The Wild Party

Join the Party…The Wild Party

Baldwin Wallace Univeristy’s Arts Management program hosts a special topics course every fall where students take part on a team tasked with producing the Main Stage Musical put on by BW Music Theatre. I have been selected for the team for the past three seasons. Andrew Lippa’s The Wild Party was my official promotion to marketing team leader.

My marketing team was made up of three students (including myself). I reported to the producer, Bryan Bowser, and the director, Victoria Bussert. Every year, I learn something new about promotion and ticket sales. The goal of this project was to sell as many tickets as possible.

This production was a risk taken by the program, the material itself is risque and provocative. The audiences we usually bring to Baldwin Wallace are typically families and Bereans over the age of 50. The programming team opted to change the performance schedule and feature late-night performances on Saturday nights to replace Sunday matinees in an attempt to deter these audiences.

Content Marketing

  • Planning six weeks of content for two accounts(BW Music Theatre and Conservatory) on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

  • We established a mix of graphics, photos from rehearsal, stylized photos from the last production of The Wild Party, trailers, and interviews. We established “routines” for each day of the week.

    • Monday: Promo Graphics

    • Tuesday: Cast Announcements

    • Wednesday: Cabaret Conversations (Interview Series)

    • Thursday: Throwbacks

    • Friday: Photos from Rehearsal

  • Led a team of two students with differing levels of experience by:

    • onboarding them to the process

    • including them in strategy development

    • weekly meetings delegate/approve the tasks completed throughout the week.

  • Reporting to BW faculty, including director Victoria Bussert and producer Bryan Bowser, for approvals and scheduling. Also, coordinating with the marketing leads from both the conservatory and BWMT.

  • My team would create all of the content for the following week by Wednesday and then submit the plan for the week to both marketing managers for approval. Once I had approval, I scheduled each post.

Team Management

Graphic Design

  • Designed logo/poster for the show on procreate. I hand-drew the main characters and sent to the on-campus marketing team. From there, the team adapted the design into a poster and developed a brand guide.

  • I then designed printed media (lobby signage and yard signs) and digital media (social media content, digital promotion screens across campus, and e-blasts).

    • These also included targeted social media posts for the cast to share with their friends and family, announcing their performing dates.

  • Developed branding and promotional materials for fundraising events presented by the production, including the Ars Nova cabaret and Arts Management Association mocktail fundraiser.

Publicity & Email Marketing

  • Coordinating with Conservatory Communication Manager Jenny Taraba, on email marketing procedures by creating various e-blast templates on Mailchimp for every stage of the timeline (ticket launch, opening night, last chance to see the show, before you arrive, etc.). She then would select the proper email list for each scenario.

  • I also wrote the press release published by the university. I worked with Shawn Salamone, the director of public information within BW’s University Relations, by writing a draft and submitting it to her for notes and approval. The press release was then sent to several publications, including BroadwayWorld and numerous critics and agents locally and in New York.

My Success

  • Sold over 75% of tickets to every performance and completely sold out eight performances out of the ten.

  • A mix of targeted content in the form of static posts, reels, and stories yielded an increase in reach on both Facebook and Instagram.

    • Facebook: 93.2% increase (14.4K)

    • Instagram: 39.3% increase (9.5K)

  • Increase in link clicks on BW Music Theatre by 446.6% (317); this is significant because most ticket buyers were students who had purchased through social media.

  • We also yield a 81.8% (2.5K) increase in content interactions.

Tools I Used

  • Canva logo

    CanvaPro

    Graphic Design & Content Creation

  • Excel Logo

    Excel

    Content & Strategy Organization

  • iMovie Logo

    iMovie

    Video Editing for Trailers and Interviews

  • Mailchimp logo

    Mailchimp

    E-Blasts to Ticket Buyers

  • Meta Business Suite Logo

    Meta Business Suite

    Content Scheduling & Analytics