Marketing Is Square One in Online Performing Arts Education
“Once a production you feel is ready to go, and even before you’ve announced it, you want to put together your team, which is public relations, marketing, advertising, people who will be doing your social and digital, and also your management” says Jeffrey Richards, describing the role of a producer in pre-production meetings that take place prior to performing arts shows and productions.
The Importance of Learning Marketing in Performing Arts Education
“So much has changed even since I began nearly 20 years ago, with the emphasis on how you’re marketing a show,” says Richards, who also says “that emphasis has changed from when people just automatically used to take full-page ads in ‘The New York Times’ to now doing commercials on television and using the internet to a much greater extent.”
Richard explains that other members of the team are also frequently involved in the marketing decision-making. “An author or the playwright or the composer and the librettist team have a say in what the artwork is going to be.” He continues to explain “sometimes you include them on the commercial because you want their approval and to feel comfortable in the way that you’re selling the production. To that extent, I have in recent years asked playwrights to have discussions with the ad agency so that they can understand what the playwright is doing in terms of the playwright’s vision, I can say.”
“So they have an understanding of where they should go, and how they should treat the material. And once you have the playwright working with you, I should say it’s the producer’s responsibility to marshal all of those people and to make sure that you have a coherent framework as you are moving forward [with your production].”
