I'd like to help theatre makers

In a week’s time (at time of writing on Facebook) the Dublin Fringe Festival starts. The Dublin Theatre Festival starts 24 September. Right around the country there are people rehearsing, making, rewriting, sewing, painting, planning, plotting and hoping that people will come to their shows, will enjoy them and will tell other people about them.

I've been thinking about this for a while and following a discussion with Niamh , we wrote down a couple of thoughts about how shows could get our attention at this stage. It doesn't just apply to people in these Festivals, but it's probably most relevant to them.

Here’s what I think you, as a producer, show maker, participant or venue person can do, right now, with a week to go, to get people online interested in your show and to sell tickets.

I’m going to assume you have little budget and even less time, so this isn’t as much a strategy document as it is a “have a read until the end and I hope it helps” piece. I’d also really appreciate feedback and collaboration on it, so if anyone out there has suggestions, corrections or additions, please do add them!

Grab a cuppa - you might even need too - and a pen to scribble notes with and we'll begin.

So, here goes - how I’d get people to buy tickets to a theatre show right now:

TELL PEOPLE ABOUT IT.

Sounds obvious, eh? A little too obvious? However, like a good Frank Carson joke (google him, young’uns) it’s the way you tell 'em.

There are certain things people want to know about a show, an experience or an event before they go. Sometimes this information is available - mostly, unfortunately, it’s not. While I know your show is great and I know everyone involved is great and I know the whole thing is great, the major main things I need to know are:

• The show name
• The venue
• The time
• The running time (seriously, this is really important)
• The price

and a lot of times, these vital bits of information get lost, especially in online communication.

Cast, crew, past productions - yes, all important, but I'd prefer to know the running time to the lighting designer (sorry!) and the price to the writer (sorry sorry, but it's true!)

I’ve seen many tweets, many photos and many posters out there for this year’s festival, and in many I couldn’t tell you what they’re for or where the show is. Why? Because they’re missing some part of information that makes me go “Ooh, I need to see that show”.

When I’m creating an actual strategy for a show - be that on stage or screen, here’s what I focus on. Maybe you could too:

• Tell the right people about it
• Get people interested in it
• Get people talking about it
• Get people to buy tickets
• Get people to see the show
• Get people to tell others about it
• Thank and reward those who do

Another important part to focus on, as a slight aside, is why you’re making it. I know right now you’re awash in production stress, in rewrites, in hoping cast and crew won’t be sick and in ticket sales, but I’d like you to talk to me online pretty much as you would in person. Don’t just quote the programme or website at me. I can look at those myself. Tell me why you’re involved, why you’re making this piece. Tell me about the story you’re making. What attracted you to it? If you weren’t involved, would you go see this piece?

Tell people about it.

 

Online, realistically in Ireland, with limited time and budget, there are only a few things you can do to get the word-of-mouse or word-of-mouth out there. Here’s where I think you should / could focus your attention, in no particular order.

 

• Twitter
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Boards.ie - https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=232
• Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/dublin
• MeetUp.com
• www.Yelp.ie
• Instagram
• Tumblr

and, yes, really

• Email

and yes, really, really

• Whatsapp

and you should do this using

• Images
• Video
• Text

and, yes, really, really, really

• Emotion

to do this.

 

Let me elaborate.

When I go to see a show, I want to be entertained. Or educated. Or challenged. Or Enlightened. Or anything but bored, ambivalent or numb. I’ll even take uncomfortable over bored any day. When you tell me about your show, you should be able to tell me something about how it will make me feel. How it will affect me emotionally. It should evoke something. Especially if I’m not familiar with it.

Take this poster for Macbeth. It’s powerful because we know who Macbeth is - at least we know it’s about power and there’s fighting isn’t there? Isn’t he a king or something? I know the name anyways. Anyways, he looks interesting. That looks interesting. Oh, and it’s got Fassbender in it. And Cotillard. And it’s out in 2015. Okay, I’ll keep an eye out for that.

and it works something like that.

Or take this poster for Ben Murphy, performing in Torremolinos last week. Not going to win any awards for design, is it? Yet, I can look at it and go “Okay, I know what this is about. He’s a great all round entertainer - sure it says it on the poster. I like a bit of music. I’ll go to that.”

If the images you’re putting online are not telling me anything about the show or evoking emotion or interest in people, then I’d really consider looking at them again. One of the better show posters in the last year I saw was for The Good Father in Axis, simply because it told me everything I pretty much needed to know. I’m sure you could give great examples yourself and please do in the comments.

So, with a week to go, look again at your posters and your photos. You could use a website like https://www.postermywall.com or https://www.canva.com to make a simple online template that could be used to grab people’s attention. You could take that gorgeous photo you got done for the Fringe Brochure and go to a website like https://pixlr.com/editor  and make a new image from it with details like:

• The show name
• The venue
• The time
• The running time (seriously, this is really important)
• The price

and just remind people that it’s on. Use this website - https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-image-sizes-guide/ - to find out what size each image for each channel should be - no, one size won’t do - and use this site to resize them easily https://www.autreplanete.com/ap-social-media-image-maker/.

 

Which brings me to my second point.

Make it easy for other people to tell people about it.

Do you have a Dropbox or Google Drive folder full of images that can be used to tell people about your show? Is it on your Facebook page? Is there a map to the venue? Is it included in your emails to people? Do people know it’s there? If not, please create one and share the link.

Having a load of images to share makes it more likely for people to use them when they’re telling people about the show.

Video works really well too - especially if it’s a good video. I’m currently putting short, 20 second max clips up on https://www.facebook.com/olderthanireland and they’re getting great feedback. Facebook video is getting MANY more views than YouTube is. MANY. So put them up on both.

Also, this mightn’t be “expert” advice, but help Google find you by putting it on the internet.

WAIT WHAT?

Well, the more Google can find out about your show, the more likely it is to be found on Google. So help Google.

Get a blog on www.blogspot.com or www.wordpress.com or medium.com. Add the poster. Add the blurb. Add the details. Add the link to buy tickets. Add a couple of images, but make sure they’re named “MY AWESOME SHOW AT DUBLIN FRINGE 2015 AT PROJECT ARTS CENTRE.jpg” or similar, and not “Image0002.jpg”. Name your images properly and help Google find them. Google can only find the files and the names of your show if you've named them properly. Help Google.

Share that link with your friends, family, contacts and the venue, to help them tell others about your show.

Let’s talk about email.

Actually, now is a good time to talk about social messaging as a whole. The latest stats from the people who know these things shows that the four biggest ways of communicating online in this country, other than email, are Skype, Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp and Viber. So could we do something with that?

Could we create a simple email for your show - or a simple message that could be shared by email or Facebook or Whatsapp or Viber?

With full consideration for Data Protection and not spamming anyone and NOT SPAMMING ANYONE, have you reached out to people via email, via Facebook Messenger and via Whatsapp or Viber and said

“Hello

I have a show on in the Dublin Fringe Festival. It’s called “MYSWESOMESHOW”, it’s on in “ANAWESOMEVENUE” at 6pm for 4 days from September 6 to 10, tickets are €10 and I think you’ll like it. It’s [FUNNY/DRAMATIC/SCARY/HAPPY/WEIRD] and you can see the poster at https://www.dropbox.com/s/a61exo9uls6yfuv/myawesomeshowposter.jpg?dl=0. The link** to the show is https://fringefest.com/festival/whats-on/sure-thing. Book tickets at https://bit.ly/myawesomeshow.

Please buy tickets and please tell people about it. I’d really appreciate it.

Thank you

Darragh”

(**Obviously that isn’t the real link. Just in case of confusion!)

www.bitly.com is a lovely neat way of making shorter URLs that look better in emails...

If you haven’t done that, could you? Obviously only contact people who you have permission to contact, don’t spam and for JAYSIS SAKE USE THE BCC FIELD IN EMAILS if you’re emailing more than one person - not that you will be of course. Ahem.

One of the Whatsapp groups I’m subscribed to is The Farmers Journal and every day they send me the headlines from their site. It’s neat, it’s tidy and it’s effective - even though I’m not a farmer, I am from that background and find some bits interesting. Could you create something for Whatsapp that would make people as interested in your show?

When Sinead and I talked about Once The Musical at the Olympia Theatre, and talked about a stunt to something to grab attention, we wanted to keep it straightforward but enticing. We came up with the following image, which we sent out as postcards, in the post, as well as by email. It was good. We had a good reaction online and we filled Grafton Street with people, as well as trended in Ireland for the day on twitter. I hope it sold tickets.

One thing I forgot to do with the postcard though, and it still irks me, is I didn’t put “Please tell people about this” on the back, so while some people tweeted about it and shared it, many didn’t, but still came along. Let me repeat: I didn't ask people to do something and they didn't do the thing that I didn't ask them to do. Not a disaster, but I did learn to ASK PEOPLE TO TELL PEOPLE.

Who are the people you should tell?

 

Well, I’m sure you have your contact list and your press list and your invite list. One thing I’d ask you to do though, and I genuinely mean this, is to comp strategically rather than personally, and to make sure the people you’re inviting to see it will tell other people about it. Don’t just assume they will!

Right now, I’d be looking at two lists - “might tell people about it” and “should be invited”. The second list should be about quarter of the first.

One thing, almost particularly twitter related - I’m going to show you a link and then I’m going to tell you why you shouldn’t use it.

Here are the “influencers” on twitter in Dublin https://www.rightrelevance.com/search/influencers?query=dublin%20ireland. There are, apparently, 914.

Don’t use this link to target people. Firstly, they get targeted ALL the time and don’t see or care about most stuff. 

Secondly. they’re not, for the most part, interested in seeing your show. If they were, they’d have bought tickets.

Harsh? No, because maybe they don’t know your show is on. Maybe they need to be told. Maybe they’d just be glad to share the link or RT you and not expect an invite. Those who share about your show shouldn’t expect an invite.

Thirdly, “influential” doesn’t mean “has lots of followers”. It means, to me anyways, people pay attention to what they say. So if they tweet about a show, people will go buy tickets. There are a few people like that for me. If they mention they’re interested, I’ll be interested. This is not the full list, or in priority order by any means, but here are the people on twitter I think you should tell about your show, if you haven’t already:

• The team at https://twitter.com/nomoreworkhorse
• Chris at https://twitter.com/chrismaccormack
• Niamh at https://twitter.com/niamhsmith
• Niamh at https://twitter.com/niamhnic
• Sinead at https://twitter.com/sinead_McP
• Colm at https://twitter.com/colm_carney
• Aoife at https://twitter.com/sweetoblivion26
• Sinead at https://twitter.com/minniemelange
• Jack at https://twitter.com/gilliganjack
• Kate at https://twitter.com/katehickey_
• Caitriona at https://twitter.com/caitrionamcb
• Gary at https://twitter.com/garydunne
• Ruairi at https://twitter.com/ruairimckiernan
• Susan at https://twitter.com/vibrantireland
• Anthony at https://twitter.com/anthonymcg
• Tatjana at https://twitter.com/kliony
• Caomhan at https://twitter.com/caomhankeane
• Joerg at https://twitter.com/dublineventG
• Emily at https://twitter.com/allaboutdublin
• Emily at https://twitter.com/yelpDublin
• Alan at https://twitter.com/redcurtainreview
• Phillip at https://twitter.com/McMahonPhilly
• Grace at https://twitter.com/GraceDyas
• Shirley at http:twitter.com/theatrechums
• Rebecca at https://twitter.com/rebeccalawless
• Tanya at https://twitter.com/tanyadean
• Rowena at https://twitter.com/rowenaneville
• Patrick at https://twitter.com/plonergan1111
• The team at https://twitter.com/picthisdublin
• Michael at https://twitter.com/lecooldublin
• Derek at https://twitter.com/DublinGlobe

and then the sites like www.JOE.ie, www.Her.ie, www.Broadsheet.ie, www.thejournal.ie, www.DublinInquirer.com and then if there’s a celeb angle, approach www.Goss.ie; if there’s a fashion angle talk to www.FrockAdvisor.com. Look for the sites with specific audiences and target them. www.dublinglobe.com talks to start-ups - does your show suit someone who finishes work at 7.30pm? Let them know!  I know sites and newspapers like the Irish Times, the Irish Independent and others are all over this so I’m taking those as a given. Sorry https://twitter.com/stagestricken !

Don’t assume that you have to offer them tickets to have them spread the word. It doesn’t (have to) work like that. Keep your comps for producers, bookers, funders etc. If someone asks for a comp and/or you feel their audience is worth it, offer one, but value the tickets you give away. If someone really really wants to see your show, they’ll buy a ticket if they can afford it.

Make it easy for them to spread the word! Create that Dropbox or Google Drive folder with shareable images, the press release, the blurb from the programme etc. Make that link easy to remember. They’ll thank you later!

Also, if you are looking for people to come to your show - reviewers, bloggers or whoever - tweet me and I’ll RT it for you. I can’t promise anything but I will try!

If there are people you’d recommend contacting, please comment below.

Now, if your show isn’t selling, you need advocates. You actually already have them. They're the people who know you, know your work, have liked your past shows, have liked your pages or clicked Attending on your event. You just need to know what to tell them about your show. You could invite them to an open dress rehearsal. You could record a little video for Facebook or YouTube. You could Periscope a scene. You could - and should - start again with “This is the story that I’m making and this is why I’m involved”. Just ask for help!

Let’s have a little recap:

• Gather together information like your show name, the venue, the running time, the price
• Get some images together with proper names in an online folder that people can share
• Ask people to share them
• Help Google find out about your show
• Tell the people who might be interested in it about it

 

If you’re looking for more content to tweet / Facebook than “it’s on, please buy tickets FOR THE SAKE OF MY CHILDREN’S CHILDREN” then tell us stuff. Tell us facts about how the show. Who is involved and where might I know them from? Is there something I’d be interested in knowing about the set or about the lighting or something before I went in? What are the props that you’ll be using? What should we look out for in the show? Make us feel like insiders, like supporters. Give us something to nod knowingly at.

Basically, if you find it interesting, we probably will as well, but if you wouldn’t click on it, then it’s more than likely we won’t either!

As well as that, don't be afraid to give your twitter or instagram accounts to cast members and crew. Riverdance has done this fairly recently and it's been great. If the world's biggest Irish dance show can do it, you sure can.

Okay, that’s a LOT of information. You’re on your second cuppa at least. But I want to finish by talking about what to do after your show.

WHEN THE SHOW STARTS:

 

Firstly, a simple idea - have a whiteboard or chalkboard or postits outside the theatre that people can write on when they come out. It’s extra content for you to post and share.

Those people you invited? No harm following up with an email thanking them for coming and including a link to your folder of images if they want to use any to tell other people about the show. Equally good to have someone with a camera - or a good mobile phone - to take a few social snaps that you - or they - can share to show they’ve been there. If your budget can stretch to a small memento that someone can take - something relevant to the show, that can often be a good investment.

Make it easy for me to review the piece with all the information I need available somewhere. Remember that Wordpress / Blogspot / Tumblr / Dropbox we talked about? Make that easy for me to access so when I’m writing

Online, please acknowledge every good review, no matter how many followers or connections that person seems to have. I really dislike seeing only RTs from theatre people or people with big followings - many of the people whose opinion I really trust about theatre or experiences don’t have big followings, but they do sell me tickets. We really have no idea who influences people and follower count, especially on twitter, is a load of nonsense.

I may be shot for this next bit but it makes sense:

Piggyback respectfully.

If you have the time, there’s no harm in piggybacking RESPECTFULLY on the Fringe itself and on other show times. You really need to do this properly though.

You see that someone is going to a show at 8pm and your show is at 6pm and finishes ON TIME IN PLENTY OF TIME to allow them to get to their 8pm show? Say hello. Maybe they’d like to see yours too. Or maybe you’re in the venue next door and you know that if they leave the first show they’d have 15 minutes to get to yours - say hello. You might sell a ticket. They’re on a night out, they may be up for something else.

Don’t misrepresent your show - don’t promise it will end on time only to have me racing across the city, possibly missing another show. I won’t remember it favorably, I promise. Remember your partition time and the commute. Take that into account.

People are just people and we pretty much all want the same thing. This isn't complicated. It just takes a little thinking and time.

So, in summary:

• Tell people about your show. Ask them to tell other people.
• Use Dropbox or Google Drive. Use Wordpress, Tumblr or Blogspot. Use Whatsapp. Use email. Use images.
• Use your email address book. Don’t spam. Just ask people to tell people.
• Use the links in this post.
• Use the email address [email protected] - if I can help, I will.

Above all, as a non-theatre maker, THANK YOU and WELL DONE for doing what you do. I have been looking forward to this for MONTHS - I really need a blast of laughter, of fun, of WTF, of OMG and of learning, and I have NO DOUBT you’ll give that to the city and the hundreds of people who will come see your show. I hope it goes really well for you.

Thanks to to Niamh for all her expert advice and patience on this. I would really appreciate collaboration and feedback on this - so please do comment and let me know what your advice for people is!

Thank you for reading.