Credit: Claire Chevalier

Did you know that the bassoon, a double-reed woodwind instrument that produces rich tenor and bass notes, is an “endangered instrument”? 

That may not be a commonly held bit of knowledge, but if you work in marketing at the Royal College of Music in London, England, you are acutely aware of the U.K.-wide decline in students taking up the bassoon. 

The marketing team there set out to change that with the Young Bassoon Program, launched in 2023 to raise awareness of the bassoon and to build a community of players across the country. This was the team’s first multichannel, public marketing campaign to launch a pipeline program. 

“The pipeline activity is crucial to ensure students of the future are supported,” says Katherine Smith, Head of Marketing at the renowned conservatoire. “We wanted to reach students early enough that they could attain the required level to apply and study music at the conservatoire level.”  

The goal for the campaign was simple: recruit 15 bassoonists (ages 11 to 18) to join a community of players through a free programme in which they will gain audition advice, develop performance skills, and receive peer-to-peer support through a course led by world-class RCM faculty. 

Credit: Chris Christodoulou

The goal may have been modest but the outcome was extraordinary: the marketing campaign exceeded its target by 233%, enrolling 50 young bassoonists in the program and registering another 51 players on the wait-list. In addition, views to the woodwind faculty pages of the RCM website increased by 31% during the three weeks of the campaign. While the majority of participants were from England, students from as far as Ireland, Belgium, and Poland were accepted into the programme.  

“The ‘offer’ itself was not necessarily unique,” says Smith. “Our research showed a number of competitor ‘bassoon days’ or similar courses at other conservatoires around the U.K. This challenged our team to craft a narrative that stood out from the rest. We tailored our language and tone of voice across the content assets specifically to appeal to our target audience of teachers and parents. Imagery was carefully chosen to show a breadth of students of different ages playing the bassoon to appeal to a wide demographic. And we reduced barriers to entry by making the registration form easy to use and without requiring a login.”

Credit: Chris Christodoulou

In developing the campaign, the marketing team worked closely with the woodwind faculty and administration to understand their objectives for the project and to ensure this was reflected in the marketing campaign. The campaign design was further informed by research into the state of bassoon teaching and learning in the U.K., and by engaging with specialist woodwind organisations that supported the programme on social media and in their print magazines. 

The team devoted most of its tight budget (£500) to Facebook advertising, based on research about and understanding of the target audiences on this platform. 

The well-executed campaign was awarded a bronze Circle of Excellence Award in the Marketing Initiatives (10–25 Staff) category. One judge noted, “This campaign exemplifies strategic prowess and resource optimization, setting a new standard for pipeline initiatives in music education.”
Smith attributes the success of the campaign to three key strategies: “Strategic use of resources, identifying partners amongst specialist organisations, and developing a narrative that showcased our talented community using unique photography and video content.”