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Case Study

Opera Theatre of Saint Louis

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OVERVIEW

Opera has long been misunderstood as niche entertainment for the realm of the wealthy and intellectual. But long before our multimedia culture, these productions were truly the blockbuster movies of their day. TOKY was brought in to help broaden the audience and increase ticket sales for Opera Theatre Saint Louis, and ended up influencing how opera companies around the country are marketed.

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2006-SeasonPoster
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2008-SeasonPoster
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2010-SeasonPoster

FROM CLASSICAL CANON REPERTOIRE TO OPERETTA

TOKY melded provocative words and images to distill complex themes — lust, rage, jealousy, murder, passion, rhapsody, and love — into communications that cut through the clutter of everyday life. For ten seasons and 40 productions, TOKY created marketing materials that are a cut above the rest.

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Layout Wonka
Layout Madame
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Layout Traviata
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Layout Cosi
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Layout Nixon
Layout Marie Antoinette
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RECORD-BREAKING RESULTS

TOKY also launched a new version of the Opera Theatre website, introducing a more flexible content management system that seamlessly integrated with the Tessitura ticketing software. After launch, OTSL reported an 18% boost in ticket sales for the season, far surpassing the box office goal of $1.8 million.

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Feedback

“TOKY’s award-winning work for OTSL has helped distinguish our company’s visual style in ways that broaden our appeal and speak to our most important values: quality, inventiveness, approachability, sophistication, and fun. Working with TOKY means that they are not satisfied until we are satisfied — as a firm and as individuals they are enormously generous with their time and tremendous talent.”

— TIMOTHY O’LEARY, GENERAL DIRECTOROpera Theatre of Saint Louis

Results

  • 58%INCREASE IN FIRST-DAY SINGLE TICKET SALES BETWEEN 2011 AND 2012
  • 50%INCREASE IN FIRST-DAY SINGLE TICKET SALES BETWEEN 2010 AND 2012
  • 18%INCREASE IN 2012 SEASON TICKET SALES VS. 2011

Services

Concept Development

Print Collateral

Advertising

Website Design

Website Development

Illustration

Photography

Video, Script & Editing

Media Planning

Awards

ADDY Awards Logo

Gold
Tales of Hoffman Poster, Regional ADDY Awards

Graphis Logo

Featured
Tales of Hoffman Poster, Graphis Design Annual

Awards-Logo-HOW

Featured
Ghosts of Versailles Poster, HOW Magazine’s “Top 10 Posters”