Target Resource Group

Joffrey Ballet

TRG Consulting Services

Then and Now

The Joffrey Ballet, one of America’s premier dance companies, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, was experiencing severe decline— decreased revenues, dwindling audiences, and financial distress. The situation was exacerbated by lower than desired community visibility, Chicago’s costly media market, Joffrey’s signature mixed repertoire programming (often cited as less audience-friendly than story ballets), and limited company resources.

In 2001, a dynamic new executive team joined the organization and embarked on nothing less than an institutional renovation—to rebuild the company and restore it to its proper place as one of Chicago’s cultural treasures. As part of this turn-around effort, the Joffrey Ballet engaged Target Resource Group (TRG) to help the company achieve subscription revenue growth and bring in much-needed new single ticket patrons to feed the subscription pipeline for future seasons.

TRG has been providing counsel for the rebuilding effort since early 2004. Through bold revenue management strategies and aggressive investments in a diverse media mix our consultants have helped the marketing staff achieve double-digit revenue increases, add valuable new single ticket buyers, and convert those patrons into new subscribers.

Objectives/TRG Counsel

Achieve revenue growth from new patron acquisition.

TRG recommended that Joffrey Ballet prospect for new single ticket buyers (STBs) in the first season (2003-2004), and then target those new patrons for its 2004-2005 subscription campaign. To implement this single ticket growth strategy the organization reactivated house database segments and prospected for new-to-file patrons.

Launch additional revenue management initiatives to optimize revenues.

With the guidance of TRG, Joffrey rescaled its 3,600-seat performance venue and instituted demand-based pricing. The creation of a desirable, lower price-point attracted substantial numbers of new buyers. Their distribution into seating sections that had previously remained empty helped Joffrey performances look well sold.

Further, Joffrey’s implementation of TRG’s sales recommendations helped guide their partners, TicketMaster, and the venue box office, to follow patron demand on popular shows. Upward demand-based pricing produced $40,000 in incremental income for Joffrey’s most recent Nutcracker production alone.

Develop single ticket buyer cultivation programs to build loyalty.

The Joffrey Balled cultivated new-to-file STBs by bringing them back to performances as often as possible throughout the season, thereby building customer loyalty and fostering an affinity for conversion to subscriber status.

Develop an aggressive marketing and advertising programs to attract new single ticket buyers.

TRG suggested a new approach to marketing and advertising: traditional advertising was streamlined, and the media mix, aiming for reach and frequency, was purposefully matched to the type of program being presented.

TRG developed strategic plans for investments in traditional media, such as print, radio, and an extensive direct mail campaign; the mix also employed less traditional means of reaching potential targets, such as online marketing, advertising on Chicago’s transit system, and a test of TV advertising. The cost-of-sale in the short term was appropriately budgeted to be much higher than the norm for each of the four mixed repertoire programs in the first year of TRG’s consultancy.

The Numbers

Between May 2004 and May 2005, and spanning four programs, TRG helped the Joffrey Ballet add more than 2,800 new-to-file STBs. These new patrons contributed to the $840,000 in overall single ticket revenues and led directly to the $52,646 in subscription revenues for 2005-2006. The associated expenses totaled $486,900, or 58% cost-of-sale:

With the help of TRG counsel, total revenues grew 34% over the course of three seasons (2003-2004 to 2005-2006), from $968,090 to $1,297,131

and the total number of units increased by 38%, from 4,647 to 6,477.

Additional Key Results

The conscious decision to invest at a level of 58% on average per show in single ticket marketing—even for audience-challenging programs—paid big dividends. For the short term, single ticket revenues and new-to-file patrons grew significantly, and for the long term, those STBs primed the pipeline for conversion to subscriber status; moreover, these subscribers can be expected to renew at a much lower cost (renewal expense ranges from 2% – 10%) than the cost of acquiring new subscribers (new acquisition expense ranges from 35% – 60%).

Analysis of new subscribers revealed that recency of purchase is one of the key factors in converting STBs to subscribers; i.e., the more recent the single ticket purchase, the greater the likelihood that the buyer will purchase a subscription.

2004-2005 Programs	New STB HHS	2005-2006 Subscriptions Purchases	Response Rate	Subscription Revenue	$ per Name
A Nureyev Tribute October '04	642	17	2.6%	$8,206	$12.78
American Masterworks February '05	567	22	3.9%	$9,176	$16.18
Accent Arpino May '05	550	20	5.3%	$15,874	$28.86
Total	1,759			$33,256	$18.91

Joffrey Ballet continues to work with three divisions of TRG (Consulting Services, Interactive Services, and Database Services) and is one of TRG’s most important clients.

Learn more

For additional information, or to speak to a member of the TRG team, please call (719) 314-5830.