Adrianna Prosser II

Adrianna is sometimes an actor, sometimes a playwright, but a full time geeky social media addict who supports mental health advocacy. She is the Host for the mental health storytelling podcast Stories Like Crazy. Adrianna was the Arts & History Host for the IAWTV award winning educational webshow Cranium Cookie, about all things edu-tastic in Canada, and the Geeky Host for Geektropolis, an online community talking about all things geek-chic in Toronto.

Adrianna is also the Marketing Monster for Eldritch Theatre.

http://www.adrianna-prosser.com
Twitter: @adriannap
Instagram: @adriannaprosser

http://www.eldritchtheatre.ca/
Twitter: @eldritchtheatre
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eldritchtheatre

Transcript

Welcome to episode 161 of Stageworthy. I’m your host, Phil Rickaby. Stageworthy is a podcast about people in Canadian theatre featuring conversations with actors, directors, playwrights, and more.

Following on the heels of my interview with Sue Edworthy, I wanted to have a conversation with someone who had really worked on building a relationship with an audience, and there really is no other company that I can think of than Eldritch Theatre, who has a really strong connection with an audience. And it’s interesting because it is an audience that is primarily not a theatre-going audience. And so Eldritch has managed to do something pretty unusual, and something that I think that we can all learn a little something from.

So I wanted to bring in their social media guru, their media monster, as they call it, Adrianna Prosser, to have a conversation about what that looks like and how you build an audience, and how you maintain a relationship with an audience. And so that’s what we’re going to be talking about today, and the importance of that. So if you feel like dropping me a line after you hear that, you want to ask questions, you want to have comments, remember that you can find Stageworthy on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, at stageworthypod.

You can find the website at stageworthypodcast.com. And if you want to drop me a line, you can find me on Twitter and Instagram at philrickaby, and my website is philrickaby.com. Next week, during the holiday week, there will not be an episode, but look for an episode the following week. So be ready for that. And remember that if you do like the podcast, leave a comment or rating on Apple Podcasts, Google Music, or wherever you get your podcasts, because your ratings and comments do help new people find this show.

And here’s my conversation with Adrianna Prosser from Eldritch Theatre. Let’s see. I had a pretty much a 90% house rate.

Fuck, what? For the whole fucking run. Really? Yeah. Really? That’s amazing.

And I had a handful of sellouts out of 15 shows. I mean, your weekends, like your opening weekend was sold out, and your closing weekend was sold out. What was the middle? Was it middle weekend? There was a another sellout on like a Thursday.

Mm hmm. But that’s pretty much Yeah, that’s my handful. Yeah, because I had why I should just printed things off.

Opening weekend. So there’s three. And then a lot on the weekend.

The last one. Yeah, that’s another three. And then I think I had another one that was like 39.

Well, I actually had a couple 39. Okay, yeah. So I had about six sellouts.

Mm hmm. So that’s almost half. Wow.

Right? Because I have 15 shows. Yeah. And six of them were sellouts.

The last show, we actually because it was the last show. Yeah. And it was pay what you can.

I crammed people in. Yeah, yeah. So we got 44.

Just squeeze them in. And we gave them the option to write like, do you want standing room? Do you want obscured view? And it’s pay what you can. So I mean, do you want to sit there for five bucks? And people were like, yeah, yeah, I do.

All right. Wow. So good.

So I mean, just to jump in, because I’m really curious about Eldritch and the audience. Because I think a lot of people don’t don’t even realize that that Eldritch Theatre has a particularly loyal audience. And one that’s made up of mostly not theatre going people.

Yeah. So I mean, this is like the the that’s the secret that I think that a lot of theatres would be like, what’s your secret sauce? How do you do that? So the question that is like, how do you do that? Adrianna? I think first of all, it lies in the content. I mean, Eldritch is not what I would call muggle theatre.

Right, right. It’s not theatre for muggles. It is definitely theatre for Cthulhu supporters, horror, sci fi, retro, freaks and geeks.

And, you know, people that may or may not really want to see something that is a stereotypical three act denouement. Everybody kisses and gets married. Yeah.

You know, like, I feel like right in the name Eldritch. Yeah. Right.

Like it’s it’s horror. It’s it’s weird. It’s creepy.

There’s an essence there that they they bank on that it’s going to be at least one or all of those things. And our handle is magic horror puppets all in one show and cult enthusiasts making art. And I think that because of all of these random, wonderful ingredients, people are drawn to that like like a moth to a flame.

Like, what is that? Well, you often don’t see genre on stage. Also true. You know, you don’t you don’t often see sci fi or or horror on stage.

Horror especially, I think, is pretty hard on stage. Absolutely. So.

I mean, there’s a certain certain amount of that because we know from film that the audience is there for genre, but they’re just not we’re not given it in theatre very often. Yeah, it’s it’s it’s hard to bring that concept and tropes to the stage because in a lot of horror, it’s a lot of, you know, you’re alone in the dark and you yourself are, you know, transposing yourself into that protag who is alone in the dark. And you might be watching it alone in the dark in your house.

But in a theatre, you can look to your left, look to your right and see that there are gods of people in the dark with you. So it is really hard to to give that creep factor, that horror factor in that group setting, I think, like that’s it’s hard. But it’s that I mean, it’s a challenge that I mean, theatre used to have like horror was the theater’s medium.

Yeah. And a certain point of time. You know, we don’t think of it this way now.

But I mean, Bram Stoker’s Dracula on stage was terrifying. Yeah. Yeah.

So like, horror has largely faded from theatre with a few notable exceptions. Now, the show that Eldred just did was sci fi. Yeah, with super camp.

Oh, super camp. But I think that that’s certainly a way to be able to use the limitations of theatre to the advantage of like sci fi. So if we can see the wires, well, you could see the wires in like movies of the time, right? It was based off of serials from the 1930s.

So like Flash Gordon, and the pulp magazines of like weird science and sci fi fantasy and whatnot. And again, you know, the pew pew ray guns. And yeah, you can see the wires from the toilet paper.

You know, paper mache things that are flying through the air and whatnot. Yeah. And hairdryers as ray guns and such.

And, and they, you know, Eric and Dylan, director and writer really leaned into the camp and really leaned into the aesthetic of that. And then the cast came on, Lisa and Mari really understood what they were in. And that’s also difficult, right? Like it was kind of a nice lightning in a bottle effect where everybody was same paging of like, just how ridiculous and fun this could be.

Let’s not take ourselves so seriously, but seriously enough to really dedicate ourselves to the camp and to the niche and to the genre. And I think it just it just kind of was like this brilliant equation of wow, this is super fun. And I also know that something that’s out there that we all know, we can’t ignore it.

But nostalgia is a really big selling feature these days. And it is it’s like, I remember having these action figures. I remember Flash Gordon, you know, like even the even the remake from like, there was the 30s.

And then there was the next one, right? In the 70s. Yes, I remember that one. Yeah.

So fun. And, and I think that there’s some, there’s something there that we plugged into that was a happy accident, maybe not so much because Eric is smart like that. And so there was a couple things that were helping us like there was a wave of interest that people could automatically register.

Yeah. And I, I know that that’s where I leaned into in marketing was really kind of keeping that camp and that branded tone of, you know, anybody, anybody who posted on on social media being like, I can’t wait to see this or that they share it. That Eldritch then replied, thank you for flying with us commander so and so.

And like, you know, a space GIF or alien GIF rocket ships, and hopefully if I could find them some campy sci fi like Flash Gordon. And, and I think that furthered the experience. And that’s what I, I enjoy for my role as a marketing monster and producer is going beyond the stage.

Yeah. And I think that helps. Well, I mean, that’s sort of like one of the interesting things when I was talking with Sue Edworthy, I used the phrase getting bums in seats and she was like, you need to stop using that phrase because she hates that phrase because bums in seats just assumes that I just need a person in that seat.

Whereas success can only come by building a relationship with the audience. And that’s something that Eldritch has done quite successfully. There’s not just a social media connection, but there’s the, there’s a mailing list and the mailing list gives like discount codes, things like that.

Yeah. Yeah. Freebies.

So we also have a secret Facebook group, secret, secret. And I only share certain things with, we don’t call them subscribers. No, we call them the cabal, the cabal of horror, which is like a gaggle of geese, but only we are a gaggle of horror nerds and people who love Eldritch.

And, and I, I am a firm believer in, in thanking people and, and speaking of that loyalty and trust and whatnot, like the, the idea of you have, you’ve given me access to your inbox. I don’t want to take advantage of that. I don’t want to waste your time.

And you, you asked for Eldritch stuff, so I will give it to you. Um, and, and also that if you are going to, to be with us and like you’re saying more than just seats, these are people who, you know, uh, regularly speak on their social media, not in just like art, like retweets and likes, but they will put out full paragraphs and full reviews of our shows, uh, and, and really spread that love. And, and they are what the industry calls brand ambassadors, right? Like they become brand evangelists, evangelists, evangelists.

Yeah. And, and I want to reward that because that’s something that we didn’t ask them to do. And they do that because they love us and we love them back.

It is reciprocal. Um, and I always want to be showing that love because without them we’re nothing. Yeah.

We’re just some weirdos that are in a room in costumes, speaking the speak. And if nobody’s there to watch us, it doesn’t matter. Yeah.

So spreading that love and thanking them and making it almost like this lovely family is really what I’m all about and what really draw me to working with Eldritch in the first place. When you, the, the cabal of horror, the, the, the mailing list, um, Eldritch does basically one show a year. We do have a second one now per year because of a partnership with, uh, Colborne Lodge.

We now have a, an annual seance, uh, with Dr. Pretorius Weathergloom in, in, uh, the coach house. Uh, so for the past two years, uh, we’ve been having the two shows and, uh, and, and the cabal is always told. I actually, this year, uh, made a little, a little deal with, uh, the marketing through Colborne Lodge to hold off public sales of tickets and that the cabal would have 48 hours before it goes public because it always sells out, but I got to give my love back to the cabal.

The question that I have is, you know, you’ve got this, so maybe there’s, there’s two shows, but it’s in like the, you’ve got the October, November thing going on usually. I think a mistake that some other theatre groups make is they only communicate with the audience when they have something coming up. Your relationship with the audience for Eldritch and because it’s a, it’s, it is a relationship.

Are you keeping the mailing list going throughout the year? I definitely talk more when there is a show because there are time-sensitive things. So, uh, as a member of the cabal, you will always have a discounted rate throughout the show. Uh, because you are a subscriber, you will always get that, uh, preferred treatment.

Uh, but like, uh, we fell on Black Friday and, uh, Cyber Monday this year. And so I had public, public codes as well. So I wanted them to know that if there was a bigger, better deal, I wanted to let them know on top of the thing that they always have in their pocket for secret discounts.

Um, so I was talking a little bit more plus, uh, the show opens and I don’t have reviews just yet, but I want to remind that, okay, the public is going to start to know about this because we have listings. Um, and then the reviews come in and then we have beautiful photos that come in and then I cut a video that I want them to see. Um, and, and so like, it just, the, the conversation needs to keep going a little bit more around, uh, the shows, but it’s true.

I don’t want dialogue to stop. So, um, I like doing, uh, things like throwback Thursdays to older shows because they’ve been around for a while. Uh, and I also like sharing things that are Eldritchian and specifically Lovecraft or horror genre specific.

Um, also we, we, once we bring somebody on, they become company members, they become a part of our family. So if one of our family members, one of the Eldritch family are doing something, I like to shout them out and let them know that, you know, this person has a friend show or this person’s in a movie. Um, cause again, like we, we got to spread that love.

Yeah. Um, and also if something ridiculous is happening, like I know that, uh, I don’t know when, when this episode is airing, but there’s, uh, this zombie musical that even you told me about. It’s like, I know that Eldritch would be kind of cool with that.

Um, let’s let them know that that’s happening. Uh, and then also if I find some cool things that, uh, come across my desk, um, or get thrown in my lap and I’m like, you know what? Um, Eldritch, they would, they would really like this beautiful crow painting. Why don’t I do a contest? Let’s talk about what our favourite, um, holiday gift is going to be this year.

Like what are you going to stuff in your stocking? You know, and, and it becomes a dialogue. Uh, and I will reward that. I will reward engagement and, and, uh, contact through the Eldritch family and the, and the cabal with stuff because I, yeah, I want to keep spreading that love around.

Nice. Nice. I mean, there are the, the, the audience existed before you joined Eldritch.

Um, it was an audience that was drawn in by the, the genre and the history of work. Um, how did you build on the audience? It was already there. What did you do when you started working with Eldritch to better connect with? Oh, you want to know my secret sauce? I don’t want to know all this.

I mean, obviously we can’t know all the secrets, but I mean, what is there like one or two things that you can say that you did to further the connection? I think, uh, playing with who’s speaking to the cabal and speaking to the audience. Um, I know that sometimes we get Dr. Pretorius Weathergloom to write the newsletter or write some posts and that can be really fun. Um, I do make it very specific when my voice box, like as Adrianna, the marketing monster is talking to you, it’s a very different tone and a very different, uh, language, uh, diction that I use.

So I think that can be kind of fun. Um, I really, really get into, uh, how fun and campy, like how far we take things. Um, so for Brimstone, everything was like in this like ye olde Western drawl, right.

And like, you know, we would say things like, I don’t know, at the end of your barrel, blah, blah, blah, right. Like kind of fun stuff, like period specific. And then again, with space opera, it was period specific and like very much like the news is just in the pay what you can is now available.

And like, you know, like you would do it in such a fun way because like, if you’re not having fun, then what are you doing? Um, and if, and 99% of the time, if, if I think something’s fun, like if I get a kick out of it and I make myself laugh, then I believe that somebody else is going to snicker on the other side of it. So that’s really how I make my content is if, if I find it engaging, most likely somebody else will too. And likewise, if I find it boring and, or just born out of necessity, then yeah, it’s not going to get that much of an engagement.

Yeah. Um, so it really goes through my filter and that, that’s a big, that’s a big trust thing that, that Eric has given me, um, as artistic director that I have this is the word autonomy, um, to, to really be a voice box and, and filter for Eldritch content. Um, so stuff like that.

And I think again, like how we were just talking about the thank you and the pay it forward stuff. I think, I think there is not enough, there’s not enough weight placed on stewardship and loyalty. No, that’s true.

And it’s always about new audience, new, new, new, right. And like the acquire it, like always like raising your, uh, like the bums in seats thing that I think that is absolutely a necessary metric for people to, to focus on because you want to keep telling people because it is sad that not everybody knows who Eldritch theatre is. I think that is sad because I think they’re great.

And I think you would have a really fun time, but I don’t ever want the people who have already invested, keep coming back. Um, always are supporting our shows to feel like they’re not loved because they are. And there should be an amount of, of energy and, and budget spent on the people who have been in the trenches with you.

Right. And I’ve seen you, you know, put a light bulb on the stage as like a strobe or, or, uh, uh, a spotlight, right. And seeing you go through the, okay, we have $20 to put on the show, you know, and now we have more of a budget.

So not much, everybody give us more money. Um, but in the sense of that, they’ve been there and they keep watching us grow and they want to see us grow. And I think that, that, that should be that flame should be fanned and you should be appreciative of that.

And that is a big part of my secret sauce. Well, I think that a lot of, like a lot of times, um, your theaters will, will say, um, you know, here’s our hashtag, you know, tweet about it. But if you do, you know, thank you.

Yeah. And so you’re like, I did the thing you asked me to do. The least you could do is thank me.

Which is why I wanted to do the thanks for flying with us. Absolutely. Right.

And I kept it in brand and like, I just wanted to make them smile. I honestly, I found the responses. Like when I got a response, I was like, and that’s why I like Eldritch because you get the, you know, it makes you feel like you are connected with it in a way that you might not be with some, with some other theaters or things.

Well, and that’s the thing is like, I want you to feel value because you’ve given us value. You’ve given us your time and money, right? That’s a huge thing. There’s so many things that you could spend your time and money on, but you decided to spend your time and money on a crazy zany night with like power, lesbians and space princesses and a crazy mad scientist.

Yeah. Thank you for that. And it’s always like, how can I do that? Yeah.

And that, that putting a smile on your face is just one of those ways. Yeah, absolutely. Now you, of course, as a social media person have worked with a few other companies in addition to Eldritch.

Can you, when you’re coming into another company and you’re talking about how you’re going to, you know, work with them on the social media aspect, are there things that you’re doing differently from Eldritch? Or you basically come in with the same sort of like, I need to connect with the audience or what’s your, well, like how are you coming into those? Yes and no. So a part of my secret sauce is using something called a digital engagement framework and it’s from the UK. It’s from, from Museum Next, I believe, Jasper and I beg your pardon, the other fellow’s name.

And that they made this thing where it’s really a skeleton of how you can attack an engagement online. It’s like a digital strategy breakdown. And typically because they work in museums, it also works for exhibits.

It works for theatre. It works for festivals because it’s experience driven. And that’s really where I start.

And you look at things like what assets do I have, which is a $10 word for what do I do right? What do I already have? Reach is, well, how do I find my, my audience? Like where am I already finding them and where could I? Because a lot of the time we, we have a lot of what’s called traditional media. Like let’s buy an ad in a paper. Let’s, you know, put in a Google banner ad or something like this, or let’s do a boosted post on Facebook.

And those are the so-called new Neo traditional way, right. Buying ad space. But, but then it’s also like, but where is your audience? Like, like think of, and like, this is all industry kind of terms where it’s like, what is the customer profile? What is your customer persona? And when I think of when I think of Eldritch, I think of people like how we just said, like people who like horror, people who like puppets you know, they, they probably buy I don’t know, like nightmare before Christmas DVDs or like this.

Like you can kind of like start to build a profile for them of like where they shop, what they do, how they manoeuvre. And that’s creating a customer persona. And then you just kind of have to start to think like them or do some searches as to where they hang out on the interwebs.

Because I’ll let you know that in 2016, when I came on, we were doing Brimstone Macready and I basically just kind of said, okay, Eldritch, how do you do this? And we just kind of worked in a little bit of, of what I was thinking, because I was still learning and growing, and I didn’t take as many risks with Brimstone, as I did with space opera zero. And so a lot of the framework for Brimstone was quite traditional. We spent, I think about 50% of our budget on posters and flyers.

And you can actually see my breakdown on my LinkedIn, I put out the study of how my ticket sales went, and only 5% of my audience was from posters. And so this time around, I only spent 5% of my budget on posters, because you look at your data. And that’s the other part of all of this is through a business, through a business mind, you have to look, and that’s something that’s long game, you have to look at your stats, you have to listen to them and listen to your audience through their spending habits.

And the fact that, okay, well, if I spent x amount of money, but I only got, you know, $5 back, then maybe I should only be spending about $5. Or at least understand that that return is going to be there. Yeah, this is all boring talk for, we made a lot better sales and a lot like a better business choice based on my findings, and I get to keep my job.

Because I have these stats to prove. And so I actually doubled money and attendance from 2016 to 2018. Because in 2017, it was a workshop year.

So we only did the seance, which also sold out. But it wasn’t what I would call a pure eldritch, right? Because we also had the people who always regularly buy for that event that we collaborated with. So I think, in my most humblest of brags, that it was, it was a really good move to listen to the data.

And I know that that can seem really intimidating to people who may be doing this on a tight budget, or that they’re indie theatre, and they don’t necessarily know what I’m talking about. But there is a lot of free information throughout all of your social media platforms, like Facebook insights. Instagram is just about to update their analytics as well.

But you can put it into business mode. And through your mobile device, you can actually still get at least a little bit of Twitter is quite deep. Can we back up a little bit? Because there’s people who, you know, we’re talking about stats and things like that.

And they’re like, I’m not even sure what I’m doing with social media. Which, you know, and which is fine. I mean, a lot, we’re all, you know, we’re posting.

There’s, I just want to say that there are things that you can do. Facebook has their own engage, like their own sort of courses that you can take. Yeah.

And for free Facebook, Facebook Blueprint, everybody, please get in there. Facebook Blueprint. And if you want to get certified, you can pay, but you can learn it all for free.

Absolutely. And free is an important word in theatre, especially indie theatre. For those who are thinking in terms of traditional paper media, flyers, posters, what is it like when you say that you found out that only 5% of your ticket sales came from posters? How did you figure out that only 5% came from posters? Mandatory ticket questionnaire.

For you to get your tickets, you have to answer this question. Now, to be fair, I love people. I love them when they buy my tickets.

And I love them when they answer this question. About half of them will answer it because they understand that a mandatory, like this mandatory field in internet, if you press space bar, you’ve filled the field. So you don’t have to necessarily actually put alphanumeric to get through it.

So half the time I don’t know. So this is built off of who actually answers me. Can I ask you a question about your survey? Are you leaving it open or are you using a multiple choice? I am leaving it open, which again, I think I might have to change.

As a survey person, person who works in surveys and works in internet, never do that because you can’t quantify that. You can’t quantify it. So it’s interesting because you’re right.

You’re absolutely right. Because this year I left it open to just whatever you wanted to say. It needs to be radio bullet points because I love you Eldritch fans.

You make me smile, but you don’t help me with my data because your answers, while they’re hilarious, when you say, Cthulhu told me in a dream, it’s not quantifiable. So some of that is right. Like I have to scale that against how many people answered.

And that’s what I did. So in that 2016 finding, I did word of mouth, which is also quite vague because that can mean you heard from someone or they just didn’t want to type out the fact that they saw it in a magazine or that they forgot that they saw it in a magazine and they just kind of knew. So that’s also kind of a thing.

So all of this is with a grain of salt. But it’s always a really good idea that if you’re doing online ticketing, you put in a mandatory questionnaire, an exit survey, or follow up with your mail chimp, your newsletter, or survey monkey to be like, Hey, how did that go for you? Can you answer this? And don’t do a lot of questions because you don’t want that scrolling fatigue. It’s a thing where people are like, Oh, how long is this? And I like to give an incentive.

In fact, I’m working on an incentive right now that I wouldn’t mind all of those private reviews and private posts that people are putting on their, their, their Facebook and their Twitter that I see because they tagged us. It doesn’t live forever on our website or on our Facebook page. It just kind of goes away.

Right. Um, because it gets refreshed. So I’m going to do an incentive where anybody who reviews us up until, you know, a set date, I still have to set that date, but I’m looking at January 1st, 2019.

All of those people will be automatically entered, uh, to win an Eldritch prize pack, which I am working on right now because I want there to be an incentive for you spending again, your time, um, with, with something that, you know, might be worth your time. Um, so things like that, where it’s not also, you might, you know, depends on your ask and where you put it. I feel like the questionnaire is an easy ask because you’re already going through that.

Yeah. I would say that generally the questionnaire, as long as I would say that you might get a better return if you’re using radio buttons, it’s true because then people don’t have to take time to please learn from my mistake. Um, as much as I love Cthulhu telling you in a dream, but I, I also, because of that, that tells me leave out other.

Yes, yes, absolutely. I have, this is something that you will, you also have to put in not room for necessarily failure, but things like this, where it’s, it’s a learning curve. You might not have pure data or like an absolute reason to do anything.

Like it’s a lot of this is wild west. You just have to go with the hunch. You have to go with the algorithm.

You have to go with, you know, okay. So everybody’s liking my videos, but they’re not liking these beautiful posts of pictures that I’ve been editing. Well, you’re gonna have to suck it up princess and do more videos or whatever.

Right. Did you find that the video got, I mean, just, I mean, you threw that out that example. Did you find that video performed better than image? Uh, not necessarily, but I do know that, uh, Facebook favors organic video posts.

So not things that you link to, but that you upload to Facebook and then share. Um, so we did that, uh, this year with a 15 second, um, video of Lisa Norton playing Emily true heart with her, her little magnifying glass, uh, for our very final promo code. It was for cyber Monday and I did it for five days and I think we got a pretty good return.

Um, I know that people use the code and, um, and because it was organic and we uploaded it organically to Instagram and Facebook, it got a lot of nice place. So there’s also that too is like possibly doing a little bit of, you know, Facebook blueprint or Emma and that’s a good place to learn things for free as well. Um, to just kind of, if you’re going to start to do this type of marketing where it’s more about your time than your money.

And I know that that’s something that indie theatre, um, pauses that with a $20 spend, I got a really great return, but I needed to do a little bit of homework to make sure that I was going to be spending my money dollars the best way possible. Now that $20 spend was that on boosting the post or was that on boosting the post to a target audience? Usually, um, you can be very lazy with these settings in Facebook. You can say people who like my page and their friends.

Yeah. And that’s usually a safe bet because you, um, after, uh, 200 likes on Facebook, people are not going to be seeing all of your posts because it just gets fed into the robots and, and you’re not, your, your audience will not see all of your posts unless you pay for it. Right.

So even just that to make sure that it gets in everybody’s feed that you know, actually likes you is a good start. And then you can start, you know, doing your homework and getting a little bit more nitty gritty by doing target audience, which is a whole nother kettle of fish. Yeah, totally.

I mean, I’ve done, I’ve done some, some advertising for, for stage worthy. And, um, I was trying to get people who maybe had not heard of stage worthy. So I didn’t use people who I didn’t use people like my page and their friends.

I went for specific targets of like people who, who like theatre, like Broadway, like this sort of thing, just to try to get outside of that. Um, and I, I think there was some success to that. Yeah, absolutely.

But again, it’s the, it’s the thing that, that social media gives you as an advertising tool that just throwing posters up in your cafe does not. Yes, exactly. And, and this is where I think we’re living in a very exciting time where I can see my returns.

Like I can see impressions versus engagement, um, which is, you know, I, how many eyes saw it, but how many people actually clicked on it or liked it or commented it, right? Like there’s a different way to really look at those success measures. Um, rather than, you know, uh, a newspaper is telling me that they have so many subscribers. Well, but how many, so like my, my review or my ad is 15 pages in, can you tell me that they read that far? No, you can just tell me that how many issues were sold.

It also, because it doesn’t tell you, it does not, like if you put it in the newspaper, like I might not even be, I might flip past that page. I might, maybe I’m not paying attention to advertisements on that page. I, to be honest, I used to think, oh, there’s no way that advertising on Facebook or Instagram works.

However, recently I’ve found myself buying things that were advertised to me on Facebook and, and, and Instagram, which, and suddenly I was like, oh, this had to show this to me more than once. Yeah. Yeah.

Once I scrolled by and it was gone, but then I saw it the second time and I was like, oh, that’s interesting. And maybe I clicked on it and things like that. Like it repetition works and targeting it because obviously I’m predisposed to like whatever it was that they showed me.

Well, that’s the thing, right? Like Stageworthy is good for people who like theatre. So they’ll show it to people who like theatre. And, and that’s an amazing feat of technology.

It seems so simple, but the fact that the robots in your computer are like, Hey, Hey, Hey, Phil likes theatre. Yeah. Let’s show him this because it will make him the happy.

Sure. It’s, it’s fascinating to me. It’s the kind of thing that, because you know what, there, there are still, there are theaters that are able to successfully do.

And of course they have a lot of money, um, you know, they put their, they do a wrap on the streetcar or they do. Yeah. Right.

Top of mind is a huge budget. Like that is a lot of the dollars, but that’s a wide net. That’s like, because you don’t actually know who’s seeing it.

Same thing as like putting those flags on the street on, on the streetlights and things like that. You have no, all you’re doing is covering space and you will never know how many people actually saw it. Whereas online, like you said, $20 you could boost the poster.

And I know exactly what’s happening. Yeah. Top of mind is, is very, very big budget because it is, it’s, it’s something that is in your face.

And like you said, repetition sells. So that’s what they’re banking on is that it doesn’t matter how many people see it. It’s just how many times they see it.

They want to buy that, that thing, or they see that streetcar every day. Um, but again, with it, with indie theatre and with limited budgets, like say people going into the fringe and this is their first show ever, a $20 spend might be all you have. And so to do a targeted ad and like to actually find those people through keywords and to know that 20,000 people saw it within the GTA can feel good, right? That you actually made sense of your budget.

It’s interesting to think about, you know, I’ve, I’ve been involved in fringe shows and peripheral to fringe for many years before there was a Facebook and all that sort of stuff and how posters, you had to get your posters, you had to get your, your, your, your, your flyers out. You know, you had to get those. I still think that flyers are important for fringe.

Well, that’s a different culture too. But also I do think that like I have never bought for even my fringe tour. I never had more than 25 posters printed.

Um, cause I knew the areas I knew that I would put up a few, but that the value would come from talking to people and that’s the culture difference of the fringe festival setting. Sure. And that’s, again, just a little bit of homework will tell you, I don’t need to spend this money on posters.

What I need to do is I need to spend the money on me being there. Yeah. I need to, I need to have the time.

I need to take the time to be there and I need to have a thing that I can give people. Yeah. Um, also that I know people who like, even when they were doing, having a rough time at a fringe, boosting a post that they’d made about their show.

Um, even though they were from out of, out of town still helps them sell some tickets that they wouldn’t have sold anyway. Yeah. Cause they can just hit, you know, Toronto plus five miles or they can just say anything that’s like Toronto, like the M four postal code and stuff like this.

Like you can get quite specific and that can help people who are like, I don’t know where the hotspots are here. I’m from Edmonton. Right.

Like that they don’t know to hang out at the patio or, you know, the fringe hub. Um, and, and, or that they might not have come with a lot of people to lean on to do a lot of that canvassing and that they too are getting like, you know, theatre burnout from doing the shows and then having to go and like show their show. That’s a lot.

Yeah. So a target had can be your friend. Oh, sure.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think that we don’t, a lot of people are not thinking about that.

It’s kind of cheap to advertise on, on, on Facebook and Instagram, right? It doesn’t cost a lot. Yeah. Uh, knowing that, uh, an A4, so something that’s like maybe around the size of your hand is about $2,000, uh, in major news, uh, newspapers can be fairly intimidating.

Can you even imagine how much of those raps are for exactly my first born. Um, and so doing a targeted ad and, and at least getting some more eyes on it in a way that you can’t just knock on all these people’s doors like they used to, um, and like canvas or, or do any kind of mail out because that’s another thing too, is like, how much would you spend on a mail out just for somebody to put in the recycling? Yeah. Right.

The scroll is such a much easier way to, uh, to get people and much more environmentally friendly. And I think that it can’t be the, the, the fact that like, if you run your ad and somebody falls within your demographic, they’re likely going to see that a few times in a way that, um, they might, they won’t, if you send them a flyer in the mail or something like that. Like, like I said, I’ve bought things cause they showed it to me three times, you know, like, but there’s also something to be said about, um, not using the same image over and over.

Right. So I, I, I challenged myself this time around, uh, to take more photos. So the photos that you see for space opera zero is my, myself, um, for better or worse.

And that way I had a lot of ammunition for social media so that I wasn’t always doubling up when I was on Facebook to Instagram, to Twitter, that I tried to really make a mix of it, but also like you’re saying repetition. So I had some key images, the ones that I have in my media kit on the website in a high res file so that if the media is there, they can just right click and have, you know, a 300 pixel DPI, whatever. Um, and then, you know, my low res stuff that are just going to go out to Twitter and Instagram because I want people to see different, uh, different sides to the show.

Right. Question for you. Did you, and this is, this might be for people who are like, I don’t even know what they’re talking about already, but they might be a little more confused.

Were you doing like an AB split for those or did you like run concurrent ads? Did you run one ad for one week and one ad for another week? Because of my relationship with the cabal with Eldritch, um, content, I didn’t feel like I needed to do a B testing. Um, so for, for listeners, AB testing is basically running the same key messaging, AKA come see the show with, um, maybe different language. So like, um, if you’re targeting, um, people who would really be there because they like flash Gordon.

So I’m going to use like a really flash Gordon image and use like, um, that kind of lingo. And then in a beat, like that was the a image and the a copy, meaning the text. And then the B image is, you know, maybe a puppet and it’s really about selling the puppet.

Um, I found that because of the way that, uh, targeting works on social, um, the split wasn’t going to serve me. Um, and that I really, I really just stuck to my guns of, of the whole, the whole thing being one big campy ridiculousness. Um, I, I wouldn’t mind trying a more in the future.

Um, but with my assets and knowing my audience, I feel like I just really leaned into it. And, and that risk paid off because I had a 90% house sellout and, and, uh, about six actual sold out nights out of 15 show run. So I feel like I made a good call.

Um, like just to just, just to be specific, were you running like one ad in a week or did you run concurrent ads? I want, I ran different ads each week. So each, so opening weekend had its own. And then once reviews came in, I, I leveraged those and then new.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Different, different, different. Just want to get like the specifics of, uh, of that for the people who are like, like this. I mean, and the thing is like, you’re doing a show, your indie theatre at the red sandcastle and you sold out 90% of your shows.

No, no, 90% sold out. Sorry. Yes.

90% of the house was full, was full. So I had six sellouts, but out of 40, the lowest house that I had was 32. Okay.

But they were usually higher than that. So like the, the average house was 90% full. Okay.

Yeah. Which is, that’s good. It’s pretty good.

Yeah. I’m not going to lie. No, you should not lie.

I go to bed with a smile on my face. Yeah. Um, now given the, the, the, I mean, it is a feat for, um, an indie theatre company to, to sell out like that.

I think, um, that said, um, was that, how did that compare with previous Eldritch shows? Did like, in terms of the sellouts, like for, for brimstone was brimstone 90% sold? No, no, no. He, he did all right. That was my first, uh, kick at the can.

Um, but no, not, not those stats. Um, I sold, so there was about, uh, 400 odd, uh, seats sold for brimstone. Uh, but they had, it was a 50, I think it was a 50, 55 house because it was a different, um, way that it was set up for seat wise for the house.

Um, and so, I mean, we, we all can just kind of give a little nod to the it’s easier to sell out a smaller house. Sure, sure, sure. Um, and, uh, so this time around, I sold close to 600 seats and, uh, and doubled the revenue.

So there was less papering, less, um, uh, the terminology of to paper the house. So to give away comps so that, that you can get more word of mouth going. Um, it, it actually turned out that the people who I papered two years ago, we’re all too ready and too happy to buy tickets this time around, which again, I am so in love with our supporters and I’m very thankful that they wanted to come back for another ride.

Um, now having a number of shows that were sold out, especially on the weekends and having people who are very dedicated to, to seeing Eldritch shows, were there instances of people, um, reacting poorly to the discovery that the show was sold out? I had to set up a barricade. So if you’re familiar with the red sand castle, there is this really huge, heavy wooden, a frame that you can write with chalk on. And I only in the very last day realized that I could use this as a barricade because people were showing up late.

Um, and just like an airplane theatre needs to be treated like an airplane where you have a boarding opportunity between doors open and curtain. When the show is at eight, it doesn’t mean you come for eight. It means you’re in your seat by eight.

And I don’t know if it’s because our, um, that some of the people who come to see it, like you may mention at the beginning, they’re not stereotypical theatre goers that they might not know that. Um, but I try to communicate that on the ticketing website and on our website, um, that at around eight 17 or anytime after eight o’clock, we would actually have people swearing because you could hear them. Um, and or pounding on the doors asking for, to be let in.

Meanwhile, I have a sign on the door that says late comers are not permitted and that there is a show in progress basically saying, you know, please be quiet. Um, that did not stop people from being irate, which I can understand you paid for a thing. It’s also in the wintertime.

So it might be very difficult to get there. Um, but I apologize that, um, because of the rules of theatre, we are a group of people that have all agreed to be in this place at eight o’clock for this thing to start. And so for the 40 odd people that are here already, you know, I’m not going to wait 17 minutes for you to get here.

It’s also, I mean, having in a space like the red sandcastle or a smaller indie theatre, somebody coming in late, that’s, that’s, it’s not like when people come in late during like a big show at a big Mervis show or something, seats at the Elgin or whatever, you can kind of sneak it in the back. But at the sandcastle we’re on queen street, it’s loud. Um, it’s cold and it’s an intimate space.

It’s going to be disruptive. And as soon as that door opens and somebody comes in it, everybody notices and the mystique is gone. Um, and then again on Sundays it’s light outside.

Yeah. So you’re letting in the light. Yeah.

Yeah. And we’re supposed to be, you know, on planet and it’s supposed to be dark and cosmos. So it’s, it’s not that I don’t want you to see it.

I absolutely do. But I also have an agreement with the people who are already here that I’m going to give them an exceptional experience. Uh, so setting up, setting up the A-frame like a barricade on the last night, I might, I might have to do that with a, with a very polite sign saying, you know, the shuttle has launched, you know? Um, because again, it’s, it, it is about the whole experience and that I think would, would take away from it.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Um, favourite part of this particular show in, in, in like, was there a particular, um, thing that happened on social media or a particular ad that you’re quite, that you’re most proud of? Like what was, what’s your favorites? Um, I mean, just the show in itself, the fact that there’s something called the coitus song.

Um, but there was actually something that would always make me giggle. Um, is that there was a tracks of the Yargulak, these types of aliens. And it was Eric Woolfee just going, just made me laugh every single freaking time.

And he’s not even on stage doing it. It’s like, it’s a track where she’s like, Oh, the aliens are coming. And it’s just him going, it’s just so ridiculous.

And I love it. And that’s exactly like in a summary of just how wonderful Eldritch can be. I would just say that like having been in the audience and, um, just really smart from the first, from the video at the beginning to the end, just like smiling the whole way through, which was, is, is I think one of the highest compliments I can give for a show like this.

That’s very kind. And what’s really nice is that, um, because we’re like this lovely Indy, uh, theatre, I was actually given the opportunity to make the opening credits, which you can see on our YouTube. And it’s, and it’s all from our love of like the homage that we’re trying to get flash Gordon.

I actually tracked down the, um, the text font files to be actual slash Gordon, 1930s serial. Um, and then, uh, the comic book pulp art of the weird fantasy, I got that font. We actually ripped some actual 1930s footage of like the hilarious, uh, paper mache, uh, space things and everything.

And so, um, and then our sound designer actually made like an homage, uh, soundscape to it. And I, and I filmed the actors in that really cheesy way that they like reveal with like when those star wipes, it was just really fun to be a part of the creative process too. And I think that that’s something that, um, Indy theatre, uh, it’s really fun that you can lean into how silly your budget can be and just how all of you can be involved in that creative.

And that, that was a very favourite part too, that, that I was allowed to not just, you know, make ads ad buys and hashtags, but to also be a part of like the staged thing. And in so much as well, one of my favourite parts is that the stage manager, Sandy Becker actually puts a space hat on that lights up and she has a nerf gun and she assaults planet Oog, um, in the name of, of Gus, which is an in joke, but the aliens. Um, and that she too is a part of the creative process.

Meanwhile, you know, stage managers are sometimes, you know, isolated from that creative process to just press buttons in the booth and you never really see them, right? Like their nickname is God cause you never see them. And that’s kind of a gift too. And then I, I think that as, as indie theatre, I think sometimes we’re ashamed of just how, how many corners we have to cut or how we make things work.

But then those are the, those are the special moments. Those are the great moments that you get to laugh and share. Yeah, absolutely.

And I think that’s what makes Eldritch special. And I think that’s what makes indie theatre something that people still want to go out to all the way in the East side across the bridge and take a streetcar, right? Instead of the big spectacle shows, right? Eldritch is still a spectacle even on a budget. And I love that for it.

It’s pretty cool that you can be a spectacle without mirvish money dollars, right? Without, um, what is it? Hydra lifts or whatever. You don’t need Elphaba flying from the rafters. No, you don’t need it.

You just. Like, and that’s, that’s all Melanie and butters. Um, they are our, uh, space design crew.

Um, and then, and, and everybody just leaning into it and selling it, right? The cast and the director selling it as a unit. Um, and then, and then that comes through when I get to do all of the set stills and the pictures that I get to share these really wonderful moments, um, out on social media. And I think that’s where I get a lot of the comments of just like, what am I seeing? What is this crazy, wonderful puppet? Did you, did you find that people were reacting to the images and be like, what the fuck? A little bit, a little bit.

Um, I, I was given some directive, uh, direction from, uh, from the artistic, uh, uh, crew that they didn’t want so many puppet reveals because that was a big part of the show. So I only started to reveal those things a little bit later in the run. Um, and, and yeah, that we wanted to keep some things as, as a spectacle, as a reveal.

And I can appreciate that. Um, because for me, transparency is, is a huge deal because I want to let you in. I want you to see the process.

So if you look on our Insta stories on Instagram, there’s a lot of behind the scenes stuff. And then even then I keep some of that behind the scenes stuff for only the cabal. So unless you’re a cabal member, you haven’t seen Eric Woolfe dance to the Quoidas song in his space suit.

I’m just saying that’s worth the price of admission. Also known as it’s free and become a subscriber. Well, all right then.

Adrianna, thanks so much. You’re welcome. Thanks.

This has been a Homebody Productions production.