Guerrilla Marketing for the Theatre

Example- Third Wall Theatre Company, Ottawa, Canada by Ryan Anderson

Preparation Phase
- Designed corporate image, keeping everything looking professional, no cheesy graphics. We knew our target market wanted "elegant"
- Decided on tag line "Directed Imagination" - imagination without direction is not interesting
- Designed logo to reflect name "Third Wall"
- Called Third Wall Theatre because of the idea of the imaginary fourth wall that separates the audience from the play. We believe that the audience should emotionally engaged in the drama, and not a passive observer. Thus, our theatre ends at the Third Wall.
- Design website, keeping with corporate image
o Ensured that all information is available on the web
o Register for tickets online

Example of Trailer Developed for Third Wall's Next Performance (The Importance of Being Earnest)

Publicity Phase
- Cultivating the Media List
o Get as many media lists as possible, and build from them
o Keep all information in one place, so that mass emails and faxes can be performed easily
o Contact the media to introduce yourself, but be respectful of their time
- Market by press release
o 2 months before, announce the new theatre company, focus on the new "rising star" in the Ottawa theatre scene
o Follow up all press releases with telephone calls
o Announce large donation with press release "Third Wall gets a late Christmas gift" (did not specify how much in the release) - I didn't actually have to follow that one up; most of them called me by the end of the day.
" The sun wrote an article about us commenting that it was "nice to see a theatre company without a welfare agenda"
o Never focus on the negative
o Never say anything until you have a website to back it up
o Be creative - for a modernized version of Julius Caesar, I sent out a press release with the dateline 44BC, written by Decius Brutus from the "Caesar Corporation" and the headline "CEO Killed in Corporate Mutiny"
o Always have someone else edit your press releases
- Press Kits
o Integral to publicity plan
o Allows the journalist to find all the necessary research in one place, while imbedding your own message within the text
o Must be cleverly or elegantly designed
o For this show, the press kits and the paper inside were cut square to reflect the company's square logo
o CBC reporter remarked that the well put together press kit was the reason that we were covered when many small theatre companies are not.
o Must be sent out with about 2 weeks lead time
- Following up
o Always follow up a press release with a telephone call just to see if they got it, or had any other questions.
o Be very brief on the phone - the media is busy
o Know what Journalists want - clear, concise and well written
- Media Appearances
o Set up a scene to do on television at Rogers Cable, the New RO, CBC News and CJOH.
o Adapted part of the script to a radio play for CBC Radio
- PSAs
o These are essentially free classified ads and are available in most media
o PSAs announced on all major radio, television and news
o Always include website
- Advertising
o Exchanged advertising with a number of other theatre companies
o Wrote a flyer to piggyback on other organizations' mailings
o Get your message in everything you can, regardless of how small]
o Unified campaign for all visual media "Muffins"

- Other guerilla marketing
o Posters (professional looking - full colour) - It makes a difference
o Handbills (small enough to fit in pocket) handed out to every cast member
o Word of mouth - the cast felt as though they were a part of something bigger than themselves, and they promoted it heavily.

- Website
o Of those who responded, most of the patrons saw the website (High ROI)
o Included flash "movie trailer" for The Importance of Being Earnest (http://www.thirdwall.com/earnest/Earnest%20Trailer.html )
o Designed a specific website for Earnest with info about the author, the cast and photos (http://www.thirdwall.com/earnest/)
o We still keep all this promotional information online as a repository of corporate history, and as a guiding hand to our future endeavors
o Maintained a list server with 130 names (still growing quite fast)
o Submitted website to every possible website that lists theatre companies (Spent about 3 straight days at that)
o Listed in the Professional Association of Canadian Theatre guide in our first year
o Became the editor of the Ottawa Theatre group in the Netscape Open Directory to get indexed on Google faster. Current Google Pagerank - 5/10 (NAC - 6/10)

- At the show
o Revenue generating bar
o Free muffins at intermission
o Opening night reception
o Placed full page ad for our next show in the program (free)
o Collected demographic information and emails with a draw for free tickets

- Financing
o Government funding - $0
o Friends and family - raised over $8000 with a targeted membership campaign
o Got some corporate sponsorship, but still weak
o Sold some advertising space in programs
o Cash bar

- Total Publicity Budget - $750 ($300 of which went to posters)
- Results - turned away over 100 people on closing night in a 126-seat theatre
- Remounted the show a month later

- Future Plans
o Third Wall Mural downtown
o Set up partnerships to offer "Dinner and a Show" at one ticket Price
o Employee nights for local business
o Workshops for artists
o Become the source for audition information in Ottawa

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