So I was thrilled to find someone outside the Daley Center handing out mini-flyers. Here was my chance to read all about the show and decide if I want to go...
The flyer tells me almost nothing. It raves about an actress I don't know (see again: head in hole). It tells me it's a show about a family. It tells me it's emotional. It tells me that it won awards.
Based on this stunning amount of information, I've placed this show as a cross between Sweeney Todd and Mary Poppins. Should be a blast.
Is this the best we can do when introducing a new show? Is this how we think that we'll make people feel familiar enough with the show to give it a try? Big name artists certainly do make us feel more comfortable, but is Alice Ripley big enough for the general public to rely on that to carry the show?
Going back to the Heath Brothers and their SUCCESs model, let's take a look and see how sticky this flyer might be:
Simple: This ad isn't at all simple. It tries to overwhelm you with pull quotes, mentioning awards, a nonsensical graphic of a musical score tied in knots. Almost nothing at all about the show itself.
Unexpected: Sadly, it's all too expected that a show ad will try to dazzle with the best quotes and call itself "emotional". All the bold in the world doesn't draw my eye in place of something truly unexpected.
Concrete: The only thing that makes this ad concrete is that there will be music, but a printed ad can't even convey what kind. A reference to the Rent director evokes rock musical, but the mention of family makes me question that. It could very well be a rock musical about a family, but nothing actually confirms that in the ad.
Credible: Pull quotes try to be credible, but I think we've all gotten too cynical for it to work. Everyone knows that you can find a few words in even the worst review that make you look at least ok. Mentioning the Tony and Pulitzer is a little better, but I'm also cynical about award shows personally these days, so for me that left just the Pulitzer to give credibility.
Emotional: Saying the word "emotional" in the ad doesn't count. Sorry. A later quote says "Much more than a feel-good musical: it is a feel-everything musical." but what does that even mean? Feeling everything is so broad as to be meaningless. Remember the old "You'll laugh! You'll cry!" etc.? Yeah, just as lacking in meaning and very ad-speak-esque.
Stories: This is the greatest crime for an arts presentation. This is the essence of what we do. Not telling a story about the show is just tragic.
Not a good showing, is it?
We need to do better. We can recognize ways to make a show feel more familiar without sacrificing the things that will actually make the message about the show stick and get people to try it out.
I hear what you're saying but perhaps the ad isn't for you.
ReplyDeleteSounds like it's geared for an out of towner deciding between shows rather than someone in the industry.
Clearly, I don't know if the flyer works but the things you list:
It raves about an actress I don't know.
It tells me it's a show about a family.
It tells me it's emotional.
It tells me that it won awards.
All seem to be things that invoke the Click-whrr, they allow a person to make a decision in the absence of other information.
I do believe it's folly not to create multiple ads geared to different people though. But as I mentioned I don't think this one is for you.
What would you want to see on the flyer?
It's my supposition that even an out-of-towner faced with so little information would toss that flyer on the ground and spend time in the hotel bar instead most likely. Or just ask the concierge. In the information age, having almost no real information about the show is a killer.
ReplyDeleteAlso consider that while tourism is a key factor for the Broadway in Chicago group, they are still largely dependent on local audiences. And if this flyer were targeted at random out-of-towners, I'd expect them to distribute them at hotels, not outside Daley Center. But maybe I'm giving them too much credit on that account, or maybe these are their out-of-town flyers and they had extras to distribute.
I want to know what I'm getting into as a patron. I want to know the kind of story I'm seeing, what issues it deals with, more about the artwork itself. Tell me about the experience I want to have.
In further research and discussions about the show, I really think that they are shying away from the subject matter, given that it's a fairly dark show about how a family is torn apart by depression. If that's the case, it saddens me that they feel that they can't sell that given how many families do deal with depression every day. I think they are underestimating their audiences if that's the case. But what they might gain in people looking for an award-winning musical, they could very well piss off when they walk into a show that isn't the feel-good production they might have been expecting. Is that worth it, out-of-towners or not? Not in my book.