I write regularly on my website hannahgrannemann.com and also on LinkedIn. Find me there, too, and thanks for reading Row X! What happens when opera tickets suddenly drop in price? Spoiler alert: we know exactly what will happen. Opera Philadelphia offered $11 ticket initiative from the 2024-25 season, where they're offering pay-what-you-can tickets, starting at $11. The result? Ticket sales surged by more than 25% compared to previous seasons. The diversity of the audience … [Read more...] about Opera Philadelphia, $11 tickets, and a predictable outcome
Kennedy Center audiences vote with their feet. What happens next?
Boycotting is alive and well as a protest tactic. Based on ticket sales figures leaked to The Washington Post, Kennedy Center audiences are voting with their feet and staying away. Sales appear to be cratering. Here's the damage: The Center’s constituent arts organizations are suffering as well, with the National Symphony Orchestra’s subscriptions down 28% and the Washington National Opera down 25%. It’s just two weeks into the subscription campaign, but the staffer who provided the … [Read more...] about Kennedy Center audiences vote with their feet. What happens next?
A Christmas Carol as an Arts Marketing Parable
The marketing plan was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. You're the marketing director of a theater. It was your plan, but you knew it was dead. It's a Wednesday afternoon and the mid-week matinee happening in the theater two floors down was half-full. You can hear over the monitors the actors trying desperately to get the audience to laugh, but it just wasn’t working. You check the sales dashboard in your CRM and the social media accounts. Your Instagram post … [Read more...] about A Christmas Carol as an Arts Marketing Parable
Row X Wrapped
Everyone's seeing their end of year summaries of their year in music listening on their Spotify Wrapped or Apple Music Replays this week. It's a fun feature that these companies do each year, a great engagement point for those companies and their customers. I've also seen some arts organizations building on the trend with their own Wrapped features, like Blumenthal Arts in Charlotte, NC, that highlighted the highest attended shows, and the top selling drink from their concessions stands (the … [Read more...] about Row X Wrapped
It’s all about the Vibes: Lessons from the election for arts marketers
What can we learn about arts marketing from how people consume information about elections? Here are three observations: The 2024 Presidential election has been called the “vibes election”. Believe me, I wish people didn't just vote based on vibes and everyone spent serious time looking at high quality, factual information to inform their vote. But looking at the reality of how some people consume information, let's see what we in the arts can do to get more people in to experience art so … [Read more...] about It’s all about the Vibes: Lessons from the election for arts marketers