Institutional Alignment

A tidal wave of generational leadership change is swelling. New executive directors want marketing to harness business intelligence to drive decision-making.

New artistic directors want marketing to bring in first-time, often nontraditional audiences. Good. Any arts organization that intends to be relevant needs to be helmed by leaders intent on genuinely understanding and serving their communities. Marketing is key. Not just keepers of the gate—website, social media, email, frontline sales and service—but keepers of the data. It’s marketing teams that connect companies to communities and inspire big ideas. Sweibel Arts provides customized frameworks for critical institutional alignment.

Sweibel Arts, in association with WolfBrown, is currently creating a programming-driven audience initiative for the Madison Symphony Orchestra. This project is designed to align the MSO’s programming with its goals for expanding its audience of first-timers in the Symphony’s growing market. We start by optimizing all of MSO’s top-of-funnel marketing. Then we’re developing a prioritized list of concert programs, formats to pilot-test, and the marketing programs to launch them. We conclude by analyzing performance and sales to better understand how to implement these models at other organizations.

New York Philharmonic at the McKnight Center for the Performing Arts at Oklahoma State University