26% jump in subscription revenue after TRG Workshop

GOAL: 

The Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts wanted to increase subscription revenue by improving retention rates among upgraded and lapsed subscribers. In addition, the Center had made changes to the scale-of-hall and pricing, and the biggest package was now an 8-show package instead of a 7-show package. Staff was concerned that patrons would not renew at a rate as high as previous years. The Center also wanted to communicate the changes and sell more through a well-planned campaign.

METHOD:

In February of 2012, the Center engaged TRG for one-day Campaign Planning workshop with the consulting team in Colorado Springs.

IN HER WORDS:

Nicole Cook, Director of Marketing & Communications, reported the early results of the campaign:
We have had a FABULOUS start and we attribute it to our new campaign and the work we did with TRG (as well as a great season, of course.)
1. We managed to go out with our campaign almost 2 weeks earlier than last year. Nine weeks into the campaign, we were $63,000 ahead of the same campaign week last year—up 246 subscribers in our 8-show package and 211 subs overall. WOW!
2. We renewed 81% of our 8-show subscriptions before the brochure even dropped with a letter and an incentive to waive the fee.
3. We did a “chocolate renewal”—we gave away cakes (delicious) that were mostly donated and did I mention delicious? That brought in almost $24,000 at the renewal table over 5 shows. Subscribers loved them and we sold a lot of new subscriptions as well as a result.
4. We focused on lapsed subscribers by sending a faux renewal (invoice with actual seats) to this segment and tripled our conversion rate of lapsed subscribers vs. the prior year.
We’ve gotten a lot of compliments on the clarity of messaging on the brochure—and people are really mentioning the 8 for 6 deal, so the message is clearly getting communicated. Thanks for pushing us on that—it’s really working.

UPDATED RESULTS:

As of the end of November 2012, Annenberg had surpassed their goal and is $102,000 (26%) ahead of the same campaign week last year—up 178 subscribers (18%) in their 8-show package and 384 subscribers overall (18%). Best news of all: With the increase in large-package subscriptions came a corresponding increase in revenue per subscription—sustaining income through heightened patron loyalty.