Plugging the Holes before Filling the Barrel (2009) – BOGO

Last year I published 5 posts under the Plugging the Holes category dealing with subscriber retention and audience recruitment utilizing the best advocates of all ….our subscribers and our orchestra!  Two articles that I read this week have spurred me to continue the category…..

The  Plugging the Holes series focused on fiscally responsible ways to not just increase audiences but to firstly  stop a mass hemorrhaging  of subscribers.  Two of the ideas were subsequently featured in the League’s Innovations Forum.

There is always that thrill of the chase for the new blood and marketing departments will spend ridiculous sums on cheezy and lame promotions to lure new people (that never work), when the best marketing innovators are actually sitting in the audience and on the stage.  This was highlighted by Holly Mulcahy over at Neoclassical this week and not pointed out in an article about orchestras and the need for a new business model by Peter Dobrin at the Philly Enquirer.  Peter essentially believes that cutting large salaries is the answer,  just like if you put an Ford Taurus engine into a Ferrari…I mean it still looks the same so who’s going to notice…except all those Kias passing it on the interstate!  Forget dealing with the demand side of music, relevance, new technology, community engagement etc….NO it’s just the salaries!  Please can we get serious about this!

Holly put into clear terms that there is a great need for direct contact between the stage and the audience, (basically what my Audience Connection class is all about) through musicians helping to sell tickets.  Empty seats are not fun to look at, but they do represent an opportunity.  Giving away wads of comps though is akin to filling a sieve i.e it will only be full for a short time.  There has to be a developed approach to giving away tickets, one that involves a possibility of a return visit and some buy in.  I would think a great incentive for musicians to get involved would be a full house, a healthier orchestra and better pay.  Enter the BOGO….

At the start of my first season in Springfield we printed up ticket vouchers that were Buy One Get One Free (BOGO) for any concert.  At a rehearsal I distributed them amongst the musicians and asked them to hand them out to family, friends, neighbors, businesses they frequented etc…and as many as they wanted.  A free ticket with a BOGO is the result of a transaction and commitment,  so those making that commitment are more likely to be repeat buyers because there is real value in a cost saving, and very little value in free (I am focusing on the regular concert here not important free concerts as part of  community outreach).  Those receiving the vouchers were getting them from the musicians they knew, so because of that personal connection a significant percentage of people used them.  By attending they would see the person who gave them the ticket on the stage, and that is a powerful connection.  We also had board members, staff and even some subscribers distribute them in the same way.

Fast forward 5 years to now and we don’t do this program anymore, not because it didn’t work, but because it did work!

1 thought on “Plugging the Holes before Filling the Barrel (2009) – BOGO”

  1. I became a regular concert goer and a strong believer in purchasing season tickets because of a technique like you are discussing: In the middle 60’s the St Louis symphony played in a huge hall (Kiel Auditorium) and, to fill the seats, offered terrific price breaks to students if they would buy a season ticket.

    I was a grad student at Washington U at the time, and seem to recall the price was less than a dollar a seat per concert. My seats were in the side orchestra and were excellent. They also set up a bus to go to the concerts from the campus for a dollar per concert. Because of that commitment of money (!), I went to almost all the concerts and heard a LOT of music I never (under any circumstances) would have elected to hear! Including Berio, Henze, Elliot Carter, Ligyeti and others. And I liked some of it too. (The conductor was Eleazar de Carvalho.) I also got to hear Itzak Perlman and Mstislav Rostropovich. It was really a fabulous two years for me. I have been in Dallas for 30 years and still am a season-ticket guy and still enjoy hearing new music (at least once!).

    Bill in Dallas

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