Philippe Ravanas

Philippe Ravanas is a marketing professor in the Arts, Entertainment & Media Management Department of Columbia College in Chicago.

A native of France, he previously served as Vice President of Corporate Communications for Euro Disney. He participated in its launch and developed pan-European marketing strategies with its official sponsors, including Coca-Cola, Mc Donald’s, Mattel and Nestlé. He contributed to the redefinition of its pricing strategy and eventually served as its official spokesperson, reporting directly to the CEO and successfully turning around adverse press opinion.  He then joined Christie’s Auction House in London and New York, where he took charge of Worldwide Client Development, including all direct marketing campaigns.

He is a contributing author of the third edition of Marketing Culture and the Arts (a book translated in ten languages and used by arts management professionals around the globe) and of the forthcoming Marketing Planning for the arts. He is a regular contributor to the International Journal of Arts Management and to the Journal of Cultural Economics.

He lectures extensively on subjects such as pricing, revenue management, Sponsorship and marketing the Arts to families. He has coached several cultural institutions in drafting a marketing plan, including the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, the Richmond Art Center, San Francisco’s Magic Theatre, Berkeley’s Small Press Distribution, Boston’s Revels and the Merrimack Repertory Theatre from Lowell, Massachusetts. 

He has also provided consulting services to many multinational institutions and corporations, including the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the World Trade Organization, the European Parliament, the National Geographic Society, Amazon, Technicolor, RCA, A.C. Nielsen and General Electric.

He is a musician, playing drums in several bands, and a connoisseur of the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. 

EDUCATION
M.B.A., University of Wisconsin at Madison
Graduated from Ecole Supérieure de Commerce of Marseilles, France
Undergraduate studies in Art History and Philosophy, Aix en Provence, France

Presentations

• Casting Customer Service: The Theater of Audience Experience