A musical farewell to Classic1027

We have been working with the team at Classic1027 since November 2018 on their social media. We have helped the team grow and diversify their audience and we have helped with increasing engagement on social media.

We have also connected the team with a few of our other partners with some great results. One example is Starlight Classics and another is gifting tickets to watch the amazing Andrea Bocelli live to two young musicians. We even introduced the Classic1027 team to the Ndlovu Youth Choir who performed at the Classic1027 offices and now the choir is in LA blowing the world away at America’s Got Talent!

Classic1027 is South Africa’s only commercial classical music station, based in Melrose Arch.

Its CEO is Lyndon Johnstone who says: “Classical music might be old, but it definitely need not be old-fashioned,”.

The vision of the station is simple, says Lyndon: “To make classical music accessible to all South Africans”. This was a main part of our mandate on social media: making classical music more accessible. We also wanted to show that classical music, and the Classic1027 team, is fun. We did this by creating and implementing a new content strategy and plan that profiled various aspects of classical music, showing how the music is not outdated, and using a more fun voice and style on social media. From memes to modern classical musicians, we kept the content diverse and true to the brand.

As a huge fan of classical music, and a (retired) cellist, I really enjoyed working on the Classic1027 content. I loved being able to share my love of modern classical musicians like Sheku Kanneh-Mason and discovering how classical pieces were sampled in some of my favourite hip hop tracks.

Some highlights of our time managing the Classic1027 social media

Facebook

• The account grew from 1 380 likes on 1 November 2018 to 2 215 likes on 31 August 2019
• This is an increase of 835 fans and 61% in the period

Twitter

• The account grew from 1 264 followers on 1 November 2018 to 1 889 followers on 31 August 2019
• This is an increase of 625 followers and 50% in the period

Instagram

• The account grew from 248 followers on 1 November 2018 to 724 followers on 31 August 2019
• This is an increase of 476 followers and 192% in the period
• Instagram has seen the highest increase of all three accounts

Classic1027 rebranded in March 2019 and this came with a great new line up. You should check it out.

Some of the shows are the More Music Breakfast with Kutlwano Masote (he’s also a cellist but not retired) on week day mornings from 6am; The Full Works with maestro Richard Cock on week day nights from 8pm; Classic Business with Michael Avery on week days from 5.30pm; Winding Down with Carolyn Steyn on week day evenings from 7pm; and On Screen with Claire Mawisa on Saturdays from 12pm. You can also catch Carolyn and Richard on the weekends, and Claire is back with a different show on Sundays.

Instagram grew by 476 followers and 192% in 10 months.

We love working closely with our partners and we do this until it makes sense not to do so.

As a final goodbye to Classic1027, I wanted to share a classical goodbye piece. There are a few options but perhaps the most famous is Haydn’s Symphony number 45. It’s an amazing piece of music and I love the bit of drama that comes with it. It’s a long piece so SPOILER ALERT.

The musicians all play together until the final adagio where each musician stops playing and then leaves the stage. They all leave one at a time until there are only two violins left playing. Strictly speaking, the musicians would stop playing, snuff out the candle at their music stand (in those days), and then leave one by one until two violins are left. These two were played by Haydn and his concertmaster Luigi Tomasini. The story behind the piece is interesting and the piece makes even more sense once you know it so I urge you to read up about it.