Gen-X Opps: Boston Symphony Orchestra appoints media AOR amid digital spend increases (Score 49)

Sales lead: Contact the organization's DMs to offer ad space & inquire about other agency work. 

• Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) named Allen & Gerritsen media AOR in October 2023.
• The agency is tasked with raising awareness through traditional and digital platforms. 

In other news:

• BSO promoted Jesse Needleman to marketing, sales, & communication VP in September 2023.
• He joined the company in 2020 as senior marketing director.
• Prior to that, Needleman was the AVP & marketing director of The TJX Companies. 

Target demographic: Gen-Xers

The organization will likely:

• Continue moving funds from TV to digital channels
• Experiment with new ad channels
• Build out the agency roster

Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)

• YTD spend: BSO spent nearly $21k on national TV ads YTD, a 17% decrease from $25.4k spent in this channel during the same time period of 2022. 
• 2021-2022 spend: Full-year spend fell by 32% from $46.4k in 2021 to $31.5k in 2022. 
• Ad programming: It placed ads during programming such as Bloomberg Markets: The Close, Bloomberg Markets: European Close, Bloomberg Surveillance, Bloomberg Markets: America, and Bloomberg: Balance of Power. 

Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)

• YTD spend: BSO spent approximately $536.3k on digital display ads YTD, a significant increase from $181.2k spent in this channel during the same time period of 2022. 
• YTD data: 43.4m impressions via YouTube (82%), desktop display (11%), Facebook (5%), and mobile display (1%). 
• 2021-2022 spend: Full-year spend jumped from $148.9k in 2021 to $265.7k in 2022. 
• Ad location: It placed 98% of these ads directly onto sites such as youtube.com, bostonmagazine.com, facebook.com, boston.com, and flightaware.com. It placed 2% of these ads through multiple indirect channels onto sites such as hometalk.com, boston.com, natureworldtoday.com, fandom.com, and fox8.com. 

Agency analysis:

• Opportunity: Reach out now to be top-of-mind because agency reviews tend to follow one another. 
• Current roster:
  • Allen & Gerritsen: media AOR