Category Archives: Calls to Action

The Press Stories You Really Want to Tell

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Bruce Robinson

Week after week, orchestra marketers and communications professionals try to get stories about their music director, guest conductor or guest artist in the media. Is this wise? Yes, of course. Guest musicians are news. They can talk about the music … Continue reading →

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Music That Matters

Posted on May 14, 2011 by Bruce Robinson

Much music-making today is about commerce. Famous artists regularly play chamber concerts after one or two rehearsals. Veteran orchestra players sit back in their chairs while they play, bored yet holding on to their income until retirement. Tonight I heard … Continue reading →

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How to Make Your Website Social: InfoGraphic

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Bruce Robinson

A Big Challenge, an Enormous Opportunity Social tools both enable and challenge us as marketers. I’ve enjoyed grappling with social technology to understand it. What a puzzle! And what rewards await us. Yesterday I put together a chart of the … Continue reading →

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Working In Concert Trumps Collaboration

Posted on November 19, 2010 by Bruce Robinson

Arts management mavens are always touting the benefits of collaboration among performing arts groups. And foundations love to reward grants to those good citizens who collaborate. Often, though, collaboration is skin deep or limited to marketing alone. A dance group … Continue reading →

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How to Merchandise Tickets on Your Website

Posted on November 2, 2010 by Bruce Robinson

Music Is Like Candy I spent my early years in marketing in candy: Brach, Andes, Toblerone, Cote d’Or, Milka and Suchard. One of the great things about candy is that buyers consume it immediately. So you can sell them more … Continue reading →

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A Texas Two-Step to Make Your Website Social

Posted on October 15, 2010 by Bruce Robinson

Last April Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook proclaimed, “We are building a Web where the default is social.” Forrester Research says the Web is becoming “social as a rule, not an exception.” No longer can any orchestra afford to ignore the … Continue reading →

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Ten Lessons in Trust to Apply Before a Crisis

Posted on October 14, 2010 by Bruce Robinson

This week I heard an expert on reputation, IBM Distinguished Professor Daniel Diermeier from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, speak to a few dozen fellow Kellogg alums in Houston. The orchestra industry can learn from his years of … Continue reading →

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Why I Market Classical Music

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Bruce Robinson

Sure, there are easier things to do. I’ve marketed candy, cigars, nuts, lighters, gasoline, travel and education. All were easier. But music can change lives. It has thrilled mine. Music carries deep, otherwise-inexpressible meaning. 35,000 years ago our species was … Continue reading →

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What I’d Like to See Orchestras Provide Audiences: 10 Words Over 10 Days

Posted on August 24, 2010 by Bruce Robinson

We have more orchestras with better-trained musicians than ever. Yet these marvels of precision bleed anxiety over the future. Most of that anxiety centers on revenue. In my view, possibly because of our focus on commerce, the artistic product needs … Continue reading →

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50 Words for Classical Music Marketers to Rest

Posted on August 12, 2010 by Bruce Robinson

An Age of Puffery Adam Sherk has statistically catalogued The Most Overused Buzzwords in Marketing and Press Releases. Gregory Sandow has satirized the language of classical music press releases, saying he hopes they die. And the anonymous blog Proper Discord … Continue reading →

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List Your Orchestra’s Concerts Free: Bachtrack and Eventful

Posted on July 26, 2010 by Bruce Robinson

Have you had calls and mailings from print or online services that charge exorbitant rates to list concerts around the world? Here are two free listing services every orchestra should consider in addition to Instant Encore, about which I’ve already … Continue reading →

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A Social Technology to Market Every Orchestra. No, It Isn’t Twitter or Facebook.

Posted on June 14, 2010 by Bruce Robinson

Twitter and Facebook get the headlines. InstantEncore may be more important for orchestra marketers. I’m not saying to forgo Twitter or Facebook. Each of them is useful for orchestras. Indeed, InstantEncore makes it easier to use those sites and others … Continue reading →

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Why Everything’s Fine in Classical Music. Including the Pain.

Posted on June 5, 2010 by Bruce Robinson

[This was originally posted at the League of American Orchestra's microsite, R/Evolution, before the June 2010 League Conference in Atlanta] Everything’s Fine Everything’s fine in classical music. Let’s celebrate today’s terrific musicians, the best ever. Professional music-making isn’t a cushioned … Continue reading →

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Traditional Marketing Never Existed. Long Live Innovation

Posted on April 8, 2010 by Bruce Robinson

Today I heard a panel of three industry experts discuss the future of interactive marketing.* At that event several audience questions compared interactive marketing to traditional marketing. The traditional marketing they defined lives only in a Second Life. It lives … Continue reading →

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Forty Years Ago We Marketed Webern

Posted on March 14, 2010 by Bruce Robinson

Forty years ago the Cincinnati Symphony and Decca Records marketed Webern’s Passacaglia, Mennin’s Canto, William Schuman’s Tripych and the Dallapiccola Variations as orchestral showpieces. And the orchestra performed them as showpieces, too, with that most mainstream of conductors, Max Rudolf. … Continue reading →

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When Orchestras Emulate Madoff

Posted on March 14, 2010 by Bruce Robinson

Every year one or two orchestras make news by closing their doors. They cancel the rest of the season. There’s no money for creditors. Tickets for future concerts become worthless. It’s rare that it’s an orderly process. May that never … Continue reading →

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What Orchestras Can Learn from Kodak. That’s Right, Kodak.

Posted on March 5, 2010 by Bruce Robinson

A few days ago I heard a terrific speech by Kodak’s CMO, Jeffrey Hayzlett. If you watch it, you’ll find that it starts 14 minutes into the clip. Hayzlett is perhaps the most prolific Twitterer of all Fortune 500 CMOs, and … Continue reading →

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It’s the Music, Stupid!

Posted on March 2, 2010 by Bruce Robinson

Follow the music. That’s a guidepost for us orchestra marketers, for musicians and for orchestra administrators. It cannot be, follow the revenue. Audiences already follow the music. They listen to that music which has meaning to them. Last night I … Continue reading →

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