The Process of Arts Marketing
Rebecca Lothian
Our process began with meetings discussing what kind of company we wanted to be a part of and what we believed our strengths and weaknesses were as individuals and as a collective. With previous experience in marketing and sales, I took on a dual role of performer and of marketing the performance. Marketing as a team enabled us to create diverse work and maintain our high standards and quality throughout the entire process. Our main focus was to ensure the public’s relationship with the company and promoting our debut performance as closely to the director’s artistic vision as possible. Keith Diggle explains that the aims of marketing the arts 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” (Diggle, 1994, 25). Therefore, the marketing team explored and performed various different strategies in order to entice and interest a wide audience. Due to the upcoming nature of our company, we had to concern ourselves with marketing strategies that were cost effective and not too time consuming, due to commitments of rehearsal. Keith Diggle reported that most theatre companies work in this manner as they are “essentially concerned with getting good results with the minimum expenditure of time and money, methods used being essentially practical ones.” (Diggle, 1994, 17).
“When asked how much trust they attach to advertising in the various media, consumers gave magazines and newspapers a score of 63%” (PrintPower, 2013).
The first task set for the marketing team was the creation of the logo and choosing the appropriate branding for our company.
(PinPoint Theatre, 2016a).
After deciding our name and original mission statement, we explored different logo types that we believed symbolised this criteria. We eventually created around ten logo designs, with some above being examples and discussed as a whole company what would work the best for what we were communicating.
(PinPoint Theatre, 2016b).
The marketing team used this logo design as we felt it was direct, straightforward and bold, which matched our original vision as a company. The font is easily readable and has the ability to stand out. It also resonates well with a modern audience as the pointed image replacing the “O” has a similar appearance to the checking in icon that appears on Facebook.
Shay Sayre claims:
“Affective advertising is the most effective strategy for venues and performance companies […] visual delights to make emotional connections with audiences.”
(Sayre, 2008, 196). Understanding the importance of printed advertising, the marketing team ensured the high standard of our flyers and poster. Sayre also states that the poster image concerns itself with three factors, which are information, emotion and motivation. (Sayre, 2008, 197).
In order to fulfil this criteria for our poster, we first needed to take the right photograph the represented the story of a lonely boy. Toni Nandi discusses the importance of the image placed at the forefront, “Performance is narrative and the photo is static – a moment in time. The challenge for the photographer is to use composition to indicate for the viewer that the moment portrayed is a component part of the narrative.” (Nandi, 2004, 262). The narrative of our debut performance is simply a story about a troubled young boy, who dreams of going to space, which influenced our decision to have an image of Sam alone. Established theatre companies are likely to hire a professional photographer, however with our small budget at the time, the marketing team took on the responsibility of taking the appropriate image.
(PinPoint Theatre, 2016c).
The marketing team explored different ideas for the poster image, including our letters and space drawings that the cast made in an early workshop.
(PinPoint Theatre, 2016d).
The development of the space themed poster derived from the narrative of the play, and also from the influence in creating a dynamic image. Clancy Clarke advises to “create a strong contrast with complementary colors – such as a rich shade of blue with a bold red-orange or lavender and marigold” (Clarke, 2014).
(PinPoint, 2016e).
The background image was a mixture of deep blues, rich purples and subtle glows of yellow to embody this beautiful galactic image.
(Pinpoint Theatre, 2016f).
The overlay of the two images allow a strong, conceptual image, which we felt captured the narrative and also had the ability to remain ambiguous and interest an audience. Keith Diggle promotes that we should “Bring words together with typography, illustration and colour, through the design process and you have a potent instrument of persuasion.” (Diggle, 1994, 200).
(PinPoint Theatre, 2016g).
This influenced our final poster image. We chose a readable font that correlated with the world of the play and was compatible with the image style chosen.
Consistency is a key aspect of a good marketing campaign, so our flyers has the poster image on the front, and a similar image on the back.
(PinPoint Theatre, 2016g).
Not only is the product advertising important in promotion of a performance, the distribution of printed material is vital in maximum awareness and promotion. Taylor et al states that the distribution and placement of flyers has advantage as flyers can be easily displayed in most places and therefore noticeable to the majority of the public. (Taylor et al, 2008). We chose to place our flyers all over the city centre in Lincoln in order to expand notice ability of our product. Bloom’s study states that “Poster audiences keep changing, mainly because of traffic growth and attempts to accommodate it, divert it, control and discourage it.”(Bloom, 2000, 411). Fortunately, Lincoln city centre is compact and requires the public to travel on foot, therefore we did not have to worry about members of the public missing out product placement.
(Pinpoint Theatre, 2016h).
Furthermore, we made a conscious decision in the distribution when flyering on the high street and the university campus. Diggle states “By aiming for those who are favourably inclined you are taking a realistic approach to the publicity task.” (Diggle, 1994, 238). To avoid wasting our flyers, the selection of people who received them were ones who truly seemed interested in the product.
The inclusion of our social media platforms on the flyer allows potential audience to look at our online sources and keep up to date with our process as a theatre company.
“What social media is all about, and again especially as applied in marketing, is the smart use of the natural conversational channels that develop between individuals.”(Evans, 2008, 13).
Due to the contemporary style of our performance, some of our target audience included younger spectators. Being included ourselves in this target audience, we used this to our advantage and used social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to reach potential buyers. Marketing depends on marketing to individuals and not just a mass, therefore social media allowed a more personal approach to the marketing and individuals can feel they are being informed personally. To maintain a personal approach, some of our first posts on Facebook and Twitter were ‘Meet The Team’ posts.
(PinPoint Theatre, 2016i).
Including the marketing team, so the audience could know who is posting everyday.
(PinPoint Theatre, 2016j).
Evans states: “The Social Web demands an active presence. On the Social Web, if your profile isn’t up-to-date, if you’re not commenting, if you’re not making connections, you don’t exist.” (Evans, 2008, 190). The marketing team worked closely to ensure that all social media was kept running and posts were made every single day sometimes two or three times on Twitter.
(PinPoint Theatre, 2016k).
An excellent advantage of online marketing is the accessibility, we could post and promote at all times. We posted images and videos of the rehearsal process as much as possible, to make the viewers feel a part of our journey.
(PinPoint Theatre, 2016l)
This is one of our favourite games to play before rehearsal! We love creating positive energy #games#fun#laughingpic.twitter.com/LM9MoPvagM
— PinPoint Theatre (@PinPointTC) April 21, 2016
(PinPoint Theatre, 2016m)
Evans also declares that “One of the characteristics of social media is that you can listen to it, measure it, and track it over time. You can use what you learn to modify and improve what you offer” (Evans, 2011, 37). This was particularly helpful for our Facebook page, as we were able to assess who was engaging with our marketing and how to gain a wider following.
(PinPoint Theatre, 2016n).
The advantage of social media is that it is a no cost method in promoting events or products, Lorrie Thomas claims: “When used with the right intention and managed regularly, Facebook can be a no-cost marketing tool to help organizations gain a competitive edge.” (Lorrie, 2011, 114). However we decided to spend some of our budget on boosting important social media posts, such as the poster.
(PinPoint Theatre, 2016o).
As the majority of our target uses social media, we found it a vital source to spend our budget on. As you can see it increased potential buyers to over double the original reach served.
“Face-to-face presentation by a company’s representative builds customer relationships and completes sales” (Sayre, 2008, 231).
Public Relations is, for me, the most important feature of marketing, especially marketing a service or a performance. Lincoln is a tight-knit community, in which talking to people has its many advantages. Diggle explains how speaking to the public will generate an atmosphere and representatives can present the tone and style of the show, allowing product advertising to “flourish” (Diggle, 1994, 42). During the five occasions the marketing team went out flyering and talking to the public, we noticed the increased interest over time.
(PinPoint Theatre, 2016p).
Promoting the event in our company t-shirts also enabled us to look professional and also added another layer of marketing to those people we did not approach.
(PinPoint Theatre, 2016q).
Our best marketing campaigns throughout the process was our events. Sayre states that event marketing is a “fast growing, high profile industry and a very successful marketing strategy. Events provide a promotional occasion that attracts and involves the brand’s target audience.” (Sayre, 2008, 236).
We mixed up our marketing strategies of public relations and social media to enlarge and develop an awareness of our promotion. Nigel Jackson talks in his book Promoting and Marketing Events (2013) about mixed events allowing “the virtual and the physical coexist.” (Jackson, 2013, 84). Like public relations and flyering, events influence attenders, intenders and new audience to watch our performance, however it is about being selective. Jackson states: “Those that are considered passive for an event should not be contacted at all, except indirectly or by accident, as they are unlikely to be interested in attending.” (Jackson, 2013, 126). Ensuring our time was not wasted in people who are not intending to come to the performance, the marketing team were able to use their time effectively and draw in the right audience.
Our first event took place at Walkabout Lincoln and was a space themed pub quiz, in which the winner could gain a free Walkabout food and drink tab. The marketing team use Facebook as the main marketing source for the actual event, and used the time during the pub quiz to speak to people and interest them in the performance.
(PinPoint Theatre, 2016r).
The opportunity for the company to relax and mingle with our peers and new people generated excitement and invited new people to follow us on social media. Although this was event took place for the purpose of fundraising; the outcome benefitted the marketing team and the representation of the company entirely.
(PinPoint Theatre, 2016s).
Our second event was solely to promote our company and our performance as we had reached our targets of budget. Keith Diggle mentions some techniques available to raise ticket sales and promotion such as, “Seat Preference, Price Reduction, Free Gifts, Special Offers and Competitions and Draws” (Diggle, 1994, 121). On May 4th we decided to combine some of these techniques and made a stall on University campus and gave out free cakes.
(Pinpoint Theatre, 2016t).
We also offered a free prize draw for anything who liked our page on Facebook and shared the Prize Hamper post we had made earlier that morning.
(PinPoint Theatre, 2016u).
Our hamper included two complimentary front row tickets to the performance, inviting people who may never usually attend the theatre, but could potentially become returning customers.
We set ourselves a goal that morning to reach 1000 people and gain 50 shares, being a brand new company, however we completely exceeded our expectations with this event.
(PinPoint Theatre, 2016v).
Our Facebook page benefited from this event, as our most popular medium anyway, it still increased by around sixty more viewers.
(PinPoint Theatre, 2016w).
Being intimate, personal and approaching the public directly worked effectively in our marketing campaign, as theatre is about approaching the audiences emotions, thoughts and opinions. Face-to-face marketing was an incredibly successful method of marketing the arts and one PinPoint Theatre Company will continue to do with all performances.
“Marketing should help reinforce core messages, reflect the mission statement and provide a means of using resources efficiently.” (Jackson, 2013, 65).
I believe our marketing campaigns have been strong and fulfilled the criteria that Jackson states above. If we took ‘How I Got To The Moon and Back’ on tour, we would continue to focus on the three main strategies I have discussed, however slightly alter them to the appropriate demographical changes.
(Pinpoint Theatre, 2016x)
Our ticket sales represent that we reached our target audience of students and young adults. However, it also shows that we managed to gain a further following that could be a mix of family members and locals of the Lincoln community.
Although I believe our marketing campaigns work effectively and our results present this, I would conduct a marketing survey for those who came to the performance to understand how they found out about PinPoint Theatre and our debut ‘How I Got To The Moon And Back’.
Work Cited
Bloom, D. (2000) Measuring the audience to poster advertising. International Journal of Market Research, 42 (4) 395-412.
Clarke, C. (2014) Are Marketing Flyers Still Relevant in a Digital World? YFS Magazine. [online]. http://yfsmagazine.com/2014/09/04/are-marketing-flyers-still-relevant-in-a-digital-world/ [Accessed 18 May 2016].
Diggle, K. (1994) Arts Marketing. Surrey: Perfectaprint.
Evans, D. (2008) Social media marketing: an hour a day. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing.
Jackson, N. (2013) Promoting and Marketing Events. New York: Routledge.
Nandi, T. (2001) Section 5: Documentation & Marketing: Tony Nandi, Photography & Digital Imaging. In: L. Hill and H. Paris (eds.) The Guerilla Guide To Performance Art: How To Make A Living As An Artist. London and New York: Continuum, 262-264.
PrintPower. (2013) Consumers trust advertising in print media more than other media. PrintPower. Available from http://www.printpower.eu/UK/Consumers-trust-advertising-in-print-media-more-than-other-media-Print [Accessed 20 May 2016].
Sayre, S. (2008) Entertainment Marketing & Communication: Selling branded performance, people, and places. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Taylor, N. and Cheverst, K. (2008) Exploring the Use of Non-Digital Situated Displays in a Rural Community. [lecture]. University of Lancaster, 15 December.
Thomas, L. (2011) Online marketing. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Professional.
Images
PinPoint Theatre (2016a) Logo Designs. [image]. Lincoln Performing Arts: PinPoint Theatre.
PinPoint Theatre (2016b) PinPoint Logo. [image]. Lincoln Performing Arts: PinPoint Theatre.
PinPoint Theatre (2016c) Photo Shoot. [image]. Lincoln Performing Arts: PinPoint Theatre.
PinPoint Theatre (2016d) Poster Designs. [image]. Lincoln Performing Arts: PinPoint Theatre.
PinPoint Theatre (2016e) Galactic Background. [image]. Lincoln Performing Arts: PinPoint Theatre
PinPoint Theatre (2016f) Foreground and Background Poster. [image]. Lincoln Performing Arts: PinPoint Theatre.
PinPoint Theatre (2016g) Poster and Flyer Images. [image]. Lincoln Performing Arts: PinPoint Theatre.
PinPoint Theatre (2016h) Distribution of Flyers. [image]. Lincoln Performing Arts: PinPoint Theatre.
PinPoint Theatre (2016i) Twitter Meet the Cast. [image]. Lincoln Performing Arts: PinPoint Theatre.
PinPoint Theatre (2016j) Facebook Meet the Cast. [image]. Lincoln Performing Arts: PinPoint Theatre.
PinPoint Theatre (2016k) PinPoint Tweets. [image]. Lincoln Performing Arts: PinPoint Theatre.
PinPoint Theatre (2016l) Rehearsal Photos Twitter. [image]. Lincoln Performing Arts: PinPoint Theatre.
PinPoint Theatre (2016m) Rehearsal Video Twitter.
. Lincoln Performing Arts: PinPoint Theatre.
PinPoint Theatre (2016n) Facebook Insights and Data. [image]. Lincoln Performing Arts: PinPoint Theatre.
PinPoint Theatre (2016o) Boosted Facebook Post. [image]. Lincoln Performing Arts: PinPoint Theatre.
PinPoint Theatre (2016p) Flyering (Marketing Team). [image]. Lincoln Performing Arts: PinPoint Theatre.
PinPoint Theatre (2016q) PinPoint T-shirt. [image]. Lincoln Performing Arts: PinPoint Theatre.
PinPoint Theatre (2016r) Pub Quiz Facebook Event. [image]. Lincoln Performing Arts: PinPoint Theatre.
PinPoint Theatre (2016s) Pub Quiz Event. [image]. Lincoln Performing Arts: PinPoint Theatre.
PinPoint Theatre (2016t) Free Gifts, Marketing Event. [image]. Lincoln Performing Arts: PinPoint Theatre.
PinPoint Theatre (2016u) Like and Share Post Facebook. [image]. Lincoln Performing Arts: PinPoint Theatre.
PinPoint Theatre (2016v) Like and Share Results Facebook. [image]. Lincoln Performing Arts: PinPoint Theatre.
PinPoint Theatre (2016w) Increase of Page results Facebook. [image]. Lincoln Performing Arts: PinPoint Theatre.
PinPoint Theatre (2016x) Ticket Sales. [image]. Lincoln Performing Arts: PinPoint Theatre
