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This is a particularly busy time for me and marketing colleagues, as we're preparing for the launch of the 09/10 Season. I'm spending an inordinate amount of time running between City Halls and Pacific Quay like a madman, looking at images, footage and blurb, and annoying the heck out of our very patient Graphic Designers. I've spent the best part of the day selecting photos the old-school way, with a contact sheet, china-graph pencil and a magnifying glass. (Yes, there are some things that are still best done away from a computer.)

So we're in a headlong rush to get the message about the ´óÏó´«Ã½ SSO's new season out to as many people as possible, and in this day and age that's no mean feat. One of the people our message has reached is Tam Pollard, a dedicated concert goer and huge fan of our new Chief Conductor, Donald Runnicles. He's written about two of our recent Thursday concerts on his excellent blog .

Tam goes to a great many concerts and he knows what he likes, and as you can see he's not usually a fan of conductors speaking from the platform. That's not something we do much of too, mainly because not all conductors can introduce a concert as well as they can conduct. But Tam seems well disposed to my subtle brand of pre-concert whimsy. This is something I've always done in my time with the ´óÏó´«Ã½ SSO, firstly at our Studio performances and now at City Halls.

As a ´óÏó´«Ã½ orchestra, our public performances are geared to two audiences; the audience in the hall and the audience on air. Its important that the audience in the hall get the feeling that we're making a radio or TV programme as well as giving a concert. My introductions are just a very simple way of putting that message across. And though they're done without any pizzazz or hoo-hah, they're just elementary showbiz.

Yup, showbiz. High art we may be, but concerts are an entertainment, and anyone who suggests differently is living in the wrong century. And in the 21st Century and the midst of the Credit Crunch, the arts are also big business and big bucks.

Tempting audiences out of their living rooms and into Concert Halls requires some evolution in the way that orchestras and arts companies present their work. And thats not just on stage, but in the mediums we marketers use to entice those audiences. In an increasingly online and digital world, where competition for audiences is increasing, the ´óÏó´«Ã½ SSO and other arts organisations like us are changing the techniques and mediums we use to reach out as ambassadors for art, culture and education and entertainment.

And as a ´óÏó´«Ã½ orchestra based in a public space, we have a golden opportunity to change the way that art is presented and perceived, on stage and in the ways we "sell" it. I think the time is right to stimulate a change in some of the entrenched attitudes of the arts world, and I reckon a change in the demands art puts on its audiences. Offering a wee cheery "hello" at the top of the show is just a start.

Stephen Duffy