Place provides as a part of its role as an Indiana Arts Commission Regional Arts Partner.

Former Star Press Editor Emmett Smelser has been involved in the project since the beginning. Smelser hosted the first Orchestra Collaboration meeting, and has been supportive of the project both financially and through the expense of his time and energy. Recently, Mr. Smelser developed marketing plans for each of the four orchestras. The marketing studies were funded in part by a grant from the Gannett Foundation.

Here’s what Emmett Smelser writes about the marketing project:

GENESIS
“The project was born out of the expressed need by members of the orchestra consortium for assistance in marketing them to their communities.”

Smelser had been involved in founding of the consortium, and was planning to retire from a newspaper career in July. He proposed to Eric Rogers that Arts Place be the fiscal agent for a joint project to construct marketing plans for the four orchestras. “While the respective orchestras were charged a fee, their costs were underwritten by donations.”

“Although not a marketing or music professional,” writes Smelser, he had a “38-year career as a newspaper editor and publisher.” He continues, “serving on symphony boards in Richmond and Muncie, plus working with the folks in Marion, had given me some insights into what the orchestras needed to position themselves with their communities. And, I was familiar with the tools necessary to construct a marketing plan for each orchestra.”

As a retirement project, his oldest son, a newspaper advertising director, and Smelser had formed Dove Mountain Media (named after the location of his second home in Arizona). The new consulting company provides marketing and media relations services to nonprofits. Dove Mountain Media then launched the orchestra marketing project.

METHOD
“Initial research was conducted through the American Symphony Orchestra League to establish characteristics of symphony audiences and identify audience growth strategies that have worked in other locales around the country. The ASOL also provided comparative data on marketing budgets among orchestras of similar size.

“Then, using available census and industry demographic data, including propensity of residents to listen to classical music and attend live performances, a profile was compiled of each community. This baseline information about the relative receptivity of the home communities established an understanding of the nature of the challenge each orchestra faces in sustaining and growing its audience.

“Similar but less detailed profiles were established for surrounding counties to determine whether there were more ‘symphony-friendly’ demographics to warrant an aggressive outreach beyond the home counties.

FINDINGS
“Nationwide surveys have identified typical symphony-goers as having higher levels of education, higher incomes and careers in education or business and industry middle to upper level executives. Each community in Eastern Indiana has in common the economic challenges of declining populations and decline of industry, including erosion of middle and upper management. Each community also has lower household incomes, higher poverty levels and lower educational attainment than state averages.

“Yet, each community also has unique assets and many dedicated advocates that have helped the resident orchestras survive and thrive and that provide a base on which to build. Nationwide surveys have revealed that only 4% of the adult population will attend orchestra concerts regularly. And even after adjusting those statistics to each community's interest level in classical music, each of the eastern Indiana orchestras has a huge untapped pool of potential customers.

“Overall, four major strategies were identified that applied in varying degrees to each orchestra:

“Database marketing: There is a general paucity of information about existing audience members as well as the home community. Additional information should be acquired about existing audience members to identify "look-alikes" in the home communities -- education levels, common employment and residential patterns -- and then construct databases that will allow narrow-casting of messages to high-potential audience prospects. This requires outreach methods such as direct mail, door-to-door solicitation, neighborhood coffees and personal invitations.

“Geographic outreach: Each orchestra has one or more surrounding counties that bear promise for audience development at least as great as the home county. Mass media marketing, especially for holiday and family concerts, plus taking music into these counties via school programs and runout concerts, can help broaden the exposure to areas most likely to generate at least occasional attendance.

“Capitalizing on social context: Surveys have shown that many people attend concerts because they were influenced by, or invited by, family and friends. It is a social outing as well as about appreciation of the music and supporting a worthy cultural asset. Successful orchestras capitalize on this social context by constructing events around special occasions (birthday and anniversary outings), and creating an "evening out" atmosphere in partnership with churches, service groups, alumni organizations, restaurants, country clubs, etc.

“Attendance incentives: Latest research shows that those most likely to become audience members have an aversion to purchasing season tickets. People's busy lifestyles and diverse entertainment tastes require individual event decisions. In addition, as many as 40% of concert-goers attend on tickets that they did not purchase themselves. These often are provided as perks by employers, to music students, or sponsorship of groups of people who would not otherwise be able to attend. Especially when concert halls have excess capacity, providing means to sponsor tickets, or even to give them free to select groups, including newcomers, can broaden exposure to the orchestra among those most likely to become paying customers.”

Mr. Smelser has provided marketing recommendations to each orchestra based on the organization’s unique situations. Arts Place is working with the Region Five Orchestra Consortium to implement those components that can be further achieved through collaboration. One of the first steps that the group hopes to accomplish is the purchase of shared mapping and demographic software.

Back to the complete list of monthly Regional Newsletters