The Sold Out Run Podcast: Theatre Marketing / Promotions

Clay Mabbitt: Arts Marketing Consultant and Blogger
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  • PERFORMING ARTS

Theatre Marketing, Promote a Show

  1. 09/16/2015

    SOR 73: Janice Hibbard Discovers What Works To Market Her Show From the Ground Up

    If you ever feel like arts marketing is something that only an expert can tackle, this episode is for you. I’ll be the first to admit there are very smart people who have a thorough understanding of how to build an audience. A few of them like Alli Houseworth and Matt Lehrman have been guests on this podcast, but what can regular folks do to move the marketing needle? If you don’t have the resources and pedigree of someone like that at your disposal, do you just give up? Of course not. You experiment and just keep moving forward. If you’re tenacious and curious, you are going to find some things that work. That’s what Janice Hibbard is doing, and we can all (from beginners to gurus) learn something from her approach. In this episode: be an observer of marketing – there’s marketing going on all around us, and if you pay attention you can get a lot of insights what to put on social media – saying you want to be active on a social platform to promote your show is one thing, but what are you actually uploading with each status? Instagram and Vine – are these younger platforms worth investing time in or should you stick to old standbys like Facebook and Twitter managing multiple accounts – Janice didn’t use expensive software to maintain and schedule her updates what if social isn’t an option – if you social media isn’t the right fit your production or your audience, there are other ways to reach out to them Items mentioned: VistaPrint – a quick, inexpensive online printer (used in this production for postcards) CustomInk – a site to design and print custom t-shirts at a competitive price Tagboard for #mrboniface – a collection of Instagram and Vine posts using the hashtag (in the past Tagboard has also pulled Facebook and Twitter posts with a particular hashtag, but seems to have lost this functionality) IndyFringe Festival – the week-and-a-half theatre festival where Mr. Boniface premiered You can help more people discover this podcast If you consider yourself a fan of this podcast, you can help me tremendously by leaving a review over at iTunes. I read every review, and not only do they motivate me to keep producing free content like this, but it also helps people like you who are looking for help with their theatre marketing to find Sold Out Run. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves. Share any thoughts you might have about the podcast. Thanks to Janice for joining me and sharing her experience, and also thanks to you for listening. The post SOR 73: Janice Hibbard Discovers What Works To Market Her Show From the Ground Up appeared first on Sold Out Run.

    52 min

  2. 08/11/2015

    SOR 72: Promoting In a Fringe Festival As an Out-Of-Towner

    The Indy Fringe Festival starts up this week. There are a lot of shows that I’ve been hearing about for weeks now, and some of them really have me chomping at the bit to see them. The kicker here for someone in Tim’s position, though, is: all of the shows I’ve been hearing so much about are local. The IndyFringe is roughly 50% local shows and 50% acts from out of town. (In fact I saw on the Fringe line up that Tim is going to be here, so I know exactly what kind of hurdle he’s facing to promote his show.) My circle of friends here in Indianapolis have been building word-of-mouth around the shows they are in. All the chatter I’ve been exposed to has been for local shows. How does an out of town act compete with that? In this episode: first impression in the festival catalog – the three key elements and the mistake that most out-of-town shows seem to make connecting with local shows – don’t wait until you get to town to start engaging with them Items mentioned: SOR 007: Marketing at a Fringe Festival (Part 1 of 2) – the first in a two part series on what I learned from a very successful stint promoting a Fringe show IndyFringe – home of the Indianapolis Fringe Festival You can help more people discover this podcast If you consider yourself a fan of this podcast, you can help me tremendously by leaving a review over at iTunes. I read every review, and not only do they motivate me to keep producing free content like this, but it also helps people like you who are looking for help with their theatre marketing to find Sold Out Run. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves. Share any thoughts you might have about the podcast. Thank you for listening! The post SOR 72: Promoting In a Fringe Festival As an Out-Of-Towner appeared first on Sold Out Run.

    12 min

  3. 05/20/2015

    SOR 71: Shara Ashley Zeiger Shares the Secrets to Selling Out Her Extended Off-Broadway Run

    It feels very appropriate to have Shara Ashley Zeiger as my guest on the Sold Out Run podcast because in this episode we talk about her recent… sold out run. In fact it was an extended run that sold out, and she was kind enough to share a little about how the all the various ingredients – including promotion – came together in that production to generate all that success. If her voice sounds familiar, you might recognize her from her online radio show The Shara Ashley Show or from some her commercial voice over work. In this episode of the podcast I’m talking to her mostly in her capacity as the artistic director of The Platform Group. Their mission is to create work that challenges, inspires and provides a place to stand on. In this episode: the effect of social silence – when theatre folks are suspiciously quiet about their current project on social media, it can come across as them being ashamed of it using your networks – the key to getting influencers in to see the show is to use close connections spending money on advertising – if you are spending it in the right place, it’s a great idea importance of thanking – when people attend your show at your invitation, you should be showing them a lot of appreciation the backs of postcards – the feature that Shara insisted on having on the back of her show’s promotional postcards Items mentioned: The Email Marketing Primer for Theatres – as you build a growing list of email addresses from your online ticket buyers, here’s a guide to using those emails to keep selling more tickets The Platform Group – the website for Shara’s theatre company (or you can hit them up on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube) Kickstarter campaign for Roughly Speaking – includes the video explaining the project and the rewards you’ll receive for different levels of financial contribution Update: the campaign was successfully funded. Congratulations, Shara! GotPrint.com – Shara’s tip for very cost effective printing You can help more people discover this podcast If you consider yourself a fan of this podcast, you can help me tremendously by leaving a review over at iTunes. I read every review, and not only do they motivate me to keep producing free content like this, but it also helps people like you who are looking for help with their theatre marketing to find Sold Out Run. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves. Share any thoughts you might have about the podcast. Thanks to Shara for joining me here, and thanks to you for listening. The post SOR 71: Shara Ashley Zeiger Shares the Secrets to Selling Out Her Extended Off-Broadway Run appeared first on Sold Out Run.

    37 min

  4. 05/13/2015

    SOR 70: How Ken Davenport Tests and Why This Broadway Producer Is Jealous of Regional Theatres

    A few weeks ago, I got a notice through Twitter that someone mentioned me in a tweet. That’s not at all unusual, that happens fairly regularly. But what was unusual was that I was mentioned by Ken Davenport. I’m guessing many of you listening recognize that name, but in case you don’t he’s a Tony award winning Broadway producer whose credits include Kinky Boots, The Bridges of Madison County, Macbeth starring Alan Cumming, Blithe Spirit starring Angela Lansbury. He’s one of the co-founders of TEDxBroadway. Combined, Ken’s productions have grossed more than $100 million worldwide and are being produced internationally in over 25 countries including Germany, Mexico, France, and Korea. Online, he’s the man behind the blog The Producers Perspective and the podcast of the same name. Here’s what I saw when I clicked through my Twitter notifications: @claymabbitt Clay, been reading your stuff. It’s great. Email me and maybe we can do something together. ken@theproducersperspective.com. — kendavenport (@kendavenport) April 11, 2015 When I reached out over email I learned that one of Ken’s consulting clients had mentioned Sold Out Run, so thank you to you, whoever you are, for connecting us. Since Ken has walked a path that I suspect many of you guys listening would like to follow, I asked Ken if he would be game to come on the podcast and share a few insights. In this episode: how to market big productions – Ken looks for ways to approach the marketing of big productions as if they were small why direct response pieces are great – they stand out as more and more theatres move to the less expensive digital marketing and they’re measurable reluctance to pick a top marketing tactic – don’t get locked into thinking about a favorite marketing tactic, instead start with thinking about who the audience is and where they are importance of testing – know as much as you can as early as you can why he’s jealous of smaller theatres – while Broadway productions are often stuck courting one-time visitors, smaller theatres have an easier time forging relationships with long term patrons stunt promotions that work – they need to make sense with and connect to the theme of your show timing your promos matters – with some shows it might make sense to spend a huge chunk of your advertising budget before opening night, while others are going to give you better results if you wait until word of mouth starts getting out Items mentioned: The Producer’s Perspective – home of Ken’s blog and podcast where he provides an insane amount of free insight from somebody currently walking the walk Raise It! How To Raise Millions of Dollars For Your Show and Fast – Ken’s most successful product, a custom course to help you raise money from someone who does this very well You can help more people discover this podcast If you consider yourself a fan of this podcast, you can help me tremendously by leaving a review over at iTunes. I read every review, and not only do they motivate me to keep producing free content like this, but it also helps people like you who are looking for help with their theatre marketing to find Sold Out Run. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves. Share any thoughts you might have about the podcast. Thanks to Ken for joining me here, and thanks to you for listening. The post SOR 70: How Ken Davenport Tests and Why This Broadway Producer Is Jealous of Regional Theatres appeared first on Sold Out Run.

    34 min

  5. 04/28/2015

    SOR 69: Why William Rader Got Into the Online Ticket Space and What You Can Get Out Of It

    You’re probably already familiar with some of the major players in the online ticket space. Vendini. Brown Paper Tickets. My guest today is William Rader, and none of the available ticket services were doing exactly what he wanted them to do. So he got to work creating one that did. WellAttended is the name of his service, and he’s going to tell you more about it in this episode. My intent in bringing William on to have this conversation is not to tell you you have to use WellAttended. What I do hope you’ll walk away from this episode with is an idea of the possibilities that are available. How would you want the ticket buying experience to be for your patrons? What do you want them to experience when they want to buy season tickets, for example? Please note I’m not being paid anything for this. There’s no affiliate link, this isn’t a sponsored podcast episode, I don’t get a commission if you end up using the service we talk about in this episode. In this episode: partnering to grow your audience – if you can capture the new faces that see your show, then partnering with someone that brings in their audience can be a great growth catalyst what’s missing from many ticket services – distraction-free ticket sales, online product sales, lag time in payment online vs. phone sales – convenience is king ticket sales as feedback – you can’t wait until opening night to figure out if your marketing strategies are working, so easy advanced sales let you know what’s moving the needle (or if you need to pull out bigger guns) fees – how much and where does it go season tickets – William’s current initiative is integrating season ticket packages and individual ticket sales into one system customer refunds – one click refunds Items mentioned: WellAttended – the online ticketing system discussed in this episode Science Has Finally Figured Out How To Win Rock-Paper-Scissors – the article William mentioned about understanding the behavior behind the game 7 Reasons Why You Should Sell Tickets Online – from the WellAttended blog The Email Marketing Primer For Theatres – as you build a growing list of email addresses from your online ticket buyers, here’s a guide to using those emails to keep selling more tickets You can help more people discover this podcast If you consider yourself a fan of this podcast, you can help me tremendously by leaving a review over at iTunes. I read every review, and not only do they motivate me to keep producing free content like this, but it also helps people like you who are looking for help with their theatre marketing to find Sold Out Run. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves. Share any thoughts you might have about the podcast. Thanks to William Rader for joining me here, and thanks to you for listening. The post SOR 69: Why William Rader Got Into the Online Ticket Space and What You Can Get Out Of It appeared first on Sold Out Run.

    39 min

  6. 04/16/2015

    SOR 68: Thom Britton Talks About Failing To Plan For Success

    Thom Britton reached out to me recently to talk about a problem that is usually overlooked here at Sold Out Run. Almost everything I create here is about growing your audience larger and larger. The assumption is that we always want more people. Well, after many years of dedication Thom and his cohorts at Danger Circus have the opposite problem: more people wanting to see the show than they can accommodate. So Thom graciously agreed to come on to talk about what sort of problems they’re dealing with today, and because I just couldn’t let him off the hook: what promotional tactics they’ve been using over the years that got them to this point today. In this episode: the power of the phrase “please come see my show” audience responsibility – do the people in a small audience of a great show feel more responsibility to spread the word? personal connection – the importance of making a personal connection in your marketing marketing and performing – you know how to be charming as an entertainer, so use it in both areas busking – there’s a right mindset and a wrong mindset when you are busking your show in public Items mentioned: The Email Marketing Primer For Theatres – guide to using email to grow your theatre audience Danger Circus – Thom’s current show You can help more people discover this podcast If you consider yourself a fan of this podcast, you can help me tremendously by leaving a review over at iTunes. I read every review, and not only do they motivate me to keep producing free content like this, but it also helps people like you who are looking for help with their theatre marketing to find Sold Out Run. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves. Share any thoughts you might have about the podcast. Thanks to Thom for sharing his accumulated wisdom, and thank you for listening! The post SOR 68: Thom Britton Talks About Failing To Plan For Success appeared first on Sold Out Run.

    51 min

  7. 04/03/2015

    SOR 67: Arts Journalists Tell You How To Send Them Press Releases

    A few weeks back I wrote a post on the blog about exactly when I send press releases to media outlets, and what I say when I’m reaching out to them. Almost immediately after I hit publish on that post, I started wondering how actual arts journalists would grade this approach. I know a few here in Indianapolis, so I sent out a few emails asking these people who are on the receiving end of all these press releases if they would be game to leave a comment with their take. And several of them did. I got some things right, and there were a few surprises – in fact I learned one particular way I’ve been shooting myself in the foot that makes the arts journalists’ lives more difficult – the good news is fixing this problem requires but the tiniest little change on my end. More on that in a second. I feel like the information that was so freely and generously shared in the comments is so valuable and so universally applicable to the Sold Out Run audience whether you’re a traditional theatre, a touring cabaret performer, a stage magician, or something else entirely, that I kind of wanted to shine a spotlight on it. So in this episode I talk about some of the biggest aha moments I got reading those comments. In this episode: 8 notes I got from real world professionals who we are sending our press releases to everyday Items mentioned: The Email Marketing Primer For Theatres – guide to using email to grow your theatre audience (available 4/9/15) Example Scripts of the 3 Emails You Should Send a Press Contact – the blog post with all the comments that prompted this episode You can help more people discover this podcast If you consider yourself a fan of this podcast, you can help me tremendously by leaving a review over at iTunes. I read every review, and not only do they motivate me to keep producing free content like this, but it also helps people like you who are looking for help with their theatre marketing to find Sold Out Run. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves. Share any thoughts you might have about the podcast. Thank you for listening! The post SOR 67: Arts Journalists Tell You How To Send Them Press Releases appeared first on Sold Out Run.

    22 min

  8. 03/10/2015

    SOR 66: Krista Layfield Manages a Theatre That Exists Exclusively Inside a Parent Organization

    I had the pleasure a little over a year ago of appearing in a show at the Lilly Theatre here in Indianapolis, which is a theatre that is contained within The Children’s Museum – a very large, well-respected… children’s museum… here in Indianapolis. It was a great experience for me as an actor, and one of the many pleasures was meeting Krista Layfield. She is the theatre manager of the Lilly Theatre, and in no small part due to her involvement, it was one of the most professional, tightest run productions I’ve ever been a part of. Because the Lilly Theatre is contained within The Children’s Museum, it operates a little differently than most theatres. So naturally I thought it would be really interesting to corner Krista and ask her how some of the logistics of running that theatre and serving that audience work. I also want to point out that our conversation was recorded a little differently than previous episodes. I typically record a conversation over the phone, which is great and a very practical way to record a show. But for this episode Krista and I were sitting at a table across from each other, and I had a simple recorder sitting on the table between us. So if you have thoughts good or bad about how the recording itself turned out, I welcome those comments. In this episode: theatre for babies – this is a surreal tangent we hit early on because I had to know what exactly it was when Krista saw this form of experiential theatre spreading budgets across shows – with a set budget for the entire season, Krista has discretion about how she allocates that budget across each property consistent imagery – the “formula” for creating consistent imagery to promote each show that doesn’t look stale double-edged sword of not controlling marketing – since The Children’s Museum handles all of the marketing for the theatre, the Lilly Theatre gets the good and bad of not promoting their shows the mix of school groups and public visitors – attendance to shows is seasonal and school group cancelling because of weather or other conflicts can empty the house quickly Items mentioned: Facebook Group for The Email Marketing Primer For Theatres – your chance to get a free preview of the upcoming ebook and steer what it covers The Lilly Theatre – the three-quarter theatre contained within The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis where Krista is theatre manager You can help more people discover this podcast If you consider yourself a fan of this podcast, you can help me tremendously by leaving a review over at iTunes. I read every review, and not only do they motivate me to keep producing free content like this, but it also helps people like you who are looking for help with their theatre marketing to find Sold Out Run. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves. Share any thoughts you might have about the podcast. Thanks to Krista for sharing her insights, and thanks to you for listening! The post SOR 66: Krista Layfield Manages a Theatre That Exists Exclusively Inside a Parent Organization appeared first on Sold Out Run.

    31 min
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