Arts Marketing - Dan Ramsden on arts marketing

After a 2-year closure for renovations Sheffield Theatres wanted a trailer that would introduce the themes and tone of the new production and act as the first asset on the organisations YouTube channel. The trailer would also be the only asset added to a pre-launch version of the Rehearsal Room website.

ConceptThe trailer focused on the central character of the play, describing the journey the character goes on through the narrative. The final moments of this teaser trailer also revealed the Theatres new logo.

Target audienceAs the first asset that was added to the Rehearsal Room the trailer acted as an introduction to the theatre to an audience familiar with consuming content online. In addition to promoting the trailer to the subscribers of their email list the trailer was also promoted via the Theatres new presence elsewhere on the web including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

View the trailer at YouTube now.

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Designed to drive traffic to an online interaction in the Rehearsal Room, the ‘Have your say’ postcards were also used to introduce the themes of An Enemy of the People and encourage engagement with a younger audience who may not consider theatre attendance, but would be engaged with some of the themes of the play.

Concept

Using questions posed in the play, and often the exact phrasing used in the translation selected for the production, these postcards were designed to engage a non-theatreliterate audience in the themes of the play. The postcards invited the recipient to take part in online voting, and then to explore the other interactions in the Rehearsal Room.

Target audience

The postcards were distributed to Students’ Union bars and student campuses. With no Sheffield Theatres’ branding on them, they were designed to intrigue and engage an audience that might have ignored or dismissed communication from a theatre, and encourage them to engage with the message, before considering the medium.

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The fly posters were designed to appeal to an audience that might otherwise dismiss the theatre as ‘not for them.’ Using text and themes from the play, we wanted to engage a younger audience, drive traffic to the Rehearsal Room online and in so doing encourage them see the relevance of the play and the relationship to their own interests and concerns.

Concept

The strong copy lines, some of which were taken directly from the text of the play, and the visual design echoed a widely recognised style of authoritative government communication about policing. These posters subverted the style while complementing the themes of the play and appealing to the anti-hero sympathies of the target audience.

Target audience

The posters were designed to appeal to an under-26 audience, and complement a pre-existing audience development strategy which offered free tickets to this age group. The posters were designed for a segment that consumes both ‘live performance’ and content online, but who might dismiss attendance at the theatre.

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The Forgiftede Lodge site is part of the Rehearsal Room for Sheffield Theatres’ production of An Enemy of the People. The copy on the site is playful and subtly introduces the themes and elements of the narrative so that the audience can enjoy the content before they see the production and bring that knowledge to the performance, but also revisit the site after their trip to the theatre and see more humour and relevance in the copy and content on the site.

Concept

The site promotes a fictional lodge located in the town in which the play is set. The site is littered with hidden meaning. The central ‘problem’ in the play is a hidden

poison in the water supply. This is mirrored in the copy on the site. Written in broken English, as if it has been translated from Norwegian, the home-made-looking site is full of clues to a hidden danger. For example, all of the names of authors of content and comments are ‘poison’ in various languages – in fact even the lodge name, Forgiftede, means poison in Norwegian.

Target audience

This element of the Rehearsal Room was designed to appeal to new audiences who are used to consuming content online but may not otherwise consider visiting the theatre. It will also entertain and engage traditional theatre audiences and encourage them to communicate with the theatre and consume more content online.

Visit the tourism micro-site now.

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The Rehearsal Room was part of Sheffield Theatres’ launch after a two-year closure and major renovations. The organisation wanted to reintroduce the Theatres to the city and demonstrate a new approach to the work they produced, and the way they engaged with the community. We wanted to demonstrate that Sheffield Theatres weren’t limited to the newly refurbished building, and that they would be actively engaging the community in new, exciting and imaginative ways.

Concept

We used a low cost advertising option – customer advertisements in local post offices – to drive traffic to a website for a lodge located in the fictional setting of the play. The location, content and purpose of these ‘spoof’ adverts was then publicised on social

networks including Twitter and Facebook. The Theatres were therefore able to use this innovative, playful idea to demonstrate to a digitally literate audience their new approach to marketing and audience development, and in so doing demonstrate the value of consuming content from the Theatres both online and offline.

Target audience

We located the advertisements in areas where students, recent graduates and younger professionals tended to shop. Though this was a very traditional, low-tech medium, we used the concept and the accompanying Tourism site in the Rehearsal Room to act as an exemplar of this new approach to audience development, and to appeal to a sophisticated audience – comfortable with consuming particular types of content offline, and others online – but who might otherwise dismiss attendance at the theatre.

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Before every production, actors and directors spend time in a real-life rehearsal room. They focus on the story they’re going to tell and understand the characters and places that will be brought to life. Now, in the digital Rehearsal Room, you can do the same.

The Rehearsal Room isn't just online - its a website full of items that launch interactions, and also collateral across the city. Here is a description of some of the elements.

The Rehearsal Room is a virtual space where Sheffield Theatres’ audience can explore the meaning and relevance of productions, and through which the Theatres can reach out and attract new audiences. Through a series of interactions and digital assets, and by combining online and offline activity, the Theatres can attract new audiences and enrich the appreciation and understanding of current audiences.

The room evolves over the weeks that a production is performed and allows the audience multiple routes to engage with the play and the organisation before, during and after their attendance at the performance.

The Rehearsal Room is a space where the audience can extend their experience of the theatre, outside both the physical constraints of the building and the temporal constraints of the performance. Before a performance, the Rehearsal Room provides the perfect virtual space to explore the setting and themes of a play, after a performance an audience can visit the room and see even greater significance in the items we’ve selected and interactions we’ve designed. The current room is the first of four planned for this year – each will have different content and interaction. This room, designed to support Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People includes:

• a newspaper board which contains hyperlinks to aggregated news content which contemporise the themes of the play
• a trailer for the production
• a slideshow of photographs taken during rehearsal

Each of the items in the room is designed for a different segment, ensuring a growing and diverse audience. Specific elements appeal directly to a target demographic of under-26s. The site also offers value and deepens the relationship with the current audience, while a ‘community cast’ biography section is designed to drive awareness of the production and the site among friends and family of the 50-strong community ensemble. With new content released throughout the six-weeklong run of the play, the design of the site encourages repeat visits and builds relationships with users, encouraging them to become loyal audience members and brand advocates.

Visit the Rehearsal Room now.

Details on each of the microsites and offline elements will be added soon.

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