Director of Marketing

Austin Opera is seeking a Director of Marketing to lead its audience-building initiatives. Reporting to the Chief Advancement Officer and working closely with the General Director & CEO and members of the Advancement team, the Director of Marketing will create and implement innovative strategies pertaining to audience growth, brand visibility, and ticket sales. The Director of Marketing will be a critical member of the company’s Advancement team, created to devise new industry-leading best practices in patron engagement.

Austin Opera is a highly collaborative opera company that has built a national reputation for innovation. The company is at an exciting juncture in its history as it opens a new headquarters and performing arts center designed to expand its programmatic offerings in innovative and community-centric ways. This role will ensure that Austin Opera continues to expand its audiences, build audience loyalty, and deliver a best-in-class audience experience at all times.

Ideal candidates are comfortable building and delivering against marketing strategy, working across a collaborative team, and thrive in an environment where diversity, equity, and inclusion are core values. They should have a tenacious desire to build opera audiences and a keen interest in identifying the role opera can play in a quickly shifting entertainment market. Adaptability, flexibility, and accountability will be integral to success in this quickly growing organization, as well as a passion for data-driven decision-making.

Specifically, the Director of Marketing will develop and deploy best practices strategies aimed at audience attraction and retention based on market research and meticulous data collection. They will create and implement an advertising plan across print, digital, and social media platforms to segmented audiences. The Director of Marketing will play a leadership role in ensuring the company’s new brand (launching in October 2024) is well represented across all of its platforms including its currently under development new website (scheduled to go live in January 2025), social media channels, and digital channels.

The Director of Marketing will also ensure an outstanding audience experience at performances and company events by deploying best practices in FOH operations. They will partner with every department in the institution in the creation of events and communications leading up to each production, preparing audiences for the best possible experience both in and outside of the theater. Prior experience in marketing the performing arts is required.

Duties and responsibilities

Audience Development
• Create, implement, and measure the effectiveness of attraction and retention strategies
• Conduct and analyze market research to establish target audiences and effective means to engage them
• Create strategies that maximize attendance and participation from members of the press and other Centers of Influence (COIs)
• Remain current on industry research, audience trends, and best practices

Sales and Promotion
• Develop segmented packaging and pricing strategies for seasons, productions, performances, and related programs
• Develop and maintain a website presence that maximizes sales and company engagement
• Deploy best practices in Tessitura usage to maximize sales results, including dynamic pricing
• Create and execute comprehensive multi-channel advertising campaigns for print, radio, TV, direct marketing (mail and email), digital, and social media
• Oversee production of all advertising and marketing collateral materials, creating copy and design when needed

Brand Visibility
• Partner with company leadership to ensure that the company’s programming strategies align with the company’s brand promise
• Collaborate with Austin Opera’s Press and Communications specialist on institutional messaging and media relations planning and execution
• Ensure the company’s new brand and visual identity is represented consistently across all platforms and in all company communications
• Partner with the advancement team in ensuring that all company communications reflect the company’s messaging and branding strategies, creating copy when needed
• Oversee the company’s social media platforms, ensuring frequent, engaging content that promotes the company’s visibility, sales, and community engagement goals
• Lead the creation and publication of the performance program for each production
• Play a leadership role in the development of other ancillary materials, presentations, online content, and programming that will increase brand visibility

Audience Experience
• Ensure excellence in the audience experience and front-of-house procedures for performances and other events
• Understand opportunity areas for the audience experience and use test-and-learn strategies to ensure the Opera is delivering a world-class experience, consistently
• Partner with the Long Center leadership, ushers, and hospitality staff to ensure excellence in customer service at each performance.
• Work with the team on the execution of all FOH and special event logistics at the Long Center surrounding performances, including the set-up of any terrace and Austin Opera Lounge activities, and ancillary events as needed
• Launch partnerships with other hospitality providers, restaurants, garages, and other entities that impact patrons’ overall performance experience.
• Create and distribute pre-show communications to all ticketholders to ensure personalized information facilitates a seamless, customizable experience for all patrons.
• Serve as a concierge presence at all company performances.
• Serve as an advocate for the audience in management team discussions and planning.

Other
• Oversee the marketing department budget
• Other duties as assigned

Qualifications
• Experience in marketing for the performing arts, including setting and delivering against marketing strategy
• A passion for building opera audiences in the Austin community
• An understanding of overall entertainment consumption and a keen interest in exploring the role opera can play in a quickly shifting entertainment market
• A demonstrated ability to work effectively within a team to achieve institutional goals and realize the company’s DEI values
• Ability to lead a team in creating and executing specific strategies pertaining to audience attraction and retention
• Excellent analytical skills and a passion for data
• Demonstrated project management and organizational skills, as well as a keen attention to detail.
• Outstanding writing skills and a demonstrated ability to create tailored sales copy
• Ability to develop and monitor a department budget
• Fluency in Microsoft Office
• Prior experience with Tessitura is a plus, as comprehensive knowledge of Tessitura will be critical to this position
• Graphic design experience and knowledge of Adobe InDesign and Photoshop a plus

Residing in the Austin area is a requirement of this job, as is availability for evening and weekend events. Austin Opera is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Please submit resume, cover letter, marketing and writing samples to careers@austinopera.org