Tag Archives: questionable marketing tactics

October 3, 2014 · 6:07 pm

Naked Nymphs and the Atlanta Symphony

A provocatively titled blog post made the rounds the other day: “Maybe Atlanta Symphony Should Lock Out Its Marketing Department Instead.” It included a link to the Atlanta Symphony brochure for the ill-fated 2014-2015 season. I clicked it, thinking to myself, well, it can’t be any weirder than the Dallas Symphony’s Beefcake Beethoven –

And then mid-thought this loaded.

aso brochure 1

 

Holy –

Holy wow.

I might as well warn you: I’m gonna talk about naked people now. So if you’ve got a problem with reading about naked people, I’ll catch you later, once I start writing about 990s again.

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March 11, 2013 · 8:29 pm

Musings on Marketing

Today a friend pointed out the Marketing portion of the MOA’s website to me, and I wanted to share some of my thoughts on it. I remember being suspicious of their claims a while ago, but I had no way to confirm or deny those suspicions. Now, however, I’m better versed in the art of the 990, and the MOA has shared more information about the auditorium at Hall. So let’s take a look!

From the website:

Throughout the recession, our earned revenue has been essentially flat—a significant achievement in this economy.

“Essentially” is such a magic word, isn’t it? Stick “essentially” in front of anything and you can essentially say anything and essentially no one will ever bother you for any essential details. Essentially.

Given the context, I’m assuming that by “earned revenue” the MOA means “program service revenue”… (Ticket revenue, rental revenue, concession revenue, etc.; not grants, contributions, or investment income.) The MOA’s “program service revenue” can be found on the first page of the 990s…

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Filed under Labor Disputes, Minnesota Orchestra

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