Archive for June, 2008

5 Free Ways to Promote Your Show on the Internet

1. Wednesday is the new Friday. Facebook is the new Myspace.

It’s awesome. You can create a fan page for your show which allows for people to comment, rate and view videos and pictures. You can also create an event and invite everyone you’ve ever met to come see the show. Comment on other theatre facebook pages “If you liked Cats, you’ll love the Gender Bending Three Sisters! Use code XXX for $35 tix!” Okay, maybe not that lame, but you get the idea. Facebook is the fastest growing social network and will continue to grow. (Myspace is still the most popular, but Facebook is much more valuable for promotion.) Click here for an article on how to set up a Facebook account.

2. You scratch my Eblast, I’ll scratch yours.

Get your friends who are involved with a theatre company to do placement on their eblast. It’s a common misconception that you can just ‘use their list’ – which is illegal. However, placement on the theatre companies already existing newsletter is prime exposure. If you don’t have a list to trade yourself, offer placement, a link or banner on your site under Partners or Community.

3. Times online reader reviews.

Get all your fans, supporters and friends to jump onto the NYTimes.com and write and rate. It makes them feel like they are important for the show, and it adds a personal touch to the existing review. (And may balance out if it’s a bad one.) The more reviews and higher rating your show gets, then it gets listed under Readers’ Highest Rated.

4. Video Schmideo.

It’s easy! Borrow your friend’s video camera. Go backstage and tape the actors. Upload it to your computer. Edit it. Upload it to YouTube and then post to your website and social networks. Be creative! Give the actors the video and let them create the content. Even if you are just taping the actors talking about their role, their hair, the dressing room, whatever! It helps to create a ‘Backstage Pass’ – it’s also easy to upload to YouTube, embed the code and post it on your website. It’s like DVD extras! If it’s funny, or interesting or different, it may just go viral…

5. Celebimonials

I know it’s cliche, but celebrities sell tickets. If you can’t afford 50k a week to have one in your show, get one to talk about it for free. You probably know a celebrity or two through 6 degrees (Your mom went on a date with George Clooney in ‘89 and they still keep in touch), so call in the favor and get them to write a testimonial for your website. Better plan: Get them to be on camera to say “I loved it! Go see it!”

June 27th, 2008 by Jim Glaub | Tags: Internet Marketing | No Comments »

Week in Review!

So much happened this week!

  • Frantically working on Fela! A New Musical coming to 37 Arts.  Bill T. Jones is awesome.
  • So much happens in LIFE.
  • No one is more excited about Vineyard’s upcoming Wig Out than I am.
  • Clubbed Thumb’s Summerworks is heating things up.
  • Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’s last performance is on Sunday. (sad face emoticon) We’re taping the closing night, so I’ll post the video later.
  • Stitching opens for previews at the Wild Project.  I saw it on Tuesday and it’s really great. Go see it.

It’s 7:25 and why am I still in the office on a Friday night? Off to the Opera in the Park. Prospect Park, really?

Look! A fun picture with me and the Vanities‘ Girls. Jealous?

Vanites fun

photo by the fabulous Joan Marcus

June 20th, 2008 by Jim Glaub | Tags: Random Stuff | No Comments »

High School Tony Awards Honors Schools' Biggest Nerds, Losers


High School Tony Awards Honor Schools’ Biggest Nerds, Losers

June 17th, 2008 by Jim Glaub | Tags: Random Stuff | No Comments »

Tonys 2008: The Year of Great Acceptance

I love the Tony Awards for more than just the glittery gay dance numbers. For me, it’s all about the acceptance awards. Mark Rylance gave my favorite and for me, wins Best Acceptance Speech:


Best Starlet Speech goes to Laura Benati
Best Diva speech goes to Patti LuPone
Most Poetic and Rehearsed speech goes to Lin Manuel Miranda
Best Fat Joke during a Speech goes to Stew

Great job on everyone who tried to be interesting with your acceptance. Bravo. I know what everyone is asking. “Jim, what will YOU say or do when you win your Tony?” While Dressed in a head-to-toe diamond tux, I will come accompanied with a giant sheet with all the thank you’s printed legibly, flash it, and use the time to break dance while throwing out vats of glitter, like Rip Taylor.

June 16th, 2008 by Jim Glaub | Tags: In the News | No Comments »

Life is live!

Check out the new site we did for Life in a Marital Institution: www.lifeinamaritalinstitution.com

Update 12-12-2008: James Braly is now redirecting the “Life” domain to a site featuring news and more general information about his work, so the site we designed is no longer live.

June 13th, 2008 by Jim Glaub | Tags: Web Design | No Comments »

Get Some Furniture While Humming a Catchy Mamma Mia Tune

Advertising Age reports that Ikea, the Swedish discount, build-it-yourself furniture store, is partnering with the new movie, Mamma Mia. The movie, of course, is a brand extension of the long-running Broadway show that uses songs from Swedish band Abba to tell the story of a girl trying to identify her father before she marries.

Bill Agee, marketing manager of Ikea’s U.S. operations explained that, “We’re always looking to add entertainment value to the Ikea experience because to visit Ikea is often a long drive, so we need to keep the store experience vital, especially since they have to drive by competitors on the way to Ikea.”

There will be Abba sing-alongs in some stores, so warm up your voice and feather your hair!

June 13th, 2008 by Sheryl Ramer | Tags: In the News, Video | No Comments »

Can a Clever Marketing Campaign Help Fatten the MTA (and our) Wallets?

It is no news that the MTA is in a budget crisis, and I don’t know about you, but my wallet is feeling empathy pains.

I read in the Gothamist blog that MTA’s counterpart in Japan reversed their own similar dire economic straits, thanks to a calico cat named Tama. It seems that in Japan, cats are considered good luck, and, as the Gothamist quotes from an Associated Press article,

All the 9-year-old female cat does is sit by the entrance of Kishi Station in western Japan, wearing a black uniform cap and posing for photos for the tourists who are now flocking in droves from across the nation.

Tama has been doing such a good job of raising revenue for the troubled Kishikawa train line that she was recently promoted to “super-station-master.”

The train company also sells merchandise, including “a special 1,365 yen ($13) book of photos of Tama called, ‘Diary of Tama, the Station Master.’”

I wholeheartedly agree with the Gothamist that merchandising within the train stations themselves is an excellent idea.

A cat mascot could work here, too.

I could see a whole campaign around it that would get the city interested in the project. There could be a competition to name the cat, similar to Brooklyn’s Prospect Park Zoo’s recent public vote to name their new-born kangaroo. The cat would have its own YouTube page and MySpace page and Facebook profile.

Cats are cheap and low-maintenance, and while Americans don’t believe cats can bring them luck, many adore them.

PLUS, cats get rid of rats, which are known to frequent the subways once in a while …

June 10th, 2008 by Sheryl Ramer | Tags: In the News | No Comments »

Best Musical Nominees

Xanadu: The Musical

I saw “Xanadu” this past weekend with two of my friends. I have been avoiding seeing the show because, despite overall positive reviews I still didn’t really think it would be that good and that the show is just contributing to the slow and painful death of the art form known as musical theatre.

I have been told, and I agree that I am some what of a theatre snob….Is it really that big of a deal if I enjoy a good night of quality theater! Anyway, so I went into “Xanadu” with some doubts but I still was telling myself that I would not judge the show until the end.

So I must say that I did enjoy it. “Xanadu” is a sugary sweet, diabetic coma inducing good time. I mean you really can’t leave the show unhappy. The show knows its not Sondheim or even Schwartz and plays that to their advantage. It is campy, funny and the cast is really a lot a of fun (especially Mary Testa and Jackie Hoffman).

Now the interesting thing is that, is it really any kind competition for Best Musical? This year’s nominees are strange. No show has really captured the audience and is completely selling out and all shows are kind of feel good shows (I have not seen “Cry Baby” and I actually believe that “Cry Baby” is a throw away nomination since no other musical this season aside from “In the Heights,” “Passing Strange” and “Xanadu” got good reviews).

I am interested to see what happens on Tony night. “Xanadu” is trying to pull an “Avenue Q” with their viral marketing campaign Cubby Bernstein but the three nominees for best musical all leave you with the same smile on your face.

I believe that “In the Heights” is favored to win Best Musical because but I can’t really discount “Passing Strange” or “Xanadu” just yet. I think “Xanadu” and “In the Heights” have the best touring possibilities (and that is important to the Tony voter) but “Passing Strange” is also a very new type of musical, and it started at the Public which is a great New York institution. All of the nominees have their flaws and they all still need to attract a wider audience and none of the nominees (again ignoring “Cry Baby”) have something kind of new and different to offer. I guess we shall see in a week.

June 9th, 2008 by Mark Seeley | Tags: In the News | No Comments »

All stitched up

Stitching

Our latest company project is the twisted-love story ‘Stitching’ by Anthony Neilsen, directed by our very own Timothy Haskell. It stars Meithal Dohan (you might remember her as the sexy Israeli in Showtime’s Weeds). Check out the website at www.stitchingtheplay.com and be sure to check it out at the Wild Project when it opens June 17.

June 9th, 2008 by Jim Glaub | Tags: Events, Web Design | No Comments »

The new frontier of Trademark's on the Internet.

I came across this article on NYtimes.com entitled Google and Louis Vuitton Face Off in Trademark Spat. The article discusses a lawsuit filed by Louis Vuitton claiming that Google infringes on their copy right because Google allows people to purchase Google Adwords with names like “Louis Vuitton fakes” or “Louis Vuitton replicas.” The lawsuit, which was filed in France was found in favor of Louis Vuitton and is being appealed by Google.

I don’t know much about trademark or copy right law but I find this extremely interesting. I mean I guess technically there is an infringement on the copyright but at the same time I think that people are purchasing the Google Adwords which are being placed almost automatically on the Google search engine. Would you sue the owner of a bill board because someone placed an ad on that space? This law suit is a perfect example of how technology has changed the way people have to look at the law and that its never clear cut or black and white.

June 4th, 2008 by Mark Seeley | Tags: Random Stuff | No Comments »