Price is not the problem

Contributed by Guest Blogger of the week, Leigh Goldenberg.
 

After years of producing Off Off, while learning from fabulous Arts Administrators Off Broadway, I jumped ship for regional theatre in Philly where I now focus on Marketing. I've found this focus is a good combination of creativity and numbers, while close enough to the actual work so I don't forget I work at a theatre. Here's something I've been thinking about from Off Off land that totally applies to my marketing universe.

Price is not the problem

Equity caps Off Off's ticket prices at $18 (or a whopping $25 if you have made it to the Seasonal code). Even if you aren't using union actors, this is probably the limit you will charge for a ticket since it's the market price. You may charge even less. You may make up discounts for students, seniors, community groups. You'll probably give comps to fellow artists, friends of cast members, people you are trying to impress, the press.

In the scheme of things, Off Off is a ridiculously cheap way to spend an evening, especially among the vast, overpriced options of New York.

Does the fact Off Off is a ridiculously good deal mean that your audience is packed? Absolutely not! (It still may be packed, and if that's the case, please share the formula for success with us all!)

I'd even venture to say that because Off Off is so cheap, this might even deter people from forking over their money to sit in our theatre, if only because something cheap can't possibly be as good as something overpriced. (All marketing tactics aside, wouldn't most people rather return from to their trip Big Apple bragging about spending $200+ to see Nathan Lane from 100 yards away instead of your big ideas up close in a Lower East Side basement?)

In the regional theatre scene, I feel like we talk about price all.the.time. Should we discount? If so, when? How much? Should we raise prices when something is popular? Who are we alienating? Who are we subsidizing? Why aren't we making ends meet even when our houses are full?

With less flexibility in pricing in Off Off, this conversation doesn't seem to happen so much.

But the fundamental issue is the same in both situations - how much a ticket costs has very little effect on if people will want to come. Our challenge is to make sure that what we put on stage is relevant, intriguing, and worth seeing. Potential audience members have to be convinced somehow that the 2 hours they spend with you is the most valuable thing they can be doing with their time. It's not just good for them, but fun and, maybe more importantly, hip.

Our job as theatre makers is to create plays that can't be missed, part of the culture, desirable.  The bigger challenge from a marketing standpoint is to communicate that your play, whether it costs $100, $10 or nothing at all, is unmissable.

How will you do it?

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Twit You Say?

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Contributed by Guest Blogger of the week, Jon Hoche.

I was honored that IT Awards asked me to be their guest blogger this week.  I was honored and also terrified.  I am a pretty simple guy with simple thoughts.  Nothing too profound or awe inspiring comes from my noggin.  So I wasn't sure what I should write about that would be of any interest to the Independent Theater community.  What could I possibly offer to the thousands of talented producers, writers, and actors out there in NYC making Off-Off-Broadway the place where the new great American theatre is being created?  Then to make it completely official and public, the great people at the IT Awards posted this on their twitter feed.

@NYITAwards: Our guest blogger of the week is Jon Hoche http://ow.ly/17tR8M

And then I thought to myself.  Twitter.  Has anyone talked about "Twitter" and how it can benefit Independent theaters?  This sparked my interest and here we have it.  Ladies and Gentlemen.  I give to you my blog of the week.

"What the hell is Twitter and why you as a Theater Company need to be on it."

So let's start at the beginning and give you a little background information.  Twitter is the fastest growing social network to date.  Users are able to create a user name and are allowed 140 characters to post "tweets".  Think of it like a giant bulletin board.  Ideas, Opinions, Links to websites and pictures can all be posted within these 140 characters.  (We'll get back to that) At the time this blog goes live, there are 19 million people on Twitter worldwide.  In the beginning the people who were using Twitter were celebrities and tech geeks.  However, now a days, small business owners are finding Twitter to be their best marketing tool AND IT'S FREE.  I came across this short video tutorial to help me out.



So why not use Twitter as another tool to help spread the word about Independent Theater?  More importantly YOUR independent theater!!  I follow numerous actors and theater companies that are already embracing Twitter.  They have used Twitter to do things like:

- Post auditions
- Countdown their upcoming show
- Post a link where people can buy tickets
- Link a review on someone's website
- Show production photos

They are reaching their fans, and the public at lightning speed and generating a fan base.

Now let's get to the nitty gritty shall we?  If you decided to embrace Twitter as a marketing tool, then EMBRACE it!!  So many times theater companies hear what I'm saying now about Twitter being a great tool and they'll agree, however not utilize it to the fullest.  They will do all the things I listed above, but why not take it one step further?  Your theater company has a certain mission statement, right?  They have a certain aesthetic, I'm sure.  So really create that persona on Twitter and not only make it informative to follow you, but FUN!

I think the best example of a theater company that is really taking Twitter by the reigns are the New York Neo-Futurists (@nyneofuturists).  Not only do they post all the types of information I listed above, but they go way beyond that.  They will post PSA's which will consist usually of a link to a news article or picture and their own witty commentary on it.  Also, they do TWITTERPLAYS, where they give their followers an assignments and their followers will have only 140 characters to respond.

example:

 @ Nyneofuturists: TWITTERPLAY Assignment: write a 1-tweet play that has an INVISIBLE PERSON or OBJECT. #tp63

and here are some of the results:

@swestdahl:
Lights up on A sitting opp. empty chair. A: Thank you for meeting w/ me, Mr. Fingledoofer. We’re downsizing the Imaginary Friend Dept.

@ socialarts:
4 actors mingle on stage. An invisible elephant enters and stands among them. Actors become very uncomfortable. End.

@ JennaStern:
What shall we do today, hmm? The library? The Park? A movie? Just stay inside and watch the rain? Sweetie? Sweetheart?

So not only are the Neo-futurists reaching out and informing their audience via Twitter, they are also entertaining and creating something new and creative in a new platform.  I think we can all take a lesson from them.

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Your 2009-2010 OOB productions archived for Theatre World

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Contributed by Executive Director, Shay Gines

Last year I had the honor of writing a season review for Off-Off-Broadway in Theatre World volume 65. It was the first time in their 65 years that they had included OOB and I am so excited to tell you that they have decided to continue this practice. This year I have been asked to collect the information for the 2009-2010 season for our community.

I need your help.

1. Please complete the online forms documenting your company's season (see below)
2. Please forward this information to your fellow OOB producers and ask them to do the same.

Theatre World is the oldest pictorial and statistical record of the American theatre, published annually as a hardcover book by Applause Theatre & Cinema Books (America's foremost publisher of theatre and cinema books) and has been continually published since 1945. It is the most comprehensive and definitive record of Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theatre, AND NOW Off-Off-Broadway (which is where you come in), and is available for purchase at many fine online establishments, including applausepub.com, amazon.com , or barnesandnoble.com.

I know as an OOB producer your time is valuable, but the annual Theatre World publications are one of the premiere archives for American Theatre and it is so important for our community to be represented. I ask you to take this time to provide the information requested, so that your company's production(s) will be recorded and referenced everywhere by theatre scholars, students, casting directors, producers, and other industry professionals daily. In addition, it will be a part of the permanent record of Off-Off-Broadway and placed in important research and reference libraries from The Library of Congress to most colleges and universities across the country.

So, what I need is your production information from the 2009-2010 season (shows that played between June 1, 2009 and May 31, 2010), for inclusion in Volume 66, including individual production information as well as benefits, readings, workshops, etc.

Please read the notes below carefully for submission guidelines and links to the online forms at the bottom of this email.

PLEASE SUBMIT ALL MATERIALS BY JUNE 10, 2010 TO ENSURE INCLUSION IN THE 2009-2010 EDITION OF THEATRE WORLD!

Our publisher is making every effort to release this volume by the November 2010, so we need to get your submissions as soon as possible. Since we are under a tight schedule, it is virtually impossible for our staff to research and compile all of the Off-Off-Broadway listings for this volume and we are relying on your help to make sure we include as many productions as possible.


Now for the links:


FULL PRODUCTIONS: Productions produced by your company from June 1, 2009 - May 31, 2010

FESTIVALS: If you presented a festival please complete this form


READINGS/WORKSHOPS: For readings and work shops presented by your company


PRESENTERS: For non-resident productions (productions by OTHER companies) that were presented at your venue


Thank you for your cooperation in helping us to maintain the most complete annual record of the American theatre!

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If it waddles like a Duck, don't call it a Chicken!

Contributed by Guest Bloggers of the week, Katie Rosin & Antonio Miniño of Kampfire Films PR

Promoting the truth goes a long way.

It is easy to embellish what the production you are promoting is about in an attempt to gain the attention of a wider range of ticket buyers. You might try to change the focus of your marketing strategy to fit certain groups, without taking into consideration its relevance in the play or project in question.

A lot changes from the script to stage production. You could have read the play and have a certain idea of what themes lie within it, but that might not be the focus of this production. This is why it is key to maintain a clear and constant communication with your producer/director to make sure the angle you are using will enhance the experience rather than diminish.

It all comes down to word of mouth created by your audience and the press. You may have come up with what you think is a great way to sell the show, and it might get your audience in the theater, but once that audience doesn’t see what they were promised two things happen:

1. They will be disappointed, obsessed and focused on what they were expecting to see and will not appreciate the great things that the show really is about.
2. They will not tell their friends to come see the show. A referral is the most powerful tools in selling theater tickets.

I recently experienced a case of misleading advertisement as a theatergoer. Both the press materials and postcard/ads suggested the show fervently dealt with gay marriage and Prop 8. Well it didn’t. At least not in a way that drove the plot. But it was still a good production with talented actors and crisp direction. I was able to put aside the fact that I was cheated and lead to believe it was about something that it wasn’t. But my friend who saw the show with me was not as forgiving, and neither was the press. All the reviews focused on how poorly the subject of gay marriage was tackled within this play.

Be true to your project and never promise something you can’t deliver for the sake of ticket sales. Trust that people will like what you are selling, and remember the importance of word of mouth.


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Remembering to say "Thank you!"

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Contributed by Guest Bloggers of the week, Katie Rosin & Antonio Miniño of Kampfire Films PR

Last week Kampfire received these beautiful tulips from Shay, Nick, and the NY Innovative Theatre Awards, thanking us for our on-going contribution to them and the community. We were touched, and it reminded us why we love working with this fabulous organization in the first place.

It also re-confirmed a notion that saying "Thank You" goes a long way. We always remember to thank our donors, but we sometimes neglect showing appreciation to our audiences. A few years ago, when I went to see The Color Purple, the next day I received a thank you email (see below). Although, I didn't like the show that much, it did make me feel that my business didn't go unnoticed (even though I know it was an automatic email through the ticketing agent).

With more the intimate audiences of OOB we can send a more personalize thank you, an email which in addition to complimenting their good taste in theater, reminds them if they liked the show to vote for it at nyitawards.com and join your Facebook fan page. Offer them a free ticket to return to the show with a friend who hasn't seen it and remind them to place a tax-deductible donation to your organization so you can continue to create the work they saw.

A little thank you can go a long way to encouraging future ticket sales and donors.

Everything in my life is big

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This post was contributed by guest blogger of the week, Jeffrey Keenan.


Everything in my life is big. My first apartment in New York City was (is) a two-bedroom in Chelsea. My personal (and amazing) recipe for Macaroni & Cheese easily feeds six people (unless one of them is Jason Bowcutt and then it feeds, um, well, only, um, Jason Bowcutt). A single pair of my pants alone could easily house as many as three different Vietnamese families.

Everything in my life is big.

The first show I produced so many years ago began production with a budget of nearly $30,000. At the time, being a naïve, first-time producer/director, I assumed that amount was entirely logical. Hell, I’d heard that some Broadway shows were costing into the seven figures back then (the mid 90s) so $30K was a drop in the proverbial bucket.

Except that I didn’t have $30K. I didn’t have anything close to $30K. At the time, I was working as that pathetic voice you’d get in the morning when you called to complain that your Washington Post landed in a puddle and was unreadable, or you were going on vacation and didn’t want newspapers piling up outside your front door, or perhaps the damn thing didn’t even come at all. I was that shlub you screamed at at 6:30 in the morning. And for that wonderful abuse, I was paid $12 an hour.

Not having the capital to throw at the show from my own life (I'm from very humble beginnings in rural Ohio: Dad, a pastor; Mom, a substitute teacher), and having no formal training in business (I got a BA from one of those small, pricey private Ohio colleges for which I’m still paying back loans), I did the only thing I could: I decided to pay the damn thing off on the back end.

A business decision like this would only be made by a very, very stupid person or an incredibly optimistic one. Luckily I qualified as both. "Paying on the back end" is the process of using the profits of the show to pay for it. If you can't immediately see the flaws in that plan, send me an email and I'll enumerate them for you. The first show I produced in DC was called Party: an amusing one-act excuse to get seven naked men together on stage.

DC was, and still is, a rather conservative cultural town and no one at that time had ever seen seven penises gathered in one place at the same time outside of DC’s notorious gay strip clubs and the occasional Republican Congressman’s house party. It was my fervent belief that the impressively sized gay population of DC would support theater if it A) made them laugh and B) made them hard.

Turns out I was right.

I started advertising the show six months from its opening date. I begged, borrowed and stole from everyone I knew to get the barest minimum of cash together to put a deposit on the theater and to buy the materials for the set. I believe I didn’t pay rent on my apartment for three or four months prior to opening (luckily, one of those impressively sized gay DCers happened to be my landlord). Another friend had just started an event ticketing company and he was anxious for clients so I signed him up immediately. With the ticketing work and patron care spoken for, I concentrated on publicizing and producing the show.

The DC gay press let me set up business accounts to charge my full and half page ads, one of which I ran every single week three months prior to opening. I convinced The Washington Post to do a news story about this young, gay upstart (me) bringing liberal gay theater to DC. I got local bars to promote the show and pay for personal appearances of the cast. During the gay pride march of 1997, I convinced one of the buildings along Dupont Circle to allow me, just for the day, to hang a huge promotional poster of my mostly nude cast that could be seen for blocks. I borrowed a friend’s sports car and rode the scantily clad boys through the parade route handing out thousands of postcards. And somehow, the show opened to a sold-out house on a Friday in late June.

The first check I got from the ticketing vendor the following Thursday was for nearly $18,000. And we were sold out solid for the first six weeks. The show ran a total of fourteen weeks before we closed it for another show already contracted to come into the space. It grossed a total of just over $160,000. And in Washington DC in 1997, I paid my actors $300 a week.

Never let anyone tell you it can’t be done. While this story reflects a lot of luck and a huge amount of hard work, it’s still ample evidence that there is no reason on the face of this earth why you can’t work to make your shows happen. Money is a minor obstacle. Faith in yourself is a vastly larger one.

As a betting man, I’m pretty sure you can do it. If you’re willing to do it. (And you have enough actor friends who don’t mind getting naked.)

Question of the Blog: How important do you think audience response is to your goal?

Coming Soon: Rough Waters Ahead!

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Advice for working with an OOB publicist

Go OBAMA! (That's my News and Politics...)

Here is some insight on working with a Publicist/Press Agent.

* Once you decide to work with a press agent the most important thing you can do is have coordinated communication with them and make it a collaborative process. Make sure that you provide them in a timely manner with the following:


Name of Show
Playwright
Director
Cast List and contact info plus bios
Company Name and bio/mission
Dates
Schedule
Theater (and address)
Ticket Vendor
Available Discounts/codes
Website Address
Running time of show
Synopsis
Photos, from previous productions, from rehearsals, headshots and high-quality production photos
Video, from previous productions
Past Press
Script

* Working with a publicist should require more interaction from the company, not less. Constantly present your publicist with story ideas, contacts to press, and follow-up with them to make sure that you feel that they are working in your favor. However, do not contact the press on your own, once you hire a press agent, it is their job to be the sole contact on behalf of the production with the media.


* If you don't know how to write your bio, contact the press agent for support. S/he should be able to walk you through the process so that you will have a bio to build upon.


* Make sure you have a great headshot (if you are an actor). That is your tool to promoting yourself. Before picking your final photo, have at least 3 people look at the options, including a publicist.
Please contact me if you have any questions.
Katie Rosin
Publicist IT AwardsKampfire PR
917-438-9223
katie@kampfirefilmspr.com