Seminar

Challenging our Audience Development Model

Where: Barbican Centre, London

When: 09 May 2008

Times: 2 - 5pm

An ABO/Orchestras Live seminar with arts marketing professional Doug Kinzey.

It has been a fundamental industry belief that artistic excellence and marketing defined as promotions can both build and sustain audiences. During the last two decades, however, these beliefs have been severely challenged with countless examples of the greatest investment in artistic excellence being accompanied by the greatest decline in audiences. These observations do not imply that artistic excellence isn't important. But the implications are substantial regarding audience development and our traditional beliefs.

In addition, most performing arts organizations have not really asked the question, "What is our economic model?" Whatever the answer, results suggest the need for a new economic model.

In the last four years, three performing arts organizations in three very different markets with budgets ranging from very large to rather small, have sustained incredible growth in their committed audiences. These three organizations have similar strategies worthy of consideration.

Douglas W. Kinzey served as the Director of Marketing for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra from 1981‑1998 and The Louisville Orchestra from 1977‑1981. The Louisville Orchestra was sold-out the last two seasons of Doug’s tenure and the Dallas Symphony achieved an increase in season subscrip­tions from 5,100 to over 31,000 with nine consecutive seasons at total capacity.

Kinzey founded Audience Strategies for the Arts, Inc. in January 1998 providing a variety of marketing and strategic planning services for the performing arts traveling five days a week more than 46 weeks each year since in the US, Canada, Europe and the Far East.

In September 2004, Doug was named Senior Director of Audience Development for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra following seven months of consulting with the PSO. In 2004 - 2005, new classical subscriptions at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra increased 60% compared to the previous season and new pops subscriptions increased 120%.  The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is now the only top-ten American Orchestra to sustain 4 consecutive seasons of a growing subscription audience for both classical and pops series.  With the Pittsburgh assignment, Doug remains President of Audience Strategies for the Arts, Inc., the Dallas based consulting firm, continues as Senior Marketing Advisor for the Piano Symphony Orchestra with subscriptions up 95% in four seasons and the 2007 – 2008 season totally sold out, and additional projects in Ottawa with the National Arts Centre of Canada, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Wheeling Symphony, Handel and Haydn Society of Boston and others. Doug is a regular speaker for national conferences and regional workshops and gave the keynote address at the 2007 National Arts Marketing Conference in San Francisco.