‘The BBC Proms is a classical music festival held every summer at the Royal Albert Hall in London, and in recent years has explored an innovative series of Proms around the UK with concerts in all four nations. Its aim: to bring the best in classical music to the widest possible audience, which remains true to founder-conductor Henry Wood’s original vision in 1895.’
Cabbells have worked with the BBC on the Proms project since 2020. As an established and internationally renowned event, the planning and execution of the festival requires a tireless and committed approach by all the dedicated individuals involved. This applies to the monetisation of the printed promotional material as much as the entire project. The production of the BBC Proms Guide and Programme starts in late November and continues until the festival itself, which begins in July.
Our role is to sell the advertising space in both the Guide and the Programme.
The challenge
The Proms project has two parts to it – the Guide, which is published as the precursor to the event, is followed by the Programme, which provides more specific information for people who attend the event. While both provide opportunities to advertise, the Guide is less targeted and this has provided a challenge in recent years, particularly lately with the move of some brands to digital.
Since the start of the contract, we have faced significant headwinds; post-Covid audience figures were low, the client couldn’t confirm performances were happening in the first year, Arts Council funding was pulled from many advertisers in 2023 and the continued working-from-home culture means that many decision makers are even harder to speak with than they were when full-time office work was the norm.
Despite this, we have seen year-on-year increases both in revenue and page yield, so much so that 2024 has been the best year yet, with an 88% increase in revenue on 2021.
The process
Most importantly it’s about the team working on the account. We are well resourced and everyone works collaboratively – this takes the form of sharing information via a centralised CRM, having regular update meetings, both in-person and on video calls, and encouraging a collegiate atmosphere to ensure leads are shared equally.
We are also meticulous in our approach and speak to all past advertisers from the last three years to book them in, most of whom we already know through years of networking and relationship building. We are not typically ‘salesey’, it’s all about a consultative approach backed up by data.
To complete the process, we also have a dedicated client services manager who liaises with the advertisers on copy and the client on layouts and makes sure we’re all adhering to the deadlines.
The successes
Of course, with any publication there is churn and in this market this is especially true. For the reasons previously outlined, the whole arts sector has suffered since the pandemic and so we are working hard to introduce more lifestyle advertisers to the mix; this includes restaurants, theatre, music streaming, holiday and leisure outlets and more. This has resulted in a double-digit increase in non-classical music related advertisers.
The strategy for preserving and growing revenue
Diversifying revenue beyond the core advertisers within the private school sector and typical classical music advertisers was key to maintaining and growing revenue. Through increased outreach and an effective sales approach, the revenue share outside these two categories now stands at 40%, and includes the likes of investment companies, museums and prestigious charities, such as the Royal Horticultural Society.
Maintaining price is important to us and we have a target price per page that is tracked with every booking. We aren’t inflexible and take a constructive approach to offers, especially if it’s adding to the advertising mix by introducing new clients, but we do want to beat last year’s figures. This year we have added 9% to the page yields (the average price paid per page) on top of the increase in revenue.
And finally…
This is just one example of our strategic approach to sales and hopefully represents a little of how we approach working with a national institution such as the BBC, with learnings that can be used on accounts large and small.
If you would like to discuss how we can help you sell more advertising and increase your profitability please get in touch with our team for an informal chat:
Stewart, New Business Director, stewart@cabbells.uk
Sarah, Managing Director, sarah@cabbells.uk
