Opus Concert cafe

In my first semester (of three) in the Marketing Institute, I competed in with a team against four other Marketing institute teams to deliver an outreach strategy and marketing plan for local rental and performance venue, Opus Concert Cafe. Opus Concert Cafe is an intimate performance space hosted within the historic Paramount Theatre in downtown Cedar Rapids. The space was built to be used as a cabaret-style lounge, with a full service bar and catering kitchen. Historically, the venue has been used for Opus-hosted jazz concerts, rented by local community members for concerts and fundraisers, and opened prior to Paramount Theatre shows as a pre-show lounge for noteworthy donors and corporate sponsors. Opus Concert Cafe reached out to the Marketing Institute in order to increase the rental functionality of the space, particularly in the daytime. Concerned that the space sat empty so frequently, they wanted Marketing Institute teams to research daytime rental ideas, develop outreach plans to advertise the space, and increase profits for the venue overall.

Our team began by defining a variety of daytime opportunities for rental engagement including corporate rentals for local businesses, workshops by local artisans (such as Paint & Sip wine and painting parties), and as a general purpose meeting space for non-profits, PTA, or religious groups. We then created a new pricing model to incentivize rental for daytime groups, decreasing the cost of daytime rental and providing discounts for non-profits and corporate sponsors. This new model was competitively priced with other event centers, and paired with a bulk-booking discount plan that created even more incentive for renters to have consistent events and meetings in the space. We also recommended for Opus Concert Cafe to develop relationships with local caterers (and provided a booklet of local caterers to choose from) in order to increase the use of their catering kitchen. To round out our suggestions for daytime rentals, we also noted that the lobby space and ticketing office located in front of the Cafe was not being utilized as a secondary opportunity for profit. We came up with the idea to add value to the lobby by having it function as a pop-up shop space for local artists. The goods sold would rotate quarterly, and Opus would take a 5-10% commission.

In addition to asking for suggestions for daytime rentals, Opus also asked for more ideas about how to fill out their rental space on nights it wasn’t being booked, particularly weekday nights. For this section, we created a full plan for a weekly or biweekly comedy show. Opus would ideally target young professionals and college-age students, with 21+ shows that would also increase alcohol sales at their bar. They are located in a prime location to target these markets, thanks to being in the heart of downtown Cedar Rapids surrounded by large companies, with four universities within driving distance.

The last rental recommendation was to open up the venue for post-Paramount Theatre performance cocktail hour. At the time of our consultation, they opened prior to shows for pre-dinner drinks, but kept it closed following performances. We posited that using the space for post-show drinks could even be a ticketed, VIP event, wherein theatre-goers could add a nominal fee to their initial ticket cost in order to gain access to the lounge. As part of the post-show event, Opus could hire local bands to play lounge-music live, offer open-mic opportunities for performers, or even invite performers from the Paramount performance that night to come and mingle (or do a more formalized meet and greet).

In addition to all of our rental ideas for Opus, we also provided them with a brief overview of marketing strategies they could use to increase their visibility. We provided insight on social media optimization, including the flexibility, ease, and affordability of paid social media advertisements. We created SEO mockups and introduced paid search marketing tools to Opus, while recommending keyword targeting for things like “Comedy Show” should like choose to implement that idea. Outside of digital media, we recommended enhancing their outdoor signage so as to become more distinct from the street. Finally, we pushed for increased marketing of Opus by their parent space, the Paramount Theatre, by providing mockups of flyers to distribute in playbills at Paramount shows.

Overall, our project delivered a wide variety of different ideas for increasing venue usage, all profit-focused with demographic targeting and competitor awareness. We also delivered strategies for implementation throughout, and eased workload on Opus by providing mock-ups, initial planning materials and training, and lists of potential partners for the pop-up shop or catering contracts. At the conclusion of this project, our team won the Marketing Institute competition against the four other teams, and our presentation was chosen to be the marketing plan that Opus Concert Cafe would begin to implement.