Social Networking

Reflection on Marketing

May 23, 2013May 24, 2013 Leanne McKettrick

Reflecting upon the marketing we implemented during this process we also thought about what else we could have done to effectively market 130,000.

Social Media Profiles for the characters
We could have possibly made more use of the social media available to us, and made profiles for the characters involved in the play, particularly the teenagers. Social media is a big part of life of teenagers today and we could have used this to our advantage. This would not just create an awareness of our show but it would give the audience an idea of what to expect from our performance and help them to possibly create emotional connections with the character prior to the performance.
By having the actors post in character it would also play them create a sense of who their character is and play them develop their character for the performance.

Like and Share
Again making more use of our Facebook page we could have ran a ‘Like and share’ event. A photo, possibly one of our promotional photos which if people like and share one person will be picked at random to win 2 free tickets to our performance. By doing this my photo is being shared to people who we may have not reached and therefore creates more of an awareness of our theatre company and of 130,000.

Tagging
In the months prior to the performance, we could have created stickers or small posters of the show’s title ‘130,000’ with maybe the tagline of the Facebook or twitter page. We believe that doing this could help to create an interest and a buzz about our performance with potential audiences and could possibly be an effective way to increase the number of people viewing our social media pages and thus becoming aware of our theatre company and our current production.

Fundraising
At the end of our performance where was a collection for the Stephen Lawrence Trust and Damilola Taylor Trust. We could have possibly done fundraisers for these charities prior to the performance, for example a quiz night or cake sale, etc. This would not only help us to raise money for causes which are very true to our piece but would also help to promote us as a theatre company and give the public an idea of what kind of work we aim to create and also give us a chance to promote our current show to people who show an interest at the fundraisers.

Education Outreach
Our production centres of 130,000 centres around teenagers and the issues young people currently face. In the months prior to our performance, we could have possibly set up a workshop to get into schools to children aged 16+ due to the strong themes of the play and worked with the children on the issues surrounding the play, helping them become aware of the dangers and the issue that surround a young person in the U.K today.

Flyers

The flyers used were simplistic but affective and did represent what we wanted, however on reflection I think printing them on card would have potentially made them look more professional whilst at the same time maintain the simplicity of our company. The flyers would have been the first element seen by potential audience members and would give them a prejudgement of what to expect from our theatre company, therefore, ideally we would have printed them professionally to give a better impression, however, as mention in a previous post it was due to economical reasons and time restraints. Nevertheless we did not give false impressions through promoting our performance with the misuse of marketing materials or advertising linguistic. The flyers were sufficient in that they supplied the information needed to potential audiences and gave a true representation to our performance and to our theatre company as a whole.

Posters

Again the posters provided an insight to our performance without giving too much away. On reflection I think the picture on the programme looked more effective, therefore it should have been on the poster as well. The attitude which conveyed off the programme picture encapsulated the whole feel of the play. The feedback received from people was that they had not heard much about what we were doing, they knew the information we had provided through advertisement but apart from that we seemed to gain a reputation of being the ‘secret group’. I think this assisted the interest surrounding our play and the excitement people had to come and watch.

@WAKEUPtheatre

May 22, 2013May 24, 2013 Jessica Clubbe

Online marketing is a current and instant way to help build a business. ‘Technologies such as Twitter have the potential to give us more than just an opportunity to tell others what happened in our day. If we understand and appreciate what Twitter is capable of, we can use it to instantly share our lives with others, and we can use it to reach more people in a meaningful way’(Comm, 2012, p. x). You can share news within the comfort of your own home or wherever you are via a mobile phone. Having only 140 characters to write a message a person only gets a snip-it of what you want to say.

Twitter is a mobile social network which allows you to keep in touch with friends, family, businesses and companies that you may want to keep in touch with or are interested in. Twitter enables you to share what you are doing with the world, it gives small businesses and entrepreneurs the edge that they can’t necessarily get. ‘Every day, we see dozens of new ideas and ways to use twitter’ (Fitton, 2012, p. 6) as a brand new theatre company we had to incorporate these new ideas and use Twitter to its full capability to ensure that as a company we are creating a broad database of potential audience members. Through Twitter as a company we are able to promote 130,000 for free, without spending hundreds of pounds on promotional material.

When first creating the Twitter the design was a pivotal part.

When a potential follower first accesses our sight we want them to get a good first impression. The design is essential as that first impression could decide weather they follow the company or judge them and move on. With a little touch of creativity and a clever design, by Tweeting the right thing a company may catch the eye of a potential follower. A potential follower leads to word of mouth witch could then possibly increase ticket sales. Having a professional logo as our profile picture and a professional promotional picture as our header instantly we create a professional first impression. Potential customers and followers get to know the face behind the company, which can help building Wakeup Theatre.

When writing tweets the art was keeping it simple, ‘Twitter geniuses sprung form the idea of serving as a status update tool, and at its most basic level, that’s what it is’ ( Thomases, 2012, p. 20). Having only 140 characters, tweets are meant to be kept at a basic level. Twitters ‘clean interface and easy to understand’ (Thomases, 2010, p. 25) layout makes is accessible to anyone. The biggest mistake criticues see companies do on Twitter is when they first hit Twitter they think of it as a ‘channel to push out information’ (O’Reilly and Milstein, 2012, p. 201) , by adding complicated Tweets with hyperlinks to other more complicated means of advertisement there is a potential fear that we may be turning away audience members. In The Twitter Book, Tom O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein say that ‘the average number of tweets per day amongst all users [is] ‘4.22’ (O’Reilly and Milston, 2012, p. 129).Tweeting on average 3 to 4 times a day it appeared that @WAKEUPtheatre kept our followers engaged. We were lucky enough to have several Reweets and Tweets’by companies such as @WhatsOnLincol, @unilincol, @MyUniLincoln, @UBTLincoln and @LPAC_Lincoln witch lead to a dramatic increase in our followers.

After every post we would always try and hashtag. Hashtagging by adding a the simple # symbol before writing a word or phrase enables another person who is specifically researching something to type in said word or phrase and the message will appear. For example on the 28^th February we wrote this Tweet:

Here we hashtagged ‘#realwords’ ‘#realworlds’ and ‘#realpeople’ (WAKEUP Theatre, 2013, Online). If a person was researching something about real words then our tweet would come up, hopefully once they take a look round our page they will follow the company and take an interest in what we do.

On the 9th May we uploaded our first promotional shot, shown here:

This was the first time that our followers had seen us as a cast and were able to get a slight insight into what 130.00 may be. When tweeting the picture we asked the question ‘what do you think?'(WAKEUP Theatre, 2013, Online) by addressing our followers directing it enabled them to feel personally engaged.

Occasionally we would upload pictures from our rehearsals, shown here:

This was to ensure our followers that the work we were creating was developing ready for the performance. People generally enjoy pictures so by posting a tweet that is a picture followers are more likely to have a look, by incorporating ticket information underneath the picture we are constantly reminding followers the information they need to know.

On the 13th May we uploaded a ‘sneak preview of part of our set’ (WAKEUP Theatre, 2013, Online).

This picture gathered a lot of interest. Potential audience members asked questions and people were intrigued to as what the box was, this picture was a effective marketing tool.

Works Cited

Comm, Joel (2010) Twitter Power 2.0: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time, New Jersey: John Wiley & Son

Fitton, Laura (2012) Twitter For Dummies, New Jersey: John Wiley & Son

O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein (2012) The Twitter Book, Sebastopol: O’Reilly Media

Thomases, Hollis (2010) Twitter Marketing: An Hour a Day, Indiana: Wiley Publishing

WAKEUP Theatre (2013) 130,000 an adaptation of Fallout by Roy Williams, Lincoln: Lincoln School of Performing Arts.

WAKEUPtheatre (2013) Twitter, 23 May. Available at: https://twitter.com/WAKEUPtheatre (accessed: 24th May 2013)

The use of social networking

April 11, 2013May 24, 2013 Rebecca Gibney

With over one billion users on Facebook and one hundred and fifty million users on Twitter, social networking is the ideal way to advertise a company of any kind. “With 98% indicating they had a page on the social networking site. Respondents noted that Facebook provides a variety of flexible ways to reach communities” (Peter, p.8, 2010) Social networking spreads news of performances and theatre companies viral. With 98% of people indicating they had a page on social networking sites it is a clear indication that theatre companies strive from posting virally to different members of Facebook and other sites. With the use of media such as photos, videos, sound recordings and links, social networking sites allow companies to advertise themselves and their upcoming performances. Almost every household in the country has access to the internet and this is making it an exciting and useful way to communicate with the public.
Advertising on Facebook, Twitter and online blogs allows theatre companies to advertise without charge to a wide section of the public. Members of the social network are then able to share, like and comment on the various posts the company make. This then makes the company information available to an even wider audience.
Social networking also enables theatre companies to document the progress made, and the development of their work. Small private groups can be formed for the members of the theatre company to communicate with other members.
Similarly to Facebook, online blogging allows for posting documentation and shows the development of progress. More information can be displayed on a website and blog, allowing the public to find out more details about the company and performance.
‘Tweeting’ is a quick and simple way to advertise with the use of ‘hash tagging’, enabling members of the theatre company to hash tag a word or phrase; for instance ‘#WAKEUP’. In doing this the public would be able to click on the hash tag to see what other tweets have been formed in relation to the tag. This is a relevant way of communication as the public can hash tag and leave comments as to what they would like to see from the theatre company or what they have seen.
WAKEUP Theatre Company use Facebook, Twitter and blogging to advertise and communicate with the public. Facts are posted and tweeted weekly based on the current progress of the company. The manifesto and mission statement are available on all social networks allowing the public to read these at any time to understand the ambitions and current focus of the company. The blog also enables people to view who the company are individually and what projects are being devised.

Social networking is such a popular way of communicating with society that it seems appropriate for WAKEUP to do this through using Facebook, Twitter and blogs. This way the performers in the group can share and ‘retweet’ what the company puts on the website allowing them to deliver information virally. The twitter feed is also available on the blog, this allowing people who see the blog the chance to see more posts by WAKEUP.

Peter, Richard (2010) Social Media Marketing takes Center Stage.

The Marketing Mix

April 9, 2013May 24, 2013 Leanne McKettrick

“The marketing mix is a blend of variables” (Rentschler, 1999, p.8), which consists of the 4 p’s; Product, Place, Price and Promotion. These summarize the marketing activities for a company and “these marketing activities support the marketing goals of the organization” (Mokwa, 1980, p.114).

Product

When concerned with the arts, the product can be categorized in a number of ways; “one is the year-after-year product that the organization is providing to its community. A second is a particular year or season; the set of performances being offered […] [Another] level of product classification is the individual performance itself” (Mokwa, 1980, p.114).

For our theatre company theatre our ‘product’ can be categorized in the following ways;

Wake Up Theatre:
Our company, itself. We want to be known as a reliable theatre company, who offer a great standard of performances year after year. We want our audience to be loyal to our company and believe it what our work expresses. Therefore it is important that as a product we remain consistent in what we produce, by creating “thought provoking theatre by experimenting with the collaboration between fact and fiction.” (Wake Up Theatre Company, 2013, online). 130,000 will be the start of establishing Wake Up Theatre as a product which offers all this.

Final Degree Shows:
Our current show 130,000 is part of a season of shows taking place at the LPAC in May 2013. These shows are the final degree shows for graduating drama students at the University of Lincoln. 130,000 is part of the theatre company strand of these final degree shows and will be marketed against 3 other shows, The Trial by Stamp Theatre, A Gothic Tale by Progeny Theatre Company and Cagebirds by Retold Theatre.

130,000:
Our current show, arguably our most important product. “130,000 explores the hidden complexities surrounding knife crime in Britain. Merging Roy Williams fictional play Fallout, inspired by the murders of Stephen Lawrence and Damilola Taylor, with verbatim testimony taken from the Stephen Lawrence inquiry; we will experiment with the collaboration of fact and fiction, to create a compelling and contemporary response to gang related culture.” (Wake Up Theatre, 2013, online). As 130,000 is our current and debut show the rest of the marketing mix will be concerned with this product.

Place

“Place is the composite of factors affecting where and how the product is offered, including the kind of facility, its location, accessibility by transport and time of event” (Rentschler, 1999, p.8).

At the moment, 130,000 is a one of performance as part of our theatre company module and therefore is only being performed in one venue, The Lpac in Lincoln.

The venue:
“Lincoln Performing Arts Centre is a modern theatre in the city centre, with a great range of shows and a friendly café bar. We are walking distance from High Street shopping and the restaurants on the Brayford Pool waterfront, you will also find plenty of parking nearby. We are home to the Lincoln School of Performing Arts. Around 400 students study Dance and Drama here at undergraduate and postgraduate level” (Lpac, 2013, online)

Accessibility:

The Lpac located in Lincoln City centre in walking distance from both the train and bus station and with parking available close by.

130,000:
Our production will be performing at the Lpac Monday 20^th May at 7.30 pm.

Price

Tickets for 130,000 are £5 each or £15 as part of a pass to see all four final degree theatre company shows.

Promotion

“Promotion is the element of the marketing mix that communicates […] what is on offer to the target audience. By its very nature it is the most visible aspect of marketing activity. It plays an extremely important part in arts marketing strategy, especially where the aim to reach not only existing arts customers, but also to arouse interest of new audiences” (Hill, 2003, p.120).

130,00 will be promoted in the following way:

Posters:

Flyers:
Front:

Back:

Trailer:

Social Media

Facebook:

Twitter:

(More information on promotion for 130,000 can be found in 130,000 Marketing Presentation).

Works Cited

Hill, Liz, O’Sullivan, Catherine, O’Sullivan, Terry (2003) Creative Arts Marketing, Oxford: Butterworth.

Lpac (2013) About Us, Online: http://www.lpac.co.uk/about-us (accessed: 19^th May 2013).

Mokwa, Michael P., Dawson, William M., and Prieve, E. Arthur (ed.) (1980) Marketing the Arts, London: Praeger.

Rentschler, Ruth (ed.) (1999) Innovative Arts Marketing, St Leonards: Allen & Unwin.

WAKEUP Theatre (2013) Home Page, Online: https://wakeuptheatre.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/ (accessed: 19^th May 2013).