From: Widerman-AT-aol.com
Date: Sat, 18 Jan 1997 05:34:22 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: Update on Puppet Theater


I admire Robert Smythe's depth and candor in describing the operation of his
theater for Joe Dunfee and everyone else. I hope Joe will give his theater
another try. Startup is a difficult phase for any business. I was
particularly intrigued by Robert's use of a ticketing service in order to
provide advance credit card sales. I wonder what price per  ticket is the
break-point for making this expedient. Our ticket price of $7.50 would
probably not make sense for a ticket service, but I like the concept a lot.
We take reservations, and charge at the door. We slightly overbook to cover
the no-shows. 

In a message dated 97-01-11 17:28:54 EST, Robert wrote:

<< . . . the free listings in all of the regional papers let everyone know
that we were around for the whole month of December. It takes that long for
it all to seep into 
 consciousness.>>

Free listings are the place to start. We have found that they work better
than paid advertising in some publications.
 
 <<. . .in our first outing, we sometimes performed for as few as three
people, and many performances failed to attract anyone.>>

That's show biz. This will happen to everyone from time to time, sometimes
because of uncontrollable circumstances like the weather or unusually popular
competition. 
 

<< Last year we spent a fortune on sending a bulkmail post card to our 
 mailing list of over 14,000 names. This year we did not spend a penny 
 on advertising. Result? Attendance was up 33% over last year. Why? 
 We spent more time making sure that our information was in the right 
 places: free directory listings in _all_ the local papers. In addition to 
 press releases (send them first class) we wrote 15, 30 and 60 second 
 Public Service Announcement scripts and sent them to every television 
 and radio station. Many people heard them or saw notices in the paper. 
 We have not found that posters or the like is useful: the pattern is that 
 parents check the paper the morning that they plan to come. It's that 
 simple. A postcard on the refrigerator will be rediscovered when it's 
 all too late and the show has closed. When we considered how long it 
 takes to produce and prepare posters and mailings we found the same 
 amount of time (or less) much better spent on using mass distribution 
 systems already in place. If you don't know how to write a concise and 
 clear press release, find someone who does and don't leave it to the 
 last minute. Find the names of press contacts from other organizations 
 (they are not always cooperative) or contact your city's arts council or 
 mayor's office of arts and culture, or Business Volunteers for the Arts, 
 if they have a chapter in your city. Don't just send information to the 
 papers and stations you know: get a list and send to everyone on it. 32 
 cents will put you in front of thousands of people who don't know you.>>

I would like say that we have found using our mailing list works very well in
conjunction with all other forms of promotion. These are past customers who
know our work and are most likely to return if they liked it before. We tried
skipping the mailing because it is expensive and lots of work, but returned
to it. The toughest part is that it has to be paid for before you make any
money. That postcard on the refrigerator keeps your image in front of the
customer all the time. Filling the theater is a constant challenge and there
is no single solution. Paid advertising is costly, but publications are more
likely to provide editorial space like reviews, listings and write-ups to
advertisers. There is nothing like a good review in a parents' paper to get
those seats filled!  Most publications will want you to take ads over an
extended period, telling you that one-time will not get you much. This is
true, but you can leverage your position by requesting editorial space if you
continue to advertise. Also, quotes from good reviews can be used in future
advertising. Having a photograph published is a little goal we always try
for. We use the same image for our ads, postcards and listings to boost
recognition. Having an article with the same photograph as an ad in a single
publication is very strong. 
 
 <<Cut way back on the number of performances you do (like you don't 
 know this already!) A good rule of thumb is to only increase the number 
 of performances when there is a line around the block and you are 
 filled to capacity. I think this has made a big difference for us; once 
 people found out that just showing up at the door meant the possibility 
 of not getting in ("What do you mean you're sold out? I promised my 
 kid...!" "Would you like to buy tickets for tomorrow's show?") We found 
 that people have now been trained to buy in advance rather than risk 
 disappointment.>>

We sometimes add a performance if demand is heavy.
 
<< We do not take unpaid reservations over the phone; a major mistake 
 when the majority of your audience might wake up cranky or need a nap 
 at show time. When people call us (and demonstrate interest) we 
 believe that they are our sale to lose. We suggest that they buy tickets 
 over the phone so they can show up right before the show and be 
 assured of a seat. We tell them that other shows have been sold out, as 
 with family shows it is not uncommon for eight or 11 tickets to get 
 sold at once and so, while we might have seats now, we cannot 
 promise anything. We let them connect the dots and they go get their 
 credit card

 It is far too expensive for you to have your own credit card account. 
 Theater is considered too risky, anyway, for anyone to give you an 
 account (What if you sold tickets to a show next month and skipped 
 town? Theatres have to have a solid history at one or two locations to 
 interest creditors). We use a ticket service in Philadelphia. For an 
 annual fee tickets to any and all of our shows are sold by phone and in 
 a number of locations in the city. We pay the credit card fees on every 
 ticket, as well as 25 cents per ticket for printing and we absorb a 1 or 
 2 dollar surcharge normally charged to customers, so that it costs the 
 same to buy from us at the door or in advance, important since we do 
 not have a dedicated box office staff 8 or 12 hours a day. But our use 
 of this "virtual box office" allows us to give that impression. I'm sure 
 you can find a similar set-up in Miami. Also, we can process credit 
 card orders through our "virtual box office" and pay only the credit 
 card charges. Don't let anyone get away without buying a ticket!.>>

This sounds like a great idea and has me thinking about it!
 
<< We use our local Bell System's anwering machine service with its 
 sub-mail box system to answer common questions with a "For 
 Directions, press #1" menu. It costs about 5.00 dollars a month and 
 answers many questions without you being there. The ticket option 
 refers people to our virtual box office number. This innovation this 
 year made a lot of people happy when they called late at night or early 
 week-end mornings. We also gave people the option of leaving 
 messages that were returned within 24 hours, a personal service that 
 impressed everyone and always resulted in ticket sales.
 
 We let everyone know at every performance that we will be repeating 
 "Velveteen Rabbit" at the same time next year, as we have done every 
 year. Many people have returned because, like the Nutcracker Ballet, 
 they can count on it. We also schedule shows during the spring school 
 break, when people are looking for something to fill the time. Nine 
 performances over two weekends and the intervening week gives 
 people a nice target to shoot for. Trying to present something every 
 weekend is a little hard, right now, as you really need a different show 
 each weekend to enable people to return again and again.
 
 This, I think is the most important part of family/children's 
 programming: constancy and consistency. Every show is at the same 
 time of day at an easily remembered time of year: "Every weekend 
 after Thanksgiving at 2:00 pm to New Year's eve." It's worked for us.
 
 We increased our performances this year to 13 from 7 last year. Next 
 year we plan on 23, including a second daily performance in the week 
 between Christmas and New Years. Watching patterns from the past 
 four years shows us that this is where the audiences are looking for to 
 go out; we plan to be there to meet them.
 
 I'm sure that others have more and much better advice; I'll be 
 interested in reading it, too. Don't hesitate to ask if I can be more 
 helpful.
 
 Best regards and good luck.
 
 Robert Smythe
 Mum Puppettheatre >>

We run our theater for the public on weekends from October through April and
close for the summer to build a new production. During the week, we tour and
give private performances in the theater. Our space is so small, we usually
try to get groups to take a private performance rather than offer group
rates, but selling to groups is a good strategy. We depend on the large
population of the New York metropolitan area to fill our theater for the 7
month duration of the run of the show. We have not been funded by any grants
and are unaffected by recent cutbacks.

Many thanks to Robert for taking the time to expound such good advice so
freely.

     -Steven->

Steven Widerman
The Puppet Company
New York, NY



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