Exploring social media as a marketing medium for a symphonic orchestra

Abstract

Events are important to communities, the economy, the attendees, and the organisers. It enhances the economy, helps the community grow, and job creation is one of the many positive impacts. Events have various definitions, characteristics, types, and sizes, which makes everyone unique to enjoy the event. Some events are growing old and need to be rejuvenated in some way to increase attendees numbers that will ensure that the event is still sustainable. The events that have a more significant influence on the attendees are any event that involves music such as festivals, concerts, and orchestra performances. The music that is played in these events is ever-changing due to the current attendees changing and evolving with the time. This can influence a music genre in terms of numbers of attendees, growth, or relevance. Music events currently facing a risk of losing relevancy are Symphony orchestras as the needs of the music market are changing, and the mature attendees are aging. The younger market needs to be assessed to determine their willingness to support this genre in the future as that will contribute to the sustainability of Symphony orchestras. Online performances are also readily available, influencing the live performances negatively as the current market is no longer interested in physically attending unless it is a show that they cannot normally attend or is a unique once-in-a-lifetime performance. Various ideas to help these types of events have been contemplated and one of the most cost-effective ways to increase the attendees numbers might be using social media marketing as a medium which is explored in this research. Social media marketing is growing increasingly in relevance and effectiveness; the aim for the symphony orchestra is to obtain more attendees in a more cost-effective way that will not put more pressure on the already tight budgets for Symphony orchestras. To explore social media marketing's effectiveness, an effective advertisement design must be compiled to ensure that the marketing effort attracts more attendees. This study found that only certain colours attract the attention of social media users and encourage them to interact with the sites, the relevant age group that currently attends symphony orchestra performances range from 18 to 84 and videos that have a sound bite of what the orchestra will possibly play will keep the user interested and willing to look through the orchestra social media site.