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NOTE: Alexandre Garrett was hired as an independent contractor for GroundFloor Media and was the sole person on the Colorado Music Festival account.
Colorado Music Festival – CASE STUDY
Background
The Colorado Music Festival (CMF) is a summer-long series of classical music concerts combined with world music and the works of 20th Century composers. Musical performances are held at the historic Chautauqua Auditorium in Boulder, Colorado, and this was the 28th season of the festival. Michael Christie is the Chief Conductor and Music Director. He excites CMF audiences of nearly 20,000 each season as he unites a classical music repertoire with emerging talent from Europe, Asia, South America and the U.S. The Colorado Music Festival is not only known for the exceptional music performances. It’s become a celebrated summer soiree under the direction of Michael Christie. Just 30 years old, Michael brings an energetic, fresh perspective to the festival with many new ideas. In addition to being the CMF Music Director, Michael is the Chief Conductor of The Queensland Orchestra, the youngest person ever to hold a Chief Conductor post with a major Australian symphony orchestra. He has also guest conducted many of the leading orchestras of Europe and North America.
Public Relations Need
GroundFloor Media (GFM) was hired to help The Colorado Music Festival inspire a new generation of concertgoers in the local Denver/Boulder community to attend one or multiple concerts. GFM was charged with branding CMF as a leading classical music festival with world-class musicians. The challenge of reaching a younger audience was evident in a Colorado Music Festival Audience Survey. Findings showed that 37 percent of CMF audience members were more than 65 years old, and more than 82 percent were over 45 years old. These percentages reinforced that the festival’s marketing focus needed to shift from an aging subscriber profile to a younger, single-ticket-buyer audience. The analysis of the survey also pointed out the need to broaden the market reach, especially in light of the fact that 60 percent of audience was from Boulder.
Public Relations Strategy
GroundFloor Media devised a creative strategy to engage local reporters about the Colorado Music Festival story by highlighting the business angle of building awareness with a new audience demographic to improve ticket sales. The centerpiece of this angle involved highlighting Michael Christie’s youth, character and enthusiasm as the force behind the shift to attract a younger audience. The goals of the PR effort included garnering feature article coverage of CMF in publications other than the top Denver/Boulder dailies, securing interviews and coverage with local TV and radio stations, and obtaining coverage in local Denver magazines with a readership of 20-to 40-year-olds.
Results
The GroundFloor Media team worked on this campaign for two months, and exceeded the client’s expectations of local newspaper, magazine and TV coverage. More than 750,000 media impressions were generated during the GFM-managed Colorado Music Festival PR campaign. Due to all of CMF’s marketing efforts, the festival had a 4 percent increase in ticket sales revenue and a 6 percent increase in tickets sold in the previous year.
Placements
- 5280 Magazine, Boulder Magazine, Boulder Weekly, Boulder Women's Magazine, Colorado Company, Colorado Daily, Rocky Mountain Bullhorn and Westword
- Channel 7 News and Channel 9 News interviews with Michael Christie
- Multiple interviews with Colorado Public Radio
Client Testimonial
“GroundFloor Media is truly an ‘idea powerhouse’. The experienced team members are motivated, thoughtful, creative and tenacious—all the best qualities of public relations professionals,” said Holly Hickman, Marketing Director of the Colorado Music Festival. “The placements this season, from Colorado Company through 9News, have helped us achieve our goals of spreading the message about the Colorado Music Festival to a broader audience.”
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