Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus
About
The Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus (TCGMC) is a volunteer community chorus, professionally directly and managed, with the mission of gay men building community through music. The chorus’ goals are to achieve a high level of musical integrity, confront homophobia and intolerance, and influence positive social change.
Marketing Initiative
The chorus’ primary marketing objective is to increase the number of season ticket subscriptions by 21% The chorus seeks to retain existing season ticket subscribers and encourage repeat single ticket buyers to subscribe for the first time by emphasizing subscriber benefits that form a personal connection with the chorus. TCGMC wants audience members to be part of the chorus family. The chorus is bundling and offering by email additional opportunities for groups before or after evening performances, such as dinner discounts. Another marketing objective is to increase individual single ticket revenue by 48% in part through the strategy of using chorus singers and the Board of Directors to actively promote and sell tickets.
Highlights, 2010-11
TCGMC made headway increasing subscriptions by 12% and single ticket revenue by 11%. (The latter increase would have been higher had the chorus not needed to cancel a show due to bad weather.) To build relationships with subscribers, the chorus offered incentives, such as events that gave season ticket holders more access to the singers and staff. Of the 637 season ticket holders, 200 were drawn to one or more of these events. The chorus entered into longer-term advertising agreements with My Scene City and Lavender Magazine, which appeal to younger and older gay male audiences targeted by the chorus’ marketing plan. A new Social Media Marketing Plan created with Conversify, a consultant group, has helped the chorus know how to use tactics like a special ticket offer for Facebook fans, which resulted in 54 tickets sold. During the first year, the chorus also redesigned its website.
Marketing Activities, 2011-12
- Use retirement of the chorus’ long-time artistic director as a marketing opportunity.
- Continue implementing the social media plan, which requires daily review of Twitter and Facebook news feeds, and a new mode of messaging with a ratio of 80% conversation and 20% call to action, such as to purchase tickets.
- Use targeted advertisements in various media to focus on continuing and new segments.
- Continue to evaluate effectiveness of strategies through tracking ticket buying source codes, using Google Analytics.
