Boston Theatre: Where Do You Fit In?

I’m guest blogging today for the Boston Theatre Conference being presented this February by StageSource.

Click here to read my contribution to the pre-conference discussion.  Leave a comment and join in the dialogue!

At The Booth Available on Droid!

Remember the iPhone app I wrote about in the early days of Arts Marketing A-Musings? It’s now available for DROID! Yay!

Get it here, like it on Facebook and follow on Twitter!

Theatre meets social media, yay!

An October Status Update

You may recall from my post on numbers that I like to count.  Site visits, days until exciting things, audience members, cups of coffee (that I’ve had or am lacking). Thus, you may not be surprised that I’m a little annoyed at  myself  the lack of hours in the day for not posting more content in September & October. I’ve been counting, and my numbers are lower than I’d like. Rest assured, I wasn’t sitting around, I was stage managing, marketing directing, seeing theatre and bringing in  the beautiful fall weather in New England.

I’m still doing those things and more, save for stage managing (now I’m directing! For the first time! Surprise!). At some point I will sit down and focus my thoughts into a blog entry. Many entries, I hope. Meanwhile here’s a peek – via bulleted list - of things I’m working on:

• Brainstorming the facebook campaign for Her Red Umbrella — what is this play’s answer to last show’s Poe factoids? I think we’ll be posting lots of facts about literature written in Europe. Romantic, no?
• Outlining the basics of DIY digitial and social media strategies for an exciting opportunity with StageSource (p.s. Boston artists, have you played around on the new StageSource site yet? It’s pretty snazzy).
• Keeping my eye on pop culture for a secret project in 2011 with Mr. King.
• Encouraging Louise and Lindsay to get blogging — welcome to WordPress, ladies!
• Falling in love with Toodledo, thanks to yet another great post from Ken Davenport.
• Trying to keep an eye on my Twitter lists (blogroll, arts administration, Boston Theatre).
• Learning what a Tweet-Up actually IS so we can host one for Boston Arts Managers.
• Helping revamp the website for the Small Theatre Alliance of Boston – send your feedback!
• Reading, finally!
• Helping brainstorm marketing for the Boston Theatre Conference, coming your way in February 2011. I’ll be writing a blog entry at some point, and you should too! Let me know if you’re interested, we’d love to have you!

What have you been doing? Tell me about your autumn projects and goals! Let’s help each other get motivated and start producing exciting things!

11:11 Goes A’Marketing

In the survey I posted a a little while back many of you expressed interest in 11:11′s marketing efforts. We’re currently one week into a three weekend run of Poe; a fever dream, the first production of the 2010-2011 season.  Here’s where our marketing has taken us thus far:

BOOKMARKS: We introduced our Discount Coupon Bookmarks last season as a relevant way to market Great Expectations. Over the season’s four productions we planted them in every bookstore and coffee shop that would allow it, and stood in the lobby before and after consenting companies’ productions inviting audience members to check out our productions on the cheap. This season we brought back our signature marketing material but in limited supply, hoping to sell a few more tickets at the regular price – so far, so good!

TOTE BAGS: I’ll admit it. I wanted a tote bag. I wanted a useful way to carry around our logo (not to mention my script and laptop for stage managing Poe), and the bag seemed like a perfect solution. Ordering a batch required a small investment from the marketing budget, but I do believe at some point you have you pay to build a brand. We can afford to give away about half of the bags in stock, so subscribers and press contacts walk away with a gift when they stop by the box office. Other patrons can pick them up for only $5. And they help us save the environment!

PINS: I talked about pins in an earlier post, noting that they’re a small, cheap way to carry a brand and support…well..just about anything that can be depicted on an inch-wide tin circle. Many who write on audience development have debated the ways to encourage early bird ticket sales without rewarding last-minute purchases (i.e. presale discounts vs. cheapening tickets when sales are low), so this season we’re introducing complimentary, commemorative pins for the first two audiences. While we also have 11:11 logo pins for $1 minimum donation, the show pins will not carry our branding at all. They will simply represent our gratitude for sharing in a world premiere. Fastened to each pin is an invitation to respond to the performance on Talkbackr, a new feedback platform — I’ll post in the future about our experience with the software.

POSTERS: We usually order less than 20 show posters and put them up casually here and there. For Poe, especially since we had the advantage of a recognizable image and a bright red background, I decided to order over 50 and really paint the town, well, you know. And it worked! Our Ovationtix box office software asks buyers “How did you hear about the show?” and almost the majority have said they saw a poster somewhere in the greater Boston area. Lesson learned — brightly colored, informative posters can still attract attention in our age of over-stimulation. Thanks to Carrie Drzik for the wonderful artwork!

FACEBOOK: Creating a Facebook event is pretty standard for productions, parties, etc. etc. With the ability to tag people and events into status updates, though, we can hyperlink to our show and keep relevant info all over the Newsfeed. For the last month I’ve posted a Poe factoid or quote nearly every day, always tagging the event page. Once production photos were available I uploaded them one at a time, keeping Poe; a fever dream fresh and in the foreground. Community members have been awesome about showing support through their own status updates, mentioning the production and cheering the team on as we worked through tech and our opening weekend.

I don’t claim to be reinventing any sort of wheels here, but am quite happy to share details of our marketing strategies with all of you. Small theatre companies need to make smart budgetary choices, and I’m happy to say each of these efforts have seemed to sell tickets, build our brand, and enhance the shared experience of a night in the theatre with Poe. Thanks to all who have taken notice, made comments, “liked” a Facebook status, bought a pin, passed out a bookmark, etc. etc. etc. You keep our POEmentum going!