Vice President of Marketing & Audience Development

The Grand Rapids Symphony (GRS) seeks a Vice President of Marketing & Audience Development to lead the Marketing, Sales, and Patron Services teams in building, engaging, and retaining a diverse audience for the Symphony's broad array of performances and programs. The Symphony is investing in data-driven sales, smarter pricing, and long-term patron relationships that convert first-time attendees into subscribers and donors.

The Vice President will set the strategy, build the team, and own the results: ticket revenue, paid attendance, retention, and new audience growth. Regardless of medium, the work rests on strong, lasting relationships that connect West Michigan audiences with exceptional musical experiences.

Reporting to the President & Chief Executive Officer, the Vice President of Marketing & Audience Development leads the team responsible for maximizing earned revenue, growing and retaining audiences, strengthening the Grand Rapids Symphony brand, and delivering an exceptional patron experience. The Vice President provides executive leadership for marketing, ticket sales, audience development, communications, brand strategy, patron services, and patron loyalty.

The position partners with the Executive Team on strategic planning, budgeting, earned revenue forecasting, pricing strategy, artistic planning, and technology, in service of the Symphony's mission and long-term financial sustainability.

This is an office-based professional position with night and weekend requirements around rehearsals, concerts and events. 

Key Responsibilities

Ticket Sales & Earned Revenue

• Provide strategic leadership for all earned revenue initiatives, achieving annual ticket revenue goals while managing departmental budgets and maximizing return on marketing investment.
• Work with the Executive Team to set annual goals and revenue forecasts for subscription and single-ticket revenue, patron retention, and new audience acquisition.
• Develop pricing, packaging, and promotional strategies that maximize attendance, revenue, and long-term patron value across subscriptions, single tickets, and special events, including dynamic pricing and house scaling.
• Monitor sales pacing against goals for every program, using historical comparisons and analytics (including regression analysis where useful) to adjust campaigns, pricing, and spend in real time.
• Lead subscription renewal and acquisition campaigns, with clear renewal-rate and new-subscriber targets.
• Develop group sales, corporate, and community partnership channels as additional sources of earned revenue.
• Collaborate with the General Manager and artistic team program by program on sales and promotion strategies and provide market input to season planning and programming decisions.

Audience Development & Patron Loyalty

• Build and lead a comprehensive audience development strategy that grows new audiences while deepening the loyalty of existing patrons.
• Use customer segmentation, and behavioral and sales data to understand who attends, who returns, and who lapses, supplemented by audience research where possible.
• Design a clear patron journey from first-time buyer to multi-buyer, subscriber, and donor, with defined conversion goals at each step.
• Establish metrics for first-time buyer return rates, subscriber retention, and customer lifetime value, and report on them regularly to the President & CEO and Executive Team.
• Plan campaigns that reach a diverse array of audience segments across West Michigan, including younger audiences, families, and communities historically underrepresented in the concert hall.
• Lead patron loyalty initiatives in partnership with the Vice President of Development, ensuring marketing builds a strong pipeline of future donors and that earned and contributed revenue strategies reinforce each other.
• Engage with all Symphony constituencies and the community to ensure an inclusive experience for every patron.

Brand & Institutional Communications

• Work with the Executive Team to establish brand goals and develop the Symphony's brand, communications, and engagement strategy, positioning the Symphony as one of West Michigan's leading cultural institutions.
• Oversee public and media relations, digital communications, social media, website content, video, email marketing, and print publications, ensuring timely and compelling messaging on every platform.
• Ensure brand consistency across departments and serve as the organization's senior communications strategist for institutional announcements.

Patron Experience

• Work with the Senior Director of Community & Patron Engagement to create a superior end-to-end experience for patrons, from first engagement through pre-concert, concert, post-concert, and retention.
• Set service standards for the Box Office and Patron Services, and work with DeVos Performance Hall staff on front-of-house, ushering, and patron communications.
• Use patron feedback to continuously improve service and remove barriers to attendance.

Strategic Leadership & Team Development

• Partner with the President & CEO and Executive Team on long-range strategy, financial sustainability, and the Symphony's path to its 2030 centennial.
• Provide leadership in earned revenue forecasting, expense management, technology, and digital innovation, including the Symphony's ticketing and CRM platforms (currently Ticketmaster and ARCHTICS).
• Work with the Executive Team to drive further innovation in the Symphony's mission and delivery platforms.
• Lead, mentor, develop, motivate, and retain a high-performing staff.

Other Responsibilities

• Perform other duties and special projects as assigned.

Supervisory Responsibilities

Supervises the Senior Director of Community & Patron Engagement, Director of Ticketing, and Marketing Specialist, as well as additional support to the Patron Services Manager and Patron Services Representatives, when necessary.

Skills & Qualifications

Position-Based

• A minimum of 10 years of progressive marketing and communications experience, including at least 5 years in a senior leadership role; performing arts experience strongly preferred, and orchestra experience a plus.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.
• Have a revenue-minded strategist with a strong grasp of integrated marketing, particularly digital, data-driven, and relationship marketing.
• Be equally comfortable reading a sales-pacing report and walking a concert-hall lobby.
• Have the creative energy needed to enjoy the rapid pace of a vibrant musical organization and the creative talent to contribute substantially to the organization's continued growth, development and success.
• Strong analytical ability: comfort with sales data, segmentation, and forecasting, and the judgment to turn analysis into strategic decisions.
• Have a proven record of success in managing complex projects, developing and managing budgets and achieving budget goals.
• A track record of meeting and exceeding revenue and attendance goals through integrated subscription and single-ticket campaigns.
• Hands-on experience with live event ticket sales, pricing strategy (including dynamic pricing), and sales pacing.
• Demonstrated success using CRM systems and patron data to drive acquisition, retention, and audience growth.
• Experience planning integrated marketing and engagement strategies, media campaigns, and public relations efforts.
• Comfort reaching a diverse array of audience segments, and a commitment to broadening access at both the administrative and audience development levels.

Organization-Based

• Have experience using Microsoft Office, DropBox, DocuSign and other commonly used applications.
• Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills; strong interpersonal and collaborative abilities.
• A collaborative leadership style, high standards of integrity, and a commitment to developing staff and continuous improvement.
• Passion for the mission of the Grand Rapids Symphony.
• Be a person of the highest integrity and ethical standards with a deep love of symphonic and choral music, a passionate belief in the value and importance of symphony orchestras, and an abiding respect for musicians and staff.

What We’re Offering

• Salary: Commensurate with Experience.
• Benefits include health, vision, and dental insurance, LTD and Life Insurance, generous paid time off and holiday schedule, subsidized downtown parking and 401k.
• Variety - every day is different, and creativity is encouraged!