How the New York Philharmonic Is Evolving Its Audience Strategies

The New York Philharmonic experience is undoubtedly one of the most incredible experiences you can have in New York City. So much so that it has created a remarkably passionate community of supporters over the years. I was lucky enough to recently spend some time with arts and culture marketing maven Lisa Grow, who is currently VP of marketing and customer experience at the NY Phil, to get her take on the success of this iconic brand and its deep-rooted impact on so many audiences. It was a true pleasure, and I think you will really enjoy her valuable insights.

Damian Bazadona: Describe what you think it means to be a “fan” of the New York Philharmonic. For those who aren’t part of the community, one might assume it’s a singular identity of people who have a deep passion for classical music specifically or only come from certain demographics. Have you watched the definition of what constitutes a fan evolve over the years?

Lisa Grow: There is no one definition for who a fan of the NY Phil is. There are a lot of generalizations about what a fan of classical music or a NY Phil fan looks like—grey-haired, high household income, a certain level of education, etc. Of course, if you look at the demographic background of subscribers at many organizations, one can say that generalization is true at the moment. But it’s important that we expand the definitions of “fan” and “community.” If we limit ourselves to defining fandom as a repeat, high volume, in-person customer, we miss out on a wide array of self-defined fans—someone across the country listening to our rich back catalogue of recordings, a child being exposed to one of our many educational programs, a ticket buyer who may only come once a year on a special occasion but is an active part of our social media community. 

I think the classical music “community” stereotype has many barriers, like an insider club where you need to know everything about the music or artists, where the cost of entry is high both financially and emotionally—”What do I wear?” “Do I belong?” Of course, we love our core classical music fans who nerd out on our social media pages or dig into our archives, but we need to balance the niche with the new. As a leader in the nonprofit performing arts world, we are striving to create an inclusive space where these generalizations can be broken down—a 360-degree approach where everyone can be a fan, at the level they choose, and that shift needs to be organization wide—programming, partnerships, marketing, customer experience and more. 

Over the years, the general concept of a fan has shifted from one-sided fandom to a two-sided relationship. Organizations need to give back to their fans, listen to them—even if we don’t like what we hear—and give back to our community. I am lucky enough to have many years of survey work and audience studies to help understand who our fans are, but it is so incredibly important to listen to our fans. The performing arts industry can also learn from other industries in terms of fan engagement—think of Beyoncé’s surprise album drops, or limited-edition merchandise at Comic-Con, or the personalized Spotify Wrapped year in review. 

Founded in 1842, NY Phil is one of New York City’s oldest institutions. How have you approached maintaining the longstanding traditions that many of your fans may have come to know and love while expanding your approach to reach new audiences?

When I first joined the NY Phil in 2017, I learned about so many traditions, both external and internal. Our history is so rich, and luckily, so much is documented and you can be overwhelmed by the history—whether watching videos of Young People’s Concerts with the iconic Leonard Bernstein or marketing materials for subscriber clubs from the 1980s. While we celebrate and maintain traditions, it’s important that we make room to create new ones. Some people view “legacy” or “legacy brands” as negative qualities these days. But if we actively question our past, we not only build upon it, but truly understand who we are today and how and where we need to change, as well as what we should celebrate about our past—sharing those things with audiences both new and tenured. 

We have programs that are 50-plus years old—Concerts in the Parks, Young People’s Concerts—and others that will be new this coming season, including a pay-what-you-want NY Phil @ Noon series, which takes place in the new Sidewalk Studio in the just-renovated David Geffen Hall opening in October 2022, including a digital wall in the new lobby on which people can watch live concerts. And while programming is a key part of reaching new audiences, the way we communicate this programming has shifted over the years. While just listing composers and works may be effective for a segment of our audience, in this crowded space we need to meet people where they are—both from a placement perspective, but also in messaging and content that places value on the experience.

There are also composers creating incredible new music today. NY Phil has always supported contemporary composers, and it’s our responsibility to expand the classical music canon to bring in new audiences and educate and expose our audiences to new sounds, composers and artists. We have also found that meaningful partnerships with other organizations across New York City and literally giving a stage to these partners not only creates a deeper relationship with communities in the city, but is a moment for us to learn and listen as an organization. 

The 2022-23 season kicks off a self-described new chapter for the NY Phil through programming that “engages with today’s cultural conversations” and focuses on “revitalizing connections with New York City communities.” Why did it feel important to bring both of those things into focus for this season?

In October 2022, we return “home” to David Geffen Hall, but it will be an entirely new hall—a renovation in partnership with Lincoln Center, opening almost two years ahead of schedule. While this is an incredibly important moment for us, it is certainly not an “If you build it, they will come” scenario. Of course, for some fans who have been waiting for this project to come to fruition, it will be. But this is an opportunity to engage a new audience and the broader New York City community—and a new hall is not enough. Our programming needed to reflect today’s conversations, so we are focusing on four themes this coming season: “home,” with a month-long opening featuring community partners and new works; “liberation,” exploring themes of social justice; “spirit,” focusing on the human spirit; and “earth,” which tackles the important subject of the climate crisis.

Relevance is incredibly important for arts organizations—how do we connect with people? How do we encourage a meaningful experience? Along with these programming themes, we will also feature popular programming such as Jurassic Park in Concert, part of our Art of the Score film series, which historically brings in the most new-to-file audience members each season. The season also introduces new series which push the genre boundaries a bit for us, as well as audience favorites. It is important to acknowledge that the audience journey is not linear and to provide many points of entry to this season and to the NY Phil in general.

The variety of programming is important, but so is the marketing and communication, which will include new ticketing programs and new partnerships. We also recently launched a rebrand, which was a research-forward process aiming to help us connect with a wider audience by exploring not only our visual identity but how we communicate. The in-person experience will also be pivotal, which is why we are working with our partners at Lincoln Center to redefine the concert-going experience to create a welcoming environment. Beyond the in-person experience, we aim to be a part of shifting the general perception of classical music and cultural arts organizations—that we can embrace change and be a part of society’s dialogue. 

How did the pandemic shift how you keep the passion of your community alive? Did you learn anything new about what your fans crave most about what you give? How do you keep them engaged outside of the theater?

Like most organizations, the pandemic forced us to become a content distribution studio overnight. At first, we looked at our calendar and shifted what we could to online. We launched an online Mahler festival, which included a partnership with Google Arts & Culture; a mini-festival that featured Instagram Live broadcasts with a mixologist and a DJ, who is also a member of our Orchestra; along with many other digital events. We were also very lucky to have our incredible musicians creating content in their homes, launching NY Phil Plays On, which provided content to our audiences when we could not gather in person, including activities for kids that were home all day—videos like Bolero, which featured many Orchestra members from their homes, and others.

We eventually launched NYPhil+, which we based on what people were engaging with at home—Disney+, Netflix, Hulu. Instead of modeling it off a per-concert model like a live event, we priced it at a low, monthly cost for access to hours of content. We learned much about our fans’ viewing behavior, which is informing our content strategy now that we are back in person. But we also paid attention to our fans who were not engaging with this content and reached out to them with postcards of notes from our musicians and holiday messages by, yes, direct mail. It was incredibly important to not leave any of our audiences behind in a time where they could not engage with us as they typically do. 

When it became a bit safer to be outside, we launched NY Phil Bandwagon—a series of pull-up concerts across the city where the goal was to bring music to our neighbors. We learned a lot during this program including the importance of cultivating partnerships, which led to NY Bandwagon 2, where we shared the stage—a 20-foot long mobile shipping container—with partners across the city. This program, created with countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, gave us perspective in continuing to build on the important work our Education and Community department has been doing for years, which is developing a platform for partners with the goal of meaningful audience development. This season and next, we are working with many of these partners to develop programs including a new Community Partners-in-Residence program.

What we learned from all of this is that what our audiences crave from us varies by person and it is important to show up where they need us most. Whether it was on their screens or on their corner, we explored what audience engagement can look like without traditional stages to perform upon, and I believe we are a stronger organization because of the flexibility we maintained during this extremely difficult time. 

In the size of a tweet, I would love a look into the Lisa Grow crystal ball: “The future of arts and cultural experiences looks _______.”

The future of arts and cultural experience looks varied depending on the work the org puts into true audience development. Relevance will only come if we are willing to roll up our sleeves. There are incredible opportunities for the arts to open doors, minds and hearts.

I think the classical music “community” stereotype has many barriers, like an insider club where you need to know everything about the music or artists, where the cost of entry is high both financially and emotionally—”What do I wear?” “Do I belong?” Of course, we love our core classical music fans who nerd out on our social media pages or dig into our archives, but we need to balance the niche with the new. As a leader in the nonprofit performing arts world, we are striving to create an inclusive space where these generalizations can be broken down—a 360-degree approach where everyone can be a fan, at the level they choose, and that shift needs to be organization wide—programming, partnerships, marketing, customer experience and more. 

Over the years, the general concept of a fan has shifted from one-sided fandom to a two-sided relationship. Organizations need to give back to their fans, listen to them—even if we don’t like what we hear—and give back to our community. I am lucky enough to have many years of survey work and audience studies to help understand who our fans are, but it is so incredibly important to listen to our fans. The performing arts industry can also learn from other industries in terms of fan engagement—think of Beyoncé’s surprise album drops, or limited-edition merchandise at Comic-Con, or the personalized Spotify Wrapped year in review.