Segerstrom Center for the Arts
Segerstrom Center for the Arts
Building understanding, engagement, and support for this preeminent performing arts presenter
Orange County, California presenter Segerstrom Center for the Arts offers some of the most exciting programs in its region—including hit Broadway productions, an expertly curated dance series, top classical offerings, cabaret, and robust free community programming. It’s also one of the largest providers of arts education in the nation. But it wasn’t getting credit for its wide-ranging efforts.
We worked with the Center to increase understanding and appreciation of its breadth, quality, and importance to its community—and to bolster both earned and contributed income.
When we started, Segerstrom was known to many as “that Broadway house”—or only a “location” where road shows stopped over—which not only had an impact on their capacity to engage audiences with their wide range of programming, but also meant prospective donors didn’t understand they were a nonprofit in need of, and worthy of, support.
We developed a new brand architecture and strategy that connects once-disparate offerings more closely to the overarching Segerstrom Center brand. And, through compelling messaging and vibrant, inviting design, we repositioned the Center as a thoughtful performing arts presenter essential to the region.
We then worked with the Center and its digital partners to integrate the brand system throughout a new website; in parallel, we collaborated on a suite of marketing and development materials. We documented the system through a comprehensive brand book—and built board and staff buy-in and fluency through a cross-organizational brand rollout and hands-on workshops—all to ensure that the Center has a valuable, lasting asset.
Objectives
- Increase awareness, enthusiasm, participation, and support
- Be better appreciated for excellence and impact across offerings, including education
- Communicate the importance of the Center as a curator and presenter—not just a location
- Increase the Center’s stature—and gravitational pull, even from L.A.
- Enable the Center to “get credit” for its wide range of offerings—beyond Broadway
- Become known as a community-centric organization, where all are welcome
- Effectively communicate the need for—and value of—donor support
Collaboration
- Conducted a comprehensive research phase: internal and external stakeholders and audits
- Evolved brand attributes to guide messaging and design
- Constructed a cohesive brand architecture that streamlined diverse offerings—and elevated the role of the Center as a presenter
- Engaged both new and current audiences through compelling messaging
- Developed a lively, inviting, instantly recognizable visual system
- Integrated evolved brand throughout a new website
- Created exciting marketing materials to bolster earned and contributed income
- Conducted organization-wide brand rollout and workshops to build comfort and fluency
- Documented the new strategy, messaging, and visual system to give the Center a lasting asset
Scope
- Qualitative research
- Internal and competitive communication audits
- Brand strategy / architecture
- Attributes / storylines / messaging framework
- Visual system
- Print / digital marketing communications
- Integration of design and messaging into new website
- Development communications
- Brand system documentation
- Organization-wide rollout and training
Primary identifier
The Center’s primary identifier is comprised of an updated symbol that references the Center’s signature building, combined with new typography.
Brand architecture
The Center’s new brand architecture system ensures that the organization gets credit for all its programs—and communicates both the breadth of programming and the positive impact the Center in its region.
Where we started: Disparate sub-brands and visual approaches under-presented the Center’s breadth and value.
New, intuitive brand identifiers give the Center’s many programs appropriate differentiation, while always building brand equity.
Elevating the Center as a thoughtful presenter
Bringing forward Segerstrom Center with the “Segerstrom Center Presents” label and clear visual framing of all assets addresses a challenge all presenters face—that the brands of well-known acts they present can easily eclipse their own. The new approach replaced selling each act individually (selling from the bottom up) with a complementary top-down institutional advancement strategy. This strategy is establishing a higher level of trust among constituencies—trust that enables the organization to both take risks and more effectively fundraise.
Positioning the Center
Brand positioning is two-tiered—bringing forward the Center’s leadership position in both performing arts—and community and educational programming
A must-visit performing arts leader
- The performing arts destination for all of Orange County
- A cultural town square where art brings people together
- Home to a robust array of cultural experiences
- A top dance presenter in the region
A vital community presence and educator
- One of the nation’s most impactful providers of arts education
- A resource and arts engine for the community
- Transforming lives through the arts
Segerstrom Center for the Arts provides Orange County with the best performance, education, and community offerings, but we hadn’t always been appreciated for all we offer—or communicated that everyone is welcome here. The Sametz team helped us evolve our brand to capture and bring forward the full range of our offerings and value, including a brand architecture and messaging framework that both build understanding and invite all to our campus."
Lisa Middleton
Vice President, Marketing & Communications, Segerstrom Center for the Arts
High-level messaging
A new high-level message engages prospective attendees and provides top-down, strategic context for more tactical, offering-specific messaging. Additional constituent-focused messaging is aligned with what prospective donors, educational participants, and community groups need to know and understand about the Center.
Revel in creativity. At Segerstrom Center for the Arts, you can immerse yourself in world-celebrated culture and performance—from glittering hits straight from Broadway to timeless and innovative dance; from intimate jazz concerts to side-splitting comedy and family shows that delight all ages—right here in Orange County.
Whether you’re looking for inspiration, relaxation, the perfect date night, high-energy stage magic—or all of the above—Segerstrom Center for the Arts is your must-see, must-hear destination for the best in live entertainment.
A lively system of visual expression
A primary and extended palette provides a brand-building connection across all communications, and an unexpected combination of two typefaces—in a range of weights—brings desired brand attributes to life. Circular color fields and imagery windows, along with half circles, connect to the arc in Segerstrom Center’s brand symbol and signature building.
Offerings across the Center are now connected—building an integrated picture of the organization, encouraging patrons to cross-sell themselves to new programs, and bringing forward an organization worthy of donor support.
Our new approach to visual expression is truly a system: its components can be tuned to give the appropriate amount of differentiation to different offerings—and make the most of different opportunities—while always building recognition of, and meaning in, our brand.”
Lisa Middleton
Getting credit for their robust educational programs
Segerstrom Center’s educational programs are now closely linked to the parent brand—building awareness of their wide range of endeavors and encouraging both participation and donor support.
Translating the brand system to the web
We collaborated with the Center’s web development partner to design a comprehensive set of visual modules that allows many different types of information to be presented effectively—while also providing flexibility to add and edit content easily.
Show-specific information is complemented by an institutional-level welcome and the Center’s high-level message on the homepage. Important content areas for visitors have text and imagery teaser blocks—helping all to get to what they are looking for.
A visitor to Education & Community Programs can sort information by programs or by who they are. There is a deep repository of videos, articles, photos, and Segerstrom Center history on the site.
Compelling season materials
Signature design gestures provide a strong brand context for imagery supplied by artists’ management, building Segerstrom Center’s brand image.
Connecting with donors
A new architecture of development communications enables the Center to effectively make the case for donor support. A suite of six-panel development brochures hold inserts that can be tailored to individual donors’ interests.
Campus-wide communications
The Segerstrom Center campus comprises multiple buildings and outdoor spaces—with many opportunities to build understanding and value. On a large outdoor mural, the three resident companies are presented within the context of the Center.
Segerstrom’s brand system makes social media posts instantly recognizable, even when scrolling quickly through one’s feed.
A lasting asset
A comprehensive brand book provides all who commission, evaluate, or create communications to develop communications that both do their tactical jobs well and always build the brand meaning and stature of Segerstrom Center.
Ensuring buy-in and brand fluency
A company-wide roll-out, combined with hands-on workshops, built comfort with the new brand and helped create an effective, fluent corps of brand ambassadors.
Our collaboration with the Sametz team has given us beautiful, compelling new marketing and development materials, as well as the tools for us to create new pieces ourselves for years to come. As the Center evolves with new offerings to inspire and delight our audiences, our new brand will help us to be better known, understood, and appreciated, in Orange County and beyond."
Lisa Middleton