Challenge
San Francisco Ballet hired LCI to raise the national visibility of the company with a 75th Anniversary campaign that not only heralded its rich history but celebrated its innovations in the world of dance. Surprisingly, most influencers and media did not know that San Francisco is home to “America’s oldest ballet company.”
Strategy
With declining arts coverage in mind, LCI leveraged the 75th Anniversary news hook and “oldest ballet company” message as an opportunity to plan and execute a New York media tour which laid the foundation for national coverage. The 75th anniversary itself, as well as the New Works Festival, which featured world premiere works from 10 distinguished choreographers, provided an opportunity for LCI to target top tier media outlets. Results ran in such publications as Vanity Fair, New York Times, Elle Magazine, Playbill and Town and Country.
LCI’s recommendation locally was to acquaint San Francisco Chronicle’s Editorial Board as well as entertainment, society and style editors with the significance of the Company on both a regional and international scale. LCI set up editorial board meetings with important print media, suggesting story ideas for on-going editorial coverage. Blogger outreach included a “bloggers only” event for the seasonal Nutcracker performance to introduce the new media journalists to the company.
Results
LCI’s efforts contributed to record box office sales, and successfully raised both the visibility of the company and identity of the San Francisco Ballet as America’s oldest ballet company — resulting in national media coverage as well as new introductions and relationships facilitated at more than 20 major outlets including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Architectural Digest, Harper’s Bazaar, Seventeen, Vanity Fair and CBS Sunday Morning, among others.
Increased attention to national and local online media was rewarded with a 5% raise in coverage from the previous season.