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Marketing to the young: Prices, parties and programming help arts organizations attract a new crowd
Sunday, September 05, 1999 By Caroline Abels, Post-Gazette Cultural Arts Writer
What do broccoli and the arts have in common? Both have been marketed as "good for you." Eat broccoli/go see an opera and you'll be better off for it.
But just as every kid won't eat broccoli for that reason, not all young people will check out the ballet or the symphony to self-improve.
You can ask former President George Bush about the best way to market his least favorite vegetable. As for arts groups, they've realized there's no best way to get people under 40 through their doors. Saying the arts will improve their well-being is only one way -- if it works.
"No one likes to be talked down to, so it's about finding the right combination of things to create the right environment," said Kerry Spindler, 28, co-chair of a Pittsburgh Opera committee trying to get more young people interested in opera.
When it comes to people under 40, the mantra of local arts groups appears to be "prices, parties and programming." Groups cut ticket prices for people under a certain age, throw parties before or after shows, and plan seasons that include edgy, innovative work, which young people tend to embrace over more traditional fare.
Season brochures are also looking less stodgy, and groups are offering flexible subscription packages that appeal to young people who don't know what they're doing next week, let alone three months in the future.
Some organizations apply all these bait-and-catch strategies, others focus on one or two. And it's primarily the large arts groups, like the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, that are aggressive in their marketing to the young -- their audiences tend to skew older than the audiences of smaller arts groups.
At Pittsburgh Opera, the committee of young people recently recruited to get their peers interested in opera decided that offering a combination of incentives was the way to go. The Bravo! Club will kick off Sept. 16 with a party at the Doubletree Hotel, Downtown. For $32, $66 or $104, depending on seat selection, members will receive a ticket to the party, a ticket to three operas, a tour of the Benedum, presentations before the performances, access to mingling sessions at intermission, a 45-minute CD of highlights from the company's 1999-2000 season, and other goodies.
The club is not limited to people of a certain age but is geared toward people under 35. Says the brochure: "Mix betrayal, suicide, passion, jealousy, torture, sex, prostitutes, scandals and lies with fabulous melodies and beautiful voices and you've got opera!" The club also advertises itself as an opportunity to socialize and network.
Pittsburgh Opera's efforts are similar to those of opera companies nationwide. Catchy brochures peppered with slang, free CDs and short presentations about opera are common, according to Opera America, a service organization for opera companies. Social gatherings are used not only to lure newcomers to the opera but to solidify the commitment of young opera lovers by helping them find peers with similar tastes.
Why are arts groups bothering to go after the youth market? A recent survey by the National Endowment for the Arts showed that people age 45 to 54 were the most represented in arts audiences in 1997. Of all Americans that age, 20.4 percent heard classical music, 19.8 percent saw a play, 7.2 percent saw ballet, and 6 percent heard opera.
Compare them with all Americans age 25 to 34: 11.4 percent of them heard classical music in 1997, 13.3 percent saw a play, 4.7 percent saw ballet, and 4 percent heard opera. The numbers are slightly higher for people age 18 to 24, perhaps because of the accessibility of college performances and reduced-price student tickets.
No comparable numbers exist for Pittsburgh, save for the informal audience surveys that groups conduct individually. But local groups are clearly concerned about the age of their audiences. Some say the problem is not as severe as it seems, though, given the Pittsburgh region's percentage of residents age 25 to 34, which is small compared to that of similar regions.
"One of the things in Pittsburgh is that there's this demographic hole when it comes to young people -- at least you hear about this demographic hole -- so that the kind of work we do, if it were in Chicago or Seattle or Atlanta, the audience would be younger by default," said Marc Masterson, producing director of City Theatre.
Still, the question is whether Generations X and Y will take their seats once the boomers begin to age and die. There's no guarantee that youth who attend the arts today will continue to do so as they age. More significantly, there's no guarantee that the young people who aren't attending the arts now will develop an ear for Beethoven or an eye for Balanchine when they get older.
Richard A. Peterson, a Vanderbilt University sociology professor who has authored a new, unpublished study for the NEA on age and arts audiences, said if boomers are any indication, arts groups shouldn't hold their breath waiting for young people to "mature" into arts lovers. Peterson said research shows many boomers haven't grown into the arts.
"Earlier generations thought the boomers were a bunch of stinking hippies who, as they became more conservative, would become arts oriented," Peterson said. "But that hasn't happened," even though they are most represented in arts audiences.
"It was then the hope of arts people that baby boomers would be the exception, but they're turning out to be the harbingers of a new trend," Peterson said.
Reasons young people don't attend the arts can include the cost of tickets, lack of time, or the perception that the arts can't be enjoyed unless you "understand" them, understand how to behave during a performance, or know what to wear.
Peterson's theory is that the boomers, Generation X and Generation Y aren't flocking to the arts because they grew up in a time when pop culture had mainstream respect.
"Rock and blues and jazz are now seen as part of Western civilization, and classical music, for example, just becomes one of the things in the mix," he said.
A Symphony of strategies
To get young people to choose the arts from that mix, local groups have been trying many strategies since the mid-1980s, when the PSO launched a singles night that got young people mingling in Heinz Hall. The "Smart Set" program was innovative and popular, said Lou Castelli, who formerly worked in the orchestra's marketing department but is now marketing director of the Pittsburgh Public Theater.
"What happened was that certain people hung on for a really long time and kept coming back," he said.
Indeed, other groups found that singles nights kept attracting the same crowd -- so they canned them. Gone, for instance, is the Public Theater's "S&P 500" series, in which S&P's -- singles and professionals -- were invited to a soiree before each Thursday night show. The gathering featured drinks and catering by La Charcuterie, an upscale Shadyside food market, as well as a live band. But the series simply became a social event for a clique of devotees, Castelli said.
That problem aside, can a gin and tonic really spur a love of the arts?
"I don't think showing up and getting a drink is the answer," Castelli said. "For all the promoting we do, it ends up going back to the programming. It's hard to build something pre- or post-performance if what's on stage isn't relevant or appealing."
What's appealing to young people, some arts managers say, are works that push boundaries. Gail Murphy, former marketing director for Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, said PBT's production of "Carmina Burana" last season drew many more people in their 20s and 30s than did the ballet's other productions, such as "Swan Lake" and "Romeo and Juliet." "Carmina," a newer work, featured dark, sensual choreography highlighted by the stunning, modern choral piece of the same name.
It helped that PBT plugged "Carmina" on FM radio stations like WDVE (102.5), The X (105.9) and B94 (93.7), which are popular with young people. Murphy noted that television ads, though ideal for attracting a younger crowd, are too expensive for most nonprofit arts groups.
Cult of personality doesn't cost much, though. Since Michael Tilson Thomas took over as music director of the San Francisco Symphony a few years ago, he has become known as "MTT" throughout the city, and his face is plastered on numerous billboards and brochures. Furthermore, he is committed to having the symphony perform more modern works.
Mark Weinstein, executive director of Pittsburgh Opera, agrees that newer works should be programmed to attract the young. But he also notes that "the classics" should be available for young people to discover.
"I don't think we should label young people as only interested in young people's repertory," Weinstein said. "For young people who have never been to an opera before, there's something incredibly exciting about going to their first 'Carmen' -- they don't know what's going to happen!"
Weinstein happens to be promoting the art form that has made the most gains in young attendance recently. According to the NEA survey, 10.7 percent of opera patrons were 18 to 24 in 1992; in 1997, 14 percent were.
Pittsburgh Opera has not performed detailed research on its audience but Weinstein said, "You stand in the lobby and you get a real feel for the trendiness of opera. Not everyone is coming dressed up anymore."
Weinstein said some board members have wondered whether the buzz about more young opera fans is true. He said he tells them to look at the upper-level seats, which are less expensive and more affordable for young people than the orchestra, which is filled with board members and longtime patrons.
Weinstein added that opera is gaining in popularity among young people because it is a "multi-media event," a fusion of singing, orchestral music, theater and dance.
"Years ago, they were the rock concerts of today," he said.
At the PSO, where 14.5 percent of the 1997-98 season audience was under 34, there also is the belief that varied media attracts a younger crowd. The PSO created its "Soundbytes" series -- theatrical concerts featuring actors, lighting and musical excerpts -- to give audiences something more to look at than 100 musicians in evening wear.
Although there is grumbling among older and more traditionally minded patrons that such approaches strip the arts of their integrity, some groups believe that the fusion of centuries-old art forms with modern technology and presentation is necessary, in order put the arts and pop culture on equal terms.
"I don't think young people are culturally illiterate; I just think they have their own cultural reference points," Masterson said. "Maybe they haven't gone to a symphony concert but they're certainly musically literate. The question then is, can the nonprofit arts become culturally relevant as tastes change?"
Cultural excursions
Jen Saffron, who heads Pitt Arts, an organization at the University of Pittsburgh that encourages students to attend local arts performances, said college students are a lot more interested in culture than people think.
"They're stereotyped as being slackers or beer-drinking, partying students, but we need to treat them like people who are on a quest for knowledge, not on a quest for beer," she said.
Last year, Pitt Arts provided thousands of students with discounted tickets to local performances, as well as transportation to the presenting venues. Tickets sometimes included presentations by artists. Listings and e-mail calendars were sent out to keep students informed.
Saffron said that when it comes to students, arts groups are competing with students' limited leisure time and their inclination to visit the nearest video store. Another problem is ignorance among some students about how to "act" during a performance. Saffron said lessons in etiquette end up being part of the excursions she plans.
"I'll talk to them before an opera and say, 'OK, don't get up when there's a pause. How do you know there's a pause? The lights don't go on all the way, they're dimmed.'"
Students also are pegged as poor, Saffron said, although she notes they'll pay through the nose for rock concerts or sporting events.
"It's just that some students don't want to spend $50 on dinner and a performance if they've never been before," she said.
That's one reason the Pittsburgh Public Theater began to offer significant ticket discounts for young people. Full-time students and anyone under 26 can purchase any seat at the Public for $10. Single-ticket prices range from $42 to $15.
"We saw that when the pricing strategy was put in place and subsequently promoted, the increase in the number of young people was astounding," said Tim Colbert, the Public's communications director.
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, which oversees the Downtown cultural district, offers an "ArtsPass" that allows students to see seven shows in the district for $56. Students can choose from the Public Theater, Gargaro Productions, Pittsburgh Opera, the PSO, the Pittsburgh Dance Council and the Broadway Series.
"No approach is right or wrong," Castelli said when asked which strategy works best. "The important thing is that everyone's trying."
Sometimes it just comes down to getting the word out that attending the arts are acceptable and full of surprises. When Diba Alvi, a 27-year-old opera singer based in Pittsburgh, meets new people her age, she has to tell them an opera singer is not what they thought: "A big, fat woman with horns on her head, holding a spear and just standing there," she said.
"I, for example, am the biggest Penguins fan," she said.
For more information on the opera's Bravo! Club call 412-281-0912; for more on the PSO's "Soundbytes" series, call 412-392-4900; for more on the Cultural Trust's ArtsPass, call 412-471-6070, Ext. 131.
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