Jobs & Auditions

Opera Colorado seeks a marketing innovator to create an exciting brand to maximize ticket sales revenue, increase engagement with young and diverse ticket buyers, and highlight their expanded artistic vision and education and community outreach programming.

BASIC FUNCTION
Reporting to the Managing Director, the Director of Marketing and Communications will lead a department responsible for funding 34% of Opera Colorado’s $5.1 million budget. The new leader will be a mission-driven arts marketing and communications professional who embraces the mission, artistic vision, and core values of Opera Colorado.

He/She/They should be a strategic and creative thinker and possess a high level of emotional intelligence. The candidate should be a results-oriented individual capable of leading a department of two full-time professional marketing staff that includes a Marketing Manager and Multimedia Producer. In addition, the Marketing Director manages both institutional and programmatic marketing efforts, which include supporting three mainstage productions at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House and more than thirty events annually.

The Director of Marketing & Communications is a key member of the senior leadership team responsible for leading programmatic and institutional marketing efforts. He/She/They works collaboratively with the senior leadership team to identify opportunities and build strategies to grow capacity with a focus on sustaining current audience, growing new audience, and building visibility and awareness throughout the community.

The Director will develop and lead the implementation plan, which includes oversight of public relations, advertising, publications, content creation, social media, and promotions. In service of these goals, the Director of Marketing & Communications is an energetic, strategic, and creative thinker, deeply committed to emotionally resonant storytelling in line with the art form of opera itself. The candidate should possess superior written and verbal skills and be able to write compellingly about opera and the arts.

The Director is responsible for continually evolving the Opera Colorado brand identity through building strategic, diverse, and inclusive relationships while creating a voice to share Opera Colorado’s story and values. This position applies key elements of creative, art, and editorial direction to all aspects of the marketing department and works to provide communication for all program areas at Opera Colorado.

PRIORITIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
The Director of Marketing and Communications will be expected to achieve these goals and oversee these responsibilities:

Senior Leadership
-Supervise the marketing staff and lead them in achieving goals and completing critical tasks.
-Develop plans in support of organizational strategies and objectives, and initiate recommendations for improvement of strategies based on research and analysis.
-Provide Managing Director with financial analysis, reporting, budgets, and forecasts for all marketing expense activities (i.e. advertising, printing, web, etc.).
-Work collaboratively with a cross-departmental team to develop pricing strategies, create tickets sales projections, and manage inventory.

Institutional Marketing
-Collaboratively identify opportunities, builds strategy, and implement communications for Opera Colorado’s institutional marketing and public relations with a focus on: longterm audience development; increased public awareness of the company’s community and industry impact; and supporting strengthened relationships between Opera Colorado and patrons, donors, board members, and other key stakeholders.
-Strengthen Opera Colorado’s existing brand identity, solidifying standards for written and visual communication, setting the tone for messaging, and ensuring brand consistency across the organization. This includes informing the evolution of the Opera Colorado brand, as necessary.
-Support the company mission and vision to engage new and diverse audiences by continuously analyzing Denver’s changing demographics, refining target markets, and  creating relevant messaging for increasing Opera Colorado’s awareness in diverse communities throughout the Denver Metropolitan Region.
-Manage Opera Colorado’s media relations strategy, building relationships with local and national media outlets and journalists to ensure continued press coverage.
-Organize promotional activities such as appearances by artists at public events, in service of raising awareness of Opera Colorado with the general public.

Programmatic Marketing
-Collaboratively develop and implement Opera Colorado’s communications for programmatic marketing strategy, including campaigns and publications for all programming areas including mainstage productions, education programs, special events, and fundraising events.
-Generate partnerships with other arts and cultural institutions throughout the Denver metro area for collaborative promotional and audience development programs.
-Advocate for and implement a focus on patron-centered experience.
-Measure campaign success through quantitative and qualitative analysis.

Advertising and Creative Services
-Oversee the process of design, copy, and technical work for all department deliverables from inception to final approvals, with the support of the Marketing Manager, Multimedia Producer, and contractors.
-Supplement dwindling arts coverage in local media outlets with strategic in-house editorial content—including video, photo, audio, and written pieces—with the support of the Multimedia Producer and freelance creatives.
-Work collaboratively across all departments to develop marketing assets for fundraising, education, and community engagement activities, as well as spotlight the many on-stage and behind-the-scenes stories of Opera Colorado through in-house editorial content.
-Negotiate contracts with vendors for services such as advertising, printing, ticketing and other support services.

Personal Characteristics
-A mission-driven individual with a belief in and commitment to Opera Colorado’s mission, artistic vision and values.
-A good listener and strategist; comfortable receiving input from many sources, and able to analyze and formulate disparate information into a sound, well-organized plan.
-A flexible and creative individual who can find alternative ways to reach objectives when barriers arise; a skilled negotiator.
-A team builder\peace keeper – confident and competent, with strong skills in management and leadership; one who understands the subtleties of motivating and directing a diverse group of personalities with different work styles.
-Emotionally mature with a good sense of humor and the flexibility and sensitivity to work with diverse personalities and situations.

IDEAL EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS
The ideal candidate will have the following:
-A minimum of five years of experience in Arts Communications, Marketing, Advertising, PR with demonstrated record of driving audience growth and maximizing ticket sales required – knowledge of opera a plus.
-Strong organizational, leadership, communication and management skills.
-The ability to translate strategic thinking into action with strong understanding of technology (knowledge of Tessitura Ticketing Software preferred) and multi-channel marketing.
-Keen sense of design and sales copywriting.
-Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to write compellingly about opera and the arts.
-Effective presenter internally and externally to peers, subordinates as well as patrons, donors and community business and government leaders.
-Strategic thinker with ability to work both independently and as part of a high performing cross functional team.
-Ability to organize and prioritize projects, meet deadlines and sustain productivity.
-Talent to lead by creating a positive day-to-day work environment for the staff that inspires open communication, teamwork and a culture of respect.
-Model of leadership, enthusiasm, and good humor.

Read full job description here.

APPLY HERE

For more information please contact:
Lee Kappelman
(202) 803-6674 or leek@moppenheim.com
m/Oppenheim Executive Search
1009 General Kennedy Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94129-0242