(Snuggie night. A marketing idea. It's yours. Just give me the credit.)
Actually I think about marketing a lot. It's the part of running a theatre that I most enjoy: The challenges, the ideas, creating the materials and watching the results. (Which, for the last couple of years at least, have been positive.)
Gone are the days of putting up posters and hoping that alone gets people to the show. Also gone, mostly, are the days when an ad in the local newspaper would send people flocking to buy tickets. The world is getting their information in a different way now. I see a lot of theatres sticking to the same old, tried and true marketing initiatives they've always done, and it bums me out.
I learned about marketing as I learned about so many other things: The hard way. For several seasons I relied on the old fashioned methods: Posters and cast members inviting their friends. As you can imagine, this did not work so well.
We did The Sound of Music in 2007. (This was before we started focusing on lesser known shows. Clearly). I ended up over committed and with not enough assistance on that show. Because of that, I forgot something important. I forgot to tell Madison that the show was going on.
Looking back I'm not sure what the hell I was thinking. It's the Sound of Damn Music. If I had developed even a mediocre marketing plan of any kind I would have gotten people in the door. But I didn't. I was too busy trying to create a show that I was proud of. Which happened...but not very many people saw it. That is the worst.
That happened for several years actually. When we switched to lesser known musicals I knew it would get tougher and I at least was prepared. But I didn't really have much idea of how to go about getting the word out on weird shows. After a lot of trial and error, and several utterly crushing performances for teeny audiences, I figured it out.
I work with a small theatre company in Monroe, WI. It is a wonderful organization, full of volunteers who do what they do because they love theatre and the community in which they live. Recently they had a show that did okay audience wise, but not as well as they had hoped. It the first show they'd done since I started working there so unfortunately there was a bit of a learning curve.
The company had taken to following a pretty standard list of publicity tactics that were only working with shows people were familiar with. So as a plan for going forward, I presented them with the following list of marketing questions to consider when marketing any how, but particularly one that may not be a household name:
1) Who is the target audience for this show or event? Age? Demographic? Interests?
2) In addition to general publicity, how do we make contact with the specific
demographic or demographics to whom this show or event will appeal?
3) Who are people we have established relationships with who can help us to reach the demographic we need to reach?
4) What is the “hook”? Can this show/event be sold on name recognition alone? If not, what is the angle we can find that will cause people to pay more attention? Is there a live animal in it? Is there a film version? A familiar song or character? An interesting design concept? A fun theme? A modern/current event relevance?
5) After the “hook(s)” are established, how are we going to promote that hook? Is there a special interest group that may want to hear more about it? Can we do anything at the library to promote the show? Would a live performance help us?
6) What should the graphics for the poster and postcards look like? We need to make sure of the following: (NOTE: This is applicable for organizations who do not have professional graphic designers working for them...although sometimes you get a professional who doesn't follow these guidelines either. So it never hurts to check. Also I have feelings about posters. But I'll get to that later.)
a. Design is eye catching and colorful, with the name of the show prominently featured. (Would you stop to look at it in a sea of other posters?)
b. There is a tag line to help attract interest. Ideally this tag line is funny or suspenseful, and leaves the reader wanting more. (For The Wild Party our tag line was a lyric from the show: "By tomorrow morning we could be dead drunk...or just dead.")C. All pertinent information is included and visible, but not as large as the title of the show. Oh, how it sucks to have something printed and realize that important info is missing. Every time I design something I go through and make sure it's all on there: Who, What, When, Where, Why, How, and How Much?
d. A hook has been established and incorporated into the design.
e. For captive audiences where you have more than one second to get the idea across,, such as on a postcard or Facebook post, more information can be included like summary, reviews and other details as appropriate.
7) What local businesses might be willing to offer a deal revolving around our show? (Coupons, promotions, similar demographics, etc.)
8) WHAT ELSE?
Here's the thing. You are not special.
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| Sorry. |
I'm not special either, don't worry. None of us are. You can never operate under the assumption that people will come to your event because it'll be good and they'll like you. This is the age of Facebook, Twitter, Kindle, YouTube, Instant Video, Netflix, Hulu, Redbox, Reddit, online gaming, Spotify, and a whole bunch of other stuff I'm too out of touch to know about. Entertainment is quite literally at your fingertips at every waking moment of the day. And then there are aaaallll the things that are also going on at the same time as your event that require people to put down their smartphones and buy a ticket.
The million dollar question: Why? Why should I come to your thing? ("Because it's good" is not an acceptable answer.)
More on this, my favorite arts management topic, in further posts. But bottom line we have to get creative. And we have to create a great product on top of that. "Come for the gimmick. Stay for a great show." It's an ongoing challenge that we all must embrace.
Theatre company=hard.
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