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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007 Report to the City , o Oregon Shakespeare Festiva I P.o. Box '58 '5 South Pioneer Street Ashland, OR 97520 January 31, 2007 Ashland City Council City Hall Ashland, OR 97520 54' 482 2111 54' 482 0446 fax 54' 482 433' box office www.osfashland.org Re: Report for Resolution No. 2004-32 Dear Council Members: . On behalf ofthe Festival Board, staff and audience, thank you for the City's $113,300 Economic and Cultural Development grant for 2006-07. I am pleased to report that Festival attendance in 2006, second-highest attendance in OSF history, was 387,474 tickets, or 87% of total seating capacity. In 2006, the Festival increased its new accounts over the previous season by 8%, with a total of75,657 tickets going to visitors new to OSF. This new account activity generated $2,984,392 in revenue for the Festival and contributed to OSF's $147 million economic impact in the region. The 2006 season brochure (350,000 pieces), travel brochure (130,000 pieces) and OSF web site - the budget items to which our City grant was applied - were major contributors to the record attendance and increase in new accounts in 2006. Promoting Tourism in 2007 In FY07, OSF will spend $1,032,300 in Tourism Sales and Marketing, Hospitality and Special Events, and Media Relations, all applied toward the goals outlined by the Economic and Cultural Development Committee, specifically Goal 3(b), "To promote tourism." TOURISM SALES AND MARKETING OSF will spend $851,400 in Tourism Sales and Marketing in FY07, or 82.5% of the $1,032,300 tourism promotion budget noted above. OSF website. www.osfashland.org. In November 2006, the Festival launched an update to its award-winning website, which continues to advance the reach and scope of our marketing practices. Linking the Festival product (plays) to the Festival experience (Ashland and environs), the site's impact is impressive, with . Oregon Shakespeare Festival Report January 31, 2007 Page 2 of6 ticket sales far exceeding our peer theaters nationwide. During the four-week pre- sale period preceding the 2007 season, 57,858 tickets were sold on the web and revenues were $2.76 million, vs. $1.6 million in 2004, the first year of on-line ticketing at OSF. Season brochure. 350,000 copies of the full-color 2007 season brochure will be distributed nationally and internationally to OSF's mailing list of individual ticket buyers, members, schools and universities, businesses, corporations and government agencies, as well as to key media contacts, state tourism and business locations throughout Oregon, and trade shows in Japan, Germany, England and Switzerland. Travel brochure. OSF will again produce 130,000 copies of a travel brochure highlighting the Ashland experience, for use at trade shows and racking in tourist locations up and down the West Coast. This is a more tourism-driven sales piece, which in addition to selling OSF plays, promotes all the Ashland area has to offer visitors, from wine-tasting and rafting to shopping and dining. Advertising. OSF has placed and will continue to place display ads in major media outlets in the Bay Area, Sacramento, Portland and Seattle. Public radio sponsorship ads will run on JPR, reaching much of the state of Oregon and northern California. OSF continues to partner with Travel Oregon and the Southern Oregon Visitors Association (SOV A) through premier ads in vacation guides and other publications. Together with the Ashland Chamber, OSF has supported co-op ads in Sunset magazine. OSF also links to lodgings, restaurants and other Southern Oregon attractions through its website, www.osfashland.org. Toll-free number. In November 2006, OSF introduced an "800" number for out-of-area visitors. The goal of the toll-free line is to remove one hurdle for customers needing to reach the Box Office. HOSPITALITY AND SPECIAL EVENTS OSF will spend $143,400 in Hospitality and Special Events in FY07, 13.9% of its $1,032,300 tourism promotion budget. Trade shows. OSF has partnered with the Ashland VCB and SOY A at trade shows from Los Angeles to Canada. OSF regularly participates in the annual Governor's Conference on Tourism and regularly contributes staff support to the Ashland VCB and SOY A. Communication and training. OSF actively participates in, and regularly hosts, the Ashland Greeters to thoroughly inform community leaders about pertinent visitor -----n--. Oregon Shakespeare Festival Report January 3 I, 2007 Page 3 of6 information. Additionally, OSF invites advertisers and members of the hospitality community to all four Informed Volunteer evenings (IVP), where OSF artistic staff shares insights on the season's plays. These talks are videotaped and broadcast on RVTV. MEDIA RELATIONS OSF will spend $37,500 in Media Relations in FY07, 3.6% of its $1,032,300 tourism promotion budget. OSF continues to maintain relationships and build new ones with West Coast reviewers and writers, particularly in Oregon and California, where more than 80% of OSF patrons reside. 2006 saw significant national and regional coverage, including theater and travel articles in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Newsday, New York Sun, Oregonian, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times, Los Angeles Times, American Theatre magazine, Budget Travel, Sunset, San Diego Union Tribune, and Sacramento Bee. Coverage included print, on-line, television and radio. OSF's clipping service delivered 713 news articles in 2006 that contained mention ofOSF and/or its location in Ashland and the Rogue Valley. OSF worked closely with the Ashland VCB and Southern Oregon Visitors Association to bring travel writers to the area and assist in scheduling their activities: accommodations, restaurants, play tickets, visits to Crater Lake, galleries, raft trips, wineries. OSF continues to improve its electronic press kit in order to better serve the media. Comprehensive video and newsreels (beta and DVD) are delivered to select national and West Coast television stations and online publications for both Spring 2007 (February) and Summer 2007 (June) openings. These newsreels contain digital stock footage of OSF productions as well as extensive establishing shots of Ashland and are used by television stations when preparing both theater and non-theater stories about our region. In 2007 OSF will also produce a series of audio casts, one for each of the eleven 2007 productions. These will be promoted via email and run on the OSF website and will not be available through any other media. Each features OSF actors, directors and playwrights discussing the plays they are working on. OSF in the Community In addition to promoting tourism, 2006 saw the continuation of OSF' s active participation in the local community. · We are gratified by the success of the seventh year of the Ashland Schools Project, If r Oregon Shakespeare Festival Report January 31, 2007 Page 4 of6 in which the OSF Education Department, and specifically a team of two OSF actor-teachers, works with 3rd- through 9th -graders in the Ashland School District. During the past year, 282 freshmen and 6 teachers from the high school participated, 657 students from the middle school, and 546 students from the three elementary schools. The 2006/07 Ashland Schools Project began in Fall 2006 with all Ashland High School freshmen English students attending The Winter's Tale. Before seeing the show, the students had a preparatory session with an OSF actor-teacher. Afterwards, a Winter's Tale cast member visited each class for a follow-up discussion. At Ashland Middle School, the actor-teachers performed a 30-minute version of "The Anger of My Heart", a look at conflict between characters in Shakespeare's plays, for all 6th_ through 8th -graders. Half the 7th_ and 8th-graders then took a Backstage Tour, while the other half receiv~d a classroom visit from OSF artisans who taught "Exploring Design: The Taming of the Shrew." In 2007, the two groups will rotate. At Helman, Walker and Bellview, the actor-teachers performed "The Anger of My Heart" for 4th- and 5th-graders, then visited each 5th -grade class with props, costume pieces and pictures from past OSF productions and discussed how theater professionals get ideas from the scripts to design costumes and setting. The curriculum featured characters from As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew and Much Ado About Nothing; all were shows featured in "The Anger of My Heart." · In the Ashland High School Partnership, students in the Shakespeare Literature class at the high school attended eleven classes at OSF, all free of charge. These included nine discussions with actors and directors from plays the students studied in class and saw at the Festival, and two "Exploring Design: The Winter's Tale" classes. The semester-long OSF Master Class, co-taught by Betsy Bishop and OSF actors, was again offered to advanced drama students. · Volunteer participation by Ashland residents reflects OSF's connection to the community. In 2006, 601 local residents were active volunteers at OSF, contributing in excess of 33,000 hours of service. · In December 2006, the Festival led a successful effort (with the help of AMS sixth graders, Ashland and Medford businesses and other community members) to raise more than $6,500 in monetary donations and fill two vans, one car and the back of OSF's flat- bed truck with food donated to the Ashland Emergency Food Bank. · The annual Daedalus Project fundraising event (August 21,2006) raised $60,000 for regional counties' HIV / AIDS organizations, plus Africare. Oregon Shakespeare Festival Report January 31, 2007 Page 5 of6 · OSF continues to direct significant resources to creating greater diversity in staff and audience. More than 25% of the acting company are people of color and OSF offers more employment to actors of color than any other theater in America. In other areas the pace of change is slower. About 6% of the production and administrative staff are people of color; we continue to work to raise that proportion. aSF employs an audience development staff and FAIR (Fellowships, Assistantships, Internships and Residencies) coordinator who develop programs to increase the number of people of color in our audience and on our staff. In 2006, Portland, Sacramento and Oakland social, academic and professional groups of color visited Ashland, many for the first time, in OSF- organized group tour packages. For the last nine years, aSF has also undertaken diversity training for the company. Almost all company members have now received this training. Challenges 2006 continued to see changes in patron ticket buying behavior. Our greatest challenge is to bring 18- to 44- year old patrons back for a repeat visit by offering them the kind of theater experience that will compel them to return. New strategies and technologies - the upgrade to the Tessitura customer service management system, creating new content on the aSF website, removing barriers to participation - are addressing these trends. Economic Impact The Festival's economic impact on Ashland and Southern Oregon approached $147 million in 2006. 82,546 x 1.7 to 3.7 x $95.17 - $108.89 $27,845,544 + $22,816,746 x 2.9 $146,920,641 number of visitors to OSF in 2006 average number of nights stayed average daily expenditure (excluding theater tickets) OSF expenditures in 2006 Oregon multiplier Beyond this economic impact, the City received $1,414,218 from the HotellMotel tax and $1,850,707 from the Food and Beverage tax in 2006. OSF's activities are a major factor in the generation of these taxes. Conclusion The public commitment between the Ashland City Council and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival that has existed for 23 years is something we value greatly. It is also a commitment we take pride in sharing with our peers in American theater and with our individual and institutional ----Ir..---. Oregon Shakespeare Festival Report January 31 , 2007 Page 6 of6 supporters who often require proof of such support before making their granting decisions. Ashland and the Festival are inextricably linked in the minds of hundreds of thousands of people in the West and across the country. The Festival's renewed efforts to raise national and international attention for our theater and our community, our newly launched and award-winning website, and other marketing appeals and advertising are all enhanced and strengthened by the City's annual investment in this institution. Your continuing support is vital and crucial to the ongoing health of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Thank you. Sincerely, Oregon Shakespeare Festival l~~ Paul E. Nicholson Executive Director