Advertising Arts: The Contrasting Sides

From a place that is starry, flashy, colorful, bustling & extremely flamboyant to a place that is HUGE, silent, modest, low-profiled & evidently non-commercialized, the transition as we moved from Radio City Music Hall to Lincoln Center was significant. I, along with my classmates went to visit both of these venues as part of a course requirement. And, hence I thought it was apt for me to write a blog on my virtual experience (web) as well as on-site experience. 

Even without knowing much about either of these brands, it is not so difficult to make out which one is funded by the donors and which one is commercialized. Be it their respective websites or different media tools each of them use, the difference in the way each one markets itself is hugely obvious.

Website:

Just like the venue, the website of Radio City Music Hall is bright and flashy. The fact that it is a for-profit organization is evident on the first glance itself when the very first tab you see on the website reads “Get Tickets”, instead of “About Us”. And, it is not just once that you spot “Get Tickets” tab, but at least thrice at three different places on the upper half part of the website, and in total 12 different places on the Homepage itself. The presence of the logos of its sponsors/partners is quite noticeable on its website. It also infers to the fact that the place is highly commercialized. Chase being the main partner occupies the spot right on the top right part of the website, and other co-partners occupy the bottom part of the website, stretching from left to right. Its social media tabs are placed right on the upper right side of website, thus making it easy for people to hit like, follow, join and subscribe, and easy for Radio City Music Hall to gain more fan following. The website of ‘Christmas Spectacular’ has nice red and green Christmas theme. And, it too highlights its ‘Get Tickets’ section and its list of sponsors more than anything else. Again, the page is as vibrant in terms of colors as it could be.

Radio City Music Hall Website Home Page

Again, in lines with the look and the feel of the Lincoln Center venue, the website too uses white theme with FONTS in black. What really catches attention of the home page are the big picture tabs, a click on each of which leads you to the respective show/event page. They have Facebook, Twitter & Instagram tabs right on the top. No where on the page, do we get to find tabs that read, ‘Get Tickets’, which indicates its non-commercial (not-for-profit) nature. At the bottom of the home page, we can read, ‘Operating expenses for this website have been generously underwritten by Mr. and Mrs. Richard S. Braddock’. This shows how everything about Lincoln, right from their website to their performances run on funds. The White Light Festival ran from October 7 - November 11, 2014.  The White Light Festival was celebrating its 5th year at the Lincoln Center.  

Lincoln Center Website Home Page

There is no media that Radio City Music Hall has left untouched for advertising and marketing.

On-venue Advertising:

A mere wait outside the Radio City Music Hall bombards us with uncountable ads of its on-going shows and events. Owing to the fact that Christmas is approaching, the venue has started hosting its traditional ‘Christmas Spectacular’ which will run through the Christmas (Nov. 7 - Dec 31). There isn’t a single place where Chase is left behind in terms of being advertised. It is its biggest corporate sponsor and hence each Radio City Music Hall ad carries the Chase logo along. Just when we enter the venue, we are given the playbills, which include the logo of Chase, right below the logo of Christmas Spectacular.  Even as we enter the venue, we see lots of ads all over the place. They haven’t left even little space unused, or unadvertised. There are over 20 Concession stalls, selling coffee, soda, bottled water, liquor and popcorn tubs, which carry the picture of ‘Christmas Spectacular’. There are no physical posters anymore at the venue. All the posters are only LED now. The images of the Rockettes from back in the day till now are placed on all the walls, where tourists are expected to pass by. Even the restrooms and the areas outside restrooms are not spared. Little green wreaths, made from artificial leaves and flowers, shaped in the form of Chase logo occupy every possible place at the venue.

Apart from Chase, its list of sponsors include:

•   Madison Square Garden

•   Coca Cola

•   Delta

•   Hallmark

•   McDonald’s  

•   Norwegian

•   Toyota

•   New York Life

•   GoGo Squeez

•   Starwood Preferred Guest

•   Infor

•   UPS

•   It’s Sugar

There is a Chase ATM inside the venue. A Toyota car has also been strategically placed inside the venue just next to the Chase ATM and concession stalls.

One of the almost 20 concession stalls

Chase Branding all over the Hall

Lincoln Center, being a not-for-profit organization came across as little conservative in terms of promoting itself even at the venue. There were some posters and ads here and there, but not as prominent as in the case of Radio City Music Hall. The digital billboards of White Light Festival, The Metropolitan Opera and others were around the radius of the venue. But, I couldn't find anything away from the venue in terms of advertising. 


(We weren't allowed to click pictures inside the venue)

Outdoor Advertising:

Again, in lines with its indoor advertising, this entertainment value has left no stone unturned in marketing itself. Right from digital billboards outside Lincoln tunnel (when you go from NJ to NY) and on NYC streets to little posters inside the light rails, subways stations, inside the subways, inside the NJ transit buses, Christmas Spectacular ads are everywhere. The Christmas Spectacular ad was also seen on the Tourist buses, and near the Times Square.

Bus Carrying Christmas Spectacular Ad

Christmas Spectacular at Lincoln Tunnel

Near Times Square

NJ Transit

Lincoln Center, as a venue is really huge in terms of real estate. With the digital steps that display "welcome" in different लैंग्वेजेज (Languages) to the huge screen that exhibits information about ongoing and upcoming events, followed by a beautiful fountain, Lincoln Center seemed like a perfect place to sit under the moon, on one of those donated chairs/benches. There are several OOH around the whole venue. Unlike Radio City Music Hall, Lincoln Center isn't too flashy.

Billboards around Lincoln Center

Web Presence:

Chase being their main sponsor, carries its ad on its website. It even carries the ad when it sends out e-mails to its customers. The ads carry 30% discount offers. They have highly active social media presence. Radio City Music Hall even pays for ads on Google for search optimization. Now no matter what website I open, thanks to the data breaking sites (the sites that track my search, clicks and usage on web and mobile), Radio City Music Hall ad just pops up everywhere. It also has a wide social media presence. You can see for yourself the number of likes and followers on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.

Instagram Page

Twitter Page

Personally, I couldn't come across extensive presence of Lincoln Center anywhere except some tourist sites and mailers that they send out to the members. They do have some quite active social media presence, which you can make out by looking at the likes and followers in the following screen shots of their pages. Importantly, The White Light Festival too has quite an active media presence. It, however doesn't show any social media icons on the website. Time Warner is their main sponsor. Lincoln Center too advertises on Google but The White Light Festival does not promote itself via paid search on Google.

Instagram Page

Facebook Page

Radio City Music Hall is all over the place through its extensive advertising. It doesn't seem like they need to update themselves with respect to promoting themselves. However, it is still unsure what media tool is giving them the maximum attention. Evaluation of their marketing and advertising strategies could help them save on some money by getting rid of advertising that only results in waste coverage. With Lincoln Center, on the other hand, the first thing for them to do would be to use some of the funds and allocate them to advertising and promoting themselves. And once, they start using different media tools, they could probably evaluate their ads and promotions to know their performance and what works best for them.

So, this is my experience of visiting both the organizations and what impact each one has on us. I hope you enjoyed reading my descriptive blog as much as I did while writing it. Happy reading!