Case Study: State Street Ballet Social Media
State Street Ballet
Social Media Highlights 2025/26 Season
Client: State Street Ballet
Campaign: 2025/26 Season
Agency: WE INC. Marketing
Project Lead: Fran Jamison
Social & Email Lead: Nicolette Yarbrough
How Strategic Social Content Helped State Street Ballet Surpass Its Season Goals
State Street Ballet closed its 2025/26 season with powerful momentum—onstage, online, and at the box office. The season-long campaign resulted in remarkable results: 145% of the ticket revenue goal, a 23% year-over-year increase in ticket sales and a 57% year-over-year increase in revenue.
Behind that growth was a social media strategy built around compelling storytelling, high-performing creative, and smart collaboration, from early-season rehearsal reels to viral choreographer collaborations.
Building Momentum Early in the Season
During the first half of the season, State Street Ballet’s social media performance showed strong signs of audience growth and content traction.
Between August and December, the account added 866 new Instagram followers, reaching 57% of the season’s contracted growth goal by midseason. The account also saw major gains in visibility and engagement.
The strongest-performing early-season post featured footage from Romeo and Juliet rehearsal, which reached 28k views and was boosted with a small paid budget of $100. This targeted approach earned the account 463 new followers with an efficient $0.13 cpe (cost per engagement).
Additionally, the video’s content performance reinforced a key strategic takeaway: dance footage with dramatic staging, synchronized movement, and behind-the-scenes rehearsal energy has strong potential to reach broader audiences.
Testing What Works —> Then Amplifying It
One of the most effective learnings from the first half of the season was the value of using small, strategic (paid) boosts on content already performing well organically.
Rather than boosting every post equally, the recommendation was to identify high-potential pieces (e.g. organically high-performing video) and support them with modest paid promotion.
For future performance cycles, the suggested approach was:
1–2 boosted posts per performance cycle, prioritizing content already showing organic traction
Average budget: $100 per post for a 7 day duration
Best content candidates: Rehearsal footage, dramatic movement sequences, dancer-shot video, and videography that captures the energy of the production
This approach helped social media function as both a creative storytelling platform and an audience development tool.
Turning Rehearsal Footage Into a Viral Campaign
By the time State Street Ballet reached its season finale, Chaplin, the account had a clear sense of what kind of content resonated: movement-forward video, behind-the-scenes access, and creative process storytelling.
Chaplin offered a unique opportunity to build on those learnings. The production featured three choreographers, including Kevin Jenkins, whose strong Instagram presence and rehearsal footage created a natural entry point for collaboration.
Throughout the six-week promotional period, the company partnered with Kevin to share rehearsal-driven content that brought followers inside the creative process. The collaboration helped generate extraordinary reach.
Jenkins’ audience also received a special promo code for 20% off tickets, creating a direct bridge between social engagement and ticket sales.. The campaign helped build excitement for the season finale, introduce the work to new audiences, and reinforce the emotional and artistic pull of the production before audiences ever entered the theater.
Season-Wide Social Growth
The Chaplin campaign was part of a larger season-long strategy focused on giving audiences more ways to connect with the company, through behind-the-scenes moments, dancer-driven content, production storytelling, and platform-specific creative.
By season end, State Street Ballet saw:
3.2M total social media views: A 100% increase over the 2024/25 season
490K accounts reached: A 63% increase over the 2024/25 season
3.2K new Instagram followers: More than doubling the original growth goal of 1,520 new followers
14,920 total Instagram followers: Final follower count by season end
This growth helped expand State Street Ballet’s visibility far beyond its existing audience while keeping the content closely tied to ticket-driving moments throughout the season.
Strong Social = Stronger Sales
State Street Ballet’s results show what can happen when social content is treated as more than a posting calendar. By identifying the strongest creative opportunities, collaborating with artists who could authentically extend the company’s reach, and building content that made audiences feel closer to the work, we were able to translate digital attention into real-world momentum.
The result: a season that exceeded goals, grew the audience, and ended with a finale that outperformed its revenue target.
Want to build a social strategy that supports audience growth and ticket sales?
