The Art of Visibility
- Allie Matsuo
- Jun 28
- 3 min read
We're not experts in branding by any means, but we have successfully recruited, sold tickets, and (perhaps best of all) impressed our administrators with our marketing savvy in the high school theatre space. Maybe you caught us this summer at the workshop by the same title as this post, or maybe you're just hunting for a way to get yourself noticed in the returning world of theatre. Either way, we hope you'll feel you're in the right space!
July is the time of year to set yourself up for success in the branding/marketing sphere. You're in your "off season," getting ready for fall auditions, plays, and the spring musical push, plus college audition season is just around the corner. Tips and tricks are one thing, but you need a comprehensive timeline for just HOW to make the year happen on your website, your socials, and best of all in your space!
Summer:
Solidify your season- get rights secured and decide on the story that will be told this year in your space
Figure out what shows will be the hardest sell, and to which audience
Do research on those audiences and determine a strategy- maybe you need to make Bye, Bye Birdie look exceptionally fun and cool for teen auditioners, perhaps you've got to convince the local senior living facility that their residents do indeed want tickets to Mean Girls
Start the process of templating your announcements and posts- what will each kind of email, post, story, etc. look like and how will that project the right kind of image?
Early Fall:
Advertise AUDITIONS and programming directly to the student body with posters, flyers, videos, and (yes) social media- don't overwhelm yourself, make templates for each of these that you can simply plug images and text into
Need ideas for a template or want to brainstorm how this could work for your team? Book an Educator Strategy Session today!
Before the First Show:
Advertise ticket sales to both the student body and the larger community
Copy what your local theatre or museum is already doing- bonus points if it mirrors what the school is doing for events like dances and games (people love consistency)
Winter:
Continue pushing your work to the community, even in your slow season
Showcase unconventional student work like competition pieces and results on your feed
Highlight the work your students do behind the scenes for all the holiday events at your school
Start the process of recruiting for spring musical with videos and photos of students of all backgrounds, genders, and appearances loving your space and the art
Schedule posts for after winter break to excite kids for musical
Spring:
Show the PROCESS of the musical with the fun behind the scenes footage clustered at the beginning of the process not the end since that's when you have the most time!
Push your spring musical to a variety of audiences using your templates
Have others help you- if everything has a template you can easily swap images and text and even a parent or student can post!
Don't let musical be the thing that doesn't fit your season's branding- keep it consistent and people will keep coming back
After the Last Show:
Don't let your social posts drop off! Keep people engaged and encourage them to come back
You don't need to run that "guess the musical" campaign unless you'd like to- just keep posting and emailing consistently
This is a great time to fundraise for summer and fall travel!
You're an artist, not an advertiser, but to survive in this biz you've got to do both well. Batch your posts. Template your designs. Cut the stuff that doesn't work.
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