Episode Details

Phillip & Brian are joined by Aubrey Bergauer to talk about marketing in the arts. Aubrey discusses that orchestras need to better serve the general population by making orchestral music more approachable by the general population. Not a change in product, rather a change in presentation.

Show Notes:

Main Takeaways:

• Brian and Phillip are joined in today's episode by Aubrey Bergauer, Vice President of Strategic Communications & Executive Director of the Center for Innovative Leadership at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Chief Executive Officer of Changing the Narrative.

• Aubrey is changing the narrative of orchestra direction and bringing arts management into the digital world.

• When the product is not the problem, how do you pinpoint and address issues in customer retention and sales?

• Reaching new audiences should take priority over catering to your most loyal customers when it comes to designing your marketing.

Aubrey Bergauer: A History:

• Phillip met Aubrey at the 2019 Magento Imagine Conference.

• Aubrey is a self-proclaimed classical music nerd and has wanted to run a classical music program since high school (which no one ever says).

• When she was in high school, her orchestra went through a management change, and that is when the lightbulb went off that that was what she wanted to do.

• She has been combining her degrees in performance and business for fifteen years in a career in arts management.

Digging Deeper: Some More Detail on a Passion of Music:

• Believe it or not, Aubrey played the tuba, which is such a large instrument that she had to sit on phone books to play when she was younger.

• Aubrey liked the feeling of breaking the mold when it came to playing the tuba, a trend which continues into her current life.

• The tuba wasn't developed until much later in comparison to other instruments in the orchestra, so Aubrey's favorite music correlates with the time of its development.

• Sergey Prokofiev is one of her favorite composers, and his 5th Symphony is one of her favorite pieces.

Instigating for Change: Redefining the Orchestra Playbook:

• The playbook for orchestras has existed for decades, and the art form as a whole has been around for hundreds of years.

• Orchestras were founded at a time when arts and culture were synonymous with entertainment, and about half of the revenue comes from ticket sales, and the other half would come from donations.

• As the 20th century progressed, loyalty became more fleeting, so the subscription model dwindled in comparison to patrons buying single tickets.

• Aubrey points out that the subscription model isn't dead, but how do you achieve loyalty amongst your customer base?

Music is What We Do Best: Perpetuating Through Advancement:

• Classical music has survived as an art form for hundreds of years because the music is so good.

• There is an oversupply of musicians, which means that everyone in an orchestra is at the top of their field.

• The enduring level of talent in musicians highlights that the problem regarding audience attendance doesn't lie in the music itself, but rather in the customer base.

• How do you program towards audience behavior that contrasts with more traditional orchestra models?

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