In Tuesday’s (1/31) Winston-Salem Journal (North Carolina), Ken Keuffel writes, “The Winston-Salem Symphony has overcome years of disappointing results at the box office with a new marketing approach that has increased sales of ‘subscriptions’ or season-ticket packages by more than 50 percent over last year’s totals. ‘We not only stopped the bleeding, we’re starting to grow,’ said Sheila Virgil, the symphony’s vice president of patron and institutional advancement. After watching sales of subscriptions drop each concert season since September 2008, the symphony saw a dramatic uptick in the 2011-12 season. It now has 2,327 subscribers, a 51.6 percent increase over last season’s total, and there have been gains in every series, from ‘Classics’ to ‘Plugged-In Pops.’ Virgil credited the turnaround with an unrelenting, multi-pronged sales and public-relations strategy in line with the recommendations of Christopher Stager, a New York-based consultant hired last year. The Winston-Salem Symphony has begun direct-mail marketing to put various subscription offerings in front of potential buyers every six to eight weeks. … In the past, the symphony announced a season and sent out a brochure once a year. … Merritt Vale, the symphony’s president and chief executive officer, likened the symphony’s quest for more subscriptions to that of magazines, which not only market subscriptions all year but also create a sense of urgency to buy one.”
Posted January 31, 2012
