On Tuesday 27th May at 7:30pm we took to the stage to perform our debut show as a theatre company; Three Words. The journey has been a long but exciting one filled with laughter and lessons, the whole process has taught me an awful lot about the hard work and energy needed to succeed as a theatre company.
When show night arrived, we were all prepared and desperate to get on that stage. We were greeted by a high energy audience which was just what we had hoped and in that moment I knew they were going to love what we were about to deliver.
Although I was primarily a performer in the show, as my secondary role within the company is the marketing manager, I reflected on the show and process from a marketing point of view. Everything I had organised and created in terms of promoting the show was leading up to this day and most of all ticket sales and audience feedback.
Due to this, I have collected information of our total ticket sales, audience feedback and our total number of social media followers.
Tickets sold:
163
Audience feedback (taken from twitter):
‘Three Words was a perfect blend of heartache, humour & organised chaos! Really innovative and relatable, congrats to all!’
‘The performance was absolutely brilliant tonight! I cried and I laughed… just… amazing!’
‘Nice one @noaddedsugarTC, I wasn’t sure what to expect but it was hilarious and emotional.’
Social media followers:
Facebook: 269
Twitter: 398
Instagram: 49
I was extremely happy with all of our totals and the feedback we have received. The show was everything we wanted it to be and we hope to continue to succeed with this show and company in the future.
With the show soon approaching, we were always keeping a close eye on ticket sales; our initial aim was to sell 200 tickets and so we were keen to come up with some new, fresh marketing tactics to spread the word of our show. Our social media sites were running successfully and we were up to date on our ideal number of followers and general interest. However, we realised that we needed to find new ways of interesting every kind of audience member we hoped to attend our show, and not just those who are regular users of social media.
Our first step was poster and flyer distribution. Our strong, vibrant image is one which stands out and so we wanted to place it where it would be seen and remembered. We placed our flyers in the university library, Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, local pubs, shops and cafes; all were happy and willing to promote our show by making the flyers available to customers. Our posters were displayed in various areas of the university campus and some local businesses. We received a lot of praise on our colourful, fresh image and we were instantly relieved that we had chosen the particular colour scheme and style as it stood out amongst other bland and dark posters.
Our next step was the competition launch. We wanted people to get excited and involved in our theme and also increase general interest. The competition was online and conducted through Facebook and twitter; the rules were to upload a photo of yourself with the person/object/animal/place you love the most. If using twitter we asked entrants to tweet us the photo and if using Facebook we asked to be tagged in the photo. For both sites the picture must be captioned with three words describing it and the hashtag #threewords; the winner would be the most creative. The prize for the competition was two free tickets to our show which we had received through our own student accounts and therefore had not had to pay for them. We felt that offering free tickets would give the show a more exclusive appearance, as though they were at short supply and hoped that even those who did not enter the competition may go and buy tickets in fear of missing out. The competition was not as successful as we had initially hoped and if we were to do it again then perhaps less complicated rules would be necessary. However we did have a grateful winner who received the two tickets and expressed her enjoyment of the show afterwards.
We were also extremely lucky to have been given the opportunity to promote our show on two local radio stations. Our musical director Gabby was in contact with a presenter at the university radio station Siren FM and therefore was able to organise us a spot to appear on the station. Gabby then went along with our director Tom and my marketing assistant Phoebe and they filled a ten minute slot with discussions of our show and the process so far. A few weeks later we were invited to be interviewed on BBC Radio Lincolnshire which was a fantastic opportunity for us to reach people all over Lincoln, outside of our social circles and possibly those who don’t use social media. One of our writers and performers Lauren visited the station on our behalf and gave a detailed explanation of our rehearsal process from the very beginning, the themes and structure of our show and when the show would take place. We are extremely grateful for the support we were given from our local community and the willing of those who helped to promote our show.
Finally, with only one week until the show, we went out into the city of Lincoln with our ‘board of love’ (a white board and marker pen). We wanted to encourage the public to talk about love and their experiences of it because this is the way in which we collected a lot of our initial writing material. We asked each person we approached to describe love to us in three words and write it on our board. This was in keeping with our show’s title of Three Words and we wanted to know what our title meant to different people. It took us a while to find people willing to stop and speak to us as we did find not everyone was happy to be approached. However we did come across a lot of people who were happy to be involved and were also interested in hearing about the general concept of the piece and what is was for; in these instances we gave out flyers and invited them to come along and see the show. With the permission of those involved, we took a picture of them with the board and their words and posted the pictures on our social media sites. Some of the public accessed our Facebook page and tagged themselves in the photos; perhaps enjoying their moment of fame which was lovely to see! The experience was particularly enjoyable as we compared what different people thought of as love. It was not always a relationship with a lover but a particular place, animal or moment they had experienced; this really tapped into the entire concept of our piece and how everybody has different experiences of love. We also enjoyed seeing the difference between the older and younger generation’s perception of love and relationships; two particular older women discussed how they did not see love as an exciting experience but a routine which was expected of them. From others we received more detailed and intimate feedback and it was wonderful to be a part of Lincoln getting romantic!
What constitutes a brand? Well, first you need a strong visual identity: logo, fonts, colors, a catchy tagline – but that is not enough. A successful brand engages on an emotional level – it is all about the customers’ experiences with your company (Goldbogen, 2011, 42).
Official NAS Logo
Once we had our logo finalised, we needed to get thinking about our essential marketing tools – poster and flyer designs. As it was the early stages of the process, and the piece is devised, the performance was changing and evolving daily. Theatre in general is recognised as something that is difficult to brand and market: “Difficult brands have two primary characteristics: constrained availability and uncertain outcomes (Harrison and Hartley, 2007) … Uncertain outcomes relates to the risk involved in attending a performance without prior knowledge of how it will be received” (Preece and Johnson, 2011, 19). As we have no credit to the piece, such as reviews or Arts Council funding, it is even more essential that we got the marketing the best it can be to attract an audience. After a group discussion, we decided on a marketing strategy involving post-it notes. We liked the idea of hand-written type, alongside the layering and jumble of the notes. It connected very well to the fragmented and post-structuralist form of theatre that inspired us in the beginning of the process. We planned to write questions on each post-it and stick them around campus and in town. We would ask questions similar to that of our interviews to collect verbatim material, such as “how long should you wait before you say ‘I love you’?” Beneath the question would be a link to our twitter page, in the hope that people would tweet us their answers, with the hash-tag ‘threewords’.
This scheme was in the pipeline, but we felt it was too early to begin as we didn’t have posters and flyers in place. Inspired by the post-it note idea, we decided to create an image of a heart using them. This would make our branding consistent, and the post-it note would be recognisable in relation to No Added Sugar. We particularly liked the contrast of the heart, something traditionally associated with love, made up of something quite ordinary.
Post-It Note Heart
We forwarded the images to our graphic designer. We were regrettably vague with our guidelines as we still had not come to a decision as a group on exactly what we wanted, but felt we needed a draft of something to work with.
1st Draft NAS Flyer1st Draft NAS Flyer
At around the same time, Craig Morrow (the artistic director of Lincoln Performing Arts Centre) needed copy and an image to put in the assessment brochure. We used the image below as it was consistent with the initial poster and flyer designs. Th hand written title added to the ‘home-made’ vibe that we particularly wanted to pride ourselves on, and the blurred writing at the edges was just a little ambiguous and provoking.
Image for Assessment Brochure
Though the current flyer and poster draft were connected to the company through the colour palette and supported our marketing scheme, there was something quite uninspiring about the post-it’s for the poster and flyer. The grey on the face of the flyer made it feel quite pessimistic and cold. It just was not the tone we wanted to create. Additionally, the post-it note heart could have looked brilliant if we had very large posters so the detail could be seen, but was not nearly as striking in A4 or A3 size unfortunately.
As rehearsals continued we stumbled upon another image. It was suggestive of the theme of love, and the way we planned to deal with it on stage, but still rouses curiosity to find out more. We hoped it would entice an audience far more effectively.
New Image
Two inanimate, gender neutral objects, intimately hugging. We all felt there was really something beautiful about that. It also connotes what we are doing with romantic relationships, stripping away the hollywood romance, and leaving the bare bones of what we all experience in reality.
We forwarded this image, with a much clearer brief to the graphic designer, and they hastily began work. We then needed to change the image we had sent to Craig Morrow so it would be consistent with the posters and flyers. We had just missed the deadline, but I went directly to his office to see if it was too late to change the image. I was told that as long as I sent it by the following day it would be absolutely fine. Unfortunately, despite sending it in time, there was some miscommunication in their department and the new image was not used. By the time we had noticed the assessment brochure had gone to print. As had our posters and flyers. We were then in a position with our essential marketing tool having the mannequin image, and the publicity within the venue having something quite different.
With the advice of Diane Dubois, we soon settled upon trying to interweave the two themes. We have begun pushing the post-it note marketing scheme, posting them in and around campus and regularly tweeting about them to create interest. We are continuing to use both images, such as the homepage of this blog site, so that both the mannequins and post-its become recognisable to our company. Web-based marketing, such as social media and websites, are becoming more widely celebrated as an integral marketing tool.
Web-based tools will be seen as complementary to traditional methods. In time, they will replace some of the traditional methods and become more central to organizations’ efforts to engage their audience members between performances and to cultivate and enhance relationships between audience members and the organization itself (Preece and Johnson, 2011, 30).
Online we can more effectively, and instantly, collaborate the two strands and become a consistent presence to our potential audience.
We have certainly learnt a lot from this issue. More urgency and attention should have been paid on how we connect with our audience, and what with, not just making material to perform. Perhaps we should have continued with the original poster and flyer design, but we were willing to take a risk and use an image that we felt really represented the company we had become and the performance our audience will see.
Final Draft NAS Poster DesignFinal Draft NAS Flyer Design
Works Cited
Goldbogen, T. (2011) Re-Imagining a Brand. TYA Today, 25 (2) 42-44.
Preece, S. B. and Johnson, J. W. (2011) Web Strategies and the Performing Arts: A Solution to Difficult Brands. International Journal of Arts Management, 14 (1) 19-33.
‘The aim of arts marketing is to bring an appropriate number of people, drawn from the widest possible range of social background, economic condition and age, into an appropriate form of contact with the artist and, in so doing, to arrive at the best financial outcome that is compatible with the achievement of that aim’ (Diggle, 1994, 25).
As the marketing manager of this company, it is my responsibility to successfully market the show and increase our audience interest. Marketing is the key ingredient needed to guarantee an audience and to influence discussion about the show in advance. Due to the increase in the use of modern technologies in the past ten years and particularly social media, it is vital that we take advantage of the many ways in which we can inform people about the event. It has been my responsibility to set up and operate our Facebook page, Instagram account and Twitter account. Each site is useful for different reasons and publicises our company to different types of audience. They all have the advantage of giving an intimate insight into our devising process.
Facebook is an increasingly popular social media site which is used by people of all ages and lifestyles (school children, students, parents, and teachers). Our Facebook page is used to share dates and times of our event as well as a weekly picture which updates our ‘likers’ on what we are up to in our devising process.
Instagram is a site particularly of interest to the more arty and creative of us. It is a site dedicated to the sharing and editing of photographs and videos. Our Instagram account is the key device we use to document our rehearsal process through pictures and videos.
The creation of Twitter means we can now see inside the minds of celebrities and other (possibly less interesting) people out there. The site allows us to release our everyday thoughts and experiences into the world of the internet. Twitter is very useful in terms of advertising and increasing the flow of information about our event, its uses such as ‘following’, ‘retweeting’, ‘favouriting’ and ‘hash-tagging’ make it easier to get our name heard. There are also a variety of other theatre companies and creative professionals who hold Twitter accounts (which we have followed and contacted) and have shared our tweets.
All three Social Medias have their advantages and have been essential parts of our marketing process. So far we have been successful in gaining 226 likes on our Facebook page, 40 followers on Instagram and 236 followers on our Twitter account. We hope for an increase in these numbers as the event draws nearer in order to share the details to as many people as possible.
What’s next?
Our next steps in terms of marketing our event are the creation of posters and flyers; both of which are underway. We aim to disperse these in the key areas of Lincoln and also post images of them on our social media sites in order to increase ticket sales. The idea we have in mind for the image on our posters is a photograph of layered post-it notes in the shape of a love heart. The post-it notes will be green to interlink with our central colour scheme and the heart represents our theme of love and relationships. The reason we have chosen post-it notes is to reflect the way in which we have layered stories and styles in our devising process and the fragmented way in which our piece is formatted. We hope to use the same post-it notes to market our piece further by dispersing them around the university campus (particularly the library). Written on them will be ‘love notes’ and our twitter user name: @noaddedsugartc, encouraging whoever finds them to tweet us with their thoughts and feedback.
Works cited:
Diggle, K. (1994) Arts Marketing. London: Rhinegold Publishing Limited.
