Ad campaign for Reno Phil drawing national attention

A potentially high-risk advertising campaign that barely mentions the product has drawn national attention to the Reno Philharmonic Association.

And even more important, the campaign that's now in its second year appears to be moving its target audience people who like the arts but haven't been attending philharmonic events such as its six-concert MasterClassics series.

The campaign launched by the Reno Philharmonic Association in mid-2010 doesn't focus on the music no sweeping swaths of Beethoven in its television advertising but instead positions events as an opportunity for a night out.

"Buy a hot dress and get out the good jewelry," reads one of the campaign's print ads. Photos by Reno's Jeff Dow throughout the campaign are all about good wine, good food, smiling folks traveling in a convertible under the Reno arch.

M. Francine Burge, vice president of marketing and communications for the association, says the campaign reflects the association's belief that the competition for ticket sales to classical concerts isn't merely other entertainment options.

Rather, the association faces competition from every other demand on the time of its audiences and the demands on the time of folks with income and inclination to attend classical concerts are particularly severe.

Working with Dow, the Estinpona Group Advertising and Public Relations and the video production house of iMed Design Inc. in Reno, the Philharmonic Association developed a campaign that sells the entire concert experience with themes such as "Turn a weeknight into a date night" and "This is the season to get out more often."

Target demographics included women ages 24-45, particularly folks who are attend other arts functions. Baby Boomers, who tend to think of part of a younger demographic, were a second target.

The campaign marked a big step for Burge, who has worked in marketing and media positions for two decades.

"I've always played it kind of safe with products and positioning," she says.

Burge says the campaign seeks to solidify single-concert ticket sales. The association has a solid base of 1,500 to 1,800 subscribers at each of its MasterClassics concerts, but single-ticket sales can range from $8,000 to $30,000.

"It's really hard to plan with that sort of fluctuation," Burge says.

The association launched its "Get Your Culture On" campaign with guerilla-marketing techniques such as flyers, buttons and T-shirts at events such as Artown.

It followed those efforts with traditional print and broadcast media campaigns as well as Web buys through Facebook and Google.

The campaign hasn't yet made a noticeable dent in single-ticket sales for Philharmonic events. (The next MasterClassics season begins Oct. 2.)

But Burge says there is substantial data that shows that potential audiences are beginning to engage with the Philharmonic.

At the Web site getyourcultureon.com, visitors have been spending nearly 2.5 minutes per visit more than a minute more than they spend on the association's other site, renophil.com.

That hints, Burge says, that users are going to renophil.com for specific time-and-ticket information on concerts, but are spending more time to learn about all of the association's events at getyourcultureon.com.

Another heartening sign, she says, is this: About 40 percent of the users of getyourcultureon.com are coming directly to the site and aren't coming through a search engine. At most sites, only about 20 percent of users arrive directly.

The Reno campaign was spotlighted by the League of American Orchestras during its national conference in Minneapolis this summer, and it's been the subject of talk on orchestra-management blogs.

Blogger Robert Sandia, for instance, described the campaign this way to readers of the League of Amercan Orchestra's SymphonyNOW:

"At first glance, you wonder: is it an ad for a chic perfume? A promo for high-end vodka? A video about a new luxury car? Stylish women get dressed for a night out. Martini glasses are raised. Ambient music throbs discreetly. An orchestra is glimpsed. What gives? The television marketing for the Reno Philharmonic's 'Get Your Culture On' campaign is deliberately hip, cool, youth-oriented, with only tantalizing suggestions of the orchestra in concert."