SoundBox in San Francisco is introducing a new audience to classical music.
SoundBox in San Francisco was developed to draw a new audience to the symphony and, through trial and error, the San Francisco Symphony has been making great progress. The new “symphony nightclub” was among showcases presented in Tessitura’s Innovator Series Live™, which spotlights new ideas that originate in its diverse network of members to address industry questions and issues, share best practices and show off forward thinking. In its third year, the Innovator Series uses live webinars and YouTube videos to reach thousands of industry professionals around the world.
Last December, the San Francisco Symphony opened SoundBox in an attempt to tackle an issue many arts organizations know all too well, how to attract a younger, more diversified audience to classical music.
“We looked around and realized we had this big black space open to us,” said Russell Kelban, the symphony’s chief marketing director. “Maybe we can experiment there, rather than experimenting in this huge 2,700-seat hall. This smaller space is like a blank canvas and can hold about 500 people. But it was also very critical that the San Francisco Symphony musicians had to play a role; they had to be a part of the process.”
The black box venue — transformed from an underused opera rehearsal stage in Davies Symphony Hall into a popup nightclub space — sold out all five shows of its first season and attracted an audience of broad household incomes, one-third of which was under 35 years old. With $25 tickets and a reputation for the eclectic, SoundBox “broke the rules” not only in programming, but also with its full bar that served craft cocktails throughout the entire show, a show where fans were encouraged to use their mobile devices to record performances, tweet and share their experiences while it was actually happening.
“One of the goals was to use this as an experimental space and see what we could apply to the main hall and use that to attract a younger audience,” said Kelban. “SoundBox is very young, so we’re not ready to do that, that’s why we’re keeping those brands separate. We’re going to figure out what we can sort of cherry pick and apply so we can start introducing that younger audience to classical music in our main hall.
Each show was divided into three acts with two, 20-minute intermissions built in to provide time for people to socialize and post to social media. Paper programs were done away with in favor of a SoundBox app that fans were encouraged to download. Art installations, custom videos for each performance and a sense of mystery added to the appeal and created something irresistible across a variety of demographics.
“Even though one-third of the audience is under 35, that leaves two-thirds,” said Kelban. “Those of us that are north of 35 are also folks that are open to new art forms and experimentation and are very social. We want that mix, we just want a higher percentage of under 35 than we have in the main hall.”
Marketing was limited almost exclusively to social media platforms, besides a few posters and chalk advertisements around town. They approached marketing as a partnership with the fans, relying on them to post their own images and video and spread the word that way. Kelban said they pushed out some of their own material but mostly sought to start a dialogue with their fans and then let them run with it.
“I think that’s different from the traditional symphony experience that maybe doesn’t require knowledge about the product, but assumes a baseline level of knowledge or interest as you’re selecting what concerts to go to,” said Richard Lonsdorf, artistic administrator. “In some ways, we left a lot of mystery about the program until they descended into the space.”
As they continue to build the San Francisco Symphony SoundBox brand and further define what that looks like, Kelban said they will also be looking to attract a more ethnically diverse audience. They plan to allocate part of their marketing budget specifically for multicultural outreach in a strategic effort to draw a larger Latino and Asian-American audience.
“We still have plenty of active conversations about is this SoundBox or is this not SoundBox?” said Lonsdorf. “It’ll take a while to really solidify exactly what it is, because I think even in its second season we’re going to try to still do new things, in order to keep pushing the boundaries and almost figure out where the line is in some ways. I think that daring experimentation is part of it.”