I was going to post this yesterday, but in a moment of total paranoia decided not to put forth any semblance of a gesture of support for McCain/Palin. But now that it’s safe, an advertising suggestion for the Philadelphia Orchestra, from Wonkette:
As Wonkette writes re: McCain/Palin, “‘Oh, that’s right, my favorite baseball team won
the big game, and this gave me pleasure,’ the average voter will say
upon encountering this placard. ‘I will now vote for these two nuts
whose names are on the sign next to that of my favorite baseball team.'”
I don’t think, however, it would have been a mistake for the Philadelphia Orchestra (Opera Company of Philadelphia, et al) to ride the Phillies’ coattails a bit. Run a “The Philadelphia Orchestra congratulates the 2008 World Champion Phillies” ad campaign, and come up with a funny discount ticket offer (bring your Phillies ticket stubs to the box office?). Maybe put together a special concert to celebrate. COLLECT THE E MAIL ADDRESSES of the folks that come. And if you can’t pull together a congratulations concert (understandable), videotape the Philadelphia Orchestra playing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and post it on YouTube, tagged with “Phillies, World Series, 2008, Orchestra, Philadelphia, Ballgame, Song” etc..
Phillies fans are energized and filled with home-city pride; why don’t the local arts organizations figure out a way to tap into that?
As a life long Phillies fan and liberal, I’ll try to keep from ranting about seeing about seeing the McCain/Palin logo plastered on a Phillies sign, and just point out that David Plouffe, Barack Obama’s campaign manager, is a devout Phillies fan.
I had the pleasure of attending the Phillies victory parade with 2 million of my closest friends, and I’m pleased to report that the Academy of Music had a banner congratulating the Phillies hanging out front.
I also noticed noticed that the Philadelphia Orchestra was offering $10 walk-up tickets to anyone wearing an item of Phillies clothing and I read a story about a soloist at the PA Ballet taking his bow while wearing a Phillies cap.
It’s always nice to see my two loves, sports and performing arts, coming together.
When the White Sox were in the World Series, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and The Art Institute both put up banners on their buildings.
But most memorable was when the Bears made it to the Superbowl. The Art Institute’s lions were wearing Bears helmets and the CSO gave out a free download of “Bear Down Chicago Bears”
http://www.cso.org/main.taf?p=11,27
I’m going to be a negative nancy here, possibly because the Red Sox didn’t make it…So yours ideas are beautiful in theory, but the logistics and reality of getting 90+ musicians to do anything along these lines can be a nightmare, especially in the middle of a season. I am positive that PhilOrch’s administration has been thinking of all of these things and more, but maybe the cost/benefit doesn’t work in their favor? A good PR stunt and even better community relations project, to be sure, but would the effects be measured in a few column inches, or over time? Good institutional PR, but my suspicion is that, like other orchestras, Philly needs to be devoting its energy to filling its seats and its coffers; I’m not convinced that a warm-fuzzy would do that. I guess my point is just that any of these ideas take serious resources (financial and human), things that most nonprofit arts orgs have in extremely short supply these days.
A question though: Did the city or the baseball team think to invite their hometown orchestra to take part in any celebration? It works both ways: just as PhilOrch should plug itself into the community, its civic leaders need to find creative ways to involve cultural orgs in the broader community.
As former General Director of Orlando Opera, I used to get a lot of mileage out of our association with the Orlando Magic. We would perform at their half times, and did do the 1/2 half ticket promo with a Magic ticket stub at the opera. This did put more butts in seats, and generated a lot of good will and AWARENESS in the community. Check out this Traviata/I Like Big Butts YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEodr4jMNSQ
We also featured the Magic Dancers in a couple of Orlando Opera productions, (Carmina Burana and Salome) which also was a wonderful cross promotion.
That is good stuff! Orlando Opera gets the gold star for the day. I wouldn’t have said no to the Knicks City Dancers in the second act of Doctor Atomic. Kidding, kidding… -AA
At my old stomping grounds, Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, PR Manager Katherine Armstrong had started a Red Sox promo — wear gear, get $2 off admission — that we tried to breathe extra life into every season. Last year, I dreamed up a visitor photo contest that got few real entries but a good bit of media interest. (And one amazing likeness of Isabella herself.)
The key for us with all of this was that it had to be free. Sure, the local dailies approached us to advertise in their special Red Sox sections, knowing about the promotion, but there was no way we were dropping $20k to support an idea that, in all honesty, was cute and catchy but had very little traction in terms of bringing in new visitors or new dollars. As Micaela alludes to, we found it to be the case that the benefit was very, very small, so though we spent a couple minutes getting creative every post-season, we never invested much in terms of resources. That, I think, made it a sustainable and worthwhile little pursuit.