January 2007
Selling Old Shows As Intriguing And New
Monday, January 01, 2007 by Eve Rapley

Abbot’s Langley Gilbert & Sullivan Society’s Eve Rapley shares her modern marketing strategy for their latest production of The Gondoliers.
 
Whether we like it or not, we live in a world dominated by media, spin and technology. Time is money and all areas of the arts are facing increasing pressure to stay competitive and financially viable. Amateur theatre is no exception and, like its professional counterparts, it is at the mercy of economic and market forces.

21st century Amateur Theatre is big business. With shows in professional venues costing anything upwards of £30,000 to stage, societies have to look seriously at their marketing and pricing policies to ensure that they stay in business. It is not unusual for societies, especially in the South East, to be charging up to £15 a ticket. This is comparable to a ‘cheap’ seat in the West End, a situation which can leave amateurs at a significant and sometimes, uncomfortable crossroads. Compete and stage a professional standard show, or face the consequences.

Finance is not the only stumbling block Amateur Theatre faces; it is often the genre of shows chosen that can prove to be a challenge to promote to a modern day audience. A prime example is Gilbert & Sullivan. The Ben Elton of his day, Gilbert’s rasping wit and satire proved to be a great antidote to the reserve and pomposity of Victorian England. An undoubted hit in the 19th century, to many in 21st century Britain, the perception of G&S is “old fashioned, twee and irrelevant”, strictly the reserve of the middle aged and the middle class. With schools favouring Grease and Chicago over Iolanthe and The Mikado, G&S is in danger of being consigned to the theatrical dustbin, unless a fresh production approach is taken to revive its appeal. 21st century marketing also needs a different approach in order to hook the interest of a new, younger audience where image is king.

The more pro-active amateur companies appear to be turning to the text books in order to stay competitive. The idea of using business tools is an athema to some, especially those who subscribe to the, “We’ve always done OK with word of mouth and a few posters in the past” brigade, but those societies who, when others are disbanding due to falling membership and all important ticket sales, are adopting a more strategic and holistic approach to their production, marketing and business planning will come out on top. Darwin’s concept of ‘Survival of the fittest’ is not only confined to life in the jungle.  It is an ironic and seemingly, back to front approach, to devote thousands of pounds to sets, costumes and an orchestra, only to play to half empty houses because of a miserly and/or mis-spent marketing budget. It’s an old adage, but whoever coined, “You have to speculate to accumulate”, was an extremely perceptive individual. To repay the months of rehearsing with a few hundred pounds for poor quality promotional materials is, at best, short-sighted and unprofitable and, at worse, somewhat disrespectful and ultimately, demoralising, for the company who has laboured night and day in order to stage their production.

Based near Watford in Hertfordshire, Abbots Langley Gilbert & Sullivan Society (ALGSS) has embraced the concept of good business and marketing decision-making as being fundamental to their on-going success and survival. They’re also one of the few remaining companies who survive solely on a diet of G&S. Many traditional G&S societies have diversified into musicals as a way of keeping the all-important ‘bums on seats’. However, ALGSS have bucked the trend and are prospering within the niche market position they’ve carefully carved out for themselves.

When I inherited the ALGSS marketing job in 2003, I was blessed with a Society boasting 50 years of performing experience, as well as a healthy membership, and an enviable reputation, both financially and artistically. However, complacency and lack of responsiveness can stifle even the most successful business, so the approach taken was to build upon the reputation of the society, focusing on developing the ALGSS brand.
 
To some amateurs, the concept of a “corporate image” can seem unnecessary and even unwelcome, being seen as the preserve of the professional, an idea at odds with amateur principles. However, ALGSS perform their annual G&S production at the Watford Palace Theatre, a splendidly refurbished London fringe 663 seater venue which features a varied professional programme, so they are acutely aware of its significance.

Simple tactics are employed to enhance public awareness of ALGSS and G&S in general, concentrating on the text and images that enter the public domain. Flooding the market to keep the name visible all the time is exactly what advertising agencies do. Whatever is circulated, the logo and the “International Award Winning G&S Company” (at the Buxton International Festival) strap line always feature to reinforce the professional image.
 
Newspaper and magazine advertising, though effective, is extremely expensive with a colour page costing anything up to £1000. In order to avoid hefty bills, competitions with ticket giveaways to attract free publicity are used as a thriftier alternative. Newspapers are usually keen to participate but, like any business, time-wise they’re under pressure, so getting the local press on board requires a personal approach and persistence. Writing reliable and interesting articles can also be a useful way to get published for free. Note that nothing infuriates a sub-editor more than poorly written copy that needs a re-write before it’s vaguely useable.
 
Diversifying advertisement and news placement is vital, particularly when targeting the current generation of digital natives. As well as having the essential up to date and visually appealing society website, the internet contains a mine of sites ripe for posting up news and show information. These are all free and have space to upload photographs which, providing they're lively and fun, can help to stimulate the interest of younger people.

Using regular news stories in local and parish publications helps maintain brand awareness, but the accompanying photographs must be action shots or illustrate something quirky or unusual. Bland statements and poorly taken pictures do nothing to capture the interest of a potential audience. This idea was further developed into the designs used for publicising the shows.

In partnership with my husband, Ralph, we started exploring the idea of creating more innovative publicity designs with The Yeomen of the Guard. A dark and serious piece, the aim was to capture to brutality of the Tower of London. In terms of design, it is more and more difficult to be original these days. In order to avoid overt plagiarism, we took the decision to use real people; our own cast members within the publicity materials. By manipulating photographs taken by Ralph, we were able to capture the vivid and raw emotion and expression that can only be gained from a real human face.  The process has been evolving since then with the central theme being that of reality. The Yeomen of the Guard image was a departure from the norm, a fact recognised by NODA (National Operatic and Dramatic Association), which awarded it Runner-Up in the 2005 London Regional Poster Design Competition.

The next challenge was how to promote the 1889 box office hit, The Gondoliers. Being a G&S fanatic, I have been in or seen The Gondoliers umpteen times and, without exception, each production has relied upon the same, hackneyed, Cornetto-style design of a Gondolier and/or a gondola. A good design needs to capture the imagination, to convey a strong message and to say something about the story. Make it too abstract or sexy and there is the danger of turning off your traditional audience, so there needs to be a balance between old and new.
 
The title of the piece, along with the man with the pole in a striped shirt lets us know that the show has something to do with gondoliers, but that is only half the story. This is where the idea to use the ‘Marie Antoinette’ style was conceived. It reflects the period in which the piece is set, with the image representing the richness and grandeur of the other half of the story, whilst the emotive language is designed to stir even the most unromantic amongst us. The concept appears to have been a success, as the design has caught the eye of quite a few editors, with the image making its way onto the cover of a London theatre magazine. Being adventurous and thinking out of the box when conceiving design ideas is well worth considering as the publicity spin off and media exposure can be significant and, in most cases, achieved without denting the marketing budget.

Quality and design are ALGSS central values and need to be at the core of all amateur companies marketing. Be it a story about a member competing at a music festival, or a programme for a village hall concert, the same high standards should apply. Brand strength relies upon consistency and innovation, as well as communicating an image of professionalism. Marketing and publicity need to be the first thing a production committee considers, after show selection, not an afterthought that includes hurriedly produced, poor quality flyers, posters and programmes. Each production will have its own character and vision that the director will aim to bring to life. The first step towards incarnation from a thought to a reality is to ensure that the vision is captured within the publicity design.

Forget wobbly sets, fluffed lines and chilly village halls, the 21st century amateur theatre company should be a forward thinking organisation with business acumen and a sharp creative eye. It should not be thought of as the poor relation to the professional outfit. Indeed, it could be argued that ALGSS offer a more satisfying G&S experience than their professional cousins. Rather than being ‘just another job’ for the professionals, the G&S amateurs are specialists; real experts and devotees, whose genuine enthusiasm comes across in their performance. To use the marketing vernacular, this is amateur theatre’s unique selling point, their USP and, if carefully crafted into a professionally designed and packaged product, will ensure that G&S and Amateur Theatre don’t end up in the theatrical dustbin.

Photographs and images by Ralph Rapley www.xmo4.com