Unique ticket offers
Here's what one orchestra is doing to put more bodies in seats. According to MusicalAmerica.com, the St. Louis Symphony has a deal where anyone who buys a ticket to a concert and attends may turn in their ticket stub to come again on another night.
Music director David Robertson points out that performances of the same repertoire on different nights can be slightly different, something that I've noticed here with Paavo Jarvi.
Do you think that idea could work in Cincy?
Here's another great idea I heard at Chamber Music Cincinnati last night. Any ticket for their series may be exchanged for a ticket to the Cincinnati Ballet, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, CSO Chamber Players, Linton Series ... and vice versa. Now that is marketing genius, finally!!
posted by Janelle Gelfand at 10:41 PM
13 Comments:
at 10/25/2007 02:10:00 AM 
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at 10/25/2007 11:07:00 AM 
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at 10/26/2007 09:37:00 AM 
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at 10/29/2007 10:48:00 AM 
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Post a Comment*Thoughts on St Louis giving free admission on a used ticket stub:: what is the advantage of having the same person coming to the SAME concert twice? Would it not be a waste of effort & why not give the stub to a new person who had never purchased a ticket before, this would be an introduction to a new world for him/her. That is the answer: opening the door to a NEW music lover, with a used stub or a discounted ticket.
Unless the evening has a spectacular soloist, how many could sit through the same concert twice?
St Louis must be in bigger trouble than CSO.
eM=M
St Louis is in worse shape---down sized season and orchestra as well.(Cso has been downsized as well)Although they remain an orchestra with at least the prestige as the CSO. Regarding the see it a second nite idea...sounds like a nice added feature or gift for a regular concert goer/symphony supporter.
Both ideas sound great to me.
Are you kidding me? What in the world could be the benefit of having someone buy one ticket and be able to come twice? If the CSO is in such dire straights that this in some way would be productive for them, they are in worse shape than I thought. I can't think of any other venue that would let this happen...playhouse? Opera? Broadway across America? I don't think so....
Slightly different? A lot more than slightly, in my experience. Paavo takes lots of chances and no two performances are ever the same. It keeps the performers on their toes and makes it as much fun for us as it is for the audience. (from a May Festival Chorus member).
It often takes a non-musician some time to become a real listener of classical music. A ticket for a second performance might reveal sentiments not found in the first. Another way to gradually build an audience. Better to do this than to play before a lot of empty seats.
Mike,
Again, I have to say....Are you kidding me? This could be said about any art form...you see it again you catch things you did not tune into in upon the first experience of the event....Theatre, Poetry, Ballet, Art.... I have to say it does nothing for the CSO's rep to use the tickets as an all you can eat buffet.... If you do not put value on the tickets, it will be very hard to ever make them worth anything to the patron. You cultivate the patron to always expect crazy offers, free tickets or, come as many times as you want to the concert because you are not a REAL listener of classical music and you might miss sentiments the first time around discount, and they will never buy a full price ticket let alone become a subscriber. The bottom line is that this idea is not fiscally responsible at all...and this is not the way you cultivate and build an audience.
I agree with the previous poster about not valuing the tickets. This is a problem. The key is to give with one hand while taking away with the other. As soon as you give things away like this, people expect it all the time. I have several times noticed that as soon as I give away tickets to someone, they are less likely to pay for tickets in the future. I have seen it do the exact opposite of building an audience. While it is great to fill the seats, there must be some other way...
With public school music programs being cut back more and more, and parents working two or three jobs just to make ends meet which eliminates the possibility of music lessons for the young, have it your way and play before the empty seats!
I agree with several of the previous posters that giving away tickets can have the potential of devaluing the product to the point that it has been diminished to the lowest common denominator. With that point considered, you have to ask yourself what can be done to perhaps using some type of ticket promotions or premiums without sliding down a slippery slope and creatng a welfare/entitlement mindset of potential customers & patrons. Increase interest in symphonic music without diminishing it and the customers will follow.
The situation that exists presently is too many empty seats, too high tickets prices,not enough customers & repeat customers.
So how do we take a negative of too many empty sets/too many unsold tickets and turn it into a positive for a hall that will start to fill up. In the military they start with the basic military unit and look for force multipliers-air support, helicopters with troop movement capability,armour, heavy weaponry, etc-to provide an advantage over the objective. Metaphoricly speaking that is what needs to be done here.
How do we take a finite number of empty seats and multiply the capabilities that they offer? This can be done any variety of ways-identify sections of the hall that will have very low priced tickets permanently (which has been suggested), heavily discounted tickets 45 minutes before the concert (brings the last minute "let's do something different" people out not to mention the social aspect of chating with people in line who have the same interests), discount combos for buying pairs of tickets, vouchers that can be used as a rebate for couples who hired babysitters, convert the Corbet Tower to provide day care services while the parents are at the concert or any number of things that have already been suggested and most importantly not thought of yet.
In summary the empty seats do not have to be a negative, but they can provide something that can be built from with some imagination. It's just a question of identifying and implementing those "force multipliers" and success will follow.
Steve Deiters/Oakley
If you can't fill the seats in your venue. There are two reasons why.....
1.) Ticket prices are to high in selected areas or depending on house ratio of tickets sold at full price, your prices across the boards are to high.
2.) Your target audience and your established audience are not viewing your product as a "must see"...this equates to unrenewed subs, less single ticket buyers, and less new patrons coming to your events.
While their are many variables that contribute to these two factors the bottom line can be found in these two points any way you spin it.
A little reality into the idea of romper room at music hall....
The insurance costs alone would kill this one before we even get into the fact that you need to have many certifications in place to legally operate something like this.
Cincinnati already has the most progressive ticket distribution program in the country in Enjoy the Arts. ETA has been held up as a model by Americans for the Arts and the National Arts Marketing Project, because it's a whole marketing system, not just a ticket giveaway.
For $25, a full-time student gets $500 worth of free tickets and is entitled to $12 (or $10) tickets throughout the year. These discounts are always good for themselves and a guest.
That's just the student version. There is a program for everyone. Check it out at http://www.etastart.com.
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