Earl R. Merrill: Director of Marketing

The prestigious and internationally acclaimed Miami City Ballet seeks a Director of Marketing - an executive leader in the organization - to oversee all marketing, communications, and patron services and ensure the growth of annual earned income through subscription sales, single ticket, and group sales.

DHR International has been exclusively retained to conduct a search for the Director of Marketing for Miami City Ballet.

POSITION TITLE: Director of Marketing
REPORTING TO: Executive Director
DIRECT REPORTS: Marketing Department and Box Office staff
LOCATION: Miami, FL
THE COMPANY: Miami City Ballet https://www.miamicityballet.org/

The Miami City Ballet (MCB), founded in 1985, is universally admired as one of the world’s preeminent interpreters of the choreography of George Balanchine. Its repertory of more than 100 ballets, including 12 world premieres, was built upon the Balanchine repertory, style, and technique, and then expanded to include beloved classical works of importance and exciting new choreography by contemporary and ground-breaking artists. MCB is led by former NYC prima ballerina and television personality, Lourdes Lopez. Now in her sixth year as Artistic Director, Ms. Lopez is bringing a new level of artistry to the company, increasing the level of the company, adding classical repertoire, and commissioning new works. MCB presents a season of four repertory programs and a newly designed Nutcracker at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami, the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, and Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, and is presented annually at the Artis-Naples. It also presents the Nutcracker annually at the Los Angeles Music Center. The annual operating budget is approximately $17 million, half of which is earned through ticket sales, touring fees, and school tuition.

The MCB is also presented nationally, and has appeared in New York City and Jacobs Pillow. This May, it will be presented in the Spoleto Festival and in June in Les Etés de la Danse in Paris. Its 2016 debut at Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater was hailed by the national press as a resounding success. The New York Times’ Alastair Macaulay wrote, “Of all the ballet troupes who have visited the Koch in recent years, none looks so truly and completely a company.”

Miami City Ballet School (MCBS), founded in 1993, is one of the largest dance training programs in the nation, training dancers for careers with MCB and other professional companies throughout the world. MCBS’s expanded national and international audition tours attract more than 1,300 students each season, and MCBS’s scholarship program offers support to children from around the corner and across the globe, providing nearly $500,000 worth of scholarships each year. As one of the most diverse classical ballet companies in the nation, MCB serves as a gateway to the Americas for dancers from Central and South America, resulting in a robust international roster of both dancers and students.

MCB’s transformative Share the Dance: Community Outreach and Educational Programs reach deep into the community, touching nearly 23,000 young people, seniors, and other traditionally underserved community members annually through a wide array of programming. This expanded portfolio of programs introduces new and underserved audiences to the art form of classical ballet while building strong community relationships and engagement with the arts.

SCOPE AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
Reporting to the Executive Director (ED), the Director of Marketing is a member of the senior management team and is responsible for all aspects of planning, implementing, and evaluating the marketing, public relations, communications, and patron services for the Miami City Ballet (MCB) and the Miami City Ballet School (MCBS). The Director assumes responsibility for a significant portion of the annual earned income of MCB through subscription sales, single tickets, and group sales for the full season of self-presented works in the Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Broward counties. The Director will also work with the presenters and representatives of the various venues that present the MCB nationally and internationally. The Director will be called upon to inventively drive public engagement, finding new methods of content development and delivery that will motivate and connect people to the relevance ballet has in their lives, and how MCB can play a part. The department is also responsible for the development and implementation of strategically focused marketing and communications plans designed to enhance the institution’s brand both nationally and locally and strengthen the awareness of the products, programs, and education/outreach opportunities offered by MCB to the general public. The Director will also actively market the MCBS and the building.

Internally, the Director participates with the Executive Director, Artistic Director, Board of Directors, and other senior staff in charting the direction of the organization. Externally, the Director interacts with media and agencies as appropriate.

Specific responsibilities include the following:

Marketing, Communications, and Patron Services Strategy and Leadership:

Develop a vision for MCB’s marketing and sales efforts that communicates the character, ideals, and mission of the organization to a wide range of patrons, donors, employees, and other stakeholders.
Develop, implement, and measure the success of comprehensive marketing, sales, and communications programs that achieve or exceed expected outcomes, especially the organization’s ambitious earned revenue goals. Fully utilize Tessitura and ensure that the marketing efforts are aligned with the development department’s fundraising and stewardship of individual, corporate, government, and foundation donors.
Create and implement audience development marketing plans, including research on target audiences, market trends, and performing arts/non-profit trends using focus groups, surveys, and industry data.
Establish and cultivate collaborative relationships with industry leaders, board members, media, government and city officials, key business partners, promotional partners, performing arts organizations, and community leaders.
Establish and maintain company-wide standards for written and graphic communications in printed, verbal, or electronic forms.
Oversee marketing, sales, public relations and communication activities associated with MCB’s productions and public events:
o Manage the creation of season timeline and calendars in consultation with department directors.
o Manage the development and execution of comprehensive advertising, promotions, publicity plans, and single ticket campaigns.
o Manage the development of all collateral marketing for productions and public events.
o Establish ticket sales goals by production and ticket type during the budgeting process; forecast sales on a regular basis.
Install pricing strategies that maximize ticket income while ensuring that MCB remains accessible to the widest possible audience.
Continually clarify the image of the organization and ensure that its vision and values are clearly articulated in all external and internal communications.
Ensure that MCB’s messaging is relevant to all of its current and desired constituents.
Take the lead on advancing MCB's brand locally, nationally and internationally.
Maximize and leverage the various forms of social media to communicate and to extend the commercial potential of MCB and enable smooth social media interface between the various publics and the organization.
Manage, evaluate and direct the efforts of consultants including public relations partners and firms, creative agencies, sponsorship liaisons, and media outlets.
Partner closely with the Director of Development to ensure subscription, ticket, and group sales data is properly stored, shared, and utilized to ensure long-term sustained patron support.
In cooperation with the development department, ensure that MCB patrons, sponsors and funders are recognized and receive the attention and level of services warranted.
Support the efforts of the MCB School and the community-programming department through messaging, media opportunities, public relations, and the use of social media.
Communicate timely reporting on weekly, monthly, and annual sales activity and trends.
Develop and track marketing research to facilitate executive decision making and to ensure effective allocation of resources to maximize earned revenues.
Ensure that the customer experience, online, on the phone, at the box office, and in the performance halls is at the highest level.
Support and improve the function of the box office staff that is responsible for ticket sales on site and that staffs the various venues where MCB self-presents.
Assist the Executive Director with special projects as assigned.

Management Responsibilities:

Lead and plan the work for the Marketing Department. Oversee the sales, marketing, public relations, box office, and advertising efforts at the venues where MCB self-presents and is presented.
Evaluate Marketing Department staff members’ performance in a fair and transparent manner on a periodic basis.
Evaluate, adjust and manage the relationships with consulting vendors – public relations, advertising agencies, etc.
Together with the Director of HR, ensure a healthy and positive employee experience.
Recruit, train, appraise, supervise, support, develop, promote, and guide necessary qualified personnel and support talent to maintain an organization sufficient to attain objectives and to address current and future needs.
Develop and monitor departmental budgets for the marketing, sales, public relations and communication programs and activities.
Monitor and report on progress against plan for marketing, sales, and communication plan goals; develop action plans as needed.
Report progress against plan to the Executive Director, Artistic Director, and relevant board committees related to the achievement of goals and financial objectives, including budget forecasts.
Collaborate with MCB senior leadership and staff, as well as external agencies and consultants, to achieve successful outcomes.
Enable staff to take action on behalf of the organization.
Support the efforts and recognize the contributions of the members of the marketing committee of the board.
Provide leadership, service and motivation to all related departmental areas, relevant committees of the Board and volunteer groups.
Participate in general management of organization as well as special projects and initiatives that advance the institution.

KEY SELECTION CRITERIA:

Potential candidates will have seven (7) or more years of related experience, with a career track that demonstrates increasing levels of tenure and job status from one or more of the following roles:

Marketing executive in a modern dance or ballet company, symphony orchestra, festival, regional theater, or presenting hall.
A marketing executive from an agency or marketing service provider with a proven understanding of the nonprofit arts field and knowledge of the arts, ideally ballet.
In addition, the ideal candidate will possess the following characteristics and experience:
Demonstrated skills, knowledge and experience in the design and execution of marketing, communications, and public relations activities.
Strong creative, strategic, analytical, organizational, and sales skills.
Experience developing and managing multi-million dollar advertising and promotion budgets.
Experience using Tessitura to manage activities in ticketing, fundraising, customer relationship management, and marketing.
Substantial experience hiring, training, developing, supervising, and appraising personnel.
A desire and the energy to achieve ever increasing quantitative sales goals.
Knowledge and creativity to use the latest social media software and hardware to communicate and sell to multiple audiences.
A passion for the art form of ballet, coupled with knowledge of and great appreciation for the Balanchine repertoire.
A belief in MCB’s mission to inspire and engage its diverse community and its vision.
Proven track record of developing new audiences and customer base.
An understanding of the performing arts business including touring, working with artists, agents, and related service providers.
Excellent interpersonal, communication, presentation, and writing skills.
Bachelor’s degree is required, ideally with an advanced degree in a field related to the position.
An ability to communicate in Spanish is desirable, but not required.