Star Performance: Atlanta Ballet’s 2012 Nutcracker, a Case Study

by | Oct 16, 2013 | digital advertising

As we gear up for this season’s Nutcracker and retail­ers stock their shelves with holiday merchan­dise (even before Halloween), Search Discovery is in strat­egy mode to beat last year’s success.

CASE STUDY: A Systematic Approach to Success

Our results are the product of a system­atic test and learn approach to digital market­ing designed to drive contin­u­ous improve­ment:

  1. Redesign the expe­ri­ence for cross channel
  2. Effec­tively manage digital market­ing
  3. Scale volume through new chan­nels
  4. Improve perfor­mance by a test and learn approach

  5. Use analyt­ics to drive opti­miza­tion

1. Atlanta Ballet Redesign

Using respon­sive design, the new Atlanta Ballet’s artis­tic design and usabil­ity allowed for easier navi­ga­tion to deeper content to meet needs across devices

Ballet Case Study - NEW redesign

Search Discovery’s redesign of AtlantaBallet.com increased site visi­ta­tion by 51% year-over-year, while report­ing a 163% increase in mobile visi­tors through a better respon­sive design expe­ri­ence.

Ballet Case Study - NEW redesign stats

2. Effective Digital Marketing

Targeted ads across rele­vant digital chan­nels and touch-points resulted in a surge of ticket sales ahead of goal from the begin­ning of the quarter

  1. SEO and Site Redesign initi­ated strong perfor­mance
  2. Paid Media and Retar­get­ing sustained sales growth
  3. Social Media and Video helped support pre & post show engage­ment and social inter­ac­tion to extend the conver­sa­tion

Ballet Case Study - cross channel marketing

3. Scale Through New Channels

Expand­ing market­ing chan­nels in Q4 2012 scaled the program to effi­ciently find new prospects and ticket sales.

Ballet Case Study - scaled channels

4. Test and Learn

Search Discovery built an intu­itive and effi­cient design to push prospects into the funnel. Ongoing A/B testing strength­ened paid media and site perfor­mance.

Ballet Case Study - est and learn

5. Sophisticated Analytics

Search Discovery lever­ages best-in-class digital analyt­ics prac­tices and new tech­nolo­gies to help Atlanta Ballet make better busi­ness deci­sions.

  1. Utilized Satellite’s (now Adobe Dynamic Tag Manage­ment) effec­tive tag manage­ment process to make analyt­ics track­ing more effi­cient moving into 2013 1. Major imple­men­ta­tion effi­cien­cies gained (time and resources)
  2. Enabled seam­less data collec­tion for an array of user behav­iors never explored on the site
  3. Decreased lead time for data avail­abil­ity for more rapid deci­sion making
  4. Inte­grat­ing test and learn strate­gies drove more informed content choices moving into 2013

  5. On-going analy­sis and strat­egy sessions inte­grated with media teams

RESULTS: A Systematic Cross Channel Approach Surpassed Goals

The 2012 digital market­ing program for the Atlanta Ballet’s Nutcracker was wildly success­ful due to a multi-channel test and learn approach.

  1. Redesign allows for easy navi­ga­tion to content deeper within the site and through to purchase
  2. Scaled digital market­ing programs were done effi­ciently and effec­tively
  3. A/B testing and analyt­ics provided further insights to improve perfor­mance and guide deci­sion-making

Ballet Case Study - 104percent of goal

The Search Discovery team credits:

  1. Omri Levin
  2. Angela Jones
  3. Carolina Beltran
  4. Jordan Silton
  5. Morgan Yates
  6. John Williams