Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board: Program Ad's

Author

Message

landon2006
Star
Star

Joined: 3/10/08
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 55

Topic: Program Ad's
Posted: 3/10/08 at 8:36am

I was trying to come up with an idea of how to price ad's for our programs. We have only one other Community Theater, and they only charge $200 per year for a full page ad to appear in every program. However, this will not work for us. I have come up with an idea of what to charge but I wanted you guys to look at it and tell me if I'm overpricing the space?

Keep in mind that all ad's are full color, printed on nice glossy paper and that each program will contain up to 10 Photo's from the production as to keep people interested in keeping there program's for a much longer time period than normal.

Each of our performances will also play to (up to) 561 people.

I put together an excel spreadsheet and uploaded it here: http://www.geocities.com/landon1600/

Take a look at it and tell me if perhaps I need to come down a little on the price or maybe even go up.

Thanks,
Landon

IP Logged

John Luzaich
Celebrity

Joined: 2/24/08
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 174

Posted: 3/10/08 at 11:42am

Landon,

I don't think we are too different than your situation. We have a 500 seat theatre, are a 501 (c) (3) non-profit community theatre located in the Midwest. We operate year round, produce our own 4 - play season (and a fifth show that changes formats every year). We also do some presenting and rentals. We use our own playbill for our own shows and the presenting events we do. The rentals are responsible for their own playbills/programs. When a client advertises in our playbill they have their ad year round for our production of Pippin and Larry O'Brien & the Glenn Miller Orchestra. They see their ad in the playbill for our production of Inspecting Carol and for Folk singer songwriter Leo Kottke.

Our clients pay us one fee at the beginning of our season and their ad runs all year long for everything we do. We charge: $295. - 1/4 page ad, $495. for 1/2 page ad, $895. for full page ad. You should leave room in your playbill for ad trades (you have an ad in my playbill and I have one in yours). We do a lot of trades with other community theatres, professional theatre, University theatre, etc.

John
cfct@cfu.net
http://www.osterregent.org
http://www.facebook.com/osterregent

IP Logged

John Luzaich
Celebrity

Joined: 2/24/08
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 174

Posted: 3/10/08 at 11:54am

Oh, yes, and the other thing we've learned about playbills/programs is print fewer than you think you need! I can't tell you how many times we have playbills left over. I don't mean a few for our files and archives, I mean a box full. We do use them to send out to potential advertisers for next year. We'll send a playbill to those people so they can see what our playbill looks like, and they can see who else advertises in there.

But, we used to print one for every expected audience member. We had too many left over because many people just do not take the playbill home with them. We want them to and even call their attention to it during the curtain announcements. Once in awhile an ad is a coupon for something, so we want people to take them home or to work and show people, share it, put it on the coffee table, etc. But so many people just leave them at the theatre on their way out after the show. Our rule of thumb for printing is about 2/3rds of your expected attendance.

John
cfct@cfu.net
http://www.osterregent.org
http://www.facebook.com/osterregent

IP Logged

landon2006
Star
Star

Joined: 3/10/08
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 55

Posted: 3/10/08 at 11:57am

We will only print as many as a full house. So, we print 561 x 6 performances = 3,366. That way we know we have enough for everyone if we have a full house.

We are actually getting a pretty good deal on our Programs from www.printplace.com. Each one cost us 86 cents (including the two inserts) and are in full color, with a Glossy Aqueous coating and 44 pages long.

IP Logged

JoeMc
Celebrity

Joined: 3/13/06
Location: Australia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 832

Posted: 3/10/08 at 11:30pm

With comeatre & advertisers. I found out years a go, not to charge for progammes, as this gives the advirtisers & sponsors a better coverage & exsposure for thier $'s.

Also we don't have a heap left over that didn't sell.

I first tried this in a country town comeatre. We placed donation boxes next to the programmes. The first season they made more out of programme donations, than they ever did attempting to flog them.

They are still doing this to day & have advertisers knocking on thier door. Once they have enough advertisers to pay for the programmes, they close it off. Rather than having a programme full of adds.

Further in a couple of others that have followed suit, they can offer less advertising space at a premium price, thus effectivly have better quality for shows & as all punters get one for free, a lot are kept for longer, giving the adds more exsposure!

With donations it's 'money for Jam'!

[western] Gondawandaland
"Hear the light & see the sound!
TOI TOI CHOOKAS
{may you always play to a full house!}

IP Logged

John Luzaich
Celebrity

Joined: 2/24/08
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 174

Posted: 3/12/08 at 12:19pm

Joe, I hope you didn't misinterpret what we're talking about here. We don't charge the theatre patron for the playbill/program. (like at some sporting events). Those are handed out free. The charge is to the business owner or manager for having an ad in the playbill/program.

John
cfct@cfu.net
http://www.osterregent.org
http://www.facebook.com/osterregent

IP Logged

landon2006
Star
Star

Joined: 3/10/08
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 55

Posted: 3/12/08 at 4:05pm

Yes, we only charge the Advertisers. We also reserve 4, full page ad's for our Advertising sponsors (aka: The local newspaper, radio stations, cables company, etc) that provide us with free advertisement.

IP Logged

JoeMc
Celebrity

Joined: 3/13/06
Location: Australia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 832

Posted: 3/13/08 at 4:35am

I did misunderstand, as i didn't pick up on any reference to fammes to the punter.

We don't even bother with 'dodgers' [playbills/posters] as they tend to just become scrap paper or memo pads.

The only thing we do for posters, is arrange a few 'pulls' of the front cover of the programme, about 30-50 for advertisers/sponsors, the odd friendly shop front. Also we include a poster along with double comps sent to other comeatres within the region.

This costs nothing & thrown in with the overall print costs.

[western] Gondawandaland
"Hear the light & see the sound!
TOI TOI CHOOKAS
{may you always play to a full house!}

IP Logged

Running Your Theater
Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board :Theater Administration :Running Your Theater

Author	Message
landon2006 Star Joined: 3/10/08 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 55	Topic: Program Ad's Posted: 3/10/08 at 8:36am
	I was trying to come up with an idea of how to price ad's for our programs. We have only one other Community Theater, and they only charge $200 per year for a full page ad to appear in every program. However, this will not work for us. I have come up with an idea of what to charge but I wanted you guys to look at it and tell me if I'm overpricing the space? Keep in mind that all ad's are full color, printed on nice glossy paper and that each program will contain up to 10 Photo's from the production as to keep people interested in keeping there program's for a much longer time period than normal. Each of our performances will also play to (up to) 561 people. I put together an excel spreadsheet and uploaded it here: http://www.geocities.com/landon1600/ Take a look at it and tell me if perhaps I need to come down a little on the price or maybe even go up. Thanks, Landon

	IP Logged

John Luzaich Celebrity Joined: 2/24/08 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 174	Posted: 3/10/08 at 11:42am
	Landon, I don't think we are too different than your situation. We have a 500 seat theatre, are a 501 (c) (3) non-profit community theatre located in the Midwest. We operate year round, produce our own 4 - play season (and a fifth show that changes formats every year). We also do some presenting and rentals. We use our own playbill for our own shows and the presenting events we do. The rentals are responsible for their own playbills/programs. When a client advertises in our playbill they have their ad year round for our production of Pippin and Larry O'Brien & the Glenn Miller Orchestra. They see their ad in the playbill for our production of Inspecting Carol and for Folk singer songwriter Leo Kottke. Our clients pay us one fee at the beginning of our season and their ad runs all year long for everything we do. We charge: $295. - 1/4 page ad, $495. for 1/2 page ad, $895. for full page ad. You should leave room in your playbill for ad trades (you have an ad in my playbill and I have one in yours). We do a lot of trades with other community theatres, professional theatre, University theatre, etc.
	John cfct@cfu.net http://www.osterregent.org http://www.facebook.com/osterregent
	IP Logged

John Luzaich Celebrity Joined: 2/24/08 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 174	Posted: 3/10/08 at 11:54am
	Oh, yes, and the other thing we've learned about playbills/programs is print fewer than you think you need! I can't tell you how many times we have playbills left over. I don't mean a few for our files and archives, I mean a box full. We do use them to send out to potential advertisers for next year. We'll send a playbill to those people so they can see what our playbill looks like, and they can see who else advertises in there. But, we used to print one for every expected audience member. We had too many left over because many people just do not take the playbill home with them. We want them to and even call their attention to it during the curtain announcements. Once in awhile an ad is a coupon for something, so we want people to take them home or to work and show people, share it, put it on the coffee table, etc. But so many people just leave them at the theatre on their way out after the show. Our rule of thumb for printing is about 2/3rds of your expected attendance.
	John cfct@cfu.net http://www.osterregent.org http://www.facebook.com/osterregent
	IP Logged

landon2006 Star Joined: 3/10/08 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 55	Posted: 3/10/08 at 11:57am
	We will only print as many as a full house. So, we print 561 x 6 performances = 3,366. That way we know we have enough for everyone if we have a full house. We are actually getting a pretty good deal on our Programs from www.printplace.com. Each one cost us 86 cents (including the two inserts) and are in full color, with a Glossy Aqueous coating and 44 pages long.
	IP Logged

JoeMc Celebrity Joined: 3/13/06 Location: Australia Online Status: Offline Posts: 832	Posted: 3/10/08 at 11:30pm
	With comeatre & advertisers. I found out years a go, not to charge for progammes, as this gives the advirtisers & sponsors a better coverage & exsposure for thier $'s. Also we don't have a heap left over that didn't sell. I first tried this in a country town comeatre. We placed donation boxes next to the programmes. The first season they made more out of programme donations, than they ever did attempting to flog them. They are still doing this to day & have advertisers knocking on thier door. Once they have enough advertisers to pay for the programmes, they close it off. Rather than having a programme full of adds. Further in a couple of others that have followed suit, they can offer less advertising space at a premium price, thus effectivly have better quality for shows & as all punters get one for free, a lot are kept for longer, giving the adds more exsposure! With donations it's 'money for Jam'!
	[western] Gondawandaland "Hear the light & see the sound! TOI TOI CHOOKAS {may you always play to a full house!}
	IP Logged

John Luzaich Celebrity Joined: 2/24/08 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 174	Posted: 3/12/08 at 12:19pm
	Joe, I hope you didn't misinterpret what we're talking about here. We don't charge the theatre patron for the playbill/program. (like at some sporting events). Those are handed out free. The charge is to the business owner or manager for having an ad in the playbill/program.
	John cfct@cfu.net http://www.osterregent.org http://www.facebook.com/osterregent
	IP Logged

landon2006 Star Joined: 3/10/08 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 55	Posted: 3/12/08 at 4:05pm
	Yes, we only charge the Advertisers. We also reserve 4, full page ad's for our Advertising sponsors (aka: The local newspaper, radio stations, cables company, etc) that provide us with free advertisement.
	IP Logged

JoeMc Celebrity Joined: 3/13/06 Location: Australia Online Status: Offline Posts: 832	Posted: 3/13/08 at 4:35am
	I did misunderstand, as i didn't pick up on any reference to fammes to the punter. We don't even bother with 'dodgers' [playbills/posters] as they tend to just become scrap paper or memo pads. The only thing we do for posters, is arrange a few 'pulls' of the front cover of the programme, about 30-50 for advertisers/sponsors, the odd friendly shop front. Also we include a poster along with double comps sent to other comeatres within the region. This costs nothing & thrown in with the overall print costs.
	[western] Gondawandaland "Hear the light & see the sound! TOI TOI CHOOKAS {may you always play to a full house!}
	IP Logged

Topic: Program Ad's( Topic Closed)