Theatre Business - Marketing
When Marketing Sucks and No One is in The Audience!
By Roger Gonzalez- July 8th, 2009
No, it’s not just some clever title. These were actually the words of one very pissed off actor who expressed her frustration at working for months on a very involved and difficult comedy only to discover that on the show’s opening weekend barely a dozen people showed up. That’s barely 12 people over the course of an entire weekend in a 100-seat venue! I think it was something along the lines of “When marketing sucks and no one is in the audience what difference does it make how good the part was?” I had just commented to her about how interesting a role she played.
Now she might have been exaggerating a little bit about the exact number, but I had noticed that the house was mostly desolate. She was bitter and very open about it. And later I had the chance to listen to her and her cast members trash the ineffectiveness of the producer and house manager at a local bar. They were all bitter. They were pointing fingers. It was not pretty. Even the director was angry. Actors want audiences! But I am sure even the producer was not too happy either...and probably wondering what had gone wrong.
The fact is that I see this quite a lot. I see great performances and productions and entire groups go to pieces because of poor response. Now unless you haven’t noticed, placing free listings, sending direct mail pieces and posting window cards in a few nearby stores no longer really cuts it! Everyone seems to be talking internet marketing these days. And if you think newspaper advertising (or a good published review – even online) is enough to fill those seats, well then you really are behind the times.
Yet some of the better funded groups I know do just that; spending hundreds on printing flyers and postcards and posters and doing basically the same thing they’ve done for that last 20 years as attendance slips and slides to the point where they begin saying things like “our subscribers are dying” and “no one goes to the theatre anymore...they go to the movies.” But there’s really more to it than that.
Let’s analyze for a minute how many people actually pick up your expensive, glossy postcard at the Drama Book Shop and truly make an effort to travel to the outer boroughs (or even parts of Manhattan) to see your production? Or ask yourself this question: at the end of every production how many printed flyers and programs end up in your recycling bin or garbage. If this is something that you’ve agonized about at any point in the past, then your marketing may be in big trouble.
Digitally, it is nice to have a website and a Facebook group and maybe even do some email marketing. But in order to sell tickets, the process needs to begin with a series of self-exploratory questions that, quite frankly, very few if any independent producers ever think about and much less ask.
So let’s think about it now...
Is your play marketable in the first place? Is there anything about the subject matter, or the cast, or the timing of the show that can draw attention or interest? Some call it the “hook.” On Broadway, that hook is usually a star or celebrity cast member with a following or fan base. But independent theatre is not Broadway and neither are the options or budgets. Independents have to be more creative.
Start by asking yourself: Who’s our audience? Is it young and hip or mature or ethnic or anything else that connects it to the play? Are you reaching that audience? What exact things about this show can you use as “hooks” to help sell tickets? Okay, we know that certain relatives and friends of the cast and crew will come out in support, but what about everyone else? Is there anything, apart from that long-shot positive review that will be marketable? More importantly, before you invest so much time and effort in getting reviewers to cover your production will the review really matter to your bottom-line? By the way, do you even know who is reading that review? Because if your target audience is “young hipsters” and the local community weekly read by old folks is the one doing the review, you are screwed no matter how good the review might turn out.
Personally, I think the internet is one of the best things to happen to local and independent theatre and yet only recently have I started to see some theatre groups begin to dabble in online marketing. But twitter and MySpace and those annoying Facebook event announcements are just not enough. These will work, but the secret is in the media mix...something producers know very little about.
According to Advertising Age Magazine, the industry’s trade publication, email marketing is by far the most effective, cost-conscious, reach effective marketing tool in decades! Yet how many theatre groups truly create an effective audience database and use it regularly and effectively? I know of only a handful.
In fact, if I were to produce a show today I would do nothing more than try to build a strong, targeted email list. I am talking thousands! Everything else would come second, quite frankly.
But as it turns out the biggest challenge most businesses have is exactly that: acquiring the right email addresses. It may not be the easiest thing in the world to do, but there are very effective ways to do build your list. It takes time, patience and persistence...but the pay off is worth it. In the long run, you’ll save thousands and end up with better marketing. The beauty of email marketing is that actually reaching potential audiences is almost free...on average a good response to a direct mail postcard is about 3%. That means that 97% of those postcards (think printing, labor, and postage) end up in the trash! You do the math.
All this said, we are back to that “media mix.” Email is one part, understanding what to market is another, finding the right vehicles to convey your persuasive advertising message is yet another, and so on. And then, that’s when you may want to mix in the more traditional forms of marketing. The messages should serve certain functions, cross market and basically complement the efforts of other media used.
There are many ways that the independents could improve their marketing, but right now many producers need to go to the basics.
At LocalTheatreNY.com, we offer FREE advice and marketing support to any producer who wants it. Not many producers know that. I am talking completely FREE. We don’t charge to list you, we don’t even charge to put your banner on our website...not independents, nor community theatre, nor college productions...no one producing a show is charged. We also show you how to market your show better and reach more people.
Perhaps you should reach out to us.
Just email us at Rogertcp@aol.com and we’ll start steering you in the right direction.