The Guest in the Spotlight: How the Hamburgische Staatsoper Consolidates Guest Data and Communicates in a Personalized Way with the E-Marketing Suite

Nearly 100% open rate for automated pre-visit mailings and significantly less manual effort.

• Open rate of pre-visit emails: nearly 100%
• Send time: 36 hours before the performance
• Role: Pilot customer for other Hamburg cultural institutions

As a three-division house, the Staatsoper coordinates guest communication for opera, ballet and orchestra. Especially with changing admission and security regulations, the existing infrastructure reached its limits.

• Guest data and newsletter subscriptions in Excel lists
• Interactions such as complaints could not be assigned to a central customer profile
• Error-prone, laborious sending of newsletters and service announcements
• No flexible, automated information for specific audience groups

In coordination with the Hamburg Ministry of Culture and Media and the IT service provider Dataport, the EMS was implemented as the central CRM system:

• Central address and profile management: Guest data, booking histories and preferences come together in one place.
• Automated pre-visit campaigns: Service emails are sent automatically 36 hours before the performance.
• Dynamic content blocks: Venue, admission times and notices are assembled automatically depending on the ticket booking.
• Sandbox environment: During implementation, all functions could be tested without access to live data.

The EMS ensures smooth workflows in the background and a closer bond with the audience.

• Pre-visit mailings with an open rate of nearly 100%
• Eliminating manual list maintenance saves several hours per week
• Inquiries and complaints are documented in the CRM profile and answered across departments
• Click and behavior analysis as a basis for personalized content

“With starmate's E-Marketing Suite, we have left paper slips and rigid Excel spreadsheets behind. We can finally represent our visitors in their entirety and provide them with precisely the information they need for their perfect evening. The honest, collaborative partnership as equals has far exceeded our expectations.”

Sascha Grunwald, Deputy System Administrator and CRM Project Manager (until 2024), Hamburgische Staatsoper

February 2026

Three divisions under one roof meant three different newsletter cycles and countless Excel lists. We brought these worlds together in one central, GDPR-compliant CRM system.

During data migration, it turned out that many regular guests use several addresses or have specific service requests. We adapted the EMS interface so that the team can structure customer profiles freely.

Consulting team

1. Requirements analysis & concept: Requirements catalog with the cultural authority and data structures for the three-division house.
2. Customizing & sandbox testing: Adapting the database schema for flexible address structures, tests in the sandbox.
3. Data migration & onboarding: Cleansing and migration of the legacy data, training of the key users.
4. Go-live & pilot phase: System launch and fine-tuning of the interface as a pilot customer.
5. Running & campaign automation: Establishing the pre-visit mailings and expanding profiling.