A puzzle at PTC

Hi guys,

Well it has surely been an interesting two weeks. We have had three show openings (half our production list) before which is the most hectic media focus and event planning time. We literally swamped the newspapers – not with ads, because they are out of budget- but with feature articles and interviews. There have been radio features (story angle) and interviews, even a piece (orchestrated by me – how exciting) appear in STM magazine. As well as this we did a heap of mail outs to members of not only our company but also the association company – this resulted in the folding stuffing and sealing of over a thousand letters – the whole staff was involved!

But this leads me to what I think is quite an interesting question. What is more effective? An ad in a newspaper, on the radio or TV… or mail outs to those people we know have an interest in the theatre? After mulling over this question I have found the answer is not quite as clear as my first impulse would suggest. My initial reaction to this was that of course an ad would be more effective; it would reach a larger audience, target people we would otherwise neglect, is national coverage. Plus when you are doing as many mail outs as we did, the costs are comparative. But then after further thought I began to wonder wether targeting this mass audience was wise when here we have a whole list of over a thousand people who we already know for sure have an interest in what we are promoting. I found I was not the only person to wonder about this question as the general manager of PTC was all for the mail outs where else an administrator was all for the ads.

A second conundrum this week was that of our target audience. It is well known within the arts industry that the majority of those who attend theatre are middle aged, higher socio-economic women and the elderly. I was given the task of writing up a report on the effect the current economic downturn would have on our company. After giving this careful thought I came to the conclusion that it was not the down turn that would affect us (for theatre is a form of escapism which has always prevailed through times of economic crisis) but our target audience. What will happen to PTC when, and there isn’t really a nice way of posing this, our target market die out? Will PTC have sufficiently communicated with and enticed a younger audience or will they have to start a re-education (a much more difficult process).

Well this is what I am left with for this week anyway, if you feel like helping me out with this puzzle feel free. I love that working at PTC is challenging me to think outside the box and hope you are all as lucky.

Cheers,
Chelle x