How do you advertise your shows?
Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Theater Administration
Forum Name: Running Your Theater
Forum Discription: General questions about how to make it work
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3637
Printed Date: 4/27/24 at 6:09pm
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Topic: How do you advertise your shows?
Posted By: imamember
Subject: How do you advertise your shows?
Date Posted: 12/04/08 at 3:24pm
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Currently we advertise very poorly in my opinion. We have nice posters made. They get put up in libraries, schools and the link. Some fliers are passed around. We let people know of shows via our website as well as facebook and myspace accounts and groups. We generally have a radio ad, although I don't know how much air time it gets. We put a small ad in the local paper but it costs a lot and isn't very large. The paper generally does a basic write up of the show the week before and a review (if we're lucky) the week between. The show is also listed on a community calendar on a public access channel. I think there has to be more effective ways to get butts in seats though. I'm currently looking into local cable advertising and making simple advertisement commercials. What does your group do? |
Replies:
Posted By: KEB54
Date Posted: 12/04/08 at 5:19pm
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IMHO your advertising sounds about right, however, remember the personal touch of word-of-mouth, family & friends, etc.Also, do you have any local TV or radio interview/news shows. We have one station that has a small segment of guest interview/promotion in the morning news and a different station that does it during the noon news.
That brings me to perhaps a more important aspect of "butts to seats" and other types of involvement for that matter, and that is marketing. Advertise your production, but market your theatre company.
Adverising and marketing are often confused. It's like saying Disney World is Florida. However, one is a subset of the other -- an important part, but not all of it. Work on marketing during non-production times and then when you advertise it will be much more effective.
Marketing takes a lot of time but it also pays big dividends. It will not only help to fill seats, but also get you more volunteers, sponsors, and other types of supporters, too.
------------- KEB |
Posted By: imamember
Date Posted: 12/04/08 at 8:55pm
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Actually I want to start a campaign of community theatre awareness ads to promote the group when shows aren't being plugged. Sort of like PSAs I guess to promote membership and benefits of theatre to children, families etc. We have a local show here, but it's not network or anything. It's not an affiliate. It's a leased station from Comcast I think and a guy in town has the whole channel and does a live 2 hour community talk show every day and has other shows on, all local programming, but like...no one watches that. We were spending $250 for him to show a poster and verbally plug a show the week before and week after but I swear no one saw it. We can spend about $350 and have commercials run a few times a day on about 8 or 10 different cable channels for three weeks. At least I hope I can pull that off. If I can I'll be sure to let everyone here know of our success or failure. Word of moth is okay, it's just such a small group of "in-people" there's the family and friends and the old school theatre goers...but we have zero strategy to get new butts. I'm working on it though. |
Posted By: Nanette
Date Posted: 12/04/08 at 11:28pm
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We write our own articles for the newspaper for free publicity (AND pay to put in an ad the 2 weeks before our performance), use a lot word of mouth, and have cast members selling tickets. We've pounded the pavement putting up posters in local businesses, but find that there are already so many things in their windows that not many people see ours in the sea of posters already there (no matter how good it looks).
I'll also hand out comp tickets, one at a time ... that way if they bring a friend, we're getting at least one paying customer. You can also give a write up and comp tickets to local radio stations for on-air giveaways. We often get repeat patrons because they've won tickets in the past. ------------- In a world of margarine, be butter! |
Posted By: Kathy S
Date Posted: 12/05/08 at 4:07am
| Once you have an audience, start collecting addresses and get a data base together. Mail a post card to everyone on your list some weeks before the show. We put an order form on the postcard and people order and pay ahead -- we offer a discount on tickets paid for in advance and we hold them at the door. Our mailing list has grown to over 500 names, and it is fairly costly to do a mailing, but worth it because we have a pretty good return on the investment. |
Posted By: GElliott
Date Posted: 12/05/08 at 10:21am
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We do all of the above; posters, discount flyers, radio interviews, face book, myspace, word of mouth, comp tickets, announcements in the papers and mailers to our database (around 200 at this point). We are part of a co-op of 6 theatre companies that share one theatre. It makes for a hectic show schedule. We have collected data from each company on who is coming to see the shows, mainly zip codes. We hope by collecting this information we can better target our publicity. I am trying to get these other companies to work together more to cross promote with each other. We do a little, like making announcments on the next show coming up in the pre-show speech. The worst is that we don't share address databases for mailers.
What is the average house for everyone's shows? Our's is pretty pathetic, averaging around 25 in a theatre that seats 90.
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Posted By: imamember
Date Posted: 12/05/08 at 11:25am
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I think one of our problems is that we don't have a database anymore. It was always handled by someone and then they'd leave the board and no proper hand off was ever made. I'm working with getting a new one started but showing everyone on the board how to edit and update it. Our average house for the last musical we did was 85 and it was totally not enough which is why I'm trying to think outside the box a little. |
Posted By: 75director
Date Posted: 12/05/08 at 12:11pm
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All the previously mentioned show publicity are good things and we do all of them ourselves.
Something else that we do is give cast members postcards that say "I'm in this show come see me" or something to that effect. We ask them to put the addresses of anyone they want to tell about the show, who they don't see on a daily basis. Then the theatre mails the postcards for them.
One thing to consider with cable advertising that we have discussed at length is how many people it reaches. The point made by many on my board was that they have dish TV or some other satellite service and don't get the local cable company, or they have TeVo and skip the commercials completely. I personally think that cable spots are worth it and most of the time the price is pretty reasonable. But that is something to consider when doing local cable advertising.
Database of patrons is very important. We try and get the address of everyone who purchases tickets, of course sometimes it's not practical, like when there's a line of walk ins and the show starts in five minutes. But it's definately an easier sell to someone who has already been to your theatre than to a person who's never heard of you before.
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Posted By: imamember
Date Posted: 12/05/08 at 12:40pm
| Yeah, I considered that not everyone uses cable....but I do think between comcast, directtv and dish network....comcast has the higher number. I'm also going to look into local NBC affiliate though it's more expensive than cable. Might be worth a couple spots though for network exposure. |
Posted By: RoseColored Gla
Date Posted: 12/14/08 at 4:25am
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One thing that we realized in our community choir was that the database is your best friend. Posters actually brought in the least number of people. I think the most effective marketing tool though, is a little questionnaire in your program that asks basic demographic info: age, salary range, ethnicity, etc. as well as: How did you hear about this show? How far did you travel tonight? What was your main reason for attending tonight: Show name recognition, actor, friend recommendation, needed something to do PAY CLOSE ATTENTION to the answers.... they will pay off in ways you can not imagine.... they are also great for when you apply for grants too! ------------- Dennis Dippary Artistic Director Songs for a New World http://rosecoloredglassestheater.com - RoseColored Glasses May Dionysus smile upon your every performance! |
Posted By: kaelidancer
Date Posted: 12/19/08 at 5:08pm
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Here's something we started doing recently... We discovered that the problem with posters is that a lot of them end up as "souvenirs"... which is fine, because I keep them too... but it sucks paying to print a bunch of posters that will never be seen by anyone not in the show. So, we cut back on our posters, and got some business cards from VistaPrint. For $50 we are able to get 1500 two-sided full color cards. Cast members can take a handful. Leave some in local businesses who have a business card rack. Leave some on those newspaper boxes. Leave one when you tip your waiters. Keep some in your purse (or whatever) and just hand them out whenever the show comes up. "Oh, you're in a show? When is it?" "Here you go!" Blam, butts in seats. A local comic shop I frequent even agreed to take 500 of 'em and give one to every customer who came in! And the best part? Unlike those darn posters... all the business cards went out, and were distributed to more people than would have seen the posters... for a lower price! Can't go wrong. The website's http://www.vistaprint.com - www.vistaprint.com :) ------------- Kaeli Gardner Johnson City Community Theatre http://www.jcct.us - www.jcct.us http://www.gardnerarts.com - www.gardnerarts.com |
Posted By: tristanrobin
Date Posted: 12/19/08 at 11:11pm
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We also use far more fliers than posters (though we hadn't thought of business cards - good idea!) ... we also do table tents in local diners, which get a lot of attention. The best (and cheapest) way we've found that gets real attention is the scrawl under the screen on the weather channel. People constantly tell us they saw the ad on tv. |
Posted By: GElliott
Date Posted: 12/20/08 at 10:38am
I really like the business card idea as well as the table tent suggestion.  Do you guys have any feel for how much return you got on them? Did you track how your patrons found your show?
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Posted By: chelserin
Date Posted: 12/20/08 at 12:02pm
| I went on vistaprint yesterday and ordered business cards for our next show. Great idea! I agree about posters, personally I end up with at least three still in the back of my car at the end of the run...;p |
Posted By: imamember
Date Posted: 12/21/08 at 1:04pm
| We have a deal worked out with our local american speedy printing office. We pay for programs wit a 10% discount and we get posters fliers and business cards in exchange for a full page ad and a button on the website. The cards are a semi first for us. We did it with Seussical last spring but not since for some reason. |
Posted By: Stageref
Date Posted: 12/26/08 at 2:01pm
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I love the idea of community theater awareness ads. Maybe a pooling of resources to keep local companies top of mind. A key is new audience members. They are always so surprised about the quality of productions that our community presents.
Please allow me to say, stageref.com isn't advertising per se but it allows companies to list and cross-reference their shows which, in our humble opinion, adds an air of professionalism and community for your members and audiences. ------------- http://www.stageref.com - Stageref.com The new, free, on-line social experience of community theater productions and people |
Posted By: John Luzaich
Date Posted: 3/26/09 at 5:18pm
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We end up spending very little actual advertising dollars because of the following: We send press releases to 32 different newspapers. Some are weekly, some daily. We send P.S.A.'s to 16 radio stations. (the newspapers & radio stations are in an hour radius of us). Go beyond what you think your reach is. We've grown our mailing list from 3000 addresses to 6500 addresses. We've grown our e-mail list to 1050 e-mail addresses. (lot's of room to grow here) We've been very creative in the print ads we develop. (but, we don't spend a lot) We've done many, many trade deals. (I have an ad in your playbill/program, you have an ad in mine) with many theatres, university/college programs, professional theatres, other venues, radio spot trades, TV spot trades.
develop a facebook page - our is http://www.facebook.com/osterregent - www.facebook.com/osterregent , we're about 400 fans, again, room to grow
sign up on twitter
ITUNES - build songs of upcoming shows and publish the link
sign up for Google alerts (alerts you anytime someone is checking you out)
text message list (we haven't done it yet, some larger venues are - you need to get the individuals permission first)
send an e-mail blast on a monthly basis and change it up (we did it the old fashioned way and are now using Constant Contact - google them)
read the book "Don't Just APPLAUD, Send Money" by Alvin H. Reiss(many, many great ideas in there, including the "$10 Lousy Bucks" letter that we borrowed)
read the book "Web Sites for Culture" by Eugene Carr
read the book "Arts Marketing Insights" by Joanne Scheff Bernstein (she compiled info after interviews with large and small venues all around the country)
read the book "How to Run a Theatre" by Jim Volz (one of America's leading theatre consultants - this is a must read!)
do podcasts (we don't do this yet, but larger venues and many symphonies do)
display at off-site places (shopping mall windows/kiosks, art fairs, business expos - great for growing mail & e-mail lists)
Take a re-look at your web site and update it... we just did! We found out if it's not up to date, people won't come back to it. http://www.osterregent.org - www.osterregent.org (in 12 months we've had over 13,000 visits and 160,000 page views)
Most importantly - word of mouth, you do have some control... figure out who influencial people are and get them to your shows.
Who's going to replace the season ticket holders and older folks as they age out of our system? We need the middle group of age range and younger people. In that sense......
... find out which young people in your area do blogs, e-mails, facebook, twitter and are influencial with their peers and invite them to your show, or get them to your invitational dress/preview. They're the ones that will be all over the internet telling their friends that they need to go see your show! ------------- John cfct@cfu.net http://www.osterregent.org http://www.facebook.com/osterregent |
Posted By: lparks
Date Posted: 11/21/10 at 10:09am
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We are a fairly new theatre going into our first season, but we have managed to bargain a lot of ad space. We recently worked out a deal to receive over $5,000 in free newspaper ads from a local regional paper that included print ads, online ads, mailing list ads, etc. We also gave them 10 tickets to Narnia to "give away". Some of the cast of Narnia will be visiting B97 radio station (mainly top100 songs) on the 13th of Dec for a ticket giveaway and on-air interview. We also have 11x17 posters and rack cards going out for the show. Mainly though, we are relying on word of mouth and hopefully a couple of good newspaper reviews to really bring in the patrons. Frankly, you can advertise all of your money away - but that is not promise of selling the show. If it's good, word of mouth will do 10x more than any paid ad would. You would be surprised also at how much "free" advertising is available. Radio interviews, ticket giveaways, media sponsors (like we have getting $5,000 in ads in exchange for playbill ad etc). ------------- Landon Parks, Producing Artistic Director, Bloomington Repertory Theatre Co |
Posted By: Scott B
Date Posted: 11/21/10 at 1:16pm
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Along the lines of table tents in food joints ... we printed out 8 1/2 x 11 promos (basic black and white) and supplied them to a fast food place. They used them for place mats on the trays. Everyone who dinned inside the store automatically saw the promo. If you can get a good deal on the printing like getting your printer to supply XXX amount in return for ad space in the program then it's a great deal. Put them in all the fast food, Chinese, and Mexican restaurants you can find. |
Posted By: johndrake
Date Posted: 5/13/11 at 12:18pm
We are a start up theater company and I liked the fact you are getting presence on local cable access. I realize it's different for every area, but may I ask how you were able to get on your local community access channel? Getting on ours is sort of labyrinthine....thanks for any suggestions. |
Posted By: falstaff29
Date Posted: 8/26/11 at 2:11am
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I remember that when we were doing "The Underpants" by Steve Martin back in college we bought a whole crapload (no pun intended) of tighty whities at Walmart, wrote on them in Sharpie "Get into Steve Martin's Underpants this weekend" with the theater group's url, and left them conspicuously laying about the dorm lobbies and dining halls. Ah, the good ol' days! |
Posted By: jt7724
Date Posted: 8/28/11 at 11:26am
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I have always thought it would be cool to video tape some of the best scenes during a dress rehearsal, compile them into an advertisement for the show, and see if you can work out a deal with your local movie theater to show it during the previews for the week leading up to the show. I have never done this before, and I doubt that the big chain theaters would go for it, but many communities (including my own) still have a privately owned theater around and I bet most would do it in exchange for some advertising in the playbill |