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1.11.2005
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Volume Three
Issue One
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Welcome
to the Arts Marketer of the Month. Our first issue of 2005
features Jeremy Allen Thompson, the Director of Marketing and Public
Relations for Stoneham Theatre. Read on to find out how Jeremy is
marketing this young theatre company just north of Boston...
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Featured Arts Marketer: Jeremy Allen Thompson
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Jeremy Allen Thompson
Director of Marketing &
Public Relations
Stoneham Theatre
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With a BA in Arts Management and an M.F.A. in Arts Administration, Jeremy Allen Thompson has worked as an arts administrator around the country. He spent two years as the Director of Marketing & Development for the University of Vermont's Theatre program and was a Management Associate at Alabama Shakespeare Festival where he managed special projects in each of the administrative departments. Jeremy also worked with the Gilmore Theatre Complex at Western Michigan University, the City of Portage (Michigan) Office of Cultural Affairs, and as a consultant for East Coast Artists and the Tuscaloosa (Alabama) Parks & Recreation Authority.
In January 2003, Jeremy became Stoneham Theatre's Director of Marketing & Public Relations. In this role he is responsible for managing the organization's public image, increasing its visibility throughout Greater Boston, and generating approximately $1M in earned revenue each year. The marketing team, which includes a full-time Assistant Director and Audience Services Manager, is also responsible for ticket sales, customer service, and volunteer coordination.
In the Q & A that follows, Jeremy discusses some of the innovative initiatives he (and his team) are doing to market the Theatre.
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Q & A with Jeremy Allen Thompson
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Tell us about Stoneham Theatre.
Stoneham Theatre is an Equity company located eight miles north of downtown Boston. Having just celebrated its fourth anniversary, it has quickly grown to become the fourth-largest professional theatre company in Greater Boston and has already presented over 800 performances and welcomed more than 125,000 people through its doors. Stoneham Theatre creates an artistic home that nurtures emerging artists, engages new audiences, and explores the human experience through the production of vital, affecting, and beautiful theatre.
Stoneham Theatre was originally built in 1917 as a venue for silent movies and vaudeville acts and became a popular entertainment spot for over 50 years. In the early 1970s, as movie theater chains began to flood the market, Stoneham's beloved independent moviehouse was closed. The Theatre remained vacant for nearly three decades until an ambitious two-year restoration transformed it into a 350-seat, state-of-the-art performance venue nestled in the heart of Stoneham Square.
With a commitment to "New Theatre for New Audiences," Stoneham Theatre strives to produce new and unfamiliar works that resonate in its community and appeal to a broad range of audiences. This March, it will present a World Premiere adaptation by Artistic Director Weylin Symes of Ernest Hemingway's Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Old Man and the Sea.
As a regional theatre, what kind of marketing budget are you working with? How do you allocate this budget between print, media, and the internet?
Stoneham Theatre's annual operating budget is approximately $1.4M, $150K of which is allocated to marketing. Like all not-for-profit companies, we work to stretch our dollars to have the greatest impact possible and generate the earned revenue required for our financial health.
Over the past two years, we have seen a significant reduction in the impact from print advertising and have reallocated our spending accordingly. Direct marketing, radio advertising, and e-marketing are becoming increasingly more important to our marketing mix. We continue to find that opt-in e-marketing and internet advertising are flexible, affordable options that are effective in large part due to the ease of targeting to specific demographics.
You have recently launched an interesting new program (QuickTicket) at the Theatre. Can you tell us about it? What was the motivation for the program and how does it work?
When we began the planning process for our 2004-2005 Season, we identified two primary goals for audience development: 1) to foster a stronger, ongoing connection with our most loyal patrons, with the long-term goal of increasing their support, and 2) to encourage people who enjoy performances in the Mainstage series to experience other works, specifically productions offered through Emerging Stages, the Theatre's effort to work with emerging playwrights and new works, and performances presented through its education program.
The QuickTicket program developed out of these conversations and is modeled after corporate frequency programs intended to build brand loyalty. For a premium price of 40% above the cost of a Classic Subscription, QuickTicket members receive a membership card valid for one full year that provides them with unlimited access to Stoneham Theatre. Members may attend an unlimited number of performances, including multiple dates of the same show at no additional cost, including the Mainstage series, Emerging Stages productions, occasional concerts, shows with the young company, rentals, and community events. Other membership rewards include:
- Discounts at participating restaurants and retail outlets;
- Special members-only events, and;
- Reduced waiting in line at the box office and over the phone
What kinds of results have you seen so far?
Our membership campaign for the 2004-2005 Season began last April and ended officially in October 2004. QuickTicket members comprise over 20% of our current total subscribers. The response from participating members has been overwhelmingly positive, and we expect the program will grow over the coming years.
What role did e-marketing play in the development (and success?!) of the QuickTicket program?
We chose to use our monthly E-Club newsletter, "CenterStage," to announce the QuickTicket program to our most loyal customers, which helped to generate early awareness of and interest in membership. In conjunction with our standard membership marketing mix, primarily utilizing direct mail, e-marketing was integral to this season's campaign.
In addition to driving QuickTicket sales, e-marketing plays a key role in efforts to keep in touch with our members. With "CenterStage," we keep them up-to-date about additional performances that arise for which they may use their QuickTicket, and we let them know about new restaurant and retail outlets who have partnered with us to provide added value to our members.
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Visit Stoneham Theatre's Web Site
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How Does Your E-Mail Look?
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Are you doing your e-marketing in-house? If you're using Outlook, your mail probably looks like the first image - not exactly the kind of professional image you'd like to project.
In addition, you're probably having to handle opt-out requests and bounced e-mail in your inbox.
If you're feeling that you'd like to move up from your "in-house" method, we'd welcome the opportunity to demonstrate PatronMail to you.
With PatronMail you can:
* Create and Send professional looking e-mails without knowing HTML
* Track & Compare your results with other arts organizations
* Build your list automatically on your web site
* Ensure your mail is not mistakenly blocked by ISPs as Spam.
* Manage undeliverables and "remove" requests automatically
We invite you to schedule a free 15-minute phone demonstration to see how easy and cost-effective PatronMail is.
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Click here to request a 15-minute PatronMail demonstration
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If
you have interesting and creative initiatives that you would like to
have featured or know of an arts marketer that you would like to
recommend for one of our upcoming editions, please contact
info@patrontechnology.com.
Please watch for the next edition of our Arts Marketer of the Month, coming Febraury 8, 2005.
Note:
The CAN-SPAM act mandates that all commercial e-mail contains a
physical mailing address, and ours is: 850 Seventh Avenue, Suite 704,
New York, NY 10019
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