Clients / Carnegie Hall

Turning Holiday Programming into Streaming Engagement for Carnegie Hall+

Services We Provided:

With one-third of the previous year’s budget, we helped Carnegie Hall+ turn holiday programming into efficient engagement and action.

8%

key page view rate

$0.21

cost per key page view

264

clicks to exit

$7.58

cost per click to exit

Carnegie Hall+ brings performances from Carnegie Hall and leading stages around the world directly to streaming audiences. For its holiday campaign, Capacity needed to connect audiences with a collection of seasonal programming while making a limited media budget work harder.

Rather than treating the holiday collection as a single message, we used a range of video creative to give audiences a taste of the programming itself. That approach helped Carnegie Hall+ generate 9,503 key page views and 264 clicks to exit to subscription provider sites, signaling intent to subscribe.

The campaign also gave us something just as valuable: clear signals about which content moved audiences from discovery toward deeper consideration.

How we did it

Carnegie Hall+ Holiday Trailer

Using a Cultural Moment to Drive Content Discovery

Carnegie Hall+ programming gives us opportunities to connect marketing with moments already relevant to audiences, including holidays, composer birthdays, and other cultural events.

For the holiday campaign, we leaned into that natural connection. The creative featured programming including the Vienna Boys Choir, Christmas Oratorio, and other seasonal performances, alongside a broader campaign trailer.

This strategy gave audiences more than just a description of the streaming service. The videos showed them what they could actually watch on the platform.

The campaign delivered 118,678 impressions and more than 9,500 key page views. The overall key page view rate reached 8%, at an efficient $0.21 per view.

Compared with the previous year, the campaign generated lower conversion volume but stronger conversion rates and greater efficiency while working with approximately one-third of the media budget.

Different Creative, Different Jobs

With multiple videos running within one campaign, we could look beyond overall performance to understand how individual pieces of content moved audiences at different stages of their journey. The results showed that different creative could play distinct roles, from inspiring deeper exploration to moving viewers closer to subscription.

Creative 1 Creative 2 Creative 3

Christmas Tree Concert

Drove deeper exploration
10.4% key page view rate
8.4% click-through rate

–

The Christmas Tree Concert video was especially effective at encouraging audiences to explore further, generating the campaign’s highest key page view rate among meaningfully funded creative.

Christmas Oratorio

Drove action and sharing
94 clicks to exit
216 shares

–

Christmas Oratorio generated the campaign’s highest volume of clicks to exit while also earning the most shares, showing its ability to inspire both deeper action and organic engagement.

CH+ Holiday Trailer

Moved audiences toward subscription
0.40% click-to-exit rate
74 clicks to exit

–

The trailer was particularly efficient at moving audiences toward the next step.

There wasn’t one piece of creative that did every job best. Looking at performance across the campaign gave us a clearer picture of how individual programs influenced different audience behaviors.

Those insights help inform more than media optimization. They give Carnegie Hall+ a stronger understanding of which content can capture attention, encourage exploration, inspire sharing, or move audiences closer to subscribing, creating a foundation for smarter content and campaign decisions over time.

Finding Efficiency Deeper in the Journey

Driving traffic was only part of the goal. We also wanted to understand whether audiences showed intent to continue beyond the Carnegie Hall+ landing page and toward the subscription platform.

The campaign generated 264 clicks to exit at a 0.22% rate. Each click cost $7.58.

For a streaming service with an annual subscription valued around $95, that gave Carnegie Hall+ an efficient way to move interested audiences closer to subscribing, while gathering insights that could inform future campaigns.

Those results also reinforced the value of giving audiences multiple ways into a rich catalog. Recognizable programming can capture attention, while creative showcasing the broader collection can help audiences understand the depth of what a streaming service has to offer.

Turning Campaign Performance Into Content Strategy

Our work with Carnegie Hall+ extends beyond optimizing media against a single KPI. We use campaign performance to understand which programming, artists, and creative approaches connect with audiences, then bring those insights into future strategy.

Across Carnegie Hall+ campaigns, we’ve seen that different content can serve different goals. Recognizable artists can create strong entry points for audiences. Culturally timed collections can make an extensive catalog feel immediately relevant. And creative that lets audiences experience the programming can give them a stronger reason to keep exploring.

That allows paid media to evolve beyond a marketing channel into a way to learn what audiences respond to and use those insights to sharpen future campaigns.

The Takeaway

The Carnegie Hall+ Holiday campaign showed what’s possible when timely programming, strong creative, and focused media strategy work together.

With approximately one-third of the previous year’s budget, the campaign improved efficiency and conversion rates while revealing how different pieces of content influenced audience behavior. Those insights give Carnegie Hall+ more than one successful campaign. They provide a stronger foundation for reaching the right audiences with the right programming in the moments when it matters most.

Capacity helps arts and culture organizations turn audience insights into smarter marketing strategies. Connect with us to get started.

1K HIGH-INTENT

Email addresses

Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University

CI worked with the Academy of Natural Sciences to develop a contest entry strategy for lead generation using a native Meta ad format (instead of using a third-party platform or apps).

For A Holiday Classic

Boston Ballet

Boston Ballet partnered with Capacity to develop a multi-channel digital strategy for its holiday production—expanding reach, attracting new audiences, and driving record-breaking revenue.

For YoY Increases Across Metrics

American Conservatory Theater

During the 2023-24 season, A.C.T. committed to a more expansive and diversified digital media strategy, including incorporating Performance Max (PMax) campaigns within the Google landscape, and adding a media investment on Spotify. These strategic shifts resulted in far more efficient results and greater, more cost-effective reach that exceeded the increase in spend.