Marketing and Printing

Welcome to Phoenix, we can’t wait to
have your show with us!
This is designed to help you spread the word about
your show and generate an audience. While Phoenix
undertakes a number of marketing activities for our visiting companies to work with us to ensure that information
reaches the biggest potential audience.
The sooner you can start spreading the word about your show after it has been announced.
via Phoenix channels, the better – we usually recommend beginning your activity between
three months and six weeks prior to the show’s opening.
We’re really happy to offer any support and advice we can during this process, so please
feel free to contact us with any queries.

Stand out from the rest of the marketing in your Theatre and Promote your event in style. With our high-quality flyers. We can provide flyers direct to your Theatre or Event location within a time frame that suits you and at a price that won’t blow your budget. If you are on tour and need flyers sent to multiple venues or theatres, then no problem choose our split delivery service, and we will send your requested flyers to each location.

You can choose the flyer that suits your production or event. From a thinner paper such as a 95gsm up for a thicker card like 350gsm, the choice is yours. If you need further advise, please do not hesitate to contact us for our experts to help. We can print short runs from 1 piece, or longer runs up to 500000 + depending on your production or event.

Got any questions or want to know more? Contact us – we’ll be glad to assist further!

Marketing and Printing information help

Before you start…
Before you get started with your marketing, it’s good to take some time to consider a few key things that will help you set priorities and stay on track through the process:

Key messages: Establish the three key ideas that you’d like those who encounter

Audiences: Are there specific groups for whom your show is relevant, particularly those outside your, & our, typical audiences? If so, it’s worth making a note of this now, and working out the ways you can go about connecting with them
Budget & Resources: How much money have you got to spend? Are there things at your disposal you can do for free, or can you get any in-kind support? How much time do you have to give? How much time can everyone else in the company give? Work this out, and then work out what your priorities should be.
Evaluation: How are you going to judge if you’ve been successful in your campaign? Of course, everyone wants to their show to sell out, but this might not be realistic if you are a brand new company and haven’t performed with us before, so set a realistic target so the whole company is on the same page.
A Marketing Plan: Creating a simple marketing plan in Excel, tracking what you need to do, when, and who is going to do it, as well as marking when each action is complete, can be hugely helpful in keeping you on track during the process

Photography

A selection of 4-6 decent photographs will be a great asset in helping to sell your show: it’s worth setting up a photoshoot around 6-8 weeks in advance, and even if you don’t have costumes/props as yet, you can create a striking image that captures the spirit of your piece.

A great image should be colourful and well-lit. The eye is naturally drawn to the human face, so images with large faces, especially with strong expressions, are often effective. Intriguing props always bring additional interest to an image, and it’s usually a good idea to take photos against a plain black or white backdrop, or alternatively a background that has some relevance to the themes of your work. Please send copies to us as soon as you have them.

Once you have your show on stage, it’s worth taking some production shots, both to help publicise the show and to support your work in the future. Don’t forget to send us the new photos as soon as you have them; we can use them in lots of ways, for example by creating a photo gallery on our Facebook page.

Ensure your photos are of a suitable quality to print – around 300dpi/1MB is great.

Photographers Locally: UPDATE COMING SOON!

Print

For runs of more than one night, or where you are part of a tour, we strongly suggest considering investing in print marketing materials.

A good flyer may include:

A striking image that captures the spirit of the show
The title, location, dates, times, prices and box office info in large, clear writing
A website address
Logos of the company and Phoenix (please contact us for a high res version of our logo)
A hashtag & social media details
A description of the show: avoid anything too esoteric, and instead aim to capture what the experience of the show will be like for the audience member
A brief description of the company, particularly if you’ve had any past work with which audiences may be familiar
Any quotes or star ratings that help to convey what’s special about the show, particularly from high profile media titles or industry professionals

With regard to quantities, we’d usually recommend around 2500 flyers, 100 A3 posters & 3 or 4 A1 Posters for a three night run.

We cannot guarantee that we will display print materials if we haven’t seen them for sign off in advance – please send them at least three days prior to your deadline. Flyers must be provided with overprinting details for the venue completed.

Distribution

Please send us some of your print marketing materials as soon as possible.

It is worth considering distributing your print in some of the following locations:

Locally: numerous shops, restaurants, pubs, community centres etc in our area will display flyers and posters – occasionally it can be helpful to offer a ticket or two in exchange for displaying posters, please let us know if you plan to do this in advance
Special interest: Is your show particularly relevant to a particular group? Eg if you are targeting a particular ethnic group, you could take your print to restaurants, shops and community centres that are of particular relevance to that group, or into areas that have a high percentage of that group living locally

You can undertake exit flyering at other Phoenix shows or other venues with a similar programme to Phoenix – box offices can let you know what time shows finish. It’s worth

checking the times out on websites for shows with a potential crossover, and considering events outside theatre too (eg could your event be relevant for a music audience?)

Door-to-door flyering in the vicinity of Phoenix is another option, particularly if your show has a strong local or community angle.

Networks

56% of our audiences say they heard about the show they attend either because they are friends with the artist or via word-of-mouth, illustrating the importance of activating ‘buzz’ in your networks as early as possible.

Your personal networks are absolutely key in generating an audience for your show. Get them on board early, sharing information via email and social media channels, making it clear why the project is so important to you, personally, and encouraging them to share info with their own networks. An Early Bird discount on tickets can be a good way of getting friends & family on board.

There may be other networks for whom your work is relevant, eg specific university courses, community interest groups etc – contact them by social media, email or phone and ask them to help you spread the word. A special ticket offer can be a good incentive to motivate these groups to share your information

Social Media/Digital

Social media is as much about conversation as it is about interaction: it works best when you engage in dialogue with groups and individuals for whom your work is relevant. This can be a time consuming process, and needs updating/monitoring daily (several times a day for Twitter), so we recommend prioritising a couple of networks and looking after them properly, before trying out new platforms. The most relevant platforms are likely to be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube.

Remember to connect with Phoenix Community Events:

As well as connecting with any other artists that are part of the same festival/season as you, and using any hashtags we’ve set up.

If you have a website, please ensure it is up-to-date with information about the show: the more interesting content you have to share, the better. If you don’t have a website it is possible to create one very cheaply or even for free: wordpress has an excellent ‘freemium’ model that enables you to build your site as your company grows.

You may wish to keep a blog about your progress as you develop the show, with, for example, photos from the rehearsal room, reflections on the creative process, extracts from the script etc. This can give you great content to share across your digital channels, and helps your potential audience engage with your journey. This could either be hosted on your website or on a blog network like tumblr or WordPress.

A good, short trailer is a great way of enabling a potential audience member to get a flavour for what they are signing up for, and as youtube is the fastest growing social media channel, a decent trailer is more important than ever.

Phoenix will include information about your show in an e-bulletin, but you may wish to create an eflyer to send to your own networks, with a link through to your page on the Phoenix website.

Your show will be featured on our website and social media channels, so please ensure we have any multimedia assets from you – the more you send us, the more profile we can give you.

Press

If you are planning to contact the press regarding the show, it’s a good idea to send a press release at least six weeks in advance. A good press release should be contained in 1-2 A4 Pages, and includes the following elements:

Clear information on the name of the show, dates, times, and where tickets can be purchased
The first paragraph should summarise the story: what makes this story interesting for journalists and their readers now?
A brief description of the show
Information on any notable individuals involved with the company, or past work you have undertaken
A quote from a key creative (eg the director) that summarises the story in a sentence or two
Let them know if images and/or interviews are available
You can add a ‘Notes to Editors’ section that includes any information that you don’t have room for in the main body of the release, eg artist biographies, ‘About the Company’ info etc

If you feel you genuinely have a story that will capture the interest of a journalist, follow up your press release with an email or call explaining the story’s relevance. You should clearly express:

– Key messages

– How you envisage them covering the story: is there a specific column they run that the story would be right for?

– What you can offer: an exclusive interview? The chance to do a photoshoot of the show?

Marketing and Printing information help

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