An orchestra without concerts: How to stay relevant

Name: Eyes–Screen
Price range: $

In March, the Belgian Government took the decision to go in lockdown and cancel all public events. Since, various concerts were cancelled and took away the direct contact between musicians and the audience. Together with the Belgian National Orchestra (BNO) we developed a range of initiatives to keep the interaction going.

Symphony of Hope

As a first step, we wanted to send a message of hope towards the audience of the BNO, as well as showing a sign of support for the people working in the health sector. For the first time in the history of the BNO we created a fully digital concert, the Symphony of Hope. More than 30 musicians took part, playing Beethoven’s Egmont Overture. In total, the video has been watched by more than 50 000 people, shared over 300 times on Facebook and was highlighted in the national media.

Video series

To give the followers and audience of the BNO more insights we started a series of portraits with musicians and the Music Director, Hugh Wolff, called Meet the Musician/Maestro. In these interviews we showed a more personal side of the Orchestra, where the musicians shared their favorite work, routines before a performance, etc.

Thematic posts

Of course, there were some specific events that required a special approach. Throughout the recent months various videos have been delivered. For the Belgian National Holiday, we came up with something special. On the rooftop of the renovated Central Gate building, new neighbors of the BNO, Gordon Fantini (Principal Bassoon) played the Brabançonne while Brussels was slowly awakening. The video reached more than 10 000 views in a completely organic way.

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We are convinced that the structural partnership between BNO and Eyes—Screen resulted in attractive content, knowing in advance what would or would not work. The ability to have an open dialogue with one another clearly benefits the end result. The different campaigns are a proof that with good and creative content you can achieve a high reach and interaction, even without advertising budgets.