How We Helped the Mondavi Center Drive Revenue for Post-Holiday Performances

Our approach

January is a notoriously quiet month in the arts. Audiences are recovering from the excitement of the holidays but are still deciding whether to dive into plans for the new year. If you’re a performing arts center with a packed programming lineup, though, you can’t take a breather.

AN EXPANSIVE STRATEGY FOR EXPANSIVE PROGRAMMING

Located on the UC Davis campus, the Mondavi Center presents a range of programming with an eye toward diverse cultures and disciplines. The organization offers an average of 100 performances annually and welcomes more than 100,000 audience members from across the region. With such a packed calendar, marketing has no time to slow down.

At the start of the new year, Mondavi needed to promote a slew of January and February events that ranged wildly in artistic genres. Guests included comedian Tig Notaro, jazz singer Cécile McLorin Salvant, and author and journalist Nina Totenberg.

As Mondavi’s digital partners since 2016, we understood the best social tactics to support their expansive programming. In partnership with their marketing team, we devised a wide-reaching Meta campaign with three key tenets:

1. Cast a wide net

Since the programming covered many genres, we tapped into Mondavi’s first-party data and used Meta’s behavioral and interest-based options. We promoted content to a range of interests, from “classical music” to “folk and bluegrass” to “humor.”

2. Utilize first-party data

We kicked off the campaign with a carousel post ideated by Mondavi’s marketing team, and worked with them to serve only to their email list, keeping costs low while targeting the people most likely to buy. We timed this post to coincide with a direct mail piece, which helped keep Mondavi top of mind for this audience.

3. Work with the algorithm

We served audiences outside of Mondavi’s email list a similar post that turned the still images from the carousel into a slideshow. This tactic provided two benefits: