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PSP.TV Backstage with Michael Brownhill: Interview with Cameron Lawry

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Protea Stage Productions presents

PSP.TV

Backstage with Michael Brownhill

 

MB. Welcome to PSP.TV . I'm your host Michael. Today we will be interviewing our very own director, Cameron. Cameron.

 

CL. Yeah, well, my name is Cameron. Thank you for having me on the show.

 

MB. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Ow old are you? What grade are you in?

 

CL. I'm seventeen. I go to St Dunstan's and I decided on writing a pantomime in December, somI started writing it. I talked to Protea and ja, here we are.

 

MB. Tell us about your role in the production.

 

CL. Well, I'm the director, so, make sure that everyone's here. Put everything together. Ja, stuff like that.

 

MB. And what kind of skills are necessary for a person in your position?

 

CL. Ja, patience - a lot of patience.

 

MB. Tell us about the kind of training you had to go through for this role.

 

CL. Well, I've been with Protea since 2005, so I've picked up a couple of things along the way, and I think it is a lot of trial and error.

 

MB. And what was your first job in theatre?

 

CL. Was a chorus members I said in 2005 in Oliver.

 

MB. D why do you thing theatre is important?

 

CL. Think theatre is important because a lot of focus is on the sport and stuff like that nothing gets done about the other people in the world. You know, the cultural people. And what will we do without watching TV every evening when you get home going to watch that movie at the cinemas. Ja.

 

MB. D what is the greatest challenge for theatre today?

 

CL. I think to get guys to come and act.

 

MB. Amen. Amen. And would you like to pursue a professional career in theatre?

 

CL. Yes, I would. I'd like to become a writer and director of film and theatre. Yes.

 

MB. And anything else you'd like to tell us about?

 

CL. Come and watch the show!

 

MB. Thank you for PSP.TV It's Michael. Over and out.

End of transcription.

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Since kicking off our SMM campaign, we picked up considerably on Facebook followers, email subscribers, twitter followers and got some youtube subscribers. The youtube numbers seem to be a bit low, but with about 25 video views on the first day, and over 50 views within two weeks, I suppose most folks feel that they get notifications of new videos through twitter and Facebook. Not exactly viral yet, but it is not bad for the first two weeks!

A major part of the SMM campaign will be the interviews with cast and crew to keep interesting content flowing, so please subscribe to the links above to make sure you are the first to know.

The success of the campaign will be eventually in the attendance numbers for the show, so please book your diaries for October 18th to November 2nd.

Over and above being songwriter, musical coordinator and marketing assistant, your honourable blog host will also be featured as guitarist in the pits!

 

Essential elements of Social Media Marketing

Last time I introduced you to Social Media Marketing (SMM) for theatre. Today I want to talk a bit more in depth about it by introducing the two elements of Social Media Marketing. Without these two elements, your marketing effort is not likely to succeed.

The term Social Media has two parts. The first word of the term is "social". Social means people. To make your campaign work, you need people. More specific, you need to attract lots of people to your campaign. In geek speak, this is called "traffic".

This is one place where the old saying of "you build it and they will come" does not work. If you do not make a effort to bring people to your site, they will not come. Simply opening a Youtube channel or a Facebook account will not do the job for you. You need to tell people about your Youtube and Facebook accounts. In a previous post I told you the best ways to find those people. To get value out of your Social Media campaign, you must bring the fans to your pages. We are talking about the fans of the company, the crew, the cast, the writers, etc. Once you got their attention, you must continuously remind them to return to your site. This can be done by linking your Twitter, Facebook and Youtube accounts, i.e. each time you post a new video, a tweet is send out and a post is created on your Facebook wall. To get more traffic, ask all your fans to spread the word by liking, sharing and re-tweeting. In all your newsletter, have a link to your web site, your Facebook, Youtube and Twitter accounts and make sure that those links are easy to find on your web site.

The second element of Social Media Marketing is the "Media" part of the term. Just getting people to visit your Facebook or Youtube accounts just to find nothing there, is one sure way of scaring them away forever. When they come to your pages, they want to do something here. They want to see something and get some information. This is what the marketing people call "content".

Creating content is important. It is even more important to continue to create fresh content. People want to see something new each time they visit. This means that you must post a new video on Youtube every once in a while, make regular tweets and post new posts on your Facebook wall.

I mentioned the most important Social Media tools above. Each tool has its specific purpose. This is not an exact rule, but you may get best value put of your SMM campaign if you use each tool in different ways.

Youtube is a video site. Use it to post videos. Keep your videos entertaining, educational and informing. A new video once a month might be enough, but more often would not hurt. Do not spam your fans. Daily videos about nothing of interest are likely to scare them away.

Twitter works best for short news messages. Use twitter to tell your fans about a new video or tell them if something interesting happened. Tweets on twitter has a very short shelf life and it is therefore advisable to support your tweets with more permanent pages on your web site or a blog.

Facebook posts also has a short shelf life. Many people have more than 50 friends, each posting something once a day. Most people do not bother to scroll down very far. You therefore have to post regularly and entice them to go to your page where they can find more information. Do not spam your fans. When you post a new video on Youtube, post a link on your wall and ask your friends to like the post. Do not post daily links to old videos. That is just a sure way to scare them away again.

So much for Social Media theory for the day. This week coming, Protea Stage will launch their Social Media campaign. Please follow them on Twitter at @ProteaStage and on Facebook at Protea Stage Production to follow our campaign.

You can also follow me on twitter at @Sepheritoh and on Facebook at Eric Swardt

 

The role of social media marketing

I gave you an overview of my theory on marketing for musical theater and I told you about our most important target markets, the people who care about us. Today I want to take this further to introduce the concept of social media marketing and its role in this theory.

Please watch this short animated video.

This is the theory about the knowing and the caring. The people who buy the tickets sit in zone D of our matrix.

Most of the 7 billion people on this earth are sitting in zone A.

The object of marketing is to move people from zone A to zone D.

We can do that by informing them about the show and make them care enough to buy a ticket.

Zone D are the place for the knowing and the caring. Zone C are those who care and are likely to buy a ticket, as long as we let them know.

It is easy to let them know, as long as we know who they are and know how to contact them. Some easy ways to talk to them are email, facebook, twitter and youtube.

That is called social media.

 

Theater marketing - those who care

Last week I introduced my theory in marketing for theater productions.

Let's explore this theory in a little bit more depth by looking closer at one area of this theory, i.e. zone C. These are the people who care, but not yet knowing. To get them to buy a ticket, you need to simply inform them about the show. If you want to exploit this target market to the fullest, you must understand it better, know what they care about and where to find them. Then you can figure out how you can communicate to them.

So, exactly who are those people that care? What do they care about, and why would they want to come watch your show?

What you can assume now for the sake of this article, is that they do not care about the show itself (yet). This is evident from the mere fact that they are placed in the zone of "caring, but not knowing". In this zone you will find the fans. There are different ways to communicate to them, depending on who they are fans of. I want to look at them one by one.

Before we explore them further, I must just state the obvious. In this discussion I will assume that the show is good. Not only good, but great. If you do not have a show of the best quality, then you must go back and get the show up to highest standard before we worry about getting people to watch it.

Fans of the production company

These are people who know the production company. They are either connected with the company in some way, or have seen previous shows of this company. They are likely to come and watch your show because they trust that anything the company do will be good. As a writer / composer for musical theater you may want to find a company who has such a good reputation to produce your show. If the company has a good following, you have already sold a few tickets without spending any money on advertising. Most production companies will have a mailing list, email database, or SMS database of their regular patrons. Make sure you get permission from the chairmain or regulating committee to speak to their fans, obtain a copy of that list and exploit it. Many companies will have a facebook page and / or a twitter account. Make sure the company put an advert for your show on their web site.

If you are with a company who do not have any of the above, now is a good time to start. The best place to start collecting names for a mailing list is at the shows itself. Find out what the company schedule for the year is and help them to start the database at the earliest show on their schedule. By the time your show comes up, you may have a handy list of names to your disposal. At each show, mingle with the patrons at the front of house before the show and during intervals. Don't just put a pen and paper down in a corner. Actively pester people (in a resectful and friendly way) for their names and email adresses. Be sure to follow this up with a welcome email and an invite to like the company's (and your own) facebook page.

Fans of the director / musical director

Most directors who has been around for some time will have a following. Not many of them keep a mailing list, but some do. Some may even have a web page. Everything said about exlpoiting the production company's mailing lists above applies here as well. When sending an invite to the director's fans, make sure you mention in big letters that he or she is directing your show. Make sure the names of the directors and musical directors are clearly visible on all posters and advertising. Directors like to have their names visible and in bright lights, but make sure that you clear all advertising with them, as well as with the production company.

Fans and friends of other creative crew members

It is not very common for other crew members (set designers, stage managers, sound & lighting engineers, etc) to have a fan club or mailing list. To exploit their fan clubs, you need a slightly different approach. Ask them to sell some tickets to their friends and family. It is always a good idea to give each crew member at least one extra complimentary ticket for their trouble.

Fans of the cast

If you have a famous cast member, you must make sure that you capitalise on that fact. Ask your singers and actors if they have fan mailling lists. If they are not famous yet, make them famous. Include cast member's names on posters and advertising. I am always surprised by how few shows actually bother to advertise the cast. Newspapers like to write news stories about people. You can make stories newsworthy by including some personal fact and stories. Newspapers are more likely to place stories like "single mother with three jobs star in new musical". Those personal stories are more likely to catch the eyes of the readers, who will care to come watch the show. Ask the cast to sell tickets to their friends and family. If a cast member is connected in any way to a local art school, you have a direct line to another gold mine. Make sure you exploit it.

Fans of the songwriter / composer

Everything said above applies. I have to admit that I will go watch any show if I see Stephen Sondheim or Andrew Lloyd-Webber on the advertising. I know I am not alone. Songwriters and composers accumulate fans very quickly. If you are a songwriter or composer, start to build up your fan database from your first show and keep on adding to the database.

Fans of the show

Famous shows like Phantom of the opera and Les Miserables have huge followings. Fans will go watch these show, no matter who puts it up. If you put up a newly developed show, it is unlikely to have a dedicated fan club yet. Be sure to start building up that fan list from the very start. People who attended the first readings are likely to come to the show to see how the show has developed. People who saw the first show in a community hall is likely to watch it again when it comes up in a large profesional theater. Make sure you start collecting the names from the start. Dedicated fans will watch revivals whenever they have the chance.

Fans of theater

There are many people who will watch any musical just because they like to watch musicals. I know, I'm one. Make sure you inform them about your show. Theater fans are likely to read blogs and other dedicated theater news sites like artslink or broadway.com. Some of these sites offer free listings for newly developing shows or community shows. Make sure you do not miss out on these opportunities.

Talk to other theater companies in your area (professional and amateur). Ask them if they would mind sharing their mailing lists, or give you a mention in their newsletter in exchange for a mention in your newsletter. Ask them if you may advertise at their shows.

Hope this gave you some ideas on how to sell more tickets. This is not the only way, but it surely is the most effective way to start. We will look at more ideas some time.

Till then!

 

From total strangers to ticket buying fans

When you produce a show, you need people to buy tickets in order to recover the costs. I have this little bit of marketing theory for you that just might help you to sell a few more tickets.

My theory hangs on two basic principles; i.e. people need to know about your show, and they need to care enough to buy a ticket.

Take a look at this picture at the left. On the vertical axis, we split people by those who don't know about your show and those who do not know about your show. In the graphic, those who do not know are placed below the horizontal line.

Then we split the people by those who do not care about your show at all, and those who care enough to buy a ticket. They are placed along the horizontal axis - those who don't care goes to the left and those who do, goes to the right.

Easy enough. This gives us four possibilities, or the four zones. We start off with all people in zone A, i.e. they don't know about your show, and they do not care enough to buy a ticket.

The objective of marketing is to mobilize people from zone A to zone D, i.e. where they know about your show, and they care enough to buy a ticket.

People are moved from zone A to zone B by informing them about your show. In zone B we have people who know about the show, but do not yet care enough to buy a ticket. You can move them from zone B into zone D by engaging with them and convince them.

A very effective long term marketing strategy is to move people from zone A into zone C. These are what we can call the "fans". These are the people who care about you and your music enough to buy any new album that you release and will likely buy a ticket to your show. It is good to have lots of fans in zone C. If you have been keeping proper tabs on your fans, all you need to do when your show is ready, is to inform them by sending them an email.

I will talk more about my marketing theory in future posts and show you how this basic idea can help you selling out every time. We will also explore how social media marketing fits into this theory.

Until then!