Case Study: All Roads Lead to Florence

The Florentine Players, a nonprofit community theater group, has been staging productions in the Florence neighborhood of Omaha, Nebraska, for nearly 60 years. The Florence Community Theater at Florence City Hall, the home of the Florentine Players, hosts several community events and four major stage productions annually, including a spring melodrama, a tradition since the 1920s. The Florence Community Theater and The Florentine Players are divisions of the Florence Historical Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving historic buildings in the area. In 2023 and 2024, The Florentine Players (FP) partnered with independent PR consultant LeAnne Morman, APR, to reach its goal of developing and executing effective PR and marketing strategies that could raise awareness of the theater while setting a precedent for the successful promotion of upcoming productions.

Research Audience attendance could greatly vary during the ebb and flow of the COVID-19 pandemic. PR consultant LeAnne Morman, APR, sought to refine the FP’s marketing tactics using more strategic, research-based planning that could help the group implement the most tried and true tactics for future promotion. As a starting point, a proven mix of previous and new PR and marketing tactics was laid into a strategic plan for promoting FP’s fall production of The Tell-Tall Farce. This plan also included measuring the effectiveness of all implemented tactics during a post-show audience survey as a primary research method to build a research-based plan for the 2024 spring melodrama. While the survey had a smaller sample size, it still provided valuable data for future FP marketing efforts.

Nearly half of the survey participants were at the venue for the first time.
The age ranges were varied, showing a good variety of generations in the audiences.
Overall, word-of-mouth from a friend or family member was the most common way people heard about the show.
Second was Facebook and the event page.
Third was email marketing.
Develop key messages, graphics, and custom show hashtags. The messages shared details about the melodrama, the cause the FP supports and the history of the longtime community theater group.

Social Media and Word-of-Mouth

Create a Facebook event page.
Ask show participants and cast to mark themselves as “going” on the Facebook event page and invite five friends each (beyond their usual invitees) to the event via the invite feature on the event page or in person.
Create and schedule social media show promotion posts for March, April and May.
Encourage cast and crew members to share FP posts on their social media using tags and hashtags.
Post additional ad-hoc social content, like videos and photos from rehearsal, news coverage links, etc.
Characters in the melodrama appear in videos in costume as influencers.
April 21 to 27: National Volunteer Week – highlight the FP’s melodrama volunteers on social media (set builders, directing team, stage manager, production, etc.)
Share candid photos/videos from rehearsals (including band rehearsals).
Use cast headshots and bios for regular highlights on social media leading up to the show.

Earned Media

Create a news release, distribute and schedule interviews.

Email and Direct Mail

Send a direct mail postcard with a discount coupon to the Florence zip code.
Develop an email drip campaign comprising at least three emails containing show information.

Ongoing Research

Deploy a post-show results survey.

Evaluation

Survey results showed the number of people who attended 1-4 times per year grew by approximately 20% compared to the previous survey.
Social media posts had increased reach. From March 1 to May 20, Instagram's reach increased by 3,800%, and Facebook reached 376% more people. Additionally, Facebook and Instagram gained several new followers.
Earned media efforts resulted in 13 media placements that reached more than 700,000 people.
The email drip campaign had an average open rate of 40%.

While this campaign met its objective and raised great awareness of the FP and its productions, ticket sales for the melodrama were slightly down over the previous year by approximately 25 people. The cause of the slight downturn could be attributed to external factors beyond the campaign, including:

newly increased ticket prices;
a different show schedule compared to traditional melodrama dates that have been the same two weekends for decades;
and overall economic conditions like inflation and more cautious spending.

With two sets of primary research survey results, the FP gained renewed insight to adjust its tactics for future promotions, continuing its track record of positive awareness-building results. In a post-campaign results report, Morman used research insights to highlight key strategies and tactics the FP could employ for future show promotion.