How Do YOU Discover a New Show?

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 12:35pm

What's your preference?

TV, radio, magazine, website ads? Certain TV shows? Stories from newspapers or news sites online? Columnists? Reviewers, pros or non-pros? Postcards in the mailbox? Billboards, flyers, posters? Online website threads, blogs or video clips? Theatre websites like Playbill, BWW or All that Chat? Places like the TKTS booth or Times Square information center? TDF listings or papering services? Word of mouth from someone who has seen the show?

Other? Any unique marketing you liked? Urinetown had little billboards on NYC taxis which worked well for their show.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 12:47pm

I don't "discover" new shows through advertising. I discover them through word-of-mouth within the industry, from readings and workshops, and from press releases.

And to ask what your "preference" is on how to "discover" a show, I think, is quite silly. One cannot choose which advertisement they will see first...it's all a matter of fate.

Also, when asking a question like this, a big part of the perspective of responses will be where the user lives. When I didn't live in NYC, there were NEVER ways to discover new shows other than through National Tours and the Tony Awards (pre-internet, that is).

[steven22]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 12:57pm

Cast recordings usually.

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 2:26pm

Honestly, I read what people have to say on the message boards here, and if something interests me, I'll check it out on its website, Wikepedia, and other sites. Then, I'll make my own decisions.

Then, like most non NYC area people, my window into "new shows" is the Tony Awards.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 5/9/11 at 4:15pm

Discovering shows through the industry would probably fall under "word of mouth."

Preference is referring to what ways you seek out or are amenable to receiving information about new shows.

For example, with regard to mailings, I don't like oversize postcards in my mailbox and get rid of them, but I do like and read regular size postcards. I feel like the marketers sending out oversize mailings are annoying in their method to get attention and don't give them any. On the other hand, I do like newsletter informational mailings like the ones Mint Theater and the Irish Rep send out about upcoming programs and shows. I like to read the history of the shows and content about the show to decide if I want to see it.

What marketing methods do you like or find helpful to decide to see a show?