Publicity and Community Outreach Opportunities for the Conway Symphony Orchestra: A Feasibility Report By Jordan Pennington

For review by the Conway Symphony Board of Directors

Publicity and Community Outreach Opportunities for the Conway Symphony Orchestra: A Feasibility Report —by JORDAN PENNINGTON Executive Summary— As a nonprofit arts organization the Conway Symphony Orchestra has proven its dedication to making a positive impact in the community of Conway. It is from this solid foundation that we are looking to build new publicity and educational outreach strategies that can augment programs already implemented by the organization. In terms of publicity, targeted advertising on Facebook is an attractive option for the CSO. For very little money the orchestra can increase traffic to their official Facebook page (and in turn the orchestra itself) by purchasing ads that will be seen by Arkansas-area Facebook users with interests related to classical music. By applying for an Art Works grant funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Conway Symphony will be able to obtain funds that can be used to better address the arts-related needs of the community. Such a significant endeavor can generate lots of good publicity for an organization which can lead to greater financial support from the community. Finally, the implementation of open rehearsals as an educational outreach program would bring in money for the Conway Symphony and could be utilized as a recruitment tool for prospective University of Central Arkansas students with an orchestral background.

I. The Current State of Publicity and Outreach

Before addressing the publicity and outreach proposals it’s necessary to evaluate the current state of these in the Conway Symphony. Overall, the organization’s current model is undoubtedly effective—there is heavy emphasis on reaching out to segments of the community’s population that do not necessarily fit the “typical” orchestra patron demographic. The CSO also demonstrates a strong commitment to community involvement. However, there are easy opportunities do even more that the Conway Symphony is missing out on which this proposal hopes to address. Manuscript received April 1, 2013. J. Pennington is with the Conway Symphony Orchestra Guild, Conway AR-72034 (email: jordanpennington@gmail.com).

A. Facebook

The CSO has an official Facebook page [1] that’s run by the Conway Symphony General Manager, Vicki Crockett. The page’s posts are normally news stories or announcements about music-related items and events in the Conway and Little Rock area. In the week leading up to a concert, there are normally one or more posts advertising it and a Facebook event page created for it. It’s especially important to note that while the CSO Facebook page usually receives less than ten new “likes” every week the number of users interacting with the page or discussing the page on their own Facebook timeline remains consistently higher.

Figure 1. Comparing number of CSO Facebook “likes” to people interacting with the page [2]

B. Radio and Television Advertising Radio ads are another common way that the Conway Symphony uses to get the word out about concerts—these are normally aired on KLRE 90.5 FM (the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s classical music station) and KUCA 91.3 FM (the official radio station of the University of Central Arkansas). CSO Conductor, Israel Getzov, will often appear on local news stations’ morning or midday broadcasts to promote upcoming concerts. C. UCA Email Students at the University of Central Arkansas receive advertisements in their school email account for Conway Symphony performances in the weeks leading up to them.

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New fans of CSO Page

D. Specialty Concerts The Conway Symphony realizes that it is part of a diverse community, and as such performs music in a wide range of genres that appeal to large groups of people. 1) Children’s Concerts: Each spring, the orchestra plays a children’s concert. These performances are normally shorter than a regular concert and contain music that appeals to children, such as Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf or Ravel’s Mother Goose. The conductor generally takes a more interactive role with the audience in these concerts, and sometimes non-musical elements, like dancers or actors, are incorporated. Activities for the children precede and follow the musical portion of the concert. These include craft-making and an instrument “petting zoo” where children are given the opportunity to try out different orchestral instruments. 2) Christmas Concerts: The CSO’s annual Christmas concert takes place in late November or early December. The orchestra performs a wide range of Christmas standards and singers are often incorporated as well. The second half of the performance includes selections from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, and the orchestra is accompanied onstage by ballet dancers. 3) World Concerts: Several times in the past the Conway Symphony has performed music from around the world that would be considered outside of the traditional classical music canon. In the current 2012-2013 season the orchestra gave a concert focused on Latin American music and composers. 4) Free Concerts: The Conway Symphony opens every season with a free concert in Simon Park. The orchestra plays selections from each of that season’s concerts in an attempt to generate more interest in the paid performances. E. Artist Residencies Each year the orchestra normally brings in at least one artist in residence, and these include a wide range of composers, performers, conductors and ensembles. Artist duties range from performing concerts to giving lectures and private lessons. In the current 2012-2013 season the CSO brought in award-winning pianist, Jue Wang [3].

II. Facebook Advertising

Facebook’s targeted advertising has become easier than ever and because of this and the inexpensive nature of the advertising it would be a good fit for an organization like the Conway Symphony.

A) How It Works The first step in creating a Facebook ad is determining what is going to be advertised—Facebook has the option of promoting pages, events or even external URLs [4]. Since the CSO website is updated less frequently than its Facebook page, it would make the most sense in this context to focus on advertising for the official CSO Facebook page. 1) Defining a Goal: To set up an ad campaign its goals must be defined. a) Increasing page likes: For a Facebook page, users have the option of choosing a campaign that will increase the page’s “likes” [4]. b) Promoting particular posts: Users also have the option of creating a campaign that will promote page posts, which will make users who have already “liked” a page more likely to see its posts [4].

2) Defining a Goal (cont’d): Since the Conway Symphony page already has a high level of engagement from its fans but a relatively slow increase in total number of fans, it would be most beneficial for the orchestra to choose a campaign that was focused on increasing the page “likes”. 3) Setting Audience Parameters: Next, the user must set up audience parameters. Since the goal is to get the ad in front of people most likely to have a positive response it’s important to make useful demographic decisions. Facebook allows you to filter out users based on age, location, interests, education and connections with other Facebook users [4]. However, for the CSO’s purposes, using interests and location will suffice. By specifying that the ad should only target Arkansas residents with interests related to classical music it is able to reach users most likely to be interested in the Conway Symphony and able to attend performances.

Figure 2. Clasical music interests among Arkansas Facebook users

4) Formatting the Ad: Each ad must have both title and body sections, although if a Facebook page is being promoted the ad title will automatically be the page name. The body section must not be longer than 90 characters [4]. B. Cost 1) Pricing Model: One of the most appealing aspects of Facebook’s advertising model is the pricing. Users have the option of paying by the number of people who view the ad or by the number of people who click on the ad. Facebook recommends paying per views for ads relating to Facebook pages, and that is the method being suggested in this report [4].

2) Setting a Budget: Next, users can set a predetermined budget for their ad campaign, and because of this, no unexpected costs are incurred. Users have the option of paying one lump sum for the entirety of the ad’s run or paying a set amount each day [4].

3) Duration of Advertising Campaign: Since Facebook advertising would be a new experience for the Conway Symphony it is recommended that the first ad be purchased for a set amount of time—one year. After that year, the ad could be renewed if it has been shown to truly increase publicity. If the CSO set a budget of $365 for that one year campaign, the ad would reach 5,550 targeted users daily. This means that in about eight days all 40,880 Facebook users from Arkansas with interests related to classical music would have seen the ad. However, it must be noted that not every user will respond to or even notice each ad Facebook suggests, but by making the campaign yearlong someone within the targeted demographic is about fifty-two times more likely to see it than if the ad only ran for eight days.

C. Benefits to the Conway Symphony An advertising plan like this is a good fit for the Conway Symphony for several reasons. One, this is a plan that focuses on generating more overall page likes instead of promoting specific posts by the page. Fig. 1 showed that the CSO’s Facebook page struggles more with gaining fans as opposed struggling with getting those users to interact with the page once they’re there. Secondly, exposure on social media websites translates into real-world publicity. Advertising campaigns in places like Facebook have become so successful and ubiquitous that companies routinely hire people just to manage their social media presence. While that may not be the best choice for the Conway Symphony, there’s no reason the organization can’t implement small things related to social media, like Facebook advertising.

III. NEA Art Works Grant

A. Grant Overview Applying for a National Endowment for the Arts grant is arguably the most involved proposal being made; however, the process is very straightforward and easy to understand. 1) Philosophy: Each year, the NEA offers a limited number of grants (known specifically as Art Works grants) to arts organizations. These grants can be used for a number of different types of things; however, there are general guidelines for what kinds are most likely to be supported. Firstly, projects should have the potential to develop or enhance “new or existing art forms, new approaches to the creation or presentation of art, or new ways of engaging the public with art.” Likewise, projects should contribute distinctive, new insights into the particular field of art and pave the way for even more future insight [5].

2) Funding: Art Works grants range in funding from $10,000 to $100,000; although, the application website has indicated that in the past few years most grants have been $25,000 or less [5].

3) Categories: Within these guidelines projects must fall into one of four categories: creation (“the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence”), engagement (“public engagement with diverse and excellent art”), learning (“lifelong learning in the arts”) or livability (“the strengthening of communities through the arts”) [5].

Figure 3. Examples of projects from each Art Works category

4) Choosing a Category: A grant like this has the potential to generate many different publicity-building projects for the Conway Symphony; however, the best fit would be one focusing on the creation aspect. Project suggestions for this subset include commissioning works, hosting artist residencies, and creating art focuses on contemporary practices and technologies. 5) Creation Requirements: Most broadly, all Art Works grant applications are judged on the “artistic excellence and artistic merit” of the proposal. In terms of a creation-based project this would mean that the artwork meets “the highest standards of excellence,” is innovative in its field, “is inclusive of individuals from all different backgrounds of the community”, and has the potential to impact the artist, their field and community [6].

B. The Application Process Applications are first reviewed by a panel, and it’s determined if the grant is feasible within the Endowment’s budget. After this, the proposal will go before the National Arts Council who will make a recommendation and send it on to the chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts who will make the final decision on whether or not to fund it [7].

C. Tentative Proposal 1) Choosing a Composer: For a musical organization like the CSO, commissioning a new piece and hosting the composer in a residency would have the potential to create publicity within the community and possibly nationwide if the composer was especially reputable.

2) Mason Bates: Ideally, this would be Mason Bates. Bates is an up-and-coming composer who focuses on integrating electronic music into more traditional settings, like an orchestra.8 He has been commissioned to write these unique pieces before for orchestras like the Chicago Symphony (Alternative Energy [9]) and the Youtube Symphony (Mothership [10]), and this blending of electronic and acoustic sounds speaks perfectly to the Art Works goal of creating music centered around contemporary technology. D. Benefits to the Conway Symphony Bringing in a musician of this magnitude would no doubt draw more people into a Conway Symphony concert, especially fans of electronic music who might not normally attend a CSO function, and on top of that the orchestra would have the privilege of performing a piece written specifically for them. A project like this would also be good for an organization that has such a dedication to performing in a diverse range of genres but doesn’t necessarily have much experience in terms of contemporary orchestral works or electronic music. Plus, having Bates as an artist-in-residence to give composition lessons and talks would also help fulfill the Conway Symphony’s obligation to community outreach as well.

IV. Educational Outreach

Educational outreach programs can benefit an organization like the Conway Symphony in two ways. Firstly, since the CSO is an arts-based nonprofit organization, educational programs fulfill the organization’s duty to enrich the community through art. Secondly, this giving back to the community will generate positive publicity for the CSO which can lead to higher ticket sales and donations. A. Open Rehearsals 1) Overview: An orchestra with open dress rehearsals means that the group sells tickets to the final practice session before a performance. This offers community members a backstage look into how an orchestra rehearsal is run and the effort it takes to get a performance together. Dress rehearsals are also a time when an orchestra may decide to do a straight run-through of their music in preparation for doing so during the actual performance. This combination of educational and performance aspects of open rehearsal along with the fact that it costs the orchestra nothing makes this an attractive option. Nationwide, both “big name” [11] and smaller-town orchestras [12] similar to the Conway Symphony have successfully implemented this program.

B. Benefits to the Conway Symphony 1) Generating Income: The most exciting thing about open rehearsals is that it will bring in money for the CSO. Tickets for these sessions would be set at three dollars. Although this sounds like a modest fee, it’s important to choose a price that is affordable and attractive to most community members—the cheaper the ticket, the more likely people will want to attend. Plus, these small numbers add up quickly. The Conway Symphony has six dress rehearsals a season; if thirty people attend each one of these, the orchestra will raise over $500 a season. For an organization running on a tight budget, even this much could help tremendously.

Figure 4. Income estimates for open rehearsals

2) An Affordable Alternative: Open rehearsals are also a great deal for community members. Unfortunately, many Conway citizens simply can’t afford tickets to CSO performances. However, by opening up rehearsals where the orchestra routinely plays a run-through of their music, community members with financial burdens are given an affordable alternative to regular performances. In a world where classical music is often labeled “elitist” or “upper class” it’s important that the Conway Symphony portrays itself as an organization that’s looking to reach out to all of Conway’s citizens and not just a wealthy subset. 3) A Recruitment Tool: While open rehearsals are something that the orchestra should offer to the entire community, it’s especially important to target school-aged musicians in the area because recruiting new members can lead to increased ticket sales as well. These potential orchestra musicians bring with them parents, family and friends who want to buy tickets to see their loved one perform. Since many local students will end up attending the University of Central Arkansas and since the university supplies most of the musicians for the Conway

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Potential Income from Open Rehearsals (per season)

Symphony it’s important to get high school orchestra musicians interested in joining before they get there. Unfortunately for many students, music education falls to the wayside when they reach college because of scheduling conflicts or lack of interest. By getting them excited about the Conway Symphony before they reach UCA the chances of them making orchestra a priority increase.

V. Recommendation Bluntly put, it is my recommendation that all three of these ideas be implemented, and there are several reasons for this. Firstly is cost. While Facebook advertising will cost the organization approximately $365 both the grant and open rehearsals will actually be bringing money into the Conway Symphony, and as mentioned before, the money raised from open rehearsals could potentially be used to offset the cost of the advertising. Secondly, there is a symbiotic link between publicity and community service. As an organization increases its publicity, more money begins to come in—money that can be used to promote community outreach programs. As these programs thrive and grow, word gets around that the organization is making difference in the community, which leads to more good publicity, which starts the cycle all over again.

Bibliography [1] “Conway Symphony Orchestra.” Internet: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Conway- Symphony-Orchestra/194002546006 [March 18, 2013]. [2] “Conway Symphony Orchestra Likes.” Internet: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Conway- Symphony-Orchestra/194002546006?id=194002546006&sk=likes [March 18, 2013]. [3] “Pianist Jue Wang to be in residence, perform with Conway Symphony—UCA News.” Internet: http://uca.edu/news/pianist-jue-wang-to-be-in-residence-perform-with-conway- symphony/ [March 27, 2013]. [4] “Creating an Ad or Sponsored Story.” Internet: https://www.facebook.com/help/326113794144384/ [March 19, 2013]. [5] “NEA Grants for Arts Projects: Music: Art Works.” Internet: http://www.nea.gov/grants/apply/GAP14/MusicAW.html [March 23, 2013]. [6] “Grants for Arts Project-Outcomes.” Internet: http://www.nea.gov/grants/apply/GAP14/Outcomes.html#creation [March 23, 2013]. [7] “Grants for Arts Projects-Frequently Asked Questions.” Internet: http://www.nea.gov/grants/apply/GAP14/FAQs.html#applicationreview [March 23, 2013]. [8] “Chicago Symphony Orchestra-About-Performers.” Internet: http://cso.org/about/performers/Performer.aspx?id=10208 [March 23, 2013]. [9] “Alternative Energy by Chicago Symphony Composer Mason Bates.” Internet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcWRxTk-E24 [March 23, 2013]. [10] “Mothership-Mason Bates.” Internet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFh7LAFel4w [March 20, 2013]. [11] “BSO High School Open Rehearsals.” Internet: http://www.bso.org/brands/bso/education- community/schools-educators/bso-high-school-open-rehearsals.aspx [March 20, 2013]. [12] “Open Dress Rehearsals.” Internet: http://www.a2so.com/education/opendressrehearsals [March 20, 2013].