The Importance of Social Media in Live Entertainment

Posted: Thursday, October 27, 2011 by Damian De Luca in Labels: , , , , , , , , ,
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When promoting a concert, Broadway musical, or theater play, producers shouldn’t ignore the power of social media. In fact, social networking can represent one of the few marketing tools that productions with low budgets can afford. Moreover, it is important to realize that, in the digital era, ‘cheap’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘ineffective’. For instance, several Off-Broadway musicals such as "Altar Boyz" have proved to the entire industry that a serious social media plan can obtain outstanding results. On the other hand, companies that have greater resources tend to think that utilizing traditional marketing channels is the best option to attract potential audiences. Thus, they underestimate what social media can truly accomplish. Thankfully, ‘expensive’ is not a synonym for ‘successful’. Accordingly, live entertainment producers who have already put social networks to the test dare to assert that viral campaigns should be included in every marketing plan, regardless of how large—or small—their budgets can be. 
The Book of Mormon
Today, the number of Broadway musicals that benefit from social media is substantial. Producers are getting very creative when planning viral campaigns. For example, when “The Book of Mormon” was about to debut, producers developed a clever Facebook game that encouraged users to actively play and compete for free tickets to the final dress rehearsal. This type of viral activities can become extremely powerful ways to make people share their thoughts about a show with other friends online. Other productions are displaying live Twitter feeds during their shows, playing trivias with their followers through Facebook, or performing their entire show via 140 character tweets.
Producer Ken Davenport is considered to be a specialist and pioneer of social media campaigns within the Broadway and Off-Broadway communities. He has learned to embrace digital marketing and has shown others effective ways to capture people’s attention. Ken is also known for imparting his knowledge on the industry and giving a great diversity of seminars in theater production, Broadway investment, and more. He has now added a new workshop cleverly entitled “The Show Must Go Online: Connecting with Future Audiences via Social Media” The course teaches how to master the art of marketing shows through Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and Google+. Other topics that will be covered include location-based marketing, cross-platform marketing campaigns, and turning past patrons into active promoters. This represents a great opportunity to see how the Broadway pros have managed to take full advantage of online tools to turn buzz into ticket sales. Since it will be dictated at DTE Studio in New York, Ken’s followers around the world are already suggesting that the workshop should be live streamed. After all, this is all about exploiting the latest Internet capabilities.
The Show Must Go Online:

NEW YORK:
Thursday, November 17, 2011 from 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Location: DTE Studio, 250 West 49th Street, Suite 302
For more information about the course, click on the following link: http://goo.gl/4QYWA





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