Curtain Up: Cross-Promotion for the Arts
Good creative event marketing campaigns include cross-promotion as an effective tool to generate impactful messaging and maximum ticket sales for any opening night or event day. I personally find that when promoting an event — be it a dance or theatrical performance, music concert or in-store promotion – there is power in numbers. Joining forces with other entities or companies is a most clever tool to use in event marketing.
The Fall season turns our focus to theatrical, dance and art gallery openings that rely heavily on promotion to drive ticket sales as well as to national awareness months that heighten attention on social, civic and health issues. Here are two examples of cultural arts and non-profit organizations that highlight the best in cross-promoting to achieve their goals.
October is national bullying month so the first example features the acclaimed musical play, Lyle Cogen’s ‘Sticks and Stones,’ a one woman show starring songstress/educator and anti-bullying activist Lyle 
Cogen who travels the country annually to schools and theaters to educate and empower children ages 6-15 on bullying behavior and how to diffuse and prevent it. To further promote the messages and her show’s availability to the schools, she submitted her play to New York City’s Solo Theatre Festival, which was selected as a featured play to appear one-time off-broadway during bullying month. Solo Theatre Festival and Sticks and Stonescombined efforts to promote the play and the festival using an integrated marcom mix including print ads, social media marketing and traditional and digital publicity generated from both entities. The result: heightened awareness of the play and its anti-bullying messages, Ms Cogen as a musical theatre actress/songstress and educator, plus increased awareness for the Festival – all designed to successfully drive ticket sales.
The fall dance season is in full swing and most reparatory companies’ are debuting world premieres. For Giordano Dance Chicago’s (GDC) upcoming performances at Chicago’s The Harris Theatre for Music and Dance, the company is actively cross-promoting to drive ticket sales for its two night stint where it will debut the world premiere of ‘Feelin Good Sweet’, a Broadway-inspired full company work by award-winning choreographer Ray Leeper (So You Think You Can Dance, America’s Got Talent). Using a blend of good old-fashioned PR with digital and traditional print ads, a slew of thirty second vignettes, email marketing and social media, the company also barters with like-minded institutions to cross-promote each other’s product offerings via website sharing and newsletters. The jury is still out for GDC’s October 24 and 25 performances but word has it that ticket sales are on the rise.
So, take a page from these two cultural arts organizations the next time you have an opening event to market and promote. The most effective campaigns include cross-promotion. Have a wonderful Wednesday.
