The Symphony of Southwest Florida

One of my most enjoyable activities over the past few months has been my involvement in the marketing of the Symphony of Southwest Florida. It has led me to do a lot of thinking about goals and strategies for that organization, and about the goals our community should have concerning the arts.

According to research conducted within the last few years, children who are exposed to Mozart at a very young age develop with great intellectual and academic abilities later in life. No one that I know has been able to say precisely why this phenomenon occurs. Some have speculated that there is a mathematical structure in Mozart compositions that creates a mental landscape more conducive to learning.

I lean toward the view that exposure to one aspect of the quality in arts creates an eagerness to experience quality in the other arts, which in turn, opens our minds to the subtleties and complexities of life. This awareness drives one to learn more, know more and experience more. Quality art enriches us as individuals and as a community.

Applying that thinking to the Symphony of Southwest Florida, it was agreed that one of the most important things the Symphony should do, even in its 38th season, was to build awareness that it is a professional symphony orchestra.

How to Begin

Those of us promoting the symphony felt it was important that the public know that the Maestro Paul Nadler, the orchestra's principal conductor, also conducts in such world-class venues as the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, and that the Symphony Chorus is under the direction of former Cleveland Orchestra director, A. Edward Battaglia. We also thought it was important to communicate that the Symphony of Southwest Florida performs a full schedule of 10 classical concerts, six pops concerts, three chamber concerts, two Maestro's Galas to kick-off the season and two Holiday pops concerts. This is a rigorous schedule for any symphonic organization, made more challenging because it is performed over just half of the year.

Our first task in reinforcing the image of The Symphony of Southwest Florida as a first class, professional orchestra was to create a high quality, four-color, multiple-page, saddle-stitched season brochure. We worked closely with Symphony Executive Director Kevin Taylor and his staff to capture the unique flavor of the Symphony and assure that all the details were correct. Using rich colors, understated design, pictures of guest artists and a complete listing of the musical programs, we created a self-mailing piece that could double as a take-away brochure and reflect the quality of this important community asset.

Our second goal was to sell tickets. As with a restaurant, your menu can lead people to expect a great meal, but only experiencing one will bring them back again.

We figured that season ticket holders (over 3,357 were sold) would automatically show up to fill their seats. To encourage single ticket sales, the season brochure included a bound order form for single as well as season tickets.

In order to spread the word about single performances, we chose to go where the audience is: the daily newspaper. This strategy also required that the ads should have a consistent campaign feel, should be large enough to stand out on the page and should reflect the clean look and restraint that one expects from a first class, professional organization. As a result, based on a limited budget, the marketing team chose to run less frequent, larger and more commanding ads with full program and artist information in the Sunday and Friday editions of the Fort Myers News-Press. Each ad was timed to run the Sunday before and the Friday before performance weekends. This schedule was designed to capture both advance planners and last minute buyers.

Two other communication media were chosen to fill out the plan. One decision was to run underwriting spots on WGCU-FM, Public Radio in Southwest Florida. Strictly speaking, these are not "commercials," but they provide an opportunity for The Symphony to reach classical music lovers while they are listening to classical music. The other choice was to run underwriting spots on WGCU-TV, also adjacent to classical and pops music programming similar to the Symphony's offerings.

Since we wanted to let the public sample The Symphony's product, we used sound and video of The Symphony in performance. Each underwriting spot also mentioned the next scheduled concert so that we not only built awareness and respect for the organization but also filled seats for individual concerts.

The Efforts Pay Off

According to Taylor, this has been a successful season. "We feel we are accomplishing our goal of getting the public to recognize that the organization is a professional Symphony orchestra," he says, "and we know we are building concert audiences, even with a major portion of our business being effected by the huge success of a six-week run of Phantom of the Opera in our principal venue, Mann Hall."

One aspect of The Symphony's work, which was featured in the season brochure, was its involvement with the community's youth through several programs, from Children's Choruses to Youth concerts, to the Young Artist Competition and the Van Sickle Competition. In a way, this brings us back to the original point about the arts and elevating the human condition. The two go hand-in-hand, so much so that those who are responsible for getting new companies to move to our area say the state of arts in a community is a major concern.

David Hunt, Chairman of the Board of the Lee County Alliance of the Arts, says he first became interested in promoting the arts in our community when he was president of the Business Development Corporation. "On the check list of prospects, near the top, was the subject 'arts and culture.' We scored badly compared to our competition like Sarasota, Orlando, Tampa, and the East Coast," Hunt reports. "Since that time, which was eight years ago, we've made great progress."

No one can deny the impact that the Philharmonic has had on Naples under the leadership of Myra Janco Daniels. In speaking about theatre in Fort Myers, Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall General Manager Mary Benzel says, "When I first came here, it seemed that, other than the Barbara B. Mann, the only entertainment was the movies.

"Now, we are bringing shows like Phantom and next season Miss Saigon, the full Showboat production and Sunset Boulevard." Mary continues, "I actually think that, as people become more accustomed to quality art in their lives, they will demand more attractive surroundings -- even on the roadsides and medians -- as they have in Naples."

Community Benefits

The Symphony's Taylor observes with characteristic enthusiasm, "You can look around this country and find the communities that are thriving and growing stronger are those with a vital arts culture. It is l