Attracting new audiences through play

Concert programmes for the dreamy connoisseur, the risk-taking adventurer, the inquisitive brain or the tech-savvy curious: with the Concert Finder , the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra is taking an unusual, playful approach to getting new audiences excited about classical music.

The tool, which we developed together, has been online for a year nowdeveloped together - and it is more effective than ever dreamed of.

Ms Rißmann, we often hear that classical concert halls in particular are facing challenges in filling their halls ...

Yes, I don't think we at the Dresden Philharmonie are any different to other concert halls: On the one hand, we are lucky that many visitors - including many subscribers - have been loyal to us for years. On the other hand, this also means that the average age of our audience is estimated to be well over 50. Of course, we endeavour to attract the younger generation or people who are perhaps not at home in the world of classical music. And we do this without diluting our programme, our image and our identity.

Could digital communication help with this?

Of course! But with two challenges: On the one hand, we currently use many communication channels in parallel, from print, which is still well received, to digital. On the other hand, all channels are useless if you don't offer people exactly what they are interested in. This is completely different for an experienced audience than for a new one, which has different needs.

Surveys have helped us a lot to find out more about this. Two major points were actually mentioned that often make access to classical music difficult: Many people have a basic interest in culture, in music, but don't know what to choose. Tchaikovsky? Schubert? If you don't know your way around, you're pretty lost.

The second point is the image of classical music: very formal, very intellectual - from the approach to listening to the dress code. We reply: It's not as quirky as you imagine, you can just come and see us! We also follow this approach in our social media posts.

What role does the concert finder play for you in this whole communication mix?

Well, that was a very deliberate project to help classical music newcomers make a choice and overcome obstacles. Our general idea was to give our visitors, including potential visitors, a completely new opportunity to discover the right concert and the right programme for them in a digital, playful way. We also wanted to use a design thinking approach, with a small target group selection ... And yes, this is where you came in!

Were there no concerns about "boiling down" such a diverse repertoire to a handful of concert types?

Surprisingly not! I presented the idea and the goal behind it internally - it quickly became clear that we would do it. The orchestra also took to it very well. A few times they said: "As a musician, I can't do that much with it, but friends think it's a great idea - so it should work."

After the live performance, there was of course an external feedback loop from the experienced audience and sometimes some uncertainty, but that was quite manageable. There was virtually no resentment, which I had expected at least in part.

What were the biggest challenges for you?

I found that the concert finder was actually introduced relatively smoothly: You solved a lot of worries right away with the great design thinking workshop at the beginning. Everything else - working it out, analysing it, assigning concerts to concert types - went effortlessly. And then there was just the technical realisation.

My big realisation: don't be afraid to try something like this out! Beforehand, I thought: "There are quite a few challenges involved, it's not that easy. How will the audience react?" And reality shows - and not just with this project - that these worries are often unfounded. If you take the plunge, believe in your project with confidence, convince people and then structure it well, it works.

That's a nice realisation! But did the Konzertfinder fulfil your expectations?

Yes, it actually exceeded our expectations! We had hoped that people would see it and try it out. That they would also try out our programme and give us feedback, which we could then take on board. What we hadn't expected was that a lot of concert tickets would be bought via the concert finder.

The tool has now been running for a year. Just over 10,000 users have allowed us to track them since then - and almost one in six of them alone has bought a ticket, which is incredible. When we ask: "How did you find out about us?", the concert finder plays a much bigger role than we thought. What we can also see: Almost two thirds of these purchases come from completely new or occasional customers - that has also worked amazingly well.

So you now see different faces in the concert hall than before?

Yes, I think we all have that feeling here. This is particularly noticeable in the "short concerts" format, which we also advertise in many other places: The audience there is noticeably younger and dresses very individually - sometimes you still enter the hall wearing a bicycle helmet. This is also noticeable at the symphony concerts at 7 pm on Friday evenings, or with the U30 tickets that we sell.

Even the slight fear that new customers might - to exaggerate - eat popcorn loudly was completely unfounded: They are incredibly focussed and insanely attentive. Ok, of course they sometimes clap between sentences ...

How will the journey with the concert finder continue?

One thing is clear: it works, we're keeping it. But can we perhaps develop it further? Perhaps we can become a little more granular in the categorisations and thus incorporate a little more musical profile, also for the more experienced audience. Perhaps we could become even more multimodal. We have already added audio samples to the proposed programme - perhaps it would be feasible to read these with AI and then say: "If you like this, you might also like that". Basically, we would like to orientate ourselves on current technical developments and expand the concert finder a little, make it even more attractive.

Does the Concert Finder also have an influence on the public image of the Dresden Philharmonic?

Yes, absolutely: our surveys, such as the question "What attributes would you ascribe to us? We scored huge plus points for topics such as innovation, openness, cordiality, i.e. a welcoming culture. We are seen as an orchestra that is of extremely high quality, but also inviting and that anyone can try out. Tools like this help a lot to establish such an image.

The concert finder as an image-shaping tool?

Absolutely. Incidentally, this has not only been welcomed by the audience, but also by the press - even by otherwise critical voices. Everyone always agrees that culture is important and that we absolutely need a new audience for it. At the same time, however, there is always the fear that when we do something new, it will be received negatively.

But we've really only had positive experiences: everyone - the audience, internally and generally everyone around us - has perceived Konzertfinder as a great, innovative opportunity to invite new audiences from the very beginning.