Theatre Business - Marketing II
WHEN MARKETING ACTUALLY WORKS!
By Roger Gonzalez - August 15, 2009
Times Square, New York - When I first met playwright Dara Frazier-Harper and her husband, director David Allen Harper to discuss the marketing of their play, Shades of War, written by Dara Frazier-Harper (and directed by David), I was immediately impressed. So much so, that sharing a little bit about their marketing efforts with LocalTheatreNY.com readers made perfect sense as a follow-up to my earlier blog, “When Marketing Sucks and No One is in The Audience.” (July 8th, 2009)
For the first time in a very long time, here were artists, independent theatre people who were way ahead of most established theatre groups in their approach to marketing by a large margin. And yet, oddly enough, they had come to me looking for advice and ideas. Quite frankly, if most producers approached their projects the way the Harpers have, more seats would be filled and I wouldn’t be blogging as much about the need to market. But even they understand that marketing is a non-stop effort and the more you put into it the better the outcome.
Here was a young writer who in talking about her work came prepared with not just some pictures and flyers, but instead a whole arsenal of gadgets and links and tools to fully convey the story of their upcoming stage production. The first thing the Harpers took out of their bag was a dvd player complete with professionally edited clips of their play and a sort of “coming attraction trailer” that was as good as anything I’d seen before. In minutes, I knew what the play was about, its historical link, and the story of why Dara was motivated to write this play. I’ve met quite a few producers and writers over the years and I can’t recall too many who can come into a meeting as prepared. The amazing thing is that they’ve done this all on their own with very, very limited resources.
The Harveys really bring something to the table which is at the heart of any (and I actually mean every) successful venture ever created: passion. Add to that professionally designed postcards and print material, well-crafted press releases, a dvd describing all the elements of the play and its previous productions, a website, a presence on You Tube, MySpace and Facebook, and even clips of audience feedback from an earlier staging of the production and you are well on the way to understanding how much they have done to promote their work..
In an instant, Dara and David discussed the way they approached local newspapers and media as they tried to enlist to review or cover their play. They had a clear understanding of audience makeup and targeting and had adjusted their pitch to suit the media. Because the main characters are of Haitian descent, they understood in pitching their idea they needed to demonstrate why news of this play would have significance to that media’s readers or listeners. A local Haitian newspaper would cover this story for the obvious reasons, but in approaching, say, a more general media like a Caribbean or African American newspaper, the angle would be wider and with less specific emphasis on just the Haitian element. In this age of Obama-mania with ethnic and racial pride taking the forefront, they have even linked the historical significance of our last election to the fact that this play, set in 18th century America, illustrates the great contributions African Americans and Caribbean people have made to our country, especially from the very birth of this nation. For historical buffs, ethnicity and race might play a much smaller role but the historical revelation of how this one man, Samuel Fraunces, impacted the course of history.
Dara and David Harvey are also quite versatile in understanding that there are different media options for different audiences and that constantly understanding that marketing and ticket sales is what will move a show forward. From the start they have been doing exactly what many local and independent groups fail to do: tirelessly accumulate audience information and develop both an impressive email list as well as a postal list. Way before they open any show, they begin mailing and contacting everyone and anyone that has ever attended a past show and anyone they think should attend their show.
Email blasts, postcard mailings, placing posters, dropping off postcards and submitting listings to any and all media and websites that would publish information about their upcoming production is a given. They do it all, incorporating and enlisting the help of strong word of mouth from everyone in their circle including family, friends and cast members. The package and effort is quite complete, combining traditional marketing with newer efforts online.
To their further credit, they’ve also enlisted something which I had never heard about: a “going green” approach to the publishing of their program. Remarkably, the Harpers idea of a program is a digital version of a program, a sort of ePlaybill, which includes advertising revenue to help finance their production. I have to admit that even I had not heard of that one.
Shades Of War stars William McGee (as Samuel Fraunces), Azalee Dan (Phoebe Fraunces), Chike Nwabukwu (Guss Porter), Lodric Collins (Jonathan Lewis) and Curt Anthon (Claude Fraunces) and is directed by David Allen Harper.
Executive Producer is Teffie Powell and the playwright is Dara Frazier-Harper.
The play opens this weekend at the Roy Arias Theatres in the Times Square area and runs for a limited engagement.
Dates and ticket information:
August 14th - 23rd, 2009
Fridays @ 8:00pm, Saturdays @ 3:00pm & 8:00pm
Sundays @ 3:00pm
Roy Arias Theatres (in the Times Square Arts Center) located at 300 West 43rd Street, 5th Fl, New York, NY 10036.
Advance tickets $18, $25 at the door.
For more information, call (212) 352-3101
or visit