San Francisco Symphony collaborates with Sametz Blackstone Associates to develop and roll out a reinvigorated brand program

Comprehensive, integrated program includes dynamic visual and verbal framework, system of brand hierarchies, and new print and electronic communications—to enable the Symphony to better communicate its value and deepen relationships.

Boston, MA, 1 June, 2008—Sametz Blackstone Associates, a leading brand-focused Boston communications practice, has collaborated with San Francisco Symphony to develop and launch a refreshed, comprehensive branding program.

“The San Francisco Symphony is an exuberant, innovative organization,” says Michele Prisk, former Director of Marketing and Sales for the Symphony. One of the most active orchestras in the world, San Francisco Symphony boasts a schedule of more than 250 concerts a year, an educational program that reaches every K-5 student in the city school system, a Grammy-winning recording label, a range of community initiatives, and Keeping Score—a pioneering program that engages people from all walks of life in the joys of classical music.

“We’re the model of what an orchestra can be in the 21st century,” continues Prisk, “But in our enthusiasm, we put most of our energies into communicating at the program or initiative level. So while we did a good job promoting Keeping Score, or talking about our educational programs, we didn’t do a good job tying these programs (and communications) back to the San Francisco Symphony.” According to Brandon Walsh, strategist at Sametz Blackstone, “Simply put, San Francisco Symphony’s many communications parts were not adding up to a recognizable and compelling whole; the organization wasn’t getting the credit they deserved; and opportunities to build the Symphony’s brand and meaning were not being fully leveraged.”

“We engaged Sametz Blackstone to help. They brought a deep understanding of the challenges—and opportunities—that cultural organizations, and orchestras in particular, face. And they engaged almost the entire organization in the process of refining our brand foundation and key messages, evolving branding strategies that would tie our many efforts together, and then creating an exciting visual system that could inform and integrate our many communication efforts—across sales and marketing, education, and development—and across opportunities, media, and time."

“We made sure to involve staff—the people who would ultimately be charged with making communications and using the new brand system—early and often in the development of the Symphony’s refreshed brand foundation,” continues Walsh. “It helps people feel invested, builds morale, and is an important step if an organization is really going to ‘own’ their brand. We find that brand systems evolved from the inside out really endure; they stick.”

Says Prisk, “The system that we collaborated with Sametz Blackstone to create, was conceived, from the outset, to be transferred and taught—so that the San Francisco Symphony and our local consultants could ‘own’ it and have the thinking and tools to help a range of constituents to better understand our value, make creative communications that help us to achieve our tactical goals, and work hard to build our brand.”

Roger Sametz, president of Sametz Blackstone: “With a new brand program in place—a clear set of brand hierarchies; framework of key messages; updated brand mark; new focused approaches to color, type, and imagery; a set of dynamic signature design gestures; and more—all those communicating on behalf of the San Francisco Symphony have the tools to communicate both consistently and creatively.”

To roll out the new system, Sametz Blackstone met with all major operational groups across the Symphony to share the thinking behind the new program, provide coaching, and help all to use the new brand system creatively. “Its one thing to develop an exciting new brand program,” continues Sametz, “it’s quite another to transfer the thinking and provide tools so that the client can ultimately own it. Our goal is to ensure that clients become comfortable and self-sufficient with their new systems—so that their investment pays off for years.”

And according to Prisk, “It’s working! Not only do new print and digital materials look and sound more ‘like us’—and connect to each other; our conversations in the hallways are different. People involved with different initiatives are looking beyond their specific communication needs to how their communication strategies and materials can also bolster the meaning and heft of the San Francisco Symphony brand.”

About Sametz Blackstone Associates

Sametz Blackstone Associates provides strategic communications counsel to leading cultural, academic, research, professional service, and corporate organizations. A twenty-nine year-old global practice located in Boston's historic South End, Sametz Blackstone integrates brand-focused strategy, message development, design, and technology to develop and produce compelling communication programs that help evolving organizations better navigate change. Clients include centenarians and start-ups: Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Ballet, Boston Center for the Arts, MIT Sloan School of Management, Mass Audubon, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Schepens Eye Research Institute, Raytheon, Goodwin Procter, Harvard University, Yale University, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, WGBH, and one of the world's largest management consulting firms. For additional information visit: www.sametz.com.

About San Francisco Symphony

Founded in 1911, San Francisco Symphony has a budget of $53.7 million and is widely considered to be among the country’s most artistically adventurous and financially stable arts institutions. With Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas at the podium, San Francisco Symphony is cherished at home for exciting and dynamic performances, meaningful community engagement, indispensable education programs—and known the world over for acclaimed tours, recordings, and innovative media projects—San Francisco Symphony is redefining what an orchestra can be in the 21st century.

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