Churn Revisited concerts and say, ‘Thank you so much for emailing us before the concert,’ ” she recalls, noting that such information really did put ticket buyers at ease about what to expect. Pensacola Symphony concerts were oversold for the 2008-09 season and the orchestra ended the year with 1,000 total subscribers, plus the bonus of returning to its home. The orchestra settled into a new acoustical shell in the freshly buffed Saenger Theatre for the last concert of the season. But the emphasis on providing patrons with the most seamless, comfortable experience possible, from the time they bought a ticket to the time they left the performance—a main takeaway from the Churn Report—had started to rebuild the audience even earlier. “Now there is a buzz in town about us,” says Lohman. “People know they have to get their tickets early or else they are not going to get in.” Another Churn Report finding—that first-timers respond highly to deep-discount “killer offers” (50 percent off having the biggest impact)—undoubtedly helped boost sales. Lohman tailored one $10 ticket offer to personnel stationed at the nearby Air Force and Navy bases, and aimed others at bringing visitors and families back in the recessionary climate. “We’ve had a lot of comments about how going to a concert
was something that they really wanted to do, and the buy-one, get-one-free offer allowed them to,” she says. The trickle-down effects became evident by mid-2009: the orchestra had added 200 more subscribers for 2009-10, including 12.8 percent of those who had attended three or more concerts the previous season, and nearly 9 percent of those who had attended two concerts. The number of new subscribers had grown to nearly 300 by late August 2009. The orchestra also met its annual fund goal for 2008-09 and among the contributors, 10.2 percent had attended two or more concerts—demonstrating that the more frequently people attend, the more invested they become in the orchestra, one of the findings of the Churn study. Stay in Touch
For all the nurturing of newcomers, the subscriber relationship was also re-examined. The orchestra began sending regular correspondence during the year, “not asking for money, not asking them for anything, just informational letters to let them know what we’re doing,” says Lohman. A summertime message conveyed what the staff does over the season break, let subscribers know when their tickets would be in the mail, and ended with “We’re so happy to have you back.”
As a flow chart featuring the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra’s interactions with ticket buyers reveals, “killer offer” subscription packages are key in retaining concertgoers.
americanorchestras.org
Just a year ago, Symphony reported on the first phase of the Audience Growth Initiative, an innovative study that focused on the barriers that keep first-time classical-music ticket buyers from becoming concert regulars—a phenomenon known as audience “churn.” The study, led by the international management consulting firm Oliver Wyman in association with nine major orchestras, identified ways in which orchestras could retain newcomers. Read the Symphony article and churn presentations at americanorchestras. org/knowledge_research_and_ innovation/churn_presentation.html.
An increased sense of ownership shows in the feedback received through followup surveys. “Peter’s conducting is amazing to watch—and the fact that we can call him ‘Peter’ and all know who that is!” was one comment. Lohman has maximized the use of such quotes and materials by including them in everything from the 2009-10 season brochure to grant proposals. Pensacola’s results demonstrate that the Churn Report’s findings are indeed relevant to orchestras of all sizes. “That’s the advantage of a smaller orchestra,” says Jane Kenworthy, executive director of California’s Stockton Symphony. “You can have an idea, turn your chair around, and implement it.” Kenworthy should know. She arrived in this Central Valley city in the spring of 2008 and recognized the potential that the Churn Report findings held for her orchestra, particularly with regard to pricing. If ever there was a place where potential audience members could be scared off by the price of orchestra tickets, it’s Stockton. The city, an inland port, has been hit hard by the economic downturn, with the evaporation of jobs in the shipping and farming industries that have been a staple of the area. (“We’re surrounded by walnuts and cherries,” says Kenworthy.) With the highest foreclosure rate in the nation in late 2007, Stockton’s once-booming housing developments became ghost towns; unemployment stood at 17.7 percent by July 2009. To add insult to injury, Stockton placed high on the Forbes magazine list of “America’s Most
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