01 Maria de Buenos Aires

 

February 2023

 

Opera Columbus

 

Maria de Buenos Aires

The First-Ever Spanish Opera in Columbus Ohio

Opera Columbus presented Maria de Buenos Aires in February 2023. This steamy, Spanish opera was a major collaboration with the community in Columbus - from local fashion designers, to restaurants to tango dance studios! 

Our marketing for this opera was bi-lingual (Spanish and English!) which allowed us to reach a new audience within Columbus, many of whom have returned for additional performances.

Maria de Buenos Aires was Opera Columbus' biggest box office success in the past 10 years, and 21% of the audience members experienced opera for the first-time. 

CONTENT CREATION

Our followers love to take a peek behind the curtain and catch a glimpse of opera behind-the-scenes and to feel a part of the production! At Opera Columbus, I create engaging and visually compelling content for all of our social media channels that shares the process of producing an opera and offers opportunities for the community to get to know the people behind these operatic roles. 

One way we do this is through our OC podcast called "Opera-isms" where we invite singers, directors, designers and more to join us and share their journey in the opera world, talk about their favorite places in Columbus, the show we are producing, and explain common opera terms to the audience. 

We also invite our creatives and staff to do "Instagram Story Takeovers" where they take our followers for a day-in-their-life journey through our Instagram account via video and photos, answer questions and show the behind-the-scenes of the rehearsal process.

In addition to this fun content, I also spearhead our rehearsal photography (both hired and personal), cast photoshoots, and stage photography. 

DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY

From newsletters to social media campaigns to digital ads, our strategy is based in three key elements: 

  1. Educating our Audience about the Show
  2. Showing the Process
  3. Uplifting Opera Columbus' Brand

We have found that many people in Columbus might not know opera like they may know a Broadway show like Wicked or Mamma Mia. Building excitement and interest in an opera begins with explaining and connecting the show with things in pop culture that people know and love, like whether the plot is similar to a TV show, making playlists for a character, relating the costumes to a fashion era, and more.

Something all marketers can agree on - is that people love to see and interact with real people. At Opera Columbus, we limit our static graphic design posts and focus on curating content that showcases actual people through rehearsal photos, pre-recorded content and behind-the-scenes sneak peeks

Finally, increasing our brand awareness is major priority in all our marketing strategies. At Opera Columbus, we are taking opera off its "high class" or "stuffy" pedestal, and invite our audiences to "make it yours"! This is not your traditional opera, we purposefully take a unique approach. For example, there is no dress codes for our shows so we have some people dress to the nines and some come in jeans. Our audiences are welcome to eat, drink , take photos and more at our shows. And we encourage our audiences to engage with and be an active participant in the opera - clap, cry, laugh!

GRAPHIC DESIGN

For each main stage show, Opera Columbus offers pre-show events to help our audiences engage with the show - from SALON, Coffee with the Creative Team, Drag Shows and more! I create the graphics and marketing posters for all of these events. 

Grassroots marketing is one of our top marketing pillars at Opera Columbus. For each show, I create flyers that highlight the show, cast and connections/reasons why the community should come to the show. We place these flyers at local coffee shops, libraries and community spaces. We also go door-to-door flyering with these show flyers throughout Columbus suburbs. 

One of my biggest projects for each show is to create the program. I collect all of the assets, design, finalize and coordinate printing for the program for all of Opera Columbus' main stage shows.

AUDIENCE EXPERIENCE

To further the audience experience, we invited them to arrive to the theatre early and dance on the stage. We even had some of our tango dancers come out early to teach them a couple of steps!

 

01 Maria de Buenos Aires

 

WORK
Content Creation
Digital Marketing Strategy
Graphic Design
Audience Experience
Partnerships and Community Collaboration

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