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the past five years, ANTHONY KNERR & ASSOCIATES
has provided continuing counsel on improving the visibility
of the Salzburg
Festival in the United States, strengthening its
American Friends organization and establishing its
first global development initiative.
The Festival has played a particularly vibrant role
in the musical and operatic life of Europe and has
long been the world’s premier music festival.
It regularly presents an extraordinary array of opera,
orchestral, choral and chamber concerts, solo recitals
and theatre by the world’s leading musicians,
directors, artists and actors in July and August each
summer. The
American Friends of the Salzburg Festival was
founded in 1987 to enhance the experience of Americans
attending the Festival and to provide a way for Americans
to make tax-deductible gifts to the Festival.
Under the sponsorship of a leading American patron
of the Festival, our first assignment was to design
and implement a highly focused, multi-year marketing
plan. Working closely with the leadership of the Festival,
this plan sought to meet four interrelated goals:
improving the visibility of the Festival in the United
States, increasing the number of Americans attending
the Festival, expanding the membership in the American
Friends organization and growing the financial support
of the Festival by American Friends.
There has been excellent progress in each of these
areas, with the result that American interest in,
and support of, the Festival has substantially grown
each year. Over the past five years, total ticket
sales to Americans has increased by over 50%; the
membership of the American Friends has almost tripled;
and total voluntary support by Americans to the Festival
has grown five-fold.
| Over
the past five years, total ticket
sales to Americans has increased by
over 50%; the membership of the American
Friends has almost tripled; and total
voluntary support by Americans to
the Festival has grown five-fold. |
|
|
To
raise the profile of the Festival in the United States,
we designed and oversaw the implementation of an integrated
program that included development of a graphic identity
for the Festival in the United States; development
of an American Friends web-site; and design of print
advertisements in leading publications. The program
also included sponsorship of radio broadcasts of Festival
orchestral and solo performances and a concerted media
initiative. In addition, services to members have
been broadened and deepened through a series of educational
symposia during the Festival, the addition of staff
based in New York and Salzburg and the updating of
the American Friends web-site to include streaming
of selected symposia.
Our original assignment was subsequently broadened
to develop an American-style development capacity
within the Festival itself, in order to increase substantially
private funding on a global basis. In this phase,
we provided counsel to the President of the Festival,
Helga Rabl-Stadler, on the design and structure of
a new development office, recruitment of leadership
and principal staff of the new office, development
of the Festival’s first comprehensive international
development plan and execution of the development
plan. Early results of this initiative are highly
favorable: total revenues from corporate sponsorships
have increased by over 35%; contributions from individuals
have tripled; and the pool of prospective donors and
supporters has more than quadrupled over the past
two years.
We are providing continuing counsel to both the Festival
and the American Friends on an array of strategic,
development, communications and visibility matters.
With our assistance, the Festival has realized significant,
focused progress in positioning, visibility and funding.
The Festival has achieved high name recognition in
the US and ticket sales for the 2002 Festival are
at unprecedented levels. In addition, substantial
new private support from both individuals and corporate
sponsorships is generating significant incremental
resources as public funding becomes more constrained.
These achievements will enable the Festival to deepen
its artistic leadership and undertake significant
capital construction over the coming years.
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