Marketing

In Theatre Marketing, the skills measured are:

An understanding the marketing director’s role and specific responsibilities
An understanding of the purpose and value of research, resources, and personnel needed to communicate a marketing concept to an audience
The ability to align a marketing campaign’s components in a distribution strategy that supports a realized production.

Rules

Only one entrant may be involved in the presentation. No collaborations are permitted.
The entrant’s presentation must be from a realized production.

The entrant must prepare and present:

Up to an eight-minute presentation summarizing the work with connections to concept, collaboration, and design decision-making followed by up to four minutes of Q&A. The overall session, including the Q&A, may not exceed 12 minutes. The presentation should include:
- A case study that methodically works through the marketing process
- The marketing campaign developed and executed for a published script (play or musical) written for the theatre and presented by the school
  - Designs for performances of poetry, fiction, screenplays, or any other medium are prohibited
  - It is strongly recommended that the entrant was responsible for actual publicity
Entrants should bring a portfolio binder for adjudicators that contain the components of their marketing campaign, including:
- A finished poster
- A finished program
- Two press releases consisting of an informational article and a feature article
- A copy of the marketing budget for the publicity campaign and justification of expenses
- Any work that shows the progression of the creative process, including a brief statement of the design choices inspired by the script, research materials, and other sources of inspiration, if any
- Work will be adjudicated on creativity and results; not necessarily how much money was in the budget and how well the money was spent

Presentation Format:
- Background
- Introduce self and Thespian troupe number
- Description of the show
- Dates and number of performances
- Description of executing the marketing plan (self and/or team responsibility)
- Creative development
- Collaboration with production team
- Target market (outside of school)
- Research or inspiration to develop the design concept, if any
- How the marketing design concept matches the production design
- The development and creation of the marketing campaign’s design concept
- Reflections on what might be done differently if more time, money, etc., were available
Execution:
- Describe and demonstrate the components of the marketing campaign (posters, tickets, promotional handouts, social media, etc.)
- Explain how and where the marketing was distributed
- Make clear the consistency in marketing (from the same campaign)
- Identify elements (images, colors, fonts, etc.) changed to fit the media of marketing components.
Realized Outcomes:
- Indicate budget versus money spent
- Make note of free services (e.g., copies, printing) or vendor donations
- Determine what the actual or comparable service would cost
- Number of tickets sold per performance versus house capacity
- Compare the outcome to a similar show previously produced

Entrants must wear all black.

Clothing and shoes must be all black. Any visible color, including white, will result in a disqualification.
Entrants should refrain from wearing anything that might distract the adjudicators.

Download the rubric below.