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marketing murder mysteries

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Topic: marketing murder mysteries

Posted By: Scott B
Subject: marketing murder mysteries
Date Posted: 10/05/05 at 5:46pm

We recently did an interactive murder mystery at the local country club and it went over extremely well ? enough that they want us back at the end of February with another show. We had never produced a mm before and we really enjoyed it.

Now it?s clicked into our tiny little brains that this could be a great way to generate revenue and promote any other shows we might be doing. It?s in the planning stages, but the thought was to get about three shows put together with different themes and then market ourselves to other country clubs, hotels, restaurants, and corporations. We?re not talking about world-wide travel here ? just in our little rural corner of the state.

I thought I would check and see if and how others have marketed themselves when it comes to murder mysteries. I assume we?re going to need a cover letter, brochure with photos and maybe some quotes from clients. What else could we do to get the word out or include with a mailing?

Also ? there is a HUGE indecision as to what to charge. We charged $10 per person and everyone got to eat dinner as well. As it turned out they only had 40 people there. They apologized after and said they needed to do a better job in scheduling. Our local college had a rare night game on the same evening. Still, there were board members gushing over how much fun it was and they wanted us back.

We were thinking of $10 per person with a $500 minimum. However, we?re probably looking at $75 to pay the director to round up the cast, block and rehearse them. This is probably a one time thing for the first performance of the show.

There is usually a $75 royalty fee ($100 for our first one). And then we have lights that were really needed to take in.

The club provided all the prizes.

So ? does the pricing look about right or are we too low?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Replies:

Posted By: Giabow
Date Posted: 10/08/05 at 6:30pm

There is a company around here that does murder mysteries, and I'm
fairly certain they charge at least $20 for dinner and the show. $10 for a
show and dinner looks very low to me.

As for marketing, they do a brochures, ads in the local paper, posters ...
most of the things people do for "traditional" theatre. They also have a
pretty great website, but usually people don't find out about the website
until they've already seen one of their shows.
The company also has a seperate group that does birthday parties and
stuff for kids, and they advertise their murder mysteries to the parents at
the parties.

Posted By: tristanrobin
Date Posted: 10/08/05 at 7:40pm

There is an interactive murder mystery company here, which
performs on a cruise-type boat.

Tickets are $60 each (includes dinner - no alcohol nor tips).

They are fairly well known, but their adverts still show up
everywhere - newspapers, flyers, other theatre companies'
playbills, and cable tv.

Posted By: Scott B
Date Posted: 10/08/05 at 10:16pm

My bad ... we went into the country club and they provided the dinner. Our take was $10 per person.

I've spent a lot of time scouring the internet and came up with a couple of places that sell the scripts and material as well as some of those groups that actively market their shows.

From what I can see the best thing would be to do a mailing and get a website up and running. I know we can't do it over night, but it looks like something to work towards.

Posted By: Gaafa
Date Posted: 10/09/05 at 12:01am

There is a number of these MM groups here.
One is connected with the Hotham Valley Railway, which is an historical railway using resurrected original carriages on the railway system, to run to various places. This is always booked out & a meals are included, along with the occasional overnight run to a tourist destination. This can be from $40 to $100 depending on the trip.
The Bridgetown Repertory Club which is a country group, have set up with the local motel to run these every long weekend. Primarily these days the Motel management does the mm &they hire out the costumes to participants for a standard fee. The punters turn up to the teatre on Saturday morning choose are fitted with the costume, when the weekend is over, the Motel delivers the costumes back to the theatre. I think in an average year, they said the theatre received about $25000, just hiring costumes..
All these groups write their own scripts.
There are a number of corporate mm groups, who will engineer a mm script to suit the requirements of a corporation or company, as employee training exercise.
I hope this helps.

-------------
Joe
Western Gondawandaland
turn right @ Perth.
Hear the light & see the sound.
Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"}
May you always play
to a full house}