Theatre trailers: do they really work?

As the explosion of YouTube stars shows, videos have become a powerful method of online marketing. But for a live medium such as theatre or dance, do video trailers work? Marketing departments at some of our major arts venues seem to think so. As Phil Newby, head of marketing at the Roundhouse, points out: "We are now watching 11,000 years of online video every month in the UK alone." Three organisations and one production company at the forefront of this new tool share why a picture really is worth a thousand words.

Sadler's Wells

The move to embrace video was always going to be a no-brainer, says Kingsley Jayasekera, director of communications and digital strategy at Sadler's Wells. Dance reviews can struggle to capture the essence of a show, making purchasing tickets a high-risk move on their recommendation alone.

By giving people a clip of the action, Jayasekera believes Sadler's is diminishing that risk. Videos fit neatly into online social networks and help groups to make more informed decisions. Says Jayasekera: "You can send a friend a clip via Facebook and say 'I'm thinking of going to see this, what do you think?'"

Sadler's is ahead of the curve in measuring this new marketing tool. "We get about 581,000 views from our player, excluding YouTube, and 18% of site visitors watch a video," Jayasekera reveals. Box office returns confirm these are ticket-buying viewers.

Figures for individual videos are even more impressive. A clip of The Pet Shop Boys collaboration with Javier De Frutos, The Most Incredible Thing, was seen by 32,000 people while the video for Fela got 27,000 hits.

Each video also provides an opportunity to build the Sadler's Wells brand, with archived content viewable on the website long after shows have finished. But although Sadler's has started to project show-reels before performances at the Peacock Theatre, Jayasekera is suspicious of more cinematic trailers.

For him videos are a way of building trust and he worries about misleading the audience with a vague teaser. The purpose of trailers is "to make things clearer", he says, and it is "their ability to give more information and help the audience to make a more informed choice" that makes them useful.

Royal Shakespeare Company

Chris McGill at production company Dusthouse feels the same but his company is often brought in to produce teaser videos with a more cinematic feel. "We give the theatregoer or 'consumer' a snapshot of what they can expect from a particular show," he says. "The key element is for us to capture the essence of a production, bottle it up and present it in a familiar package." In McGill's view, this style appeals to a young web savvy audience.

Dusthouse's trailer for the Royal Shakespeare Company show, The Heart of Robin Hood, has played in regional cinemas and resulted in a rise in ticket sales, according to David Collins, RSC's head of marketing. Collins believes the video's "energy, excitement and danger" powerfully communicate this dynamic production, which will incorporate rope swinging and flying.

The teaser trailers are the first part of a two-stage process. Once the show has opened, a more traditionally formatted trailer featuring stage footage and press quotes will be released. In this way, the RSC reaches new demographics alongside its traditional core audience by incorporating video content into the emails received by its database of 200,000 users.

Roundhouse

Phil Newby at the Roundhouse believes videos can go even further. "We think of online video as more than just a signpost to an event in the physical space," he says. "We're keen that our digital output is a way for us to break out of the bricks and mortar of the venue itself and engage audiences beyond our usual geographic reach in new and innovative ways."

Roundhouse's current collaboration with spoken word artist Polarbear does just this: a series of short films, each of which could be seen as a piece of work in its own right. Says Newby: "PolarBear's films are a great example of how digital content can offer a deeper insight into artist and their work."

Newby agrees with Jayasekera that videos encourage personal recommendation and can be used to build trust, both of which lead to increased sales. During the Roundhouse's summer installation, Ron Arad's Curtain Call, 20% of all visitors to the microsite created for the campaign watched the trailer – a total of almost 13,000 views.

Should we be looking for more concrete evidence linking trailer to ticket purchases? "We survey all our audiences online after they have attended a performance," says Newby. "But [specific trailer feedback] is certainly an interesting area and it would be really valuable to start pursuing this in order to fine-tune the way we present our work to audiences through video trailers."

Honour Bayes is a freelance arts writer based in London. Follow her on Twitter @honourbayes or read her blog at http://theatreworkbook.wordpress.com/

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