The theatre, unlike most industries, has been a slow adopter of marketing techniques to spread the word about its products. In the West End, ticket agencies, some key workers like nurses and teachers, plus cab drivers have traditionally been given free tickets to see a show in preview performances, both to help paper the house but also to hopefully to get it being talked about favourably. Beyond that, producers have long spent money on a relatively narrow band of advertising opportunities – ads in the broadsheet press (mostly on Sundays), Evening Standard and Time Out, escalator and lift poster panels and platform billboards on the tube, sometimes radio ads, and just occasionally, the odd telly spot; plus targeted leaflet distribution in public places and by mail.
But is this money well spent? It’s often been said that nothing sells a show like word-of-mouth, which you can’t actually pay for or manufacture, but in that case, how do producers discover what is being said about their shows?
That’s where a major new player on the Broadway scene, Live Theatrical Events, comes in. A partnership between the Nielsen National Research Group – a corporate cousin of the people behind the Nielsen ratings, the US version of Barb that produces figures for UK television consumption – and New York theatre website broadway.com, it is, according to a feature in yesterday’s New York Times, “changing the way shows are marketing themselves, on and off Broadway”, by “using Hollywood-style data mining techniques and the internet to contact hundreds of thousands of theatregoers.” Though shows both on Broadway and in the West End have dipped their toes into market research and held focus groups in the past, this is a co-ordinated strategy that also offers interpretation of the data gleaned from a far wider pool: according to Drew Hodges, creative director of one of the leading Broadway advertising agencies SpotCo that uses the new company’s services, “What’s really exciting there is the ability to move from 12 at a time to hundreds at a time. But what you need along with that is somebody who can really interpret that.”
That person is Joseph Craig, managing director of the venture, who has a strong background in the film industry and still spends a lot of time on independent films, says, “As Broadway becomes more expensive, they need to know who their audience is – who’s coming, who’s not coming, and why not?”
Not everyone is convinced by the new strategy that such information might give them power. According to Jeffrey Seller, producer of Rent and Avenue Q on Broadway, “We’re still in a business that is a strange intersection of art and commerce. But all of the great shows have been promoted and created through the gut aesthetic, artistic instincts of the creators and producers.” He cites Chorus Line, Annie, Hair, Les Miserables and Rent, and asks, “Were any of those shows built by focus groups?”
Another even more veteran producer, Emanuel Azenberg, is also resistant: “I don’t think everything can be translated into marketing. It’s not selling Chevrolets”. But the list of shows cited comes from a different, mostly pre-internet era of Broadway, and things are changing dramatically in the way tickets are sold nowadays. As a result, there’s far more access to information about the buyers; so why not use it? As William Goldman once famously said about the film industry when it comes to working out what’s going to succeed, no one knows anything; but this attempt to bring some science into the equation and to stop it from flying completely blind can only give an industry that is by its nature precarious a bit more confidence. It still needs a collective act of imagination to put on a show in the first place. But it needs even more imagination, sometimes, to sell it. The theatre, it seems, is finally waking up to that fact.
Very interesting read. I've often wondered how much thought actually goes into who comes to the theatre. I would say very similar to how the music industry is only just beginning to recover from the internet age, signalling the death of once prime time show 'Top of the Pops' and along with it 'appointment TV' the theatre has increasing competition from on sides. It is imperitive therefore that we have some understanding of who comes to the theatre, and indeed how often. I myself am a member of several theatres, where in the long run I believe I will save money, and encourageme to see more theatre. Subscription, if marketed wisely could be a powerful instrument in attracting more audiences. In a time where music cd sales are down and down loads are up, the live venues have come into their own once more. Should a West End theatre ticket really cost the same or more as a live music concert of the lastest bands? There is currently more hype about the Edinburgh festival than the London West End, the only other major performance venue outside London, yet how many people will attend the Edinburgh Summer Fest from around the World compared to that of the West End all year? I should imagine the numbers are rising rapidly, and I suspect it is the price! People are willing to travel from all across the country, and abroad to the largest, and probably furthest north theatre festival, because they can afford not just one show but several, and on a shoestring budget, if booked well in advance, and over several days. Most West End goers will see one musical and or a play once per year often travelling into London the on the day, and returning in the small hours after having maybe one drink, as hotel prices on top of transport, on top of socialising, on top of the theatre tickets themselves will often equal a small childs annual food bill.
Much more incentive is needed, not just advertising to intice audiences. West End shows are notorious for their elaborate budgets, which crank the price up for the consumer. Often the production costs have nothing to do with creativity but hiring staff, scripts and venues. London also has the most expensive night life in Briain, and theatre prices are a litmus test. I believe only the shows that sell out and have waiting lists till Christmas 2012 should have the highest price tickets. I don't see any point in playing to a house of 103 people on a Tuesday who have paid the same price, if not £2 less, than if they saw it on a Saturday night. Why not slash Ticket prices during the week, not just half price on the night, ensure a full house every night, and if for the price of a movie you enjoy a good week night out at the theatre, you may be tempted to see it again with family and friends on a Saturday night later in the run. This ensures longevity, as word of mouth simply isn't quick enough before some more ambitious shows close unexpectedly early. Of coarse there is the issue of the risk of disappointment as there is never any guarantee that you will enjoy a show, no matter what the critics say. Even with a Five Star rating it is often a risk of £50 or more per person that if disappointed will be shy of asking for their money back and with no direct feedback you'll never know they're unsatisfied. They may not choose to see another production till the following year when maybe then they'll be willing to loose £100 on a romantic theatre for two, or a small fortune if they wanted to bring the kids, seeing as there isn't always concessions on offer. If the creative teams can't manage to please everybody, maybe kinder prices will soften the disapointment and allow more families the chance to not put all there eggs in one basket, and market toward the right the audiences so that the industry can help in educating the public of the choices they could make, not just some cheap gimmicy weekend at the Hilton with a ticket thrown in. Thank you.
The resistance of traditional theatre managements to the use of market research techniques commonly used by non-theatrical industries is, as far as I am concerned, a source of competitive advantage for producers of large-scale live entertainment who have embraced contemporary demand modeling techniques. I am a producer of large-scale live entertainment in South Africa, which has a dynamic and thriving musical and live event industry. My company regularly employs linear regression models and Monte Carlo simulations all informed by detailed demand research through the unpacking of buyer value systems utilising conjoint analysis, correspondence analysis and extensive data base analysis to target and estimate 95% confidence intervals for levels of demand, which in turn are used to determine budget limits and investment requirements. AHP decision models are also employed in the final choice bewteen viable alternatives. The "gut instinct" is an important aspect of decision making, as it factors prominently in the evaluation of the face validity of model outcomes, but the problem with relying entirely on"gut" decision making is not so much the possibility of getting it wrong (which you will do), but more when you get it right - because having done so you cannot explain why you got it right - making it difficult to repeat correctly thereafter, but with the danger of risking further capital under the delusion that you 'now know how to do it' when in fact you were lucky. And I am by no means advocating a slavish reliance on models. In the words of Taleb in his fine book "Fooled by randomness" - 'mathematics is not a tool to compute, but to meditate'. The more information at the disposal of decision makers, the more cognitive and informed their decision-making. There will always be risk, but risk can be measured and managed.
Deon Opperman