Building a Stronger Marketing Flywheel To Drive Ticket Sales for Toronto Symphony Orchestra

Rather than relying on higher media spend to drive growth, Capacity focused on making every stage of the customer journey work harder. This season’s strategy expanded how audiences discovered TSO, gave them more opportunities to engage before purchasing, strengthened retargeting throughout the season, and created more relevant creative for every platform. The result was a stronger marketing flywheel—one where each interaction built momentum for the next, driving strong results and more efficient growth across platforms.

*Data reflects campaign performance from July 1, 2025 – June 5, 2026

Attract

The first step was expanding the top of the funnel to introduce more prospective concertgoers to TSO.

Capacity expanded lead generation campaigns for memberships, group sales, and other offerings, and also increased investment in Reddit and introduced Connected TV (CTV) as a new awareness channel.

One of the season’s biggest discoveries was Reddit’s acquisition performance. After two years of optimization, Reddit delivered a top-of-funnel cost per purchase only $2 higher than Meta, a channel TSO has spent years developing. Its combination of niche community targeting, AI-powered audience options, and long-form storytelling formats made it a valuable addition to the media mix.

CTV helped broaden awareness with a brand-forward campaign featuring Beethoven’s Ninth, introducing audiences to TSO through premium video placements. Even with awareness as its primary objective, the channel delivered a positive return on investment.

Engage

Once audiences discovered TSO, the focus shifted to building stronger relationships and creating more opportunities to purchase.

We expanded website and engagement retargeting, created bundled campaigns that highlighted multiple performances, increased article-driven storytelling, and launched campaigns for major programs like Pops and Specials earlier in the buying cycle.

One of the season’s most impactful changes was introducing early multi-wave campaigns for high-demand performances. Initial campaign waves generated strong key page view rates and captured early purchasers while building valuable retargeting audiences for later promotional waves. The approach proved so effective that several campaigns were paused early because seat inventory became limited.

These efforts gave audiences more time to consider performances while continually moving them closer to purchase.

Convert

The flywheel ultimately exists to drive ticket sales, making conversion-focused campaigns a critical part of the strategy.

Capacity increased investment in Google Paid Search, continued to capitalize on major on-sale moments, and expanded dedicated event campaigns after previous seasons showed they consistently outperformed broader promotional efforts.

We also restructured Google’s full-funnel strategy by shifting video investment from traditional YouTube campaigns to Demand Gen. The new approach maintained YouTube’s video reach while creating stronger opportunities for conversion throughout Google’s ecosystem.

The result was a 127% increase in Google ROI, while Paid Search remained the organization’s highest revenue-producing channel with an exceptional $4 cost per acquisition.

Delight

The flywheel doesn’t end at purchase. Happy attendees become future buyers and help fuel continued growth.

Throughout the season, Capacity launched 18 thank-you campaigns following performances. Despite modest budgets of approximately $100 each, every campaign ranked among the highest-engagement campaigns of the year, averaging a 2% engagement rate compared to a typical 0.25%. (Bonus: nearly every campaign also drove additional attributed purchases and generated a positive return on investment.)

We also significantly increased creative production across channels, giving campaigns more platform-specific assets and more opportunities for audiences to engage and share. As creative continues to play a larger role in campaign performance, this increased volume helped improve both reach and effectiveness throughout the marketing funnel.