Download The Flood Marketing handbook - Victorian Association of Performing

Victorian Association of Performing Arts Centres
VAPAC TOUR
MARKETING
HANDBOOK
Draft for discussion
March 2012
A handbook of marketing ideas designed to encourage increased collaboration between
VAPAC venues, and increased direct, digital and social media strategies, for the marketing
of touring events.
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THE FLOOD by Jackie Smith 2012 Tour
A Critical Stages and Finucane & Smith Production
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CONTENTS
About ‘The Flood’
3
Artists Biographies
5
Key themes for audience engagement
9
Finucane&Smith’s “12 Reasons why you must see The Flood”
10
Segmenting your audience for Direct Marketing
13
Tips on using Vital Statistics reports to target your audience
14
Ticketing strategies: pricing and packaging
15
Audience Development possibilities including collaboration on results
17
Direct Marketing: email (includes sample email copy)
20
Direct Marketing: mail (includes sample letter copy)
22
Collaboration potential: Posters and flyers
24
Collaboration potential: Editorial: media release + ideas
25
Collaboration potential: Radio, TV advertising
27
Social media: Facebook
28
Social media: YouTube
29
Social media: Twitter
30
The role of your website and online ticketing
31
Reviews, the Script, the video teaser and other material available online
32
Tour dates
33
Venue contacts
34
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About ‘The Flood’
Synopsis provided by Critical Stages:
The sheep farm is dilapidated. The farm house, dark and squalid, sits by the river, sheltering a mad
old lady, and her isolated hard-drinking daughter. Memories are seeping through the floorboards. As
the sun sets, the flood waters rise. The screen door bangs open in the rain and wind; Catherine has
returned after 20 years. The past is here. Through the mesmerising friction between estranged
sisters, fuelled by alcohol and uncertain memories of a long-dead father, three women are trapped
with a past no one wants to remember.
Bristling with dark humour and edge-of-the-seat performances by three of our finest actresses, The
Flood is startlingly authentic writing, plunging audiences into the lives of characters so real you feel
you know them; a web of family intrigue against the haunting Australian outback.
Suggested taglines:
‘As the sun sets, the flood waters rise, and memories seep through the floor boards.’
‘Three women, trapped by the flood and memories of their past. Bristles with dark humour.’
‘A web of family intrigue: a mad old lady trapped in a flood with one hard-drinking daughter and
the other, estranged, returned after 20 years. Characters so real you feel you know them.’
About The Flood from Finucane&Smith:
From internationally acclaimed, multi award winning creators Finucane & Smith comes the haunting
and electrifying work The Flood. Part mystery, part thriller, part whodunit, part psychological drama;
The Flood has been hailed as “masterful… An Australia Gothic that defines the genre”, and in 2012
it’s touring Australia – from major cities to remote areas for 4 months.
The Flood is Patrick White Playwright Award Winner Jackie’s second full length play. It was written
over a 4 year period in between a back to back international touring schedule that saw Smith take
her work The Burlesque Hour to 70,000 people around the world, and create new works for major
festivals, galleries, theatres and cabarets from Sweden to Tokyo to London to Lbjubjliana. Written in
the snow in Paris, and the heat og Hong Kong, The Flood evokes a world far away from these
metropolises, a run-down property in rural NSW, battered by drought and struggle, now threatened
by the hundred year Flood.
The Flood is a work that grows out of Jackie’s shy childhood spent in Woomera and Deniliquin, her
love of listening – to Australian stories and storytelling, her capacity for minute observation of
humanity, and a body of writing that is so particularly Australian, whose language is often so sparse,
dry, humorous and disturbing that it has turned heads from the very beginning, resulting in The
Patrick White Playwright Award, shortlisting for the Griffin Award, The HQ short story award, The Kit
Denton Fellowship and in 2 ABC Radio Awards.
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The Flood premiered in December 2009 at the renowned La Mama theatre in Melbourne to a very
powerful audience reaction, to a sell out season, to immense critical acclaim including making it to 3
of “The Best of 2009” theatre lists, and to interest from all over Australia, including, most excitingly
for its creators, theatres big and small outside the major cities. For this work “that speaks from the
heart of the country”, there could be no better outcome for this wonderful new work than taking it
to regional theatres throughout Australia.
The Flood – the year is 1999 and the setting is a disused sheep farm in rural NSW. The farm
is dilapidated, the homestead, once magnificent, is now dark and squalid. It sits by the river
and now the river is rising. As the sun sets, the flood waters trap three women; a mother
and her two daughters, one who takes care of her, one who has been away for 20 years.
The screen door bangs open; Catherine has returned home from London, and amidst the
claustrophobia, driving rain and decay, the truth about their family begins to float to the
surface.
The Flood is an Australian Gothic. The set is a vast moonlit landscape, the black shadows of eucalypt
trees against a darkening sky, seen through a veil of flywire. It is surreal and only too real; domestic
and epic. Inside, a life of clutter, of memories pasted over, of claustrophobic chaos threatens to
drown us. The gothic is often seen as a particularly European quality, but its hallmarks - the
romantic, the uncanny and the sense of looming threat - are threaded through many tales, both
contemporary and historic written about the Australian bush. When the river rises we spend the
night with these three women and see the interface between the monstrous and the mundane.
Bristling with bone dry dark humour and edge-of the seat performances, The Flood plunges
audiences into the lives of characters so real you feel you know them, and then reveals their secrets
in twist, upon twist, upon twist. It’s a work where the sparks and humour of these very real and
lively people draw you in, make you care and won’t let you go.
And it is brought to life by 3 of Australia’s most acclaimed actresses who are hot property wherever
they go; from 5 best actress awards between them to Maude Davey’s Berlin Film Festival best
actress to Shirley Cattunar’s 55 years in demand; to Caroline Lee’s starring in Cate Blanchett’s
directorial debut at STC A Kind of Alaska, these are the kinds of actresses people are talking about
when they say “you HAD to be there”.
For audiences, one of the strongest responses to the Flood is to its humour, because whilst the Flood
is a portrait of a family in extremis, the family dynamics and family tensions are universally
recognisable, and the laughter and the tragedy sit together on a knife edge. The Herald Sun said
“despite the dark themes the Flood is so often funny”. The way these characters draw you in with
language so recognisable, as The Age called it “brilliant dialogue that sounds overheard”, is key to its
success – it’s like sweet and sour – together they pack a real punch.
Finucane & Smith have toured work all over the world to incredibly diverse audiences in festivals,
cabarets, theatres and salons. Their work is as provocative and it is entertaining, and they have
always found that if you take care of your audience you can take them anywhere. The Flood is no
exception. For them, there could be no other outcome for this powerful Australian Gothic, created
by a writer whose history is growing up in rural Australia; it’s language so profoundly Australian;
than for this work to be seen by people all over Australia. It’s dark, funny, disturbing, evocative,
uniquely Australian and it’s unforgettable.
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Artists Biographies
JACKIE SMITH [PLAYWRIGHT]
Jackie Smith was born on a rocket base in Woomera of migrant parents. Her father fought in World
War II, joining the Navy at the age of 16. Discovering a love of radar he came to Australia at the same
time as the birth of television technology. Her mother discovered her love of education in Woomera
and has worked at country schools ever since. From Woomera to the flat dry plains of New South
Wales next to the Edward River, Jackie grew up a rather shy child with a love of listening to people –
their stories, their language, their use of the particular vernacular of rural Australia. Her love of
people, of language and of stories became a life-long fascination with theatre. Studying Fine Art at
Wagga Wagga College, she was cast in her first ‘grown up play’, and has never looked back. She
began to write, short stories, little one act plays, but it was her style of writing, so particularly
Australian – with language often so sparse, dry, humorous and disturbing - that turned heads from
the very beginning, resulting in 2 ABC Radio Awards for her very first plays, shortlisting for the Griffin
Playwright Award, The HQ short story award, The Kit Denton Fellowship and in winning the
inaugural Patrick White Playwright Award.
She has also won 8 Green Room Awards for her works that spans genres from playwrighting to
provocative variety & cabaret, and she has travelled the world to great acclaim in ten languages,
with 3 seasons in the Sydney Opera House and festivals in Japan, Sweden, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia,
the United Kingdom, Hungary, and New Zealand. As half of Finucane & Smith she has created some
of Australia’s most provocative theatre – from the multi award winning Burlesque Hour, now seen
by 70, 000 people around the world and acclaimed in 10 languages, to the “exhilarating hit” of the
Melbourne International Arts Festival, commissioning 43 artists across all artforms to respond to the
Mysteries of Innocence, Mercy, Passion, Forgiveness and Love in the surreal indoor Carnival of
Mysteries, and her Salons de Danse that have wowed people from Osaka to Stockholm to Hungary
to the National Gallery. As an artist Jackie has never lost her love and fine observation of Australian
landscapes, people and stories, far away from cities where the land and the elements are such a
strong part of everyday life.
“Smith’s handling of the gothic form is masterful … You have to see this, it's Australian theatre that
speaks from the heart of the country.” MCV
“It’s the best new piece of theatre I’ve seen this year” Australian Theatre
“Exhilarating, beautiful and unexpectedly moving” The Australian
“a powerful authenticity … complex, rounded, tightly constructed drama” Sunday Age
“Jackie Smith… a genuine talent and a fresh voice in Australian drama” The Age
LAURENCE STRANGIO [DIRECTOR]
Laurence Strangio is an award-winning independent director, dramaturg and theatre maker. His
work ranges from intimate drama to music-theatre and opera. Laurence has worked with some of
Australia’s most exciting theatre companies and makers including ASTRA, Malthouse Theatre,
Mainstreet (Mount Gambier), Playbox, Melbourne Festival, fortyfivedownstairs, MTC, Red Stich
Actors Theatre and Castlemaine State Festival.
Hi acclaimed solo adaptation alias Grace based on the novel by Margaret Atwood has toured
Australia and internationally for 8 years now and led to exciting international collaborations with
groups such as Instant Café Theatre (Kuala Lumpur). He has worked with Finucane & Smith in their
Carnival of Mysteries for the Melbourne International Arts Melbourne Festival 2010, as well as
directing the premiere season and touring production of Jackie Smith’s The Flood (La Mama Theatre,
2009).
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Recent productions include the premiere of Catherine Ryan’s George Fairfax Award-winning play
Precipice for the 2011 Castlemaine State Festival, his own contemporary adaptation of Luigi
Pirandello’s Six characters in search of an author… (La Mama, 2011) and Stripped adapted from the
novel by Caroline Lee (La Mama, 2012). Other significant productions include a series of works by
Marguerite Duras (from L’amante anglaise in 1994 to La Douleur in 2006), Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s
Last Tape (2002) and …waiting for Godot (2009/2011), Tes Lyssiotis’ Paradise (2002), Simon
Stephens’ Motortown (2007), Will Eno’s Oh, the Humanity (and other exclamations), Botho Strauss’
Big and Little and Peter Finlay’s Cook: an exploration – the making of Terra Nullius (all 2009) and his
own psychoanalytic solo work “Her Private Theatre” – performing ‘Anna O.’ (2010). He is currently
developing two stage adaptations from contemporary Australian novels – Stripped by Caroline Lee
and FallGirl by Toni Jordan – for production in 2012 and beyond. He is also working with renowned
Melbourne playwright Barry Dickins on a new play about Sylvia Plath, A Kind of Fabulous Hatred
(winner of the R. E. Ross Trust Award).
MAUDE DAVEY [ACTRESS]
Maude trained as an actor at the Victorian College of the Arts. She has worked as an actor, director
and writer for over twenty five years around Australia, from her time as an actor with Mill Theatre in
Geelong, to becoming the director of theatre companies in Adelaide & Melbourne, and part of
artistic directorate of Hothouse in Albury. She is a founding member of the theatre/music a cappella
group Crying in Public Places with which she has toured nationally and internationally with their
three shows, Crying In Public Places, Jump! and Skin. She collaborates frequently with Finucane &
Smith, performing nationally and internationally in The Burlesque Hour, and nationally in Salon de
Dance, The Flood by Jackie Smith and Carnival of Mysteries for the Melbourne Festival 2010.
Television and film roles include: My Year Without Sex by Sarah Watts (2009); Noise (nominated for
Best Film, AFI Awards 2007) and Roy Höllsdottir Live, both written and directed by Matthew Saville
for retroactive films; The Slap (Matchbox/ABC); Offspring (Southern Star); Tangle (Showcase); Only
The Brave, directed by Ana Kokkinos; Summer Heights High, MDA, Janus, Mercury for ABC TV and
Blue Heelers, for Southern Star. Davey’s acting awards include Best Actress at the 1998 Berlin
Festival of Independent Film and Best Performer at the 1995 Age Performing Arts Awards. She has
written many works for the theatre, radio and film and has taught Acting, Improvisation and
Performance Making widely. She was Artistic Director of Vitalstatistix from 2002 - 2007 and in
2008/09 she was Artistic Director of Melbourne Workers Theatre.
Awards include: Best Actress, Berlin Independent Film Festival, 1997; Best Performer, The Age
Performing Arts Awards, 1995; Rainbow Award for contribution to the Arts 1993; Best Actress,
Watch My Shorts, Film Festival Melbourne.
CAROLINE LEE [ACTRESS]
Caroline Lee has performed on the stages of most of Australia’s much loved theatres, from major
cities to remote areas in her work with many of Australia’s most acclaimed theatre companies,
including Hit Productions, Malthouse, STC, MTC, Back to Back Theatre, Finucane and Smith,
Hildegard, Chamber made Opera, Playbox (Raw) and La Mama. Highlights include Hit Productions
national tour of Louis Nowra’s Cosi in 2010, playing the lead role of Deborah in A Kind of Alaska by
Harold Pinter, directed by Cate Blanchett at the Sydney Theatre Company, Natasha in Three Sisters,
Dora in A Portrait of Dora by Hélène Cixous, Marguerite in La Douleur by Marguerite Duras, and
Grace Marks in the highly successful one-woman adaptation of alias Grace by Margaret Atwood in
Sydney, Kuala Lumpur and Melbourne. She has won 3 Green Room Awards for Best Actress.
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She has toured internationally to Kuala Lumpur with alias Grace, to Denmark with Care Instructions,
with Back to Back and with Aphids A Quarrelling Pair to New York, and again with Aphids to Rome.
Caroline's film and television appearances include a main cast role in Bogan Pride, and roles in
Tangle, Winners and Losers, Satisfaction, Stingers, MDA, Halifax fp, Blue Heelers, Neighbours,
Holidays on the River Yarra and Dogs in Space, as well as a number of smaller film projects.
Caroline’s novel, Stripped was serialised from 2008-2010 in the renowned literary journal Meanjin,
and was published in a boutique, limited edition with the support of City of Melbourne. Stripped is
currently being adapted for the stage. Caroline’s Awards include 3 Green Room Awards (Best
Actress in Fringe/Independent Theatre (2001 & 2002; Best Actress (2005); Marion Eldridge Award
(2005); Winner Fellowship of Australian Writers Short Story Competition (2006); Ian Potter Cultural
Trust Grant (2001); Sanderson Young Narrator of the Year Award (1998)
SHIRLEY CATTUNAR [ACTRESS]
Shirley Cattunar is in her 70s and has worked in theatre in Melbourne for over fifty years, winning
numerous awards, and nurturing an undying love for the theatre. She has starred with some of
Melbourne’s most established companies over the course of her career – suburban and
metropolitan, amateur and professional, including The Melbourne Shakespearian Company's
production of "The Lion in Winter", Jackie Smith’s Patrick White Award winning play "The Aliens" at
La Mama and starring with Abstar Productions in the film "Lovers Walk". Jackie Smith’s The Flood at
La Mama, and in 2010 Shirley danced in Finucane & Smiths Salon De Dance.
In 2009, Shirley won universal acclaim for her role as the mother Janet in Jackie Smith’s The Flood
“Shirley Cattunar shines as the fallen matriarch” The Age “electrifying…Cattunar’s Janet is by turns
sympathetic and nasty, perceptive and clueless” MCV and since that time has scarcely had a day off.
continues to entertain at Hospitals and Nursing Homes for charity, she has become the oldest and
most applauded dancer in Finucane & Smith’s Salon de Danse, a sideshow star as The Living Radio in
Finucane & Smith’s Carnival of Mysteries, and has starred in number of short films.
Shirley says to be performing in THE FLOOD around Australia is an incredibly exciting adventure.
THE SISTERS HAYES [ ORIGINAL VISUAL DESIGNERS]
Esther, Christina and Rebecca Hayes are a familial group of artists. Drawing on their collective skills
in painting, costume and set design, photography, film and animation they create theatrical
collaborative works. On graduating from VCA, Esther was awarded the Orloff Family Charitable Trust
Scholarship (2006). Esther’s design work includes costumes for Richard III and Rockabye for
Melbourne Theatre Company, and the forthcoming All About My Mother for MTC. Christina,
graduated in Fine Arts from VCA (2004) and was awarded an exchange at the Slade School of Fine
Art (2003). Her recent solo shows include Endgame at Anna Pappas Galleries (2010), These are the
Days You Will Remember Bus Projects (2009) and The Astonishing TCB art.inc (2008); she received
the City of Melbourne Young Artist Grant (2009) and The Janet Holmes à Court Artists' Grant for
presentation of work in 2006. Rebecca Hayes studied Animation and Interactive Media at RMIT, and
is an animator and filmmaker. Rebecca’s animations have been screened at 2009 Sydney
Festival and in a permanent interactive exhibition at the Australian Centre of the Moving Image. She
has had her work shown in the NGV and Melbourne Museum.
The Sisters Hayes set design collaborations for Finucane & Smith include Salon De Dance, and Salon
De Dance Deluge, The Feast of Argentina, and The Flood. The Sisters Hayes visual design for Finucane
& Smith’s Cranival of Mysteries was universally acclaimed as “a den of iniquity and awesomeness”
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The Age “exhilarating… sating the need for humanity” The Australian. Their installation/exhibition on
martyrs A Good Death, was an acclaimed highlight of 2010 Next Wave Festival.
KATHRYN SPROUL [SET DESIGN]
Kathryn designs nationally for theatre, dance and large arts events. A graduate in Stage Design from
NIDA, Kathryn was Resident Designer for Magpie Theatre and State Theatre Company of South
Australia from 1988 to 1993.. Kathryn has worked with a variety of companies including Windmill
Performing Arts, Hothouse, Melbourne Theatre Co, Playbox, Chamber Made Opera, Legs on the
Wall, Riverina Theatre Co, Hothouse Theatre Co, & Darwin Theatre Company. A residency in 2003
enabled Kathryn to design a visual theatre piece for Gekidan Urinko Theatre Company in Nagoya,
Japan. Kathryn won the 2004 Green Room Award (Victorian Arts Industry Awards) for Visual Design
(for Fringe/Independent Theatre) for her work on Traitors by Stephen Sewell.
Major festival projects include: the memorable Flamma Flamma: the Fire Requiem, which opened
the 1998 Adelaide Festival of Arts; Event Designer, Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2005 – 2011; Event &
Parade Designer, Adelaide Fringe 2006, & Design/Making Team Fringe Parade 2009-2011;
Production Designer Charters Towers: the Musical, Queensland Music Festival 2005; Production
Designer Paradise: the Musical, and Coorparoo Sk8, Brisbane Festival 2006. Other major festival
work includes Event Designer for Adelaide Festival Centre’s OzAsia Festival & Moon Lantern Parade
2007-2011 & Guitar Festival 2007, 2008 & 2010.
Kathryn maintains a strong interest in design for theatre as well as the challenge of festival event
design. This includes: Costume Design for State Theatre SA’s productions of Noises Off, Uncle Vanya,
& Hamlet. Other major work includes the moving production Second to None, a collaboration
between Kurruru Youth & Vitalstatistix in 2008 & Production Designer True West, Flying Penguin
Productions 2010. Set Design for The Production Company, Melbourne, for the musicals 42nd Street,
Damn Yankees, Crazy For You, & The King & I. Costume Designer for a co-production of Maria de
Buenos Aires between Leigh Warren & Dancers & The State Opera of SA touring to Brisbane Festival
of Arts 2011.
NATASHA ANDERSON [SOUND DESIGN]
Natasha is a composer and musician who creates live electro-acoustic and audiovisual
performances, builds sound installations and composes acousmatic and classical works. Highlights in
2009 include the ABC choosing her work with Jerome Noetinger and Amanda Stewart as Australia's
entry in the Paris International Rostrum of Composers and being invited by SWR to perform in the
New Jazz Meeting (Germany/Switzerland). In theatre and dance Natasha has worked for the STC, the
de Quincey Co and the Branch Theatre Company.
BRONWYN PRINGLE [LIGHTING DESIGN]
Bronwyn has worked with a great variety companies in venues that have ranged from a nightclub in
London’s west end, to a disused flat, to a woolshed, and more. Recent designs at La Mama include
Eyton Rd, Aviary, and The Time is not yet Ripe. Bronwyn has won Green Room Awards for Alias
Grace (Malthouse Theatre 2005), Letters from Animals (Here Theatre/SRWT 2007) and two Fringe
festival design collaboration awards.
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Key themes for audience engagement
Before starting to plan any kind of marketing or audience engagement strategies, you
should either see the play/event yourself, or read the script. Scripts are usually quick to
read. You should really never promote a play or an event you haven’t read, seen or heard.
(If you’re promoting a music event, listen to as much of the music as you can.)
After my reading of The Flood, here are some themes from the play which may be suitable
for use in marketing copy to help engage potential audiences:
It’s a thriller set in a spooky version of the Australian outback
Families, the nature of family relationships
Home, what does home mean
Caring for ageing parents, and the effect on sibling relationships
Mother-daughter relationships
Sister-sister relationships
Rural reality vs romanticism and the city perspective
[Floods: let’s discuss whether it’s appropriate to refer to the recent floods .. the play is not
really about the flood, it’s more used as a dramatic device .. the key here is that it’s really
important not to portray a false picture of the event people will experience in the theatre.]
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Finucane&Smith’s 12 reasons why you can’t miss ‘THE FLOOD’
1. THE FLOOD IS AN AUSTRALIAN STORY TOLD BY A COUNTRY GIRL FROM THE HEART OF THE
OUTBACK – HOW OFTEN DO WE SEE THAT ON OUR STAGES? Part mystery thriller, part whodunnit,
part psychological drama, set in an eerie Australian landscape of a run-down property, The Flood is
darkly funny, disturbing, evocative and profoundly Australian. With a standout premiere season,
critical & audience acclaim, and a multi award winning cast & team of creators, it’s now travelling
around Australia.
2. THE WRITER JACKIE SMITH HAS A UNIQUE AUSTRALIAN VOICE. SHE’S A ‘GIRL FROM THE
COUNTRY’, WHO’S BEEN ACCLAIMED AROUND THE WORLD, WON 12 THEATRE AWARDS, AND IS
RETURNING TO THE COUNTRY SHE CAME FROM. Jackie Smith is a writer with a rare and authentic
Australian voice that is not about the country, it’s from the country. Born in Woomera and raised by
the Edward River near the border of New South Wales and Victoria, her love of Australian language,
characters and stories has turned heads from the very beginning, and won her two ABC Radio
Awards, The Patrick White Playwright Award, 8 Green Room Awards, and nominations for the Griffin
Theatre Award & 3 Helpmann Awards.
Jackie was born on a rocket base in Woomera of migrant parents. Her father fought in World War II,
joining the Navy at the age of 16. Discovering a love of radar he came to Australia at the same time
as the birth of television technology. Her mother discovered her love of education in Woomera and
has worked at country schools ever since. Jackie studied Fine Art at Wagga Wagga College, and has
worked as an actor, writer and director. Her work covers many genres, from playwriting to variety &
cabaret, and she has travelled the world to great acclaim, with 3 seasons in the Sydney Opera House
and festivals in Japan, Sweden, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, Hungary, and New
Zealand, but Jackie has never lost her love and fine observation of Australian landscapes, people and
stories, far away from cities where the land and the elements are such a strong part of everyday life.
“Smith’s handling of the gothic form is masterful” MCV “dialogue that at its best sounds overheard”
The Age.
3. THE FLOOD IS A MYSTERY THRILLER BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN & GRIPPINGLY TOLD, WITH EDGE OF
THE SEAT PERFORMANCES. On the surface The Flood is a simple homecoming story, set in a
dilapidated, once magnificent homestead that sits on a river, on a sheep station that’s run down to
its bones. The hundred year flood is coming, and a mother and her 2 daughters, one who takes care
of her, one who’s been away for 20 years, are trapped by the rising flood waters. The awkward
reunion is shattered by a shocking revelation, dismissed as a bad joke or ‘senility’. However as the
night wears on and the rain and wind surround the house, the ‘bad joke’ takes on more and more
chilling undertones. Smith has woven in twist after twist after twist, keeping her audience guessing
until the final mesmerising moments.
4. THE FLOOD IS “AN AUSTRALIAN GOTHIC THAT DEFINES THE GENRE” (Aus. Theatre). When we
think of the gothic we think of European tales or too much eyeliner, but the very hallmarks of that
genre – the romantic, the uncanny, the sense of looming threat, the certain knowledge that some
of our biggest monsters are right inside us – have been threaded through Australian tales about
the landscape and the bush from ancient times to modern. The Flood sucks us into a run-down old
fashioned country lounge-room, a tiny chaotic world with cosy lamps, crocheted chair covers and
floral carpet, set against a vast moonlit landscape, the black shadows of eucalypt trees against a
darkening sky, seen through a veil of flywire.
Like Wuthering Heights, Picnic at Hanging Rock, A Long Day’s Journey into Night, and Frederick
McCubbin’s haunting evocations of the mythic Lost Child stories, The Flood is a story that gets in and
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is unforgettable. It walks a fine line between the domestic and the epic, the claustrophobia of daily
life and the terror of the mythic. The familiarity of the lounge-room couch and the flywire door
promises comfort but we know that families’ secrets can be torn apart in the cosiest of kitchens.
5. IT’S BROUGHT TO LIFE BY THREE 3 OF AUSTRALIA’S FINEST ACTRESSES, WHO’VE WON 5 BEST
ACTRESS AWARDS BETWEEN THEM & ARE HOT PROPERTY WHEREVER THEY GO. From MAUDE
DAVEY’S Berlin film Festival Best Actress Award, and 2 Australian Best Actress gongs, and her roles in
Australian dramas The Slap, Offspring, My Year Without Sex; to SHIRLEY CATTUNAR’ S 55 years in
demand in everything from musicals to A Lion in Winter; to CAROLINE LEE taking out the very first
starring role in Cate Blanchett’s directorial debut at the Sydney Theatre Company, and a swag of
Best Actress, and writing awards of her own. They’re the actresses that people talk about when they
say “You have GOT to see her while you live” or as Aus. Theatre said “ Shirley Cattunar, Caroline Lee
and Maude Davey. I’m at a loss for words. They never let us see the acting.”
Constantly surprising, wonderfully alive, crackling with energy, this is un-missable performance.
6. IT’S HAD THE CRITICS RAVING “SEE IT. SEE IT. SEE IT”. THE FLOOD PREMIERED TO HUGE CRITICAL
ACCLAIM AND MADE IT ONTO THREE ‘BEST OF THE YEAR’ THEATRE LISTS. Australian Theatre said
“See it. See it. See it… The best new piece of theatre I have seen this year”, The Age called it “A dark
and ingenious piece of Australian gothic” The Herald Sun described it as “Evocative, claustrophobic,
and despite the dark themes often funny.” and the Sunday Age called The Flood ‘rare and
compelling.” MCV said “You have to see this, it’s Australian theatre that speaks from the heart of the
country.” Artshub hailed The Flood as “Engrossing, heartbreaking, delicate and frightening.” And
MCV again “Smith’s handling of the gothic form is masterful.”
7. AUDIENCES SAY THE FLOOD IS “UNFORGETTABLE”. Here’s just a little of what audience members
have said: “It’s just a bloody good play well written, and the actresses were great. You know I’d see it
again, and I don’t say that a lot!” (55 yr. old man) “It’s so elemental. I hear the rain falling, I can hear
that wire door slamming, I felt the heat and I could almost see the steam rising as they came through
the door” (66 yr. old woman) “I felt like I was there, in the living room, overhearing everything I
shouldn’t” (45 yr. old woman) “it was awesome, so spooky, I never thought I’d like a play” (20 yr. old
man) “it made me think of my mum, and my sisters, and the things that hold families together, and
how it’s always important to face up to the truth. I tell you what; our Christmas dinners don’t look so
bad now!” (49 yr. old woman). “You know I loved it. It was kind of left hook right hook, with the left
hook being so funny and the right hook being so dark” (52 yr. old man). “The Gothic! I didn’t know
what to expect, it makes me think of spooky castles. But to feel the bush like that, creaking, and
looming outside, while all those secrets loomed inside, it was like being in a film” (46 yrs. old
woman)
8. THE FLOOD’S ARTISTIC TEAM COMES FROM AROUND AUSTRALIA & HAVE BETWEEN THEM,
WON 50 THEATRE AWARDS. Hailing from cities and country towns around Australia, the creative
team behind this production of The Flood are some of the country’s finest. They have won over 50
theatre awards from direction to design, from narrator of the year to contribution to cabaret.
They’ve run country theatre companies; they’ve been behind the design of some of regional
Australia’s best loved touring shows, they’ve performed in everything from mechanics institutes to
major London theatres.
9. THE FLOOD IS FUNNY. DARK, AUSTRALIAN FUNNY. Part of the Australian nature is a particular
dark humour. The humour in the Flood crackles along at a breakneck speed. In fact, one of the
strongest responses to the Flood is to its humour, because whilst the Flood is a portrait of a family in
extremis, the family dynamics and family tensions are universally recognisable; that the laughter and
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the tragedy sit together on a knife edge. The Herald Sun said “despite the dark themes the Flood is
so often funny”. The way these characters draw you in with language so recognisable, as The Age
called it “brilliant dialogue that sounds overheard”, is key to its success – it’s like sweet and sour –
together they pack a real punch.
10. THE CHARACTERS ARE GIANTS & THERE IS SOMETHING VERY SPECIAL ABOUT SEEING GREAT
ACTRESSES SINK THEIR TEETH INTO GIGANTIC ROLES. Like the women in “A Streetcar Named
Desire”, like “Gone With The Wind”, like “A Town Like Alice”, like “Hotel Sorrento” , “Careful He
Might Hear You” and “Muriel’s Wedding” there is something completely fantastic about watching a
really giant role in the hands of a really great actress. The Flood gives you three of them. These
actresses have given up roles with national and international theatre companies for this tour,
because they love The Flood so much, because they love the writing so much. And when you watch
them go at it, hammer and tongs, you’ll see why.
11. THIS IS NOT A STORY ABOUT HELPLESS VICTIMS; IT’S A STORY OF FACING UP TO THE TRUTH,
OF SURVIVAL, STRENGTH AND LOVE. It’s a story of three women dealing with tragedy. It’s a story of
sisters and mothers; it’s impolite, wicked, very funny, very sad and unexpectedly moving. At the core
of the story is the love these women have for each other, a love that must be and is mined through
the layers of bitterness, resentment and mistrust that have grown up over years.
12. AWARD WINNING WRITERS AND READERS CAN SPEAK TO YOUR BOOK CLUB, HISTORY CLUB,
WRITERS CLUB & FILM CLUB. Caroline Lee and Maude Davey are both award winning writers, with
Caroline winning The Marion Eldridge Award, the Ian Potter Cultural Trust Grant, and the Sanderson
Young Narrator of the Year Award. In the last two years her novel ‘Stripped’ was serialised in literary
journal Meanjin, published and is now being produced as a play. Maude Davey’s writing has featured
on stages around the world, was made into a film (for which she won The Berlin Film Festival Best
Actress Award), and acknowledged in her award and The Age Artist of The Year. These actresses are
offering workshops and readings on The Gothic Heroine, and telling your family’s stories, and cannot
wait to meet with locals in book clubs, libraries, and history and writers clubs around Australia.
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Segmenting your audience for Direct Marketing
Why segment?
The more you can speak in language which directly appeals to your customer, the more
likely they will be to book for The Flood. Ideally, we’d write individually to each person,
using what we know about them to personalise the content and style of the communication.
Obviously we can’t do that, so segmentation is the next best thing.
Which segmentation is best?
Segmentation which groups customers according to similar needs is the most useful for
marketing purposes. Customers with similar needs can then be sent communications
addressing those shared needs: for example, people who’ve only been once before might
appreciate tips on the best way to get to your theatre, best places to park, how to avoid the
queue for interval drinks, where to eat before or after the show, and even what to wear.
(Some people think dressing up is a pain, other people love it. Your database won’t be able
to help you out with segmenting for that one, but you should aim to make everyone feel
comfortable and welcome, whatever they choose to wear.) People who are frequent
theatre goers might have a favourite place to sit in the theatre and might appreciate being
able to get in early to secure their favourite seats.
Recency and Frequency
These are two words that are important for direct marketing strategies. The more recently
someone has been to your theatre, the more likely they are to come back, and the more
frequently someone has been to your theatre, the more likely they are to come back.
Figures from the Purple Seven Vital Statistics database show that of first timers, 11% will go
on to become second timers, 25% of second timers will go on to become third timers, and
40% of third timers will go on to become fourth timers. And fourth timers are most likely to
become longer term regular customers. So you can see it’s worth your while to encourage
all first, second and third timers to come again. The Vital Statistics Event Snapshot reports
are designed to help you do this, by identifying recency and frequency for the audience of
each show. Another relevant statistic from the Vital Statistics database is that the average
length of time between attendances is 18 months. So our idea of frequency and recency and
our customers’ idea might be quite different. Some customers who attend once every 12
months might see themselves as ‘regular theatre goers’. If you can identify everyone who
has been to a similar theatre show within the last 18 months, and target them for The Flood,
your response rate should be reasonably good.
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Tips on using Vital Statistics reports to target your audience
Step 1: identify previous theatre works which have similar characteristics to The Flood, for
example new Australian works, family dramas, plays that have appealed to women.
Step 2: Select the “Event Snapshot” report for each play you’ve identified, and check the
‘Customer Relationship to You’ pyramid. What proportion of the audience were frequent
attenders (4 or more times)? What proportion were first timers? If there were mostly
frequent attenders or subscribers to these previous plays, then you will be promoting The
Flood primarily to your loyal frequent attender audience. If there were mostly first timers,
then you will be promoting The Flood to groups of people who have not been very often
before. NOTE: the accuracy of these first timer figures requires your ticketing database to
have very few duplicate customer records.
[NOTE re subscriptions: if you sell theatre works in subscription packages you’ll need to be
aware of whether these previous plays were sold on subscription. If so, you may be able to
just pull the list of subscribers who saw those plays from your ticketing system another
way.]
Step 3: Using the Communications Report function, pull the customer lists for the previous
plays you’ve identified that are similar to The Flood. De-duplicate these lists against each
other, so that you’re only contacting everyone included in all the lists, once.
Step 4: If you can segment these lists into groups of first-timers, second or third timers, and
frequent attenders (4 or more times), for Steps 5 and 6 below, your response rates should
be higher. Your content and copy should be different for first timers: e.g. provide more
information about where to park or how to get to the theatre, tips on avoiding the queue
for interval drinks, eating out before or afterwards, more information about the play itself.
Step 5: Design an email campaign to everyone for whom you have email addresses. See the
section, Direct Marketing: email for tips on designing the most effective email campaigns.
Step 6: Design a direct mail campaign to everyone for whom you don’t have an email
address. See the section, Direct Marketing: mail for tips on designing the most effective
mail campaigns.
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Ticketing strategies: pricing and packaging
Selling The Flood as part of a package
Subscription packages
You may already have included The Flood in a subscription package offer. If so, the focus of
your selling now will probably be on ‘single ticket’ sales. If, however, you have another one
or two plays following The Flood this year, that could be offered together as a package,
consider bundling them together as a special offer as part of your Flood marketing effort.
Small themed packages
Take your single ticket prices for each play, add them together, and offer a slight discount
on the package (maybe 15% to 20%) – or you could include one complimentary drink with
each play. You will need to have the right combination of plays to offer together for this
strategy to work – they will need to offer the same kind of experience, to appeal to people
who like Australian theatre, or women’s theatre, or contemporary theatre, for example.
(Use your Vital Statistics analysis to work out how big the potential audience might be for
this type of theatre, by doing the analysis for targeting described on page 6.)
Small flexible packages
OR, you could allow people to make up their own package by offering 15% off (or a free
drink each time) with any combination of three events bought together, providing one of
them is The Flood.
Organisations who offer whole-year subscriptions often find this type of small, more flexible
packaging works to attract previous single ticket buyers to their first package purchase.
Pricing strategies for single ticket sales
Dynamic and demand pricing (also known as ‘yield management’)
For popular events, some arts organisations are now trying dynamic pricing linked to
demand, in the same way that hotels and airlines do. This usually means the price rises
closer to the event. This only works for events that are in demand. (Usually, for events that
organisations find difficult to sell, the number of discounted offers increases the closer we
get to the event.) Sydney Theatre Company has used yield management successfully to
increase revenue over a number of years. Dynamic pricing or yield management must only
be introduced after careful planning, as there are down-sides. See online references below.
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Value-adding
You should start out offering single tickets at full price, monitor sales, and then if sales are
slow, try value-adding: a glass of wine included for the same price; a second ticket at half
price. Rather than making these offers loudly and publicly, to avoid disappointing customers
who have already bought unenhanced full-price tickets, make these value-added special
offers to membership organisations in your community, or to segments of your own
database, via email. Monitor sales. Make more value-add offers available if more effort is
still needed.
Discounting
Price discounting, apart from offering concessions based on capacity to pay, such as for
pensioners and full time students, should usually be a strategy of last resort. As the event
approaches, consider whether you need to step up the effort and offer discounted prices to
select groups, again via email. Groups who can email their members on your behalf are
valuable in these circumstances. Discounts tailored to particular groups are also a great way
to track results: if you create a special buyer type + price for each offer, you can easily check
your Vital Statistics reports to see how response to the offer is going. This will tell you which
groups will provide the most valuable relationships to pursue in the long term.
Note on timing:
It will be obvious by the descriptions of these pricing strategies that they require advance
planning, close monitoring of ticket sales, and time to implement them as the event
approaches. They are not expensive to implement, and when combined with segmented use
of your database, other membership organisations in your community, and good email
practice, can be very effective.
Online resources on pricing:
How to think about pricing in a downturn: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/2884.html
Yield management and dynamic pricing (hotels, airlines):
http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pages/faculty/robert.shumsky/Yield_management_note.PDF
Dynamic pricing and revenue management in the arts:
http://www.thinkaboutpricing.com/left-navigation/revenue-management.html
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Audience Development possibilities
The most important question to ask when considering the Audience Development potential
of any one event, is ‘who will it appeal to?’ Ideally, you’ll be programming over the longer
term with consistent genres or themes, to build your audience over time, with associated
marketing and community engagement strategies. Not every play will be suitable to attract
first-timers. That is a judgement you will need to make about each play, knowing your local
community. Not every play will present themes that provide easy links with existing
community interests or groups. But you should look for issues and themes that might be of
interest to local community groups, wherever possible. Here are some of the further
questions you might answer to help your thinking about Audience Development.
Is this play suitable for targeting first-timers to come a second time? What plays have we
presented in the last 2 to 3 years that might be similar? For The Flood, if they’ve seen
other Australian or contemporary theatre, the answer is definitely yes. You should follow
the advice given to segment your audience using the Vital Statistics software (page 6), to
identify the group of ticket buyers who’ve been once previously, to an Australian play or
other similar contemporary drama.
Remember never to address or refer to ‘first timers’ on your database as first-timers in
communications with them: they may have been to an event with a friend or family
member previously, who bought the ticket for them. You may have a duplicate record for
them on your database.
In addition to crafting copy with content describing The Flood, for people who we assume to
be first-timers, you should include extra information about getting to the theatre, avoiding
the interval drinks queue, etc. (see Step 4 on page 6.) You need to aim to make them feel
welcome. Consider including a free ‘welcome back’ drink (wine or coffee, don’t make it only
alcohol…although to fit with the theme of The Flood, you could be cheeky and make it a
scotch!)
Is this play suitable for targeting people who have not been to your theatre? For The
Flood: possibly. It’s pretty rugged, black Aussie humour and language. It’s not obscure or
hard to understand, or ‘European’ or ‘poncy’. Younger people (under 40) might identify with
the ‘caring for aged parents’ theme. They might enjoy the humour and will be less likely to
be offended by the swearing, as older more conservative theatre audiences may be.
People who haven’t been to your theatre probably won’t be on your database, so the
promotional methods you need to reach them are advertising (newspaper, radio,
magazines), flyers (in bookshops, cafes, cinemas, community buildings) and posters
(bookshops, cafes, cinemas, community buildings, etc).
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These promotional methods should therefore be designed to primarily appeal to people
who are not regular theatre goers: they will want to know ‘what the play’s about’ and ‘how
it will make them feel’. The starry cast, awards, playwright’s reputation, etc. are likely to
mean less to them than the experience they’re going to have in the theatre. So use a tagline
(see page 3, About The Flood), and other description of the play’s story, in these
promotional methods. Description of the cast and awards can be used as part of the
guarantee of a ‘good night out’.
Opportunities for collaboration on Audience Development:
Sharing audience attendance data
Venues early in a tour could check information from their Vital Statistics reports and share
this with their colleagues later in the tour:
* what percentage of first-timers is being attracted? - If it’s a high percentage of firsttimers, later tour venues could step up their efforts to attract new audience members,
through radio, newspaper, posters, and social media.
*what shows have people attending seen before? – If a high proportion of audience
members for the tour event have previously seen one or two events that also toured, this
information could help later tour venues target email campaigns to audiences from those
previous events.
*what ticketing strategies/special offers have worked? – If a special offer has worked
particularly well for the tour event, this should be shared with colleagues later in the tour:
was it to a particular community group, that might be replicated elsewhere? was it a joint
promotion with a local book shop or cinema? Sharing successful audience development
ticketing and marketing strategies will ensure everyone learns from them and can
implement them later.
Online resources for Audience Development:
http://www.canadacouncil.ca/development/ontheroad/presentershandbook/finding_an_audience/
ah127742889945365861.htm
http://www.americanorchestras.org/interest_areas/audience_development.html
and on Audience Engagement:
http://wolfbrown.com/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=131&cntnt01origid
=15&cntnt01detailtemplate=books_detail&cntnt01returnid=418
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Direct Marketing: email
The most effective email campaigns are personalised, i.e. individually addressed to each
recipient, and start out “Dear John”, rather than “Dear theatre-goer”. (You should never use
‘Dear theatre-goer’!) You should refer to their most recent relevant experience with you: for
example, if you’re emailing them because they saw a previous play similar to The Flood, tell
them. Say something like ‘because you recently enjoyed (say) Steel Magnolias with us, we
thought you’d enjoy The Flood. Like Steel Magnolias, The Flood is a play about ‘.. etc
The subject line is critical. Avoid wording which could be spam (like ‘have we got a deal for
you’). Avoid generic subjects such as ‘What’s On’ or ‘Coming to XX Theatre in July’. Perhaps
try something cute like “Flood expected to hit (town) in July” or “Flood due to hit (town) in x
weeks” – you want to intrigue people, grab their attention.
The time and day the email arrives in your customers’ inboxes is critical. Most organisations
promoting leisure activities find that emails arriving on Wednesday morning are most
successful. This assumes that most people are reading them as part of their working week,
which won’t be the case for all of your audience of course. Many theatre goers will be
retired, home-based, or working part time. You should experiment with sending email
campaigns on different days at different times, track the results, and see what works best
for you and your audience. If you haven’t done that, aim to send so the emails arrive on a
Wednesday morning.
Keep the content short and to the point. Try to keep it all ‘above the fold’, i.e. one screen’s
worth of writing and no more. Rather than lengthy description, consider including a link to
the 2 minute teaser on YouTube to give people a taste of the play.
Include a direct link back to the booking page on your website (or your ticketing agency’s
website if you don’t sell your own tickets), with a line saying ‘book now for the best seats’ or
‘book before x date for your special early bird offer’.
Including a direct ‘call to action’ like ‘book now’, and an incentive (like ‘best seats’ or ‘early
bird offer’), will increase the response rate.
Online resources
Tips on improving email marketing: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/freestuff.html
8 email marketing tips:
http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Editorial/Magazine-Features/8-Email-Marketing-Tips47641.aspx
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Sample email copy:
Subject line: “The Flood hits town <date/month>”
Dear <first name>
Have your sandbags ready next month when The Flood comes to town for x night/s only.
As someone who enjoyed <relevant play title> recently/last year/etc, we wanted to make
sure you had the chance to book early so you don’t miss The Flood.
Bristling with dark humour and edge-of-the-seat performances by three of our finest
actresses, The Flood is startlingly authentic writing, plunging audiences into the lives of
characters so real you feel you know them; a web of family intrigue against the haunting
Australian outback. Take a peek at this preview on YouTube: <link>
Written by Patrick White Award winner Jackie Smith and featuring Maude Davey, Shirley
Cattunar and Caroline Lee (who you might remember from her performance in Cosi last
year), The Flood is a theatre experience you’ll be talking about for days.
If you book before <day/month> you get our early bird special, which includes your choice
of complimentary pre-show or interval drink.
BOOK NOW <direct clickable link> to claim your free drink.
We look forward to welcoming you to The Flood.
Usual sign-off (real person)
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Direct Marketing: mail
The most effective direct mail campaigns are personalised, i.e. individually addressed to
each recipient, and start out “Dear John”, rather than “Dear theatre-goer”.
ALWAYS include a personalised cover letter with a flyer in a direct mail campaign.
As for an email campaign, refer to their past experience with you in the copy. Segment your
mailing campaign so different groups get tailored content: everyone who saw ‘Steel
Magnolias’, everyone who saw the David Williamson play, etc.
Keep the content short and concise, no longer than one A4 page, in 12 point type
(remember your ageing audience), reasonably spaced, not crowded.
Consider including some review quotes. Choose the ones you think will resonate best with
your audience and the particular segment you’re writing to.
Although it’s much less likely that people you’re mailing will access it, compared with the
people you’re emailing, you could include the YouTube address link for those who can get
online. Seeing the teaser is a much more vivid indication of what the play is like, than
anything you can write.
Include a call to action, like ‘book now for the best seats’ or ‘book by x date for our early
bird offer’.
Direct mail practitioners will also tell you that a P.S. can be very effective for increasing
response rates. Using a P.S. draws particular attention to that content, so it should be a
strong selling point. For example, you could include the fact that Caroline Lee toured last
year in “Cosi” as a P.S.
Online resources:
Direct Mail Tips for Sophisticated Marketers:
http://www.microsoft.com/business/en-us/resources/marketing/customer-serviceacquisition/direct-mail-tips-for-sophisticated-marketers.aspx?fbid=MAqOmGOqZFv
23 Direct Mail Tips:
http://www.understandingmarketing.com/2010/03/23/23-great-direct-mail-tips-for-entrepreneurs/
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Sample Direct Mail copy:
To be included with flyer
Dear <first name>
Have your sandbags ready next month when The Flood comes to town for x night/s only.
As someone who enjoyed <relevant play title> recently/last year/etc, we wanted to make
sure you had the chance to book early so you don’t miss The Flood.
Bristling with dark humour and edge-of-the-seat performances by three of our finest
actresses, The Flood is startlingly authentic writing, plunging audiences into the lives of
characters so real you feel you know them; a web of family intrigue against the haunting
Australian outback.
“[The Flood] is the best piece of new theatre I’ve seen this year… See it. See it. See it.”
- Anne-Marie Peard, AussieTheatre.com
A preview of the play is available on YouTube if you have internet access. Go to <YouTube
link URL>.
Written by Patrick White Award winner Jackie Smith and featuring Maude Davey, Shirley
Cattunar and Caroline Lee (who you might remember from her performance in Cosi last
year), The Flood is a theatre experience you’ll be talking about for days.
If you book before <day/month> you get our early bird special, which includes your choice
of complimentary pre-show or interval drink.
BOOK NOW on our website <include URL> or phone <phone number> to claim your free
drink.
We look forward to welcoming you to The Flood.
Usual sign-off (real person)
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Collaboration potential: Posters and flyers
There is great potential to coordinate the design and print run of posters and flyers as a
shared cost by all Tour venues. This will provide substantial savings on printing costs.
A coordination role exists for engaging and working with a designer, and liaising with each
tour venue to finalise design and quantities, and to engage and work with a printer. Images
will need to be agreed, and general copy written and agreed.
Copy and images should focus on new theatre goers and first timers as the principle targets
for posters and flyers: concentrate on descriptions of the story and how it will make
audience members feel, rather than on artists awards or critics quotes.
Could this task be rotated amongst VAPAC members? Does an outside consultant need to
be engaged?
This could become usual practice for all tours above x number of VAPAC venues, and
provide substantial onoing savings.
For discussion during the workshop session.
(Greg Diamantis had offered to coordinate a bulk print run for posters and flyers. He’s not
able to attend the Wangaratta meeting due to his new venue opening in April, so we may
have to discuss alternative arrangements for print cooperation.)
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Editorial: sample media release + ideas
Getting good editorial coverage for your events is all about building good relationships with
the journalists in the media you wish to target.
You will have developed good relationships with your local media already: newspaper/s,
magazines, radio stations and TV. So talking to them about an upcoming event should be
part of your ongoing relationship. You will have learned what kind of stories they like, how
far out from the event they’re willing to engage, and what kind of coverage you can expect.
You’ll be good at crafting a media release with just the right amount of information: some
local newspapers like a lot of information with quotes from artists so they can reproduce it
and make it sound like they’ve conducted the interviews themselves. So, local media will be
best managed by your usual contacts, using your relationship with them. [A sample media
release prepared by Karen Patterson from COPACC follows].
On the other hand, metropolitan newspapers will usually respond best to opportunities for
interviews themselves, with artists they think are interesting, and may want to take their
own photographs. Metropolitan media releases should be short and punchy,
communicating a bit of background and some story ideas, but offering interviews. A
followup phone call with the journalist will usually be required to secure an interview:
there’s a lot of competition for stories. That’s where a pre-existing relationship with the
journalist is critical. Without that, it’s much harder to get coverage for your event
Collaboration on editorial print and radio campaigns
For extensive tours of events with agreed new-audience potential, covering large parts of
regional Victoria, it may be worthwhile committing some shared funds to engage a publicist
to target state-wide media such as ABC radio, major newspapers and relevant magazines. Or
we could look at the feasibility of sharing our existing regional and state-wide media
contacts and compiling a directory on the website that is self-updated. Establishing and
maintaining good relationships with the relevant media contacts is important for success.
For discussion and suggestions during the workshop.
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[sample] MEDIA RELEASE: for immediate publication
‘THE FLOOD TO HIT TOWN NEXT WEEK’
(you need an attention-grabbing headline)
The Flood, a gripping new Australian mystery-thriller, set in a dilapidated outback homestead during a difficult
family reunion, is coming to INSERT THEATRE NAME, on INSERT DATE. Written by Patrick White Playwright
award winner Jackie Smith, this fast-paced, darkly funny drama keeps audiences on tenterhooks.
The story begins with a homecoming when Catherine, played by Caroline Lee, arrives after a 20 year absence.
Catherine is shocked and horrified by her mother Janet’s (Shirley Cattunar) hostile and confused reaction to
her arrival. She is intrigued and repulsed by her mother who spends her days fortressed in a chaotic lounge
room, and totally unprepared for the bomb she drops. Catherine’s inclination is to flee to a hotel room as her
sister Dorothy (Maude Davey) arrives home through rising flood waters which entrap them, forcing the
women to face their history, truth, survival, strength and love.
Caroline Lee, who toured Australia in the stage production of Cosi last year, and has won a series of Best
Actress Awards, said The Flood left audiences breathless. “As well as people laughing through it, they’re quite
moved and excited, people come up to you afterwards and say “Wow, that was amazing’,” Lee said.
“There’s an almost breathless feeling in the audience, it’s very pacey, it never sits still, it’s just bam, bam, bam
and then another twist. “It’s very earthy, it’s very real, but it’s also a gripping story. It’s not like you’re settling
down in the theatre with a cup of tea, you really have to buckle up. “It stimulates the imagination in the style
of the Gothic, it gives you that thrill of wondering what’s hiding in the cupboard.”
Maude Davey, from The Slap, who won Best Actress at the Berlin Independent Film Festival, said she was
drawn to The Flood for its powerful narration and “delicious discomfit”. “I think it is a privilege to have such an
intimate, deeply profound, emotional work played out in a theatre,” Davey said. “People laugh, people cry,
people feel very strongly for the characters, it’s funny, it’s light, but it has such dark undercurrents. “The
audience suspects so many things and none of them are true.”
Producer Moira Finucane describes The Flood as a family dealing with tragedy. “It’s impolite, wicked, very
funny, very sad and unexpectedly moving,” Finucane said. “The family dynamic and family tensions are
universally recognisable, and the laughter and the tragedy sit together on a knife edge. “It’s uniquely
Australian and it’s unforgettable.”
Playwright Jackie Smith said she had the bold characters of the mother Janet and her live-in daughter Dorothy
in mind when she read a true story of how a family invented a narrative to cope with their own tragedy. “So, I
had these two characters already brewing, locked in the house, when I read about how this woman who
realised the only way she could have closure in her life was to close it herself,” Smith said. Having grown-up in
the bush Smith was keen to set the story in the sticks, exposing the mythology of the freedom, beauty and
romance of the outback which Australians hold dear. “There’s a sense of better times and I wanted to explore
that romantic sense of the bush and farm-life, which can be wonderful, but in this case is purely imaginary,”
Smith said.
“People lose themselves in the story, because the characters are true, they’re real. “That’s the magic of
theatre, when it works, you and a group of people around you can lose yourself in someone else’s world, it’s
wonderfully cathartic. “It also happens sometimes with a good movie, I find it really invigorating to have
stepped outside myself and actively walked in someone else’s shoes for a time. “Human beings are incredibly
resilient and women are incredible in the way they cope with the extreme events in life – and all three of the
characters have their own way of dealing with the events of their past.”
To arrange interviews, further information, contact: [name, position, phone number]
With thanks to Karen Patterson for drafting this sample media release.
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[email protected] 0414 766 173
Victorian Association of Performing Arts Centres
Collaboration on Radio and TV advertising
Great potential for savings exists in collaborating to produce and book spots for radio and
TV ads.
Radio and TV advertising is great for events with broad potential market appeal, where you
can reasonably expect to recoup the advertising cost many times over through extra
revenue. It is, of course, not direct marketing. You cannot target specific market segments
as closely as through direct marketing methods.
You can choose which radio or TV station/s to advertise on, and what time of day or within
which programs you want your ad to go to air (usually, and mostly you have to pay to
specify times).
Community announcement spots are usually not suitable for event advertising as they’re
not scheduled, but used as fillers, most often during low listening/viewing periods. If you
have a sponsorship agreement with your local radio and/or TV station, by all means use it
for free advertising, but be aware that the most effective TV advertising will occur when you
choose airtime within shows you think will appeal to your target market.
Ideas for collaboration:
-
Share costs to produce a 30 sec radio ad which all tour venues can use, with specific
venue dates and phone numbers added at the end
Negotiate a joint deal for spots on suitable stations to cover the tour areas
Share costs to produce a 30 sec TV ad which all tour venues can use, with specific
venue dates and phone numbers added at the end
Check TV signal footprints and work out which stations suit the tour areas
Negotiate a joint deal for spots on suitable stations
Crazy idea to consider:
-
Would one central phone booking number for tours be possible?
One central webpage for bookings??
For discussion during the workshop session.
27
[email protected] 0414 766 173
Victorian Association of Performing Arts Centres
Social media: Facebook
Some ideas for using Facebook:
Special offers to all followers/’likers’ on Facebook
Networking comments on each other’s pages
Links to YouTube teasers
Links to audience ‘vox pops’ from early tour venues, on YouTube
-
The key is to find ways of engaging your Facebook followers: there’s nothing more
boring than pages of ‘own-posts’ and no interaction. Facebook only works when
there’s interaction: you need to unlock the networking potential of tapping into your
follower’s friends networks.
For further discussion during the workshop session
Some relevant examples of Facebook usage:
Frankston Arts Centre
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Frankston-Arts-Centre/112866948744431
La Mama
http://www.facebook.com/lamama.theatre?sk=wall
Trends and Tips on using Social Media:
6 Trends in Social Media in the UK
http://www.museumnext.org/2010/blog/art_marketing_trends
4 Steps to make Facebook Marketing work
http://www.forbes.com/sites/onmarketing/2011/11/28/four-steps-to-make-facebook-marketingwork/
28
[email protected] 0414 766 173
Victorian Association of Performing Arts Centres
Social media: YouTube
Some ideas for using YouTube:
Upload the 3 minute Video teaser .. who has a YouTube account and could do that for us?
Could we load up audience ‘vox pops’ from foyers after the show? (Plenty Ranges and
Geelong, early venues in the tour…)
Link to the teaser on YouTube from you website
Link to the teaser and vox pops with Tweets (use #TheFloodTour hashtag)
Post links to the teaser and vox pops on Facebook
Link to the teaser on YouTube in your email campaign copy
Include the YouTube URL in your direct mail campaign copy
For further discussion and suggestion during the workshop session.
29
[email protected] 0414 766 173
Victorian Association of Performing Arts Centres
Social media: Twitter
#TheFloodTour hashtag was not in use on 23.02.12 so we can use it for this tour
(#TheFlood is an Australian band, and also an alien parasitic lifeform in the Halo games..)
Some ideas for using Twitter:
Early venues start a conversation on Twitter in the lead up to their performances, using
#TheFloodTour hashtag
Tweet links to YouTube teasers as part of Twitter campaign – always use the hashtag
Encourage audience members to tweet instant reviews – from the foyer after the show
Live twitter feed of comments in the foyer?
Live twitter feed of comments on your website and facebook?
Special offers to twitter followers..
For further discussion and suggestion during the workshop session.
30
[email protected] 0414 766 173
Victorian Association of Performing Arts Centres
The role of your website and online ticketing
Aim for no more than 3 clicks between landing on the home page and getting to ticket
purchase: if there are more, tell people ‘this is a six-step process’ at step one. Manage
expectations about how long it will take to get to the ticket purchase function.
Your website should act as a ‘hub’ for your online activity, with YouTube, Facebook and
Twitter integrated:
Use the YouTube teaser on your website
Ask people to ‘like’ ‘The Flood’ page on your website via Facebook plug-in
Invite people to tweet about ‘The Flood’ on your website via a Twitter plug-in
Provide direct links from your email copy to ‘The Flood’ ticket purchase screen (or as close
as you can get)
Include your website URL in all print copy: poster, flyer, direct mail, newspaper ads, media
releases.
31
[email protected] 0414 766 173
Victorian Association of Performing Arts Centres
Where to find other materials online
These materials will be available via the VAPAC website:
-
32
The Flood, complete script
Quicktime format video teaser, 3 minutes
Reviews of the premiere 2009 season at La Mama
Images and brochure materials from Critical Stages
[email protected] 0414 766 173
Victorian Association of Performing Arts Centres
Tour dates
Opens
6-Jul-12
Closes
City/Town
7-Jul-12 SOUTH MORANG
Plenty Ranges Arts Centre
10-Jul-12
14-Jul-12 GEELONG
GPAC
18-Jul-12
18-Jul-12 PORTLAND
Portland Arts Centre
19-Jul-12
20-Jul-12 WARRNAMBOOL
Lighthouse Theatre, Warrnambool
21-Jul-12
21-Jul-12 COLAC
COPACC
25-Jul-12
25-Jul-12 HAMILTON
Hamilton Performing Arts Centre
26-Jul-12
28-Jul-12 HORSHAM
Wesley Performing Arts Centre
31-Jul-12
31-Jul-12 MOORABBIN
Shirley Burke Theatre
2-Aug-12
2-Aug-12 SHEPPARTON
Eastbank Centre
4-Aug-12
4-Aug-12 SALE
EBBW Entertainment Centre
7-Aug-12
7-Aug-12 MILDURA
Mildura Arts Centre Theatre
10-Aug-12
11-Aug-12 HOBART
Theatre Royal
28-Aug-12
29-Aug-12 WODONGA
Hothouse
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Victorian Association of Performing Arts Centres
Venue contacts
Plenty Ranges Arts Centre
James Mavros
[email protected]
03 9217 2317
GPAC
Tanya Bennett
[email protected]
03 5225 1201
Portland Arts Centre
Karl Hatton
[email protected]
03 5522 2301
Lighthouse Theatre,
Warrnambool
Greg Diamantis
[email protected]
03 55594885
COPACC
Karen Patterson
[email protected]
03 5232 9504
Hamilton Performing Arts
Centre
Ken Cameron
[email protected]
03 5573 0428
Wesley Performing Arts
Centre
Joy Cowie
Shirley Burke Theatre
Adrian Nunes
[email protected]
03 9556 4457
Eastbank Centre
Steve Donnelly
[email protected]
03 5832 9505
EBBW Entertainment
Centre
Michael Frawley
Mildura Arts Centre
Theatre
Karen Doyle
Theatre Royal
Tim Munro
[email protected]
Hothouse
Bernadette
Haldane
[email protected]
34
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
03 5382 0349
03 5142 3312
03 9905 1683
03 6233 2313
02 6021 7433
[email protected] 0414 766 173