Wicked Marketing
I just plunked down a grand – yes, a grand – to buy 10 tickets for the show Wicked in Los Angeles. As I wracked my brain trying to think of a Wicked song (yes, yes, Western sky, etc.), I had to wonder if one show could truly be worth so much.
Apparently, marketers see a goldmine in theater. After all, you’ve corralled some of the wealthiest (or damn craziest) people into a confined space. According to USA Today, the following companies are already mining the stage community through a number of strategies:
- Live commercials. Tourist group Visit London produced four-minute preshow skits for theaters in New York and Pittsburgh that encouraged people to visit the British capital. The payoff: Visit London promoted the participating theaters on its website.
- Product integration. Sprint tied in with the off-Broadway production Burleigh Grime$, about scheming stockbrokers. In a barter deal, Sprint provided cellphones and PDAs as props, while one scene was rewritten to say "No e-mails on this one. Go Sprint-to-Sprint" instead of "Go cell-to-cell."
- Jose Cuervo paid to have 2005's Broadway revival of Sweet Charity promote Gran Centenario tequila. Playwright Neil Simon approved a script change that has a character drink the tequila instead of scotch.
- Theater naming rights. Snapple made its off-Broadway debut with the Snapple Theater Center in Times Square.
- Special products. QVC created a Scoundrel Collection of necklaces, earrings and bracelets for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
Yeah, well I thought of a few more:
- Put familiar ad characters in the script. Think about it, Apple’s “Mac and PC” could perform a Shakespearean duel.
- Sell backs of seat space for corporate logo usage. Hey, my 10 tickets are for row “Z.” I’ll be looking at a lot of seatbacks that night.
- Texting. Have the audience text in their preferred endings…using their Sprint phones, of course.
- Provide free reading material on the ladies’ bathroom line. Ever have to go during intermission? If you’re a woman, it’s torture. I think everyone “queing for the loo” would appreciate something to pass the time.
- And at the end of the play, encourage theater goers to “visit our Web site” for more…
Bravo, huh?
