Co-Op Ad Courts Group Tour Market
From the Summer 1999 U.S. Outdoor Drama, pages 1-2
by Jan Abel
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Recently sixteen outdoor theatres from eight states led by the historical drama Blue Jacket (Xenia, OH) pooled marketing funds to purchase the back cover of the annual membership directory of the National Tour Association (Lexington, KY). The purpose of the four-color display ad was to promote the theatres to the more than 620 tour operators who are members of NTA, the professional trade association for the packaged tour industry. The directory was published in June and more than 5,000 copies were distributed nationwide.
The following is an account of how the project was conceived and executed by the staff of Blue Jacket. Once again there had been a consensus of managers and producers at the National Conference on Outdoor Drama last October that U.S. outdoor theatres, as a group, need to advertise regionally and/or nationally to increase attendance. So, when the materials regarding advertising space in the 1999-2000 National Tour Association Membership Directory came across his desk, Scott Galbraith, marketing director of Blue Jacket, recognized that it would be a good place for the outdoor drama industry to start. The back cover of the directory could be purchased for $6,170, and, if fifteen theatres participated, costs per theatre would be reasonable. Now it was just a matter of getting the word out and determining how many managers would commit to the project. A summary of our plan was sent to all those registered on the Institute of Outdoor Drama listserv (PLAYOUTDOORS) and by fax to others. [The listserv is an email software program that allows individuals to send an email to an entire list of members, in this case, to those professionals involved in outdoor drama.] The response was immediate. Sixteen theatres committed to participate at a cost of just under $400 each. The ad itself was developed primarily from brainstorming by the Blue Jacket staff and was created by Galbraith. It was more difficult than we imagined to incorporate sixteen theatres into a single ad. Some of our original ideas had to be abandoned because it was not possible to include so many theatres with the concept. We made a choice that all the theatres involved would have a photo along with their name, location and phone number. That decision led us to the layout we ultimately used. In the future, depending on the number of participants, it might be necessary to develop graphics that fairly represent the entire industry - a challenging task indeed. As we created the ad, we realized that a regional ad with a smaller number of participants should be considered in the future. The photos themselves presented one of the greatest challenges in this project. First, just getting the materials sent from some theatres was like pulling teeth. Once the material arrived in our office, much of it was in the wrong format. The second challenge involved some of the photos themselves. A photo to be reduced to approximately 2" x 2" should not include dozens of actors. We cropped several of them, but it was agonizing for us because we did not want to offend any of our fellow managers who had chosen the photographs. Although many of the participants sent exactly what we requested, and did so in a timely manner, when you are short of time, it only takes a few delays to become very frustrating. While I believe this project can be called a success, it happened in much too short a time frame - approximately six weeks. As a result, proofs were not sent to each participating theatre before the ad was sent to NTA. Time simply did not permit it, and, as a result, an error in a phone number nearly occurred. Some of the difficulty in receiving materials may also have been a result of the tight deadline. In the future, it would be appropriate to send the exact requirements in writing to each theatre rather than communicating instructions by phone. I believe that this project was a positive first step toward more dialogue about future cooperative ventures. The IOD listserv is a marvelous tool, and theatres not currently participating should consider doing so. We need to address the issues of size of financial commitment, potential ad placements and regional versus national advertising. I look forward to the discussion and invite others to step forward in a leadership capacity. This is an exciting step we have taken, and future possibilities are endless. Jan Abel has been the executive producer of Blue Jacket outdoor drama in Xenia, OH, since 1988, and can be reached via email at: bjacket@aol.com. She has been licensed to practice law in Ohio since 1984. |
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