Unless it is a major musical or a touring concert act most of the products we engage with in the performing arts have a limited shelf life, in some cases maybe only a matter of weeks for the idea to be taken to market, people to become aware of it and then hopefully buy tickets.
And that's got me thinking, what other types of products do this, exist in a bespoke manner for a very limited period and then disappear.
Outside of the performing arts I can only really think of fast food special menu items and fashion as two similar examples.
McDonalds always have a new item on their menu for just a limited time, lamburgers, Angus beef, McRib (or as Homer would say "Hmmmm McRiiiib"), special slushies and the list goes on. So why do they do this? It's pretty simple really McDonalds is omnipresent, it's just always there, if they don't give you different reasons to visit there's every chance that you could fall out of the habit of going.
And how do they do it? Again really simply, they bombard you with marketing, mainly TV but from time to time social media too. With a big spend and frequency, frequency, frequency. The lamburger practically appears in your hands via some form of "message-to-matter" process that scientist themselves don't even understand. Quantum physics I think.
It is also interesting to note that McDonalds uses different media for different messages. TV sells the specials, outdoor is directional "Next Macca's 500m on the right" and radio is informational "in your market there is a 24 hr McDonalds operating", "McDonalds now has better coffee" and the like.
Trouble is all of these special short term products are the teeny-tiniest sub-brands serving the needs of a dominant overall major brand. Performing arts in most cases the show is at least the equal of the organisation on brand terms if not more important. But the lesson we can learn from Macca's is to choose frequency with your media buy when creating recognition for a product with a short term life span.
Fashion too is a bit different as the product with a short life span is not a single product but a set of products that are marketed as "this season's look". As there is usually some commonality across stores with 'looks', its a weird situation where you and your competitors are cross-selling for each other, generating a demand for a 'look' and then people select which store to go to partly out of brand loyalty and partly just as a result of browsing the shopping centres.
So the fashion analogy leads one towards brand loyalty, performing arts companies with a strong brand such as Bell Shakespeare, Sydney Theatre Company and Bangarra Dance Theatre bring with them pre-existing brand equity which means there's already a readiness to accept the 'new' offering and creates a sense of standing apart when one is surfing the net or flicking through the weekend newspaper magazines thinking about things to do in the coming weeks.
So frequency and working on a strong primary brand as two keys to launching a product/show into the market place for a short period of time.
To this list, I would add a third, care, take the time to really nail the design and word execution around the show. If you only have a short period of time to build up a show's brand you really have to nail it, make every component work as best it can, focus on how will the show impact on the patron and do everything you can to represent that feeling or response in your marketing, if you are selling an unrequited love story then your marketing should drip with pathos. "Have you ever being in love", "For anybody who has loved and lost before" OK these are clichés but you get the drift. Put the audience into the picture, give them a taste of the feeling.
By-the-by MacDonalds now often launch new product with cheap $3 dollar taste wraps, they give you a teaser of the full thing. It shard for us to do this in the arts but we work towards giving people as much of a taste as we can.
Anyway that's enough for now. I'll leave you and your budgets to figure out how you achieve frequency!
