Miami City Ballet

 

Miami City Ballet

Chief Marketing Officer

“Of all the ballet troupes…none gives us such warmth and energy.”
                                                                 -The New York Times

“Where artists and audiences leave the ordinary behind.”
                                             -Miami City Ballet, Brand Promise

Organization

Founded in 1985 by Miami philanthropist Toby Lerner Ansin and ballet legend Edward Villella, Miami City Ballet (MCB) is one of the world’s leading ballet companies and universally admired among the preeminent interpreters of George Balanchine’s choreography. MCB serves and promotes South Florida’s highly diverse population, where arts communicate across barriers of language, class, and culture. Three pillars propel the organizational mission as a leader in classical ballet: The Company, The School, and Community Engagement.

MCB’s Artistic Director, Lourdes Lopez, is a former New York City Ballet principal dancer, who worked directly with George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. Now in her 10th year with MCB, she has helped the company become a leader in opening new avenues of inclusivity within classical ballet. The company has a repertory of 100 ballets, including 13 world premieres and new choreography by contemporary artists. The company of more than 50 dancers performs annual seasons in Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Broward, and Collier Counties, serving more than 120,000 people, and has toured extensively throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, MCB produced ballet and virtually choreographed work for the digital space. Additionally, MCB programmed an outdoor performance of The Nutcracker with a hybrid digital format and created a digital streaming series of past performances from MCB’s archives.

Miami City Ballet School (MCB School) was founded in 1993 and is one of the largest and most prestigious ballet training academies in the nation. Comprised of three progressive levels for students ages three through 18, MCB School offers top-level training and $650,000 in scholarships annually to talented, dedicated students from the United States and abroad, regardless of their financial means. MCB School has trained more than 1,500 students for careers with MCB and other professional companies throughout the world. Students are offered unique performance opportunities alongside MCB dancers. There are also various levels of adult classes available in the Adult Open Division.

Rooted in its belief that dance can transcend boundaries, change lives, and transform entire communities, MCB’s community engagement programs promote access for all people, including communities that are systematically disenfranchised. All programs at MCB work to eliminate barriers to access and to promote educational opportunities for people from all walks of life, especially for those who have been historically under-represented. Community Engagement programs include Ballet Bus, Explore Dance, Behind the Ballet, Open Barre, Touch Tours, STEAM+, and the Palm Beach Summer Dance Camp, a free, three-week dance intensive program for students from Title I schools. Community partners include The Bass, His House Children’s Home, Lotus House, Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, Miami Lighthouse for the Blind, and neighborhood organizations from Little Havana, Little Haiti, Allapattah, and Belle Glade.

To support its brand promise of leaving the ordinary behind, MCB has raised more than $50 million as part of a comprehensive $55 million Transforming Lives Campaign. The campaign is expected to be successfully completed by April 2022.

MCB is committed to the following series of institutional values to transform its brand and lead the organization into a bold new era of continued excellence:

  • Pursuit of Excellence: Relentless dedication to getting better every day, onstage and off. We care deeply about the caliber of our work and we won’t settle for less.
  • Elevation: We create work that stretches perspectives and raises spirits.
  • Accountability: We trust every person to pursue our common mission with integrity, inclusivity, empathy, and diligence.
  • Collaboration: We are part of the communities we serve. We value each person’s contribution and collectively solve problems because our greatest achievements come when we band together.
  • Authentically Miami: We are energetic, diverse, dynamic, and welcoming.
  • Joyful Generosity: When we share our work, we share our hearts. The care we take to engage our audiences demonstrates our love and appreciation for them.

MCB seeks to develop and nurture its diversity and is committed to maintaining an inclusive community that recognizes and values the inherent worth and dignity of every person, while fostering tolerance, sensitivity, understanding, and mutual respect.

MCB is governed by a 45-member board of directors and trustees led by Board Chair Jeff Davis. Tania Castroverde Moskalenko joined as Executive Director in August 2018 and leads a staff of 126 people, which includes 13 employees within the Marketing, Communications, and Box office department. For the fiscal year ending in April 2022, MCB’s annual overall operating revenue budget is $23 million, with earned revenue from ticket sales of $5 million to $6 million through the sales of more than 70,000 tickets. MCB is expecting to grow and pace on par with national ballet company peers in earned revenue and has an average annual marketing investment of $2.5 million.

Community

Miami is a cosmopolitan city that combines urban amenities with outstanding beaches, a subtropical climate, and breathtaking natural beauty. Miami is the hub of the fast-growing Miami-Dade County. With a population of more than 2.7 million countywide residents and more than 454,000 citywide residents, an estimated 69 percent of the city’s population identify as Hispanic, 55 percent is foreign-born, and more than 76 percent of residents speak a language other than English at home.

Miami has a rich history as a trendsetting arts center. Its entertainment, production, and arts communities are stronger than ever, making the city a major international cultural destination. A recent economic impact study of the nonprofit arts and culture industry conducted by Americans for the Arts placed Miami-Dade County in the top ranks for arts-vibrant communities, along with Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia. The county’s arts and cultural sector annually generates an impressive $1.4 billion in local economic activity.

Set in the heart of downtown Miami and designed by world-renowned architect César Pelli, the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts is one of the world’s leading performing arts venues. Home to MCB, the Arsht Center presents approximately 300 performances annually, ranging from Broadway theater to classical masterworks. The visual arts play a stellar role in Miami and are represented by the world-class Pérez Art Museum Miami, Institute of Contemporary Art, The Bass, Vizcaya Museum & Gardens, numerous galleries, and Art Basel, the international exposition in Miami Beach. The Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science is also a major attraction, as well as the New World Symphony, which is based on Miami Beach within the Frank Gehry-designed New World Center. Neighboring Palm Beach and Broward Counties also offer distinctive and diverse communities for dance and are home of the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts and the Broward Center for the Performing Arts where MCB performs a full season each year. Additionally, Artis-Naples in Collier County presents the company several times per season.

With year-round sunny skies, outdoor activities abound in and near Miami. The beautiful Biscayne Bay, Bayfront Park, Coral Gables, Everglades, and Florida Keys offer numerous recreational activities all within easy reach. Miami’s nightlife is unsurpassed, with countless clubs, bars, and restaurants. Several major professional sports teams are also represented in Miami, including the NBA Miami Heat, NFL Miami Dolphins, MLB Miami Marlins, and NHL Florida Panthers.

Edited Sources: census.gov; miamidadearts.org; arshtcenter.org; miamiandbeaches.com

Position Summary

Reporting to the Executive Director, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) will be a member of the senior management team and responsible for all aspects of planning, implementing, and evaluating marketing, communications, and box office for MCB and MCB School. The CMO will work very closely with the Artistic Director to identify engagement and messaging strategies that will resonate with audiences and build MCB’s distinctive value in the community. This individual will assume responsibility for a significant portion of MCB’s annual earned income through subscription sales, single tickets, and group sales for the full season of self-presented works in Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Broward Counties. Collaborating with the representatives of the venues that present MCB nationally and internationally, the CMO will ensure that MCB’s brand and audience experience reflect the organization’s values. The CMO will partner with MCB School leadership to increase brand awareness of the school with the specific goal of increasing earned revenue and expanding the pool of diverse talent. The CMO’s oversight of the MCB brand will include the development and alignment of key messages, visual identity, and communication channels that strengthen the institution’s brand both nationally and locally. The CMO 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 of ballet and MCB in their lives.

Internally, the CMO will actively engage with the Executive Director, Artistic Director, board of directors, and other senior staff in charting the direction of the organization. The CMO will collaborate closely with the Chief Development Officer on the cultivation and stewardship of funders, sponsors, and partners to support contributed revenue. This individual will interact regularly with all areas of the organization to advance the artistic program of MCB, notably the public, audiences, donors, media, sponsors, and partners. Externally, the CMO will interact with audience and community members, donors, partners, the media, and agencies to advance the brand and drive increased participation and revenue in all facets of MCB’s mission.

Roles and Responsibilities

Earned Revenue Maximization and Audience Accessibility

  • Develop a comprehensive, integrated, and strategic marketing and sales plan for all markets served in alignment with MCB’s artistic vision that communicates the organization’s brand and programs to a wide range of audience members, donors, students, partners, employees, and other stakeholders.
  • Benchmark,, and measure the success of a sales program that achieves or exceeds the MCB’s ambitious earned revenue goals and increases market share.
  • Create and implement audience engagement plans based in quantitative and qualitative research on attending and non-attending audiences, evolving market trends, and contemporary outreach strategies.
  • Assess and adapt audience engagement plans based on the markets served, addressing the distinctive community features of Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Broward Counties.
  • Adopt and implement all marketing and sales paths that contribute to revenue generation, including advertising, sales promotion, influencer tactics, outdoor, direct mail, digital marketing, and telemarketing.
  • Guide marketing and sales planning to optimize executive and artistic decision making on programs, schedules, and venues to ensure effective allocation of resources for maximized earned income.
  • Evaluate and set subscription, single ticket, dynamic, and promotional pricing strategies that maximize revenue while ensuring that MCB remains accessible to the widest possible audience.
  • Lead marketing strategies for MCB School and events.
  • Establish and maintain company-wide standards for MCB’s brand and visual identity.
  • Expand the use of digital content and contemporary outreach strategies to increase engagement and market reach.
  • Fully utilize the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, Tessitura, to ensure that the marketing efforts are aligned with the MCB development department’s fundraising and stewardship of individual, corporate, government, and foundation donors.
  • Ensure the data integrity of subscription, ticket, and group sales information and support appropriate data hygiene and records management.

Institutional Branding, Public Relations, and Communications

  • Manage MCB’s brand through effective storytelling to ensure that its vision and values are clearly articulated in all external and internal communications.
  • Communicate MCB marketing strategy with funders and sponsors as needed and ensure that MCB supporters are recognized, engaged, and stewarded appropriately.
  • Build the reputation of the Artistic Director, dancers, and all MCB team members while calibrating key messages to ensure relevance to current and desired stakeholders locally, nationally, and internationally.
  • Identify and promote the unique, distinctive, and compelling content of the organization and its programming through MCB-owned channels and vehicles, paid campaigns, and public relations.
  • Partner across MCB to define and implement an expanding digital strategy.
  • 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.
  • Advance inclusion, diversity, equity, and access initiatives in order to address systemic inequalities within ballet.
  • Manage, evaluate, and direct the efforts of consultants, including public relations partners and firms, creative agencies, sponsorship liaisons, and media outlets, to promote MCB’s values and mission.

Box Office and Audience Engagement

  • Ensure that the customer experience—online, on the phone, at the box office, and in the performance halls—is at the highest level and documented in standard operating procedures.
  • Maximize and leverage digital and social media to communicate and extend MCB’s commercial potential and support community conversations, input, and advocacy.
  • Establish audience satisfaction benchmarks and a system for continuous feedback from audience members to support a service-oriented experience with MCB that spans all audience touchpoints.
  • Ensure that MCB’s vision and values around diversity, equity, and inclusion are incorporated in all marketing and communications.
  • Modernize the audience experience to align with established entertainment expectations in all markets served.
  • Provide leadership, appropriate partnership, and inventory/financial controls for the box office staff and venue sales teams with the venues where MCB self-presents and is presented, including the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts and the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.

Team Leadership and Administration

  • Partner closely with the Chief Development Officer to drive data-driven insights into lifetime value; audience, donor, and student demographics and psychographics; and market opportunities to maximize MCB’s reach in the community.
  • Collaborate with the Director of Community Engagement and MCB School to support public and educational programs and maximize the MCB’s reach in the community.
  • Foster an open and cohesive approach where dancers, faculty, board members, volunteers, and staff are valued throughout the entire organization.
  • Empower and diversify the Marketing, Communications, and Box Office team to better represent the communities that MCB serves.
  • Support team ingenuity and professional development with appropriate human resources, structures, systems, and technological platforms in alignment with current and future trends in the field.

Traits and Characteristics

The CMO will be an entrepreneurial, engaging, and diplomatic leader who can communicate effectively to a wide range of stakeholders, including audience members, donors, sponsors, and the media. The CMO will be an approachable and creative collaborator who is highly organized and able to galvanize the organization toward a deeper and more productive engagement with the communities MCB serves.

Other key competencies of this role include:

  • Leadership and Diplomacy – The ability to inspire, build trust, and create a sense of purpose and direction while tactfully handling challenging and sensitive issues. The dexterity to both lead and mentor, understanding and maximizing the team’s potential.
  • Professional Accountability and Interpersonal Skills –The willingness to accept responsibility for actions and results, reevaluate, and develop long-term relationships with people across the organization and throughout the community.
  • Customer Focus – The capacity to anticipate, meet, and frequently exceed customer and stakeholder needs, wants, and expectations in a highly service-oriented environment.
  • Planning and Organizing – The acumen to use practical and efficient approaches in creating action plans that ensure work is effectively completed and desired outcomes are reached.

Qualifications

Qualified applicants will have a bachelor’s degree in marketing or related field, at least five years of senior-level marketing and communications experience, and a proven track record of achieving earned income goals through the successful execution of sales campaigns. A demonstrated ability to effectively manage a team, work in a fast-paced environment, meet multiple deadlines, organize time and priorities, and collaborate well as a member of the team is necessary. A proven record of success in developing strategic opportunities for promotional partnerships and collaborations with sponsors, media, and community organizations is required. Marketing skills in patron loyalty and retention, strategic branding, market research, direct marketing, and digital marketing, including web and social media, are required. Strong written communication and public presentation skills and a passion for dance are essential. Tessitura or related CRM experience is preferred. Occasional travel, as well as evening and weekend work, will be required.

Compensation and Benefits

MCB provides a competitive and equitable compensation package, with a salary range between $200,000 to $225,000. Benefits include 100 percent employer-paid medical, dental, and life insurances; 15 days paid vacation, six personal days, and 30 sick days per calendar year; and a voluntary 403(b) retirement plan.

Applications and Inquiries

To submit a cover letter and resume with a summary of demonstrable accomplishments (electronic submissions preferred), please click here or visit artsconsulting.com/employment. For questions or general inquiries about this job opportunity, please contact:

Nan Keeton
Senior Vice President

503 East Jackson Street, Suite 337
Tampa, FL 33602-4904
Tel       (888) 234.4236 Ext. 203
Email    MCB-CMO@ArtsConsulting.com

Click here for the downloadable PDF.

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