Webinar Recap: Keeping Audiences Close: How Utah Symphony Appeals to Audience Values

December 9 (Replay at end of page)

This week we were fortunate to host Jonathan Miles, VP of Marketing & Public Relations at the Utah Symphony, for our 21st ABA Live! Webinar. During the conversation, we discussed how the Symphony has been connecting with audiences using emotion and audience values in a campaign that served as a key case study from our recent members-only summit, Coming Back Stronger.

An Overview of Emotional Marketing & Shared Values

To kick off our webinar, Karen Freeman, our Executive Director of Research, provided us with a recap of some of the primary takeaways from our summit around how arts organizations can and should connect with audiences through shared values.

Now Is the Time To Invest in Your “Not-Yet-Loyal” Audiences

In the audience research ABA conducted this spring, we found that existing audiences of arts organizations fall into two groups. There are our loyal attendees, who are most likely to come back when this is all over, and are most likely to consume our digital content in the meantime. Then there are our “not-yet-loyal” attendees. These audiences do not have as strong an existing connection to us; they are less likely to return on their own, more likely to have their attendance habits permanently disrupted and less likely to consume our digital offer in the meantime.

It is crucial that we increase our bond with these less stable audiences to make sure we have a strong base coming back after closure. Fortunately, our research also showed that there are a variety of emotional factors that bring our “not-yet-loyal” audiences -- who make up about 66% of total audience base -- to the arts in the first place. By leveraging on the emotional and values-based aspects of our work, we can find ways to increase our connection with these audiences.

The Key to Boosting Brand Loyalty is Emotional Connection

In research conducted by the Corporate Executive Board (now Gartner), we see that the biggest driver of loyalty for consumer brands is emotional differentiation. This is even more powerful in creating loyal audiences than both functional differentiation and functional concentration. People make purchases based on emotional factors and justify them based on rational considerations.

In the arts, our audience data shows us that despite our work being emotional on its own, only about a third of our audience is sufficiently motivated by the performance alone -- not enough to sustain an organization. It is therefore important to show our “not-yet-loyal” audiences the additional emotional benefit -- outside of the art itself -- that they will gain from attending. The more intense the emotional connection, the stronger the loyalty, all the way up to a shared value. This is a belief that both our organization and our customers have about a higher purpose, passion, or philosophy that has meaning in our lives beyond our specific genre or the arts in general. It is more important than the product category itself.

Utah Symphony: A Case Study in Emotional Marketing

After providing this overview of the core concepts behind the value of emotional marketing, we turned to Jonathan to hear more about his experience creating a campaign deeply rooted in the values held by Utah Symphony audience members.

A New Approach to Audience Understanding

The beginnings of Utah Symphony’s campaign came from a reframing of the audience research process. Jonathan shared how previously, their research had primarily focused on lapsed subscribers or members of the community who attended other events, but not the symphony. For their new campaign, they decided to speak to their most passionate supporters in order to help other people see the brand through their eyes -- particularly those who might share their values but not yet see the symphony as a way to express them.

One way in which Jonathan hoped this approach would enhance their ability to connect to new audiences was by creating relevance. As Karen described at the start of the webinar, around two-thirds of audience members are motivated to attend by factors other than the art. The team at the Utah Symphony hoped that by focusing on values, they could find ways to make their offering even more relevant to these “not-yet-loyal” audiences. 

To illustrate this point, Jonathan raised the question of why an intermission might be important to someone. “It gives them an opportunity for social interaction,” he explained, “which then gives them something to look forward to.” Understanding deeper motivations -- in this instance, a sense of community belonging -- and how the concert experience satisfies them is key to creating compelling marketing.

Conducting the Research Process

To gain this understanding, Jonathan and his team employed the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) of interviewing. In this method, interviewees are instructed to bring ten photographs that are not specifically of the Symphony, but that represent the Symphony to them. These images are then used as a base for a one-on-one conversation with an interviewer, who asks a series of “why?” questions to get at the core values each audience member is able to fulfill through attending a performance. The team found their most passionate audience members through thoughtful partnership with other departments, such as ticket agents who knew customers by name and their social media manager who could point them to active followers.

The team conducted ZMET interviews with around ten passionate members of the Utah Symphony audience. While leading these conversations, they began mapping out the results using a “laddering” technique, in which responses were organized in pathways from product features (such as the talent of the musicians) to personal values (inner harmony, for example). This allowed the team to visualize the key bridge between the product benefit and the personal benefit linked to each value -- a bridge that, as he described, is “where the magic lies” for emotional marketing.

While he learned this interviewing technique as part of his Executive MBA course, Jonathan emphasized that the method isn’t as difficult as it may seem. The conversations flowed naturally for him and his team, and by starting to circle and connect values during the interviews themselves, a model for the values map began to emerge on its own.

Building a Campaign around Emotional Values

Once the interviews were complete, the Utah Symphony team selected three of these core personal values around which to frame their marketing campaign. In particular, they leaned into the value of “belonging,” as it aligns with a core part of their mission: creating a community of music lovers. Having the interviews as a resource was extremely helpful to Jonathan as a marketer -- where he would typically be using marketing personas he developed as hypothetical viewers of a campaign, he could now actually view the media he and his team created through the eyes of actual people he had gotten to know.

Working with a trusted design partner, Jonathan and his team built out a campaign around the idea of “adding some symphony to your life,” using contemporary colors to make the materials feel fresh and exciting. They then positioned their advertisements with strategic purpose. As Jonathan explained, the emotional aspects of marketing are most useful in the acquisition stage, getting people excited and curious about what the Symphony has to offer, so he and his team made sure that these values-based advertisements were reaching new audiences. Once someone was hooked and entered their website, they began to showcase more of their performance-based media.

Overall, this strategy to leverage deep personal values to attract new or lapsed audiences was a success. The campaign resulted in a 16% increase in Utah Symphony’s Masterworks Series revenue and an 18% increase in reactivated ticket buyers.

Transitioning into the COVID Era

While the “add some symphony to your life” message was intended (and at the time used) to describe the feeling of attending a concert live, its focus on a personal and individual relationship with music made it easy to transition for marketing around digital initiatives. 

However, there has been a major challenge in COVID. Like most performing arts institutions, there is an unparalleled value in live performance, and the ZMET interviews confirmed that many of the emotional connections audiences had to the Utah Symphony were deeply tied to the in-person experience. As a result of this knowledge, on day one of closure the team prioritized developing a strategy to safely return to live shows as soon as possible.

Advice on Getting Started with Emotional Marketing

Throughout our conversation, Jonathan offered several pieces of valuable advice for any arts leader considering exploring this type of values-based marketing in their own organization.

• Listen to your audience: when Jonathan felt that their paid media wasn’t connecting emotionally with their audience, he turned to them to find out why. The insight he gained from these conversations were at the core of their marketing strategy.

• Take the time: Jonathan acknowledged that the ZMET interviews were time consuming, and in an ideal world he would have liked to do twice as many if he’d been able to. However, the value gained from this methodology makes it well worth the investment.

• Be specific: the audience interview, while often a rewarding experience for the interviewee, can be confusing at first. Make sure to be clear about their structure and requirements when requesting time with audience members.

• Look for metaphors: ZMET interviews can be fantastic places to find inspiration for your campaign. For instance, Jonathan remembered one interviewee who stated that the music made them “fall out of their chair” -- a great highlight for marketing materials.

• Find allies: engaging in this type of campaign can be a daunting task for an arts organization. Jonathan spoke with leaders across the organization to gain support for this initiative, making it easier for those who felt more skeptical to buy into trying it.

Additional ABA Support

If you are interested in more information about the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) that Utah Symphony used, here are two helpful additional sources:

• Harvard Business Review video on ZMET with a case example from banking

• Reflections from a market researcher who was interviewed by the New York Philharmonic using ZMET

For more information on the concept of shared values, check out our article on the ways non-arts industries are leveraging these emotional connections to form loyalty.

We will be offering a second chance for our members to participate in our Coming Back Stronger summit, for those who recently joined or would like additional members of their team to attend. Details to come soon!

If you are not a member, and are interested in joining ABA, find our contact form here.

Watch the Recording Here