Challenge

The San Francisco Symphony hired Landis Communications Inc. to raise positive awareness for Keeping Score, a three-part television series featuring the lives and works of composers Ives, Berlioz and Shostakovich. The PR campaign required a national strategy coupled with a market-by-market approach that relied heavily on this social media campaign.

Tactics

LCI initiated a social media program that addressed the multiple components of the project - television series, Web site, DVDs and educational curriculum - to secure media interest, build awareness and increase viewership. LCI's social media campaign included working with the San Francisco Symphony to develop the Keeping Score online press room and website. LCI utilized the launch of a San Francisco Symphony's social networking site, which attracted more than 2000 new visitors in six months. LCI used the social networking site to post series updates, along with 30-second trailers, music clips and links that drove visitors back to the Keeping Score Season II website. LCI also worked with the San Francisco Symphony to post previews of Keeping Score on YouTube, and promoted the series' digital distribution on as it became available on iTunes and PBS.org. Followers of the Keeping Score Twitter feed received daily updates on the progress of the series, links to video features, tune-in information and media alerts. PBS member stations Tweeted the local tune-in times and dates for Keeping Score to their local Twitter followers.

As the air dates approached, LCI initiated a major blog push, securing an invitation for San Francisco Symphony Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas to contribute multiple posts to "The Huffington Post," which reaches 4.4 million readers a day. All relevant music blogs were pitched and included in all outreach. Finally, for prime SEO, LCI drafted all press releases to include hyperlinked photos, videos and key phrases that fed media directly to the Keeping Score website, Twitter page and social networking sites.

Results

The San Francisco Symphony's Keeping Score project exceeded expectations. LCI secured more than 120 online media placements, including theChicago Tribune online, sfgate.com, Zap2it.com (LA Times site), Sirius XM Radio (satellite radio and online streaming), The Huffington Post, The Washington Post online and "San Francisco Classical Voices" blog, among many others. Through hits such as The Huffington Post, LCI successfully introduced new audiences to Keeping Score and created an opportunity for the San Francisco Symphony to continue to reach these audiences. Gross online impressions totaled more than 300 million. Through LCI's efforts, stories were secured in all target media outlets in all top 20 markets. In addition, 98% of critics responded favorably to the program and more than 3 million viewers tuned in to watch the national telecast.