As part of the Shoes to Fill paper marketing I created a marketing pack that can be sent to venues, newspapers, radio stations and anyone wishing to know the in depth details about our show and the company. The pack was inspired by work produced by the theatre company Sleepdogs for their show ‘The Bullet and the Bass Trombone’ as they would be aiming at the same type of target audience as we are:
“The Bullet and the Bass Trombone will appeal to:
-Audiences for contemporary theatre and performance, who like companies and artists such as Chris Thorpe, Forced Entertainment, Goat Island, Chris Goode, Melanie Wilson, Samuel Beckett, Pina Bausch, Elevator Repair Service
-Audiences for storytelling and comedy who like performers such as Stewart Lee and Daniel Kitson
-Audiences for contemporary music who like artists such as Aphex Twin, Gavin Bryers, Michael Nyman, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Bjork, The Books, Nick Cave, Velvet Underground, Tom Waits
-Literature audiences who like Angela Carter, The Master and Margarita,
-Film audiences who like the Cohen Brothers, Jim Jarmusch, Andrei Tarkovsky
-Audiences interested in fantasy and science fiction
-Audiences with a knowledge of classical music
-Music students
-Theatre Studies students” (Sleepdogs, 2014)
Sleepdogs provide a detailed description who would enjoy their work, including companies and shows they are similar to, this makes a venues job very easy as can use their database, built up of information about previous audience members, showing what they have been to see before and they can then target this show at them. The audience members are getting concise information about shows that are aimed at their interests, instead of a big email or newsletter that has information that isn’t relevant to them. We tried our best to create a similar version for our show that can be sent to the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre marketing manager Julie Ellerby. “segmentation, which involves aiming at particular sections of the market rather than taking a scattergun approach”. (Hill and O’sullivan, 2003, p.5)
“-Theatre student audiences
-Music students
-Students in general
-Audiences that enjoy verbatim and documentary theatre, performances life vagina monologues and Sleepdog’s The Bullet and The bass Trombone
–Audiences that enjoy kitchen sink drama and naturalistic performance
-Audiences that enjoy music in theatre.
-Ideally for ages 15 and above, anyone that has had to face the ideas of their future (or their past) and what they are going to do with their lives.” (Forefront Theatre, 2015)
Along with target audiences the marketing pack also includes selling point that can be matched with previous shows that were similar and again find audiences through their database. Another important aspect of this pack was to provide a show copy that can be used by the venue in their programme for that season, especially important for our show as it was part of a special final degree show festival.
“Have you ever been daunted by the thought of filling someone’s shoes? To follow in the footsteps of your parents, your sibling or your role-model. To make them proud. You could be like them. Grow up, become an adult, get a job, have a family, get a dog and have a baby…or not. Using original songs, verbatim and our superficial ideas of aspiring to be like our role models; we will explore the shoes some people want to fill.” (Forefront Theatre, 2015)
Hill, Liz. O’Sullivan, Catherine. O’Sullivan, Terry. Creative Arts Marketing. Oxford: Butterworth
Sleepdogs. 2014. The Bullet and the Bass Trombone, Sleepdogs, Marketing Pack. Bristol.
Forefront. 2015. Shoes to Fill, Forefront, Marketing Pack. Lincoln.
-Hope