Megan Langer

Megan Langer Final Blog Submission

Megan Langer / May 23, 2016May 24, 2016 / Megan Langer, Megan Langer Final

Marketing for “Love First, Live Incidentally”

For our theatre company, Lifting The Barriers, Kate Kelly and I are the Marketing Officers, whereby our role and responsibility is “to promote and sell tickets” (The Theatres Trust, 2016) for our first show Love First, Live Incidentally. One person that I looked to for inspiration when undertaking this role was Victoria Murray, who is responsible for the marketing of the National Theatre Live cinema broadcasts and the National’s touring productions. In an interview, Victoria discusses how her job requirements are ever-changing, and summarized the job as “a hugely mixed bag” (National Theatre, 2015). This variety of tasks was also true for myself throughout this process, whereby my specific jobs for the company were to create the Marketing Pack, write the copy, communicate with the LPAC box office and marketing team in regards to ticket sales and promotion, contact local businesses and radio stations, and share the responsibility of the social media accounts.

Lisa Mulcahy states that “your most important marketing lesson…keep focused on the main purpose of your company” (Mulcahy, 2011, 53). The main purpose of our theatre company is to create devised theatre inspired by current events and social issues, which is accessible, thought provoking and engaging to young people through dramatic performances and documentary theatre. Love First, Live Incidentally is about Zelda Fitzgerald, the infamous “first American Flapper” and socialite of the 1920’s mostly known as the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Through a theatrical retelling of Zelda’s life and her battle with bipolar disorder (which was misdiagnosed as schizophrenia), we hope to raise a discussion and awareness of mental health.

Marketing is defined by the Arts Council as “the process of communicating the value of your work to potential audiences…a good marketing plan will allow you to meet your goals and the needs of audiences” (Arts Council England, 2016, 3). Thus, our marketing campaign concentrated on informing our target audience about the focus of our piece being Zelda and her mental health.

The key stages of our campaign were:

To ensure our target audience knew who our company was by sharing images of our process and creating short biographies.
To create a presence online on social media by regularly engaging with our audience and updating them on our process.
To participate in world days that connected with and highlighted our shows themes.
To fundraise for our show, which would subsequently promote the company.
To design and produce posters and flyers for display around LPAC and the university for our target audience.

The Marketing Pack

At the beginning of the campaign, Julie Ellerby, the Marketing Manager for LPAC, shared valuable advice with us. She highlighted the importance of understanding who our audience were and defining what makes us as a company unique (Ellerby, 2016). She reiterated how our campaign needed to be a clear reflection of the performance for our target audience (Ellerby, 2016). I thought of this when creating the Marketing Pack and copy, as seen below, which I hope presents our company and the performance clearly to any potential venue. As Jackie Elliman comments, “your brand is crucial…it should enable not just audiences but venues, funders, potential partners and others to understand what you’re about” (Caines, 2013).

13220663_10207873378490144_4680283078655292860_o — (Langer, 2016f)

One essential part of the Marketing Pack is the list of our Target Audience. It was essential to ensure there was a wide range of potential audience members, as well as specific groups of people to target that would have a keen interest in our show. Our Target Audience members were those over the age of fifteen, those interested in history, literature, feminism and/or mental health, and Students from the School of Fine and Performing Arts at the University of Lincoln. An example which shows that targeting our audience was successful is how a blog reviewer of our show came to see the performance because of “a fascination with the 1920’s” (Ordinary Acts Of Bravery, 2016). Thus, we effectively marketed the show to this audience member and their interest in history.

Social Media

One vital aspect of the marketing campaign was our social media accounts. There has been a large increase in likes and followers for all of our social media pages since our company formed. This is most evident on our Twitter, which is the platform that we used most on a consistent basis.

As Lyn Gardner says, “Facebook, Twitter and blogs are increasingly the means by which ticket sales are driven” (Gardner, 2010). Therefore, it was imperative that we used our social media constantly throughout this process. We posted content that promoted the company and the show, whilst also engaging with our target audience and making them feel connected and invested in the company. On Facebook we shared photos of our rehearsals, talked about our fundraising events and posted ticket information (as shown below), on Instagram we shared photos of the company, and on Twitter we posted and retweeted updates of the company (as shown below) and created a countdown to the performance. In the weeks leading up to the show, the actresses playing Zelda changed their profile pictures to their corresponding flyers, allowing for our images to reach a wider audience of their online friends. Additionally, I also created a Facebook event for the performance to get an idea of who was going or interested in the performance online.

13217230_10207858344474303_9169016090916773082_o — (Langer, 2016c)

“World Days”

Part of our campaign was to interact and participate in “World Days” that had a connection to our performance. This was inspired by Lisa Mulcahy who says that “thinking in an innovate way about your marketing concerns can tremendously benefit your company” (Mulcahy, 2011, 94). On the 3^rd of March we celebrated World Book Day on our Instagram by introducing our company to our audience with what their favourite book was, as shown below. This highlighted the literary themes within the show and meant that we could be a part of a much wider online engagement with our target audience. Additionally, on the 7^th of April we participated in World Health Day by asking our target audience to answer the question “is enough being done to lift the barriers of mental health”. This was then shared on Facebook, as shown below. As Zelda lived with bipolar, we used this opportunity to discuss with our target audience what they thought the perception of mental health is in our society. All of the individuals answered that not enough was being done to support those with mental health issues. We as a company shared the same views, and these answers were useful for us in understanding how imperative it was to portray how Zelda’s mental health affected her life in the 1940’s honestly and realistically. Hopefully, our performance has brought further to light the importance of supporting those with mental health issues.

13235177_10207858344234297_8751433900876608275_o — (Langer, 2016g)

13235347_10207858343394276_1349253401238206823_o — (Langer, 2016h)

Fundraising

For the performance we needed to raise money for the show to be able to afford the props, costumes, tech and marketing products that we wanted. Fundraising was also an effective way to market the company and the show, because as Lisa Mulcahy notes, “one tried-and-true method is to hold a fundraiser to establish your company in people’s minds” (Mulcahy, 2011, 47). Alongside an online Indiegogo campaign, we held a pub quiz on the 7^th of April and a bake sale on the 12^th of April, through which we held a raffle to win afternoon tea for two that was gifted to us by thomas2catering. All of these events were profitable for the company and helped us to connect with potential audience members.

Print Marketing

Images were a medium that we used as much as possible throughout the campaign, on both social media and in the print marketing. As Elizabeth Hill, Terry O’Sullivan and Catherine O’Sullivan observe, “there are few thing as eloquent as a good photograph” (Hill et al, 2003, 212). When designing our flyers and posters, we wanted the image to support visually the words I had written for the copy and capture the feel of the performance for our target audience. We were inspired by a photograph of Zelda and Scott in an embrace, and were advised by Julie to replicate the tone by making our image appear like an old photograph. Using the backdrop of the Arboretum in Lincoln, we captured the moment of one of our actresses playing Zelda in an embrace with Scott (played by our friend Simon Payne). We also captured a moment of the actress playing Zelda in the distance looking towards Scott with a pained expression. This contrast between the images was to highlight the differing emotions Zelda felt throughout her life, with the front image being happy and in love, and the back image seemingly hurt and angry. After further advice from our tutor Dominic Symonds, we decided to recreate the photographs we had taken with the four other actresses who played Zelda, as a way to inform the audience of the concept of the five actresses each playing Zelda. All of these flyers and posters can be found in the Marketing Documents. I think the flyers and posters were a great reflection of the performance, as they placed Zelda at the forefront and reinforced the setting of the era through the sepia tone and the black and white design. This was apparent in the End Of Year Performances brochure that included our image and copy, whereby, when compared to the other performances, I think the themes of our show are evident. I believe the image and design of the print marketing were successful because, as Lisa Mulcahy says, we concentrated on the “company’s main reason for existing in the first place” (Mulcahy, 2011, 53), focusing on Zelda and introducing her to our target audience.

zelda-scott-fitzgerald — The photograph of Zelda and Scott that inspired us. (Anonymous)

The flyers and posters for our performance with Hannah Taylor as Zelda in the original images we took.

Using Lisa Mulcahy’s advise of “the best advertising is really just spreading excitement” (Mulcahy, 2011, 86), we made sure to distribute our print marketing around places in Lincoln that would attract our target audience. It was vital we had a large amount of distribution at LPAC, as this was the main place our target audience would be about. We also distributed around other buildings at the University of Lincoln, and went flyering in the town centre of Lincoln the weekend before the show. Furthermore, I sent an email to the School of Fine and Performing Arts via our tutor Kelly Jones, which contained the copy of the show and ticket information. As most of our tickets were bought closer to the date of the performance after this distribution, it can be inferred that our traditional marketing of posters, flyers and emails was effective.

Ticket Analysis

When tickets were first made available to purchase from LPAC, I contacted Phoebe Wall-Palmer, the Box-Office Co-ordinater, who agreed to send me a weekly Event Sales Report for the show, so that I could review how our ticket sales were going each week.

Whilst the capacity of LPAC is 444 seats, only 180 seats were available preliminary. With this in mind, our first target audience number was 180 seats. Our ticket sales since tickets for the show were made available are as follows:

There was a slow increase in ticket sales over the month of April, with a dramatic increase in the last few weeks before the show. This increase may be due to how a large majority of our audience were fellow students from the School of Fine and Performing Arts at the University of Lincoln, who are much more likely to have bought tickets last minute. This increase could also have been affected by our ongoing social media marketing, as well as the distribution of our flyers and posters around LPAC and the rest of Lincoln in the last few weeks leading up to the show.

Feedback and Evaluation

Overall, we sold 142 tickets for Love First, Live Incidentally at LPAC on the 17th May 2016, and filled the auditorium to 32% capacity. For our first show as a debut company, I am very pleased with the number of audience members who came to see our work and believe we have established ourselves well as a theatre company.

We had an immediate positive response from our audience after the performance, as well as on our social media pages, with many congratulating and praising the piece. Particular admiration was given to the set, script and the form of the storytelling we used. Additionally, we were reviewed on a blog, who said that:

“I thought the Lifting the Barriers company did very well. The story was emotive, the set was fantastic and the lighting and sound was genius.” (Ordinary Acts Of Bravery, 2016)

In the future, to maximize on the success of this performance, I feel we should continue creating innovative devised work that plays with the form of storytelling. From our audience’s response, I think a strong point of the show was our set and the script, and we should keep writing and designing our future work with this in mind.

In reflection, I believe the marketing campaign for the performance was very successful. We sold a great number of tickets for the show, and I feel that the varying different mediums of marketing that we used all played a part in informing our target audience about the show’s emphasis on Zelda and mental health, and successfully selling the performance.

Works Cited:

Anonymous. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald [image]. Available from http://www.vogue.com/13288144/zelda-fitzgerald-birthday/ [accessed 22 May 2016].

Arts Council England (2016) Audience development and marketing, and Grants for the Arts. Manchester: Arts Council England. Available from http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/sites/default/files/download-file/Audience_development_and_marketing_and_Grants_for_the_Arts_Jan2016.pdf [accessed 23 May 2016].

Caines, M. (2013) 15 tips on setting up a theatre company. The Guardian, 28 August. Available from http://www.theguardian.com/culture-professionals-network/culture-professionals-blog/2013/aug/28/expert-tips-setting-up-theatre-company [accessed 23 May 2016].

Crow, P. (2016) Love First, Live Incidentally. Available from https://www.flickr.com/photos/61839232@N02/27005919041/in/album-72157668230653081/ [accessed 19 May 2016].

Ellerby, J. (2016) Marketing. [speech] Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, 17 February.

Gardner, L. (2000) Theatre: wake up to the digital age! The Guardian, 20 April. Available from http://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2010/apr/18/theatre-digital-twitter-facebook-social-media [accessed 23 May 2016].

Hill, E., O’Sullivan, T. and O’Sullivan, C. (2003) Creative Arts Marketing. London: Routledge.

Langer, M. (2016a) Lifting The Barriers Facebook post [image].

Langer, M. (2016b) Lifting The Barriers Social Media bar chart.

Langer, M. (2016c) Lifting The Barriers Twitter page [image].

Langer, M. (2016d) Love First, Live Incidentally Tickets Sold line graph.

Langer, M. (2016e) Marketing Pack [image].

Langer, M. (2016f) Programme Copy [image].

Langer, M. (2016g) World Book Day Instagram post [image].

Langer, M. (2016h) World Health Day Facebook post [image].

Lifting The Barriers (2016a) Back of flyer with Hannah as Zelda [image]. Available from https://liftingthebarriers.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/marketing/ [accessed 22 May 2016].

Lifting The Barriers (2016b) Front of flyer and post with Hannah as Zelda [image]. Available from https://liftingthebarriers.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/marketing/ [accessed 22 May 2016].

Mulcahy, L. (2011) Building The Successful Theatre Company. 2nd edition. New York: Alworth Press.

National Theatre (2015) Careers at the National Theatre: Marketing Manager. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmUA2KuHOgc&index=15&list=PLJgBmjHpqgs5SvR8xSnvuHcFTbDl_hta6 [accessed 23 May 2016]

Ordinary Acts Of Bravery. (2016) Love First, Live Incidentally: Play Review & A little bit of Zizzi’s. [blog]. 18 May. Available from https://ordinaryactsofbravery.wordpress.com/2016/05/18/love-first-live-incidentally-play-review-a-little-bit-of-zizzis/ [accessed 19 May 2016].

The Theatres Trust (2016) Who works in a theatre? London: The Theatres Trust. Available from http://www.theatrestrust.org.uk/resources/exploring-theatres/who-works-in-a-theatre [accessed 23 May 2016].

12. After show thoughts and reflection.

Megan Langer / May 19, 2016May 24, 2016 / Megan Langer

Two days after our performance, now seems to be a good time to look back on the show and the kind response we got from our audience. All of us in the company are so proud and pleased with how the performance went, and feel it is a great reflection of all the hard work we have put in these last few months. Overall, we sold 142 tickets for Love First, Live Incidentally at LPAC on the 17th May 2016, and filled the auditorium to 32% capacity. For our first show as a debut company, I am very pleased with the number of audience members who came to see our work. As we have now established ourselves as a theatre company, the number of an audience we can get for future shows is sure to grow even more.

Response

We had a lovely response from our audience straight after the performance, with many congratulating and praising the piece. Particular praise was given to the set, script and the form of the storytelling we used. Some of our friends also tweeted us on our company’s twitter.

.@lifting_barrier what a show! Well done guys ❤️❤️

— Bec 🦖 (@becbierty) May 17, 2016

(Becbierty, 2016)

Additionally, we were very generously reviewed on a blog, who said in this excerpt that:

“The stage had a gorgeous set with pages floating from the ceiling and scattered on the floor. It was simple but effective. The costumes were also pretty good, remaining authentic to Zelda’s life…The girls all portrayed their version of Zelda wonderfully…I thought the Lifting the Barriers company did very well. The story was emotive, the set was fantastic and the lighting and sound was genius.” (Ordinary Acts Of Bravery, 2016)

As a company, we are very grateful for a such a positive response from all of our audience, and we’re very happy that the show was received with such a warm reception.

Reflection

To reflect, I believe our marketing campaign for the performance was very successful. We sold a great number of tickets for the show, and I think that the varying different mediums of marketing that we used (social media, posters, flyers, emails, responding to international days, promotion through the fundraising events etc.) all played a part in selling the performance. It seems that many of our target audience were at the show, and thus we achieved our aim in marketing the show correctly. I also feel that we were effective in finding the balance when promoting the show to inform our audience about what to expect without giving to much away, as many of the audience were surprised and had their expectations exceeded.

In the future, to maximise on the success of this performance, I believe we should continue creating innovative devised work that plays with the form of storytelling. From our audiences response, I think a strong point of the show was our set and the script, and we should keep writing and designing our future work with a focus on these two sections.

In all, I believe Love First, Live Incidentally was a very successful debut show for the Lifting The Barriers theatre company, and it has been a great first step for us to grow from. Thank you to everyone who came to see our work and supported the company!

An image from our dress run of the end of Love First, Live Incidentally. (Crow, 2016).

Works Cited:

Becbierty (2016) What a show! Well done guys. [Twitter]. 17 May. Available from https://twitter.com/lifting_barrier [accessed 19 May 2016].

Crow, P. (2016) Love First, Live Incidentally. Available from https://www.flickr.com/photos/61839232@N02/27005919041/in/album-72157668230653081/ [accessed 19 May 2016].

11. Playing Zelda.

Megan Langer / May 15, 2016May 24, 2016 / Megan Langer

A role I play in the company is of a performer, and here is a summary of the research and thoughts I had when playing Zelda in Love First, Live Incidentally.

Research

At the very beginning of our devising process we decided we wanted our performance piece to be about important women in history, whose life story was not as well known as we thought it should be. We all went away and researched women that we found inspiring or interesting: one of the women I research was Zelda Fitzgerald. Our initial ideas for the piece went under some changes and we came to what has now become the basis for Love First, Live Incidentally: telling the life story of Zelda, the infamous Flapper of the 1920’s mostly known for being F. Scott Fitzgerald’s wife. We felt as a company that Zelda was often overshadowed when thought of by her husband’s success, even though she lived an extraordinary life full of highs and lows. We wanted to tell her story using 5 actresses as well as playing with the themes of literature and the Jazz age that were so prominent in her life, as well as raising a discussion about mental health through highlighting Zelda’s battle with bipolar disorder (though she was diagnosed with schizophrenia, it is now believed she had bipolar).

13227803_10207809955984621_8643215390092990793_o — The research list I wrote of Zelda for one of our very first devising sessions. (Langer, 2016b)

Inspiration

Before we came together as a company, I already had a keen interest and admiration in Zelda as a person, having read The Great Gatsby in Sixth Form and been intrigued by the likeness between the character of Daisy Buchannan and Zelda. Scott so often took inspiration from Zelda for his fictional characters, and it is no more so evident that she was his muse than in The Great Gatsby when Daisy says “And I hope she’ll be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald, 2000, 22). Zelda herself said as much when their daughter Scottie was born, and is a good example of how Zelda has become a caricature of herself within our popular culture and literature. This is seen in another novel that I have read, Z: a novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, which tells a fictional romanticized account of Scott and Zelda’s relationship. As Whitney Milam says in her telling of Zelda’s life: “Zelda wrote that the ideal flapper had a talent for “dramatizing herself” — and throughout those early years she spent with Scott as the golden couple of New York City and Paris, Zelda constructed an almost mythical persona that was more of a character than a person: a blank page upon which the world could project all the glamour and excitement of the era” (Milam, 2016). Because of this folklore around Zelda, we as a company have strived to put Zelda at the forefront through our piece by focusing on the real person, aiming to stay as truthful to her life as possible.

There are so many varying incarnations of Zelda and Scott’s life, such as the recent film version of The Great Gatsby and the collection of their letters that can be found in Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda. We were also lucky enough to see a play version of The Great Gatsby at LPAC, adapted by Stephen Sharkey and performed by Blackeyed Theatre. Throughout the process, we have all been sharing ideas and insights that we have discovered, which has helped to make our performance feel all the more accurate. In all, there was lots of different mediums that we could take inspiration from and be informed by to shape our performance of Zelda’s life.

13064534_10207809955784616_5831253640363801618_o — (Langer, 2016a)

13227803_10207809955944620_691312523185972802_o — (Langer, 2016c)

13173310_10207809955824617_5766283832099999502_o — (Langer, 2016e)

The books and film that shaped my research of Zelda.

12809683_10204266484462464_2576722073136129118_n — A photo of some of the company at the interval of “The Great Gatsby” at LPAC. (Langer, 2016d)

What is Bipolar?

An important aspect to understand when we were devising our piece was the symptoms and emotions of bipolar disorder. As someone living with bipolar disorder says: “It’s an emotional amplifier: when my mood is high I feel far quicker, funnier, smarter and livelier than anyone; when my mood is low I take on the suffering of the whole world” (Mind, 2013). Those with bipolar often feel two states of emotion: a feeling of highness when they are having manic episodes and a feeling of lowness when they are having depressive episodes. This can be seen in Zelda’s life with her contrasting personalities of the socialite Flapper who partied constantly and lived in the moment, and later life strive for perfection and success that led to her time in the psychiatric units. Our piece touches upon these two different episodes, and we hope that by watching our performance, a discussion can be bought up on the importance of understanding mental health.

The Ballerina

As the character of Zelda is played by five different actresses, we each focus on a different part of Zelda’s life. When I play Zelda, it is in the timespan of when she strived to become a professional ballerina and reclaim the talent she was told she had when she did ballet as a girl. Zelda wanted to dance again because she felt disheartened by the success Scott was having with his writing, and wanted to be more than just Scott’s wife or a socialite. Though I did take some ballet lessons when I was young, I had to learn the basic ballet positions again; ironically, just like Zelda learnt ballet again. Jess, one of our stage managers, knew of ballet, so she helped to teach me the five positions through this tutorial we found (HowcastArtsRec, 2011). Though my ballet skills are very basic, what I feel is more important when characterising what we as company reffered to as “Ballet Zelda”, is the way she tries so hard to be better and better herself, refusing to give up or give in. In a way, I think that my endeavour to perform the dancing corrently fits in perfectly with how Zelda would have been trying hard, and hopefully makes her failing and succumning to her time in hospital all the more emotional.

13105830_10209079262677664_1007095067_o — A photo of me in the fifth ballet position taken by Jess. (Carter, 2016)

An Alabama Accent

Zelda was born and lived in Alabama, and thus it was crucial that the five of us actresses spoke in this accent. Whilst it took some time, we found that listening to film clips set around the place, such as Forrest Gump and The Help, helped. By adding a drawl when we spoke and slowing down the pacing of our sentences, we feel that we have captured the accent to the best we can. The accent definitely helps us get into character, and hopefully evokes Zelda to our audience.

Her Friends

Our piece has a Brechtian style to it, as none of the actresses leave the stage and are seen by an audience as what we are, actresses. We each play supporting characters to the others who are performing Zelda, and I play two of Zelda’s friends when she is a socialite in the 1920s. When characterising these friends, it was important that they were very different to how we individually play Zelda. The first friend I play is very nervous and self-concious, and is not someone you expect to see at a party thrown by Zelda. The second friend I play is a very popular girl in high social circles with a New York accent, who only keeps up appearances of liking Zelda because she likes to party. These supporting characters are important in the role they play in relation to Zelda, whether it be showing how wild and care-free she is with my first friend, or how fake some of her friends must have been. They are a means by which we were able to highlight Zelda more.

Final Thought on the Flapper: Who was Zelda?

Zelda Sayre in her youth. (Huffington Post, 2014).

Now we are near the end of our devising and rehearsal process, and the performance is two days away, I think it is important to have a final thought on the starring lady of our performance who our company have been thinking about for the last few months. As Zelda said in her high school graduation quote, her approach to life from a young age can be summed up poetically: “Why should all life be work, when we can all borrow? Let’s think only of today, and not worry about tomorrow” (Milam, 2016). Zelda epitomised the 1920’s Jazz age so perfectly, and became the party, style and literature icon of the decade. For someone known for celebrating life so carelessly and freely, she had many worries in her short life, from her uncertainty in her marriage to Scott, her need to succeed and be remembered for more, and the treatment and attitude others placed on her mental health. Whilst Zelda was by no means the perfect person, it cannot be argued that she tried her best in all she did, and that is perhaps why she is remembered so fondly now, years after her time. I hope that we as a company have staged the life of Zelda in a way she would be proud of her, and hope that are audience walk away after our show knowing more about Zelda Fitzgerald. Zelda desribes herself best in her Euology on the Flapper: “She refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn’t boring” (Fitzgerald, 1997).

Works Cited:

Carter, J. (2016) Fifth Position [image].

Fitzgerald, F. S. (2000) The Great Gatsby. London: Penguin Group.

Fitzgerald, Z. (1997) Zelda Fitzgerald: The Collected Writings. Alabama: The University of Alabama Press.

HowcastArtsRec (2011) How to Do the 5 Basic Positions: Ballet Dance. YouTube. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3bawTEPLtA&feature=youtu.be [accessed 15 May 2016].

Huffington Post. (2016) Angel from Montgomery. Princeton University Library. Available from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anne-margaret-daniel/f-scott-fitzgerald-zelda-_b_4246431.html [accessed 15 May 2016].

Langer, M. (2016a) Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda [image].

Langer, M. (2016b) Research [image].

Langer, M. (2016c) The Great Gatsby [image].

Langer, M. (2016d) The Great Gatsby performance interval [image].

Langer, M. (2016e) Z: a novel of Zelda Fitzgerald [image].

Mind (2013) Bipolar disorder. London: Mind. Available from http://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/bipolar-disorder/#.Vzh_P4-cHD6 [accessed 15 May 2016.].

Milam, W. (2016) Zelda Fitzgerald: Meet The Original Flapper. Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls. Available from http://amysmartgirls.com/zelda-fitzgerald-meet-the-original-flapper/ [accessed 15 May 2016].

10. Love First, Live Incidentally around Lincoln.

Megan Langer / May 15, 2016May 24, 2016 / Megan Langer

Lisa Mulcahy says that “the best advertising is really just spreading excitement” (Mulcahy, 2011 86). Using this as our guide, we wanted to spread our flyers and posters around Lincoln to hopefully create excitement about the show. As we have five different designs, we hoped that this would further generate discussion about the show if our potential audience were to see the different posters and flyers. We knew that this had already worked with our fellow Drama students, with many wanting to find a particular flyer or collect all five.

Distribution

Our first place for distribution was Lincoln Performing Arts Centre; the venue of our performance is the main place our target audience would be about and thus it was important that the flyers and posters were on display in the building. We then placed flyers and put up posters around the other buildings on the University of Lincoln, in places where we hoped we could catch passer-by’s eyes. We noticed that our poster really stood out against the others that had been put up, with the white background making the design and image all the more noticeable. We hope that these posters and leaflets would attract our target audience of theatre, history and literature lovers, as well as other students.

13131534_10207791172915056_3421704030411135034_o — (Langer, 2016a)

13131498_10207791172755052_1566308358066689810_o — (Langer, 2016b)

13116164_10207791173715076_2277261958020127201_o — (Langer, 2016c)

Three of our posters distributed around the University of Lincoln campus.

Flyering

The second way we distributed our flyers was by flyering in the town centre of Lincoln, whereby I composed a rota of four different groups within the company to flyer over two hours on the Saturday before the show. As the weekend is a busy time within the town centre, this seemed to be the best time to be able to reach as many potential audience members. Whilst flyering is a difficult job, we did distribute a good number to a variety of people, with many showing an interest in the show. Through this, we were able to distribute to a wider range of our potential audience, and hopefully will have bought more people to our show.

We will continue to distribute flyers up until the 17th of May, as we are aware that many theatre go-ers, particularly for a theatre within a university, will buy their tickets on the day. I think the flyers and posters encompass and highlight our show well, and have been a great and important means to spread the word about Love First, Live Incidentally.

Works Cited:

Langer, M. (2016a) Abi’s poster around Lincoln [image].

Langer, M. (2016b) Hannah’s poster around Lincoln [image].

Langer, M. (2016c) Kate’s poster around Lincoln [image].

Mulcahy, L. (2011) Building The Successful Theatre Company. 2nd edition. New York: Alworth Press.

9. Introducing Zelda to our audience.

Megan Langer / May 4, 2016May 24, 2016 / Megan Langer

Flyers of Five Mrs. Fitzgerald’s

In a previous blog post I discussed how we came about the final image for the show that we wanted to use as part of our marketing campaign. Shortly afterwards, we had a meeting with our module tutor, Dominic Symonds, who suggested to us that instead of just one version of the flyer and poster with Hannah as Zelda, we create five different versions of the flyer and poster for each of the actresses playing Zelda. We all thought this would be a great idea to not only inform our audience of the concept of five performers playing Zelda, but also to make numerous sightings of our flyers and posters surprising. Consequently, we all went back to the Arboretum and recreated the photos we took, with special thanks to Simon for being such a sport. Whilst we knew that we would not be able to perfectly recreate the image four other times, we’re very happy with how close we have gotten the final five images to look alike and quite like how there are little differences between them. They all capture the same moments, which we believe is most important. As Kate had taught herself to work with Photoshop, she was the main editor of the images and created the look of the flyers, and I was her other pair of eyes to check everything tied together and looked right. After checking over with Julie a few times for final adjustments, we are very pleased with how the flyers and posters have turned out, and believe they are a great reflection of our performance.

12772022_10207286673222879_8882260359707197523_o — The image we took of Hannah as Zelda, that we later recreated with the other actresses. (Lifting The Barriers, 2016c)

13173348_10207743397640704_7976127595586409433_o — The initial version of our flyer, with Hannah as Zelda. (Langer, 2016b)

Designing a Flyer

When creating the design for the flyers and poster, we wanted to make sure they were clean and readable, and captured the look of the 1920s. Thus, we went for a black and white design, with a sepia image in the middle that could be an old photograph taken of Scott and Zelda. For the back, we included the copy that I had written for the marketing pack, with a secondary image in black and white of the actress in the distance. We wanted there to be a contrast between the images, with the front image seeming happy and in love, and back image seeming hurt and angry, with both focusing on Zelda looking straight ahead. As Lisa Mulcahy says, “concentrate on your company’s main reason for existing in the first place” (Mulcahy, 2011, 53). For a marketing campaign, it is important that all of the marketing is a good reflection of the play for a potential audience. Thus, our flyers are centred on Zelda and introducing her to our target audience; the same as our show. As these images will be the first time our audience see our representation of Zelda, it is vital that she is at the forefront. Whilst social media marketing has become more and more influential in the modern day, I think traditional marketing, like flyers and posters, is just as important to get the work and idea of a show out to a potential audience. Thus, we have been spending an equal amount of time and energy on both to ensure our show is marketing through as mean mediums as possible.

13120010_10207743397560702_237471874163427321_o — An Instagram of our performance marketed in the LPAC End Of Year Performance brochure. (Langer, 2016a)

The front design of the flyer and poster. (Lifting The Barriers, 2016b)

The back design of the flyer. (Lifting The Barriers, 2016a)

Works Cited:

Mulcahy, L. (2011) Building The Successful Theatre Company. 2nd edition. New York: Alworth Press.

Langer, M. (2016a) Instagram of End Of Year Performance Brochure [image].

Langer, M. (2016b) Screenshot of the flyer design [image].

Lifting The Barriers (2016a) Back of flyer with Hannah as Zelda [image]. Available from https://liftingthebarriers.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/marketing/ [accessed 22 May 2016].

Lifting The Barriers (2016b) Front of flyer and post with Hannah as Zelda [image]. Available from https://liftingthebarriers.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/marketing/ [accessed 22 May 2016].

Lifting The Barriers (2016c) Hannah as Zelda [image].