Celebrate 40 Years of Geordie Theatre
This is a project I worked on as the Marketing and Communications Manager at Geordie Theatre in Montreal, Quebec.
Summary
Ask: Promote Geordie’s 40th milestone theatre season.
Objectives:
Obtain media coverage by at least three large media outlets.
Gain around 2-3K impressions on social media (Facebook and Instagram).
Receive positive feedback from the email campaign and personal connections.
Challenge: It’s 2020, the pandemic has just started and there is a lockdown. The original plan was to host an in-person event inviting the media, artists, and key community members to promote the premiere of the theatre season.
How can Geordie still launch and successfully promote the season where in-person events and productions are not possible anymore?
Key Insight: Our target audiences are tired of the pandemic and are experiencing internet fatigue. They feel like life has become dull and see little hope in sight.
Solution: Appeal to Geordie’s diverse target audiences, such as children, parents, and artists, by creating a short, cheerful animated trailer. A playful animation that would bring back that enchanting feeling they used to get when they went to the theatre.
In-Depth Read
Background
Geordie Theatre is an award-winning professional theatre company that has presented live productions for young audiences in Quebec and abroad since 1980. Pushing artistic boundaries with provocative and important stories, Geordie delivers more than 200 performances each season and reaches more than 40,000 young people and their communities annually.
During a time when in-person events are not an option anymore and people are starting to get fatigued from the influx of online content what can we do stand out and capture the attention of our audiences ?
The Challenge
It’s the beginning of the pandemic and Geordie has been planning for a year to launch its 40th milestone season in September 2020. The plan was to host an in-person event inviting the media, artists, and key community members to promote the theatre season’s premiere and garner as much media attention as possible. With the lockdown, our team had to devise an alternative plan to ensure the company did not lose the opportunity to get as much traction as possible for this season.
The Research
As Geordie Theatre is a company mainly targeting younger audiences, our primary target audiences were children and teenagers as well as their gatekeepers (parents, teachers, counsellors etc.). The best place to target these audiences was at that moment in time on social media.
Children and teenagers are mainly on Instagram and TikTok, whereas their gatekeepers are on Facebook and Twitter. Our older target audience is also known for checking their emails and the news for relevant events or activities.
As we were already a few months into the pandemic, people were fatigued from long digital content and seeking short, uplifting content. According to research 23% of North Americans said that their Zoom fatigue has been at its peak. A zoom event was not an option. The team needed to come up with an alternative to be able to have a positive impact on our audiences.
“23% of North Americans said that their Zoom fatigue has been at its peak”
Our target audiences were all seeking short, positive, and playful content. They were tired of the pandemic and were experiencing internet fatigue.
We wanted families, especially children, to feel like there is still magic and hope during this difficult time.
The Insight
The Strategy
Introduce people through playful animation to our upcoming season. Bring back that captivating feeling our audiences, especially children, used to get when they went to the theatre by launching a short and cheerful trailer.
The Creative Idea
To create a short, playful animated trailer to appeal to our different target audiences and to bring Geordie’s playful brand DNA to the forefront. A memorable trailer to wash out that feeling of the world being dull and remind children that there is still magic out there.
My main responsibilities were creative direction for the design and illustration for each play. My responsibilities also included the creative direction of the trailer and regular follow-up with the animators to ensure the work they delivered was in line with Geordie’s overall brand values and the storyline we had laid out for the season.
Tactics
The trailer was launched through an integrated digital media campaign. It was distributed on all social media channels, sent to key media partners and outlets, through an email campaign, and pitched to key organizations and artists.
Around 2.5 K impressions.
Around 4 K views
Positive feedback from the email campaign.
Media coverage by large outlets such as CTV, CBC Radio and Global News.
Measurements I would explore further in future campaigns:
Views that lead to ticket sales and season subscriptions.