In Friday’s (6/15) Denver Business Journal (subscription required), Ed Sealover writes, “As the Colorado Tourism Office and advertising partner Karsh Hagan discussed a potential soundtrack to drive their new, high-minded marketing campaign, they hit upon a unique idea: Ask the Colorado Symphony Orchestra to create a new score for the ads. That resulted in a business model that could generate considerable revenue for both entities. Symphony officials hope to use the publicity-generating campaign to publicize that they are open to doing more commercial compositions, and the tourism office has generated more than twice the amount of early interest in visiting the state as it did with its last campaign. … Gene Sobczak, who took over as CEO of the financially floundering symphony at the end of 2011, was looking for new revenue opportunities, and was preparing a 2013 production of a symphony about Colorado written by Charles Denler, a Highlands Ranch composer. Then the tourism office came calling. On a Sunday afternoon in early January, 70 symphony musicians, 100 members of the Colorado Symphony Chorus and tourism leaders gathered to take one movement from Denler’s symphony and tweak it into bits for 15-, 30- and 60-second ads. The session cost $25,000, part of the roughly $300,000 the state has invested in the overall marketing campaign.”
Posted June 15, 2012
