Creative Promotion Idea – Leverage YouTube and Your Local Press

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) made news this week with a publicity stunt that involved members of the Washington Opera’s Young Artists Program breaking into  song in the middle of WholeFoods produce aisle. The grocery store, located in HarborEast, became the stage for an impromptu performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Traviata,” aimed at promoting the Symphony’s upcoming weekend engagements with the opera company. You can see the video of the event here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-STnVJlWf_o

Laura Farmer, the BSO’s public relations manager, was interviewed by The Baltimore Sun: “For Baltimore’s opera-starved audiences, it’s time to get opera into new venues and places you wouldn’t expect to hear it sung.”

The Sun also interviewed Pat Crossland-Smith, a customer who witnessed the performance. She stated: “It was exciting and a fun change of pace. I’ve never been an opera lover. But, after seeing this performance, maybe now I’ll consider it.”

Farmer also hinted that the BSO would stage further spectacles in the coming months. Her quote to The Sun is a point that all museums should also take to heart: “We hope to do more in the future to break down barriers between performers and our audiences.”

What can your museums do to break down barriers between your institutions and your audiences? The BSO demonstrates that thinking out of the box is key – although only a few dozen people were on hand at the store that day to catch the performance, the local news stations covered it and showed the video to thousands of Baltimorians. The YouTube video was distributed on the BSO’s Facebook page and Twitter feed and has received over 7,000 views as of this posting. A similar event held in Spain, which gave Farmer the idea, had received over 3 million YouTube views.

The goal of such an event need not necessarily be the number of views worldwide on YouTube, especially if yours is a smaller local museum. The idea is to get your product in front of audiences who may not have come in contact with you before. So hit your local mall or grocery store during peak hours and start drawing attention to yourself. Maybe the tv cameras will show up. If they don’t, have someone film you on their phone and post that homemade video to YouTube. You can achieve the same viral, word-of-mouth traffic the BSO did. They have to fill 2,443 seats a night. If your goal is to increase you attendance by 100, a scaled-down stunt will work just fine.

The point is to be thinking outside of the box when it comes to marketing your programs. How can you mix it up and “break down the barriers” between you and your audience?