Objective

TikTok was a platform we knew would be different for us. As a 106-year-old nonprofit symphony orchestra, a social media feed where trends move at the speed of caffeine, and the algorithm rewards nerve over legacy - we knew it required a different playbook. And with an average ticket buyer age 53; we had to go where the next generation of LA Phil audiences are.

TikTok became the place where we stopped being the shy music kid. We let our personality lead: nerdy, warm, and unmistakably Californian. This wasn't a promotional channel, it was a relationship-building one.

Our objectives:

• Grow a next-generation audience organically, with zero paid spend
• Drive awareness and discovery among younger demographics 
• Build meaningful engagement, likes, comments, shares, and profile visits that signal qualified interest

Strategy

The Challenges

We had never shown this side of ourselves. LA Phil content had always been beautiful and professional. Behind the scenes, we are the team that geeks out over instrument mechanics and sends rehearsal memes to each other. Letting that side of us live on the internet was, at first, daunting.

Limited resources. Our lean social team manages the full digital ecosystem for the LA Phil, Hollywood Bowl, and The Ford. And, because TikTok demanded a completely different tone and format, our existing video or photography assets wouldn’t work. Repurposing could not be the plan. 

The plan of action:

Our content strategy across platforms is built on two foundational pillars: Behind the Music (musicians and staff as storytellers) and Happening at the Hall (Walt Disney Concert Hall as a cultural destination). These carry across Instagram and TikTok - but the tone, format, and creative approach shift to be platform-native.

For TikTok, we developed a third pillar that only existed here: Music. Moments. Memes. Irreverent, trend-aware, unserious content that makes classical music fun. This was the pillar where we gave ourselves permission to be playful - riffing on pop culture, jumping on trends, and leaning into the niche music nerd jokes.

The execution:

• Music. Moments. Memes. became our breakout pillar: A Musichan meme hit 212K views and 3,360 shares, "Choose Wisely" compared the cost of a French horn to 1,100 matcha lattes (78K views, 1,452 shares). "If your kid is texting" became our most-shared post ever at 160K views and 5,532 shares, beating out a Cynthia Erivo collaboration. "LA Phil Severance" an experimental spoof that doubled as a love letter to our team’s scrappy creativity proved we could enter cultural conversations in real time with a distinctly LA Phil point of view.
• Behind the Music turned our people into the main characters. Rehearsal footage of Gustavo Dudamel from a Firebird rehearsal at 477K views, while "Not Our Mr. Darcy" generated 101K proving our conductor's unfiltered energy is content gold. Joanne Pearce Martin demonstrating the celesta with the Harry Potter theme song reached 185K views driving 4,755 new followers. Staff Picks transformed insider-knowledge of the season’s programming into an access point with 9K views.
• Happening at the Hall made Walt Disney Concert Hall feel approachable - as a date night at 28K views, a family outing with 23K views, and a community for under-40 music lovers with 6.6K views and 339 shares in its first day posted.
• The Coachella accelerant. When the LA Phil performed in April, our festival coverage and organic voluntary collab posts with Cynthia Erivo and Laufey accelerated growth to 1,000 new followers every three to six days.

But the strategy was never built around a single event. 150 posts in one year showed audiences we would keep showing up for them. It was our "Look back at summer rehearsal" - a simple behind-the-scenes moment that was our biggest follower-driving post at 6,307 new followers. No celebrity guest - just us being us.

Results

We grew over 5x on TikTok with $0 media spend. 

365-day TikTok performance (Feb 2025 - Feb 2026):

• 3.2 million video views
• 2.6 million reach

Grow a next-generation audience organically, with zero paid spend:

• 26,499 net new followers with zero paid spend, growing from 6,616 to 33,115
• Peer institutions grew between 10-14% during the same period

Drive awareness and discovery among younger demographics:

• 77.4% of views from TikTok's For You Page; 13.2% from Search - our content drove both algorithmic discovery and active seek-out behavior
• 63.6% of viewers are under 35, with 31.4% in the 18-24 range - direct evidence that the organization's next generation of ticket buyers, donors, and advocates is within reach.
• 40.4% of followers are under 35 - for an art form whose in-venue audience skews heavily toward 55+, this is the gap closing in real time

Build meaningful engagement that signals qualified interest:

• 442,799 total engagements (including 35,331 shares and 32,468 saves)
• 57,000 profile views - people actively seeking out the organization after encountering our content

The strategy was simple: don’t be afraid to be ourselves, on a platform that rewards exactly that. 400% growth with zero paid spend proved the plan is working.

Media