Publication: New York Times

By Stuart Elliott

An ambitious, two-part campaign to promote the national tour of the Broadway musical “Movin’ Out” that gets under way this week is hoping to get theatergoers in almost two dozen markets into a New York state of mind. Those who know their shows recognize the reference to Billy Joel, who supplied the more than two dozen songs that are used to tell the story of “Movin’ Out,” centered on the lives of five friends through the 1960’s and 1970’s. The musical, which won two Tony Awards after opening on Broadway in 2002, is taking its act on the road beginning tonight in Detroit under the aegis of Visa U.S.A., the presenting sponsor of the national tour. Visa is spending an estimated $5 million on a national television commercial by BBDO Worldwide in New York, part of the Omnicom Group, that promotes the tour as well as the Visa sponsorship. There is also a microsite on the Visa Web site (visa.com/movinout) that describes its support, along with a sweepstakes offering prizes like a trip to New York to attend the 2005 Tony Awards.

The Visa effort is being complemented by advertising in the local markets to stimulate ticket sales by Serino Coyne in New York, another Omnicom agency, which includes television and radio commercials, print advertisements, direct marketing and e-mail messages. Serino Coyne is agency of record for “Movin’ Out,” creating the colorful, exuberant campaign, centered on a sign styled after an interstate-highway marker, that helped sell the show to Broadway theatergoers.

The campaign for the national tour is indicative of the growing interest in entertainment marketing by giant advertisers like Visa, which ally themselves with theater, music and movies as part of efforts to capture the attention of consumers.

Visa has been a Broadway baby for years, sponsoring the national tour of “A Chorus Line” in 1992, which was also promoted in a commercial by BBDO New York; supporting the American Theater Wing, which presents the annual Antoinette Perry Awards known as the Tonys; and serving as the presenting sponsor since 1999 of what are called Live Broadway’s Open House Tours, which offer peeks backstage to theater buffs. For “Movin’ Out,” Visa was a sponsor of the previews in Chicago even before the show opened on Broadway, where it continues to play even as the national tour starts.

“It’s an extension of our ‘only Visa’ platform,” says George Perry, director of event and sponsorship marketing at Visa U.S.A. in Foster City, Calif., “that Visa is the only card accepted at the Tonys, at the Olympics, at the Visa Triple Crown races.”

Indeed, the campaign notes that Visa is the only credit card accepted for the sale of single tickets for performances of “Movin’ Out” during the national tour, which after Detroit is scheduled to move on to places like Buffalo; Hartford, Conn.; Boston; Appleton, Wis.; Denver; Seattle; Tempe, Ariz.; and Los Angeles.

“We felt the national tour would extend our sponsorship and provide a platform for the members and merchants to get behind,” Mr. Perry says, members being Visa-speak for cardholders.

“One of the appeals of the show, we felt, is its appeal to a broad audience,” he adds, “not only to general theatergoers but to fans of Billy Joel and all the dance aficionados, the Twyla Tharp fans.” Ms. Tharp choreographed and directed “Movin’ Out” and won one of the show’s two Tonys, for choreography; Mr. Joel won the other, for orchestrations.

“We wanted to show these incredible dancers in our commercial,” says Peter Smith, a senior vice president and creative director at BBDO New York, “but the challenge was that everyone’s seen the commercials for Broadway shows” that offer straightforward snippets of scenes from performances, interspersed with excerpts of critical plaudits.

“We had a germ of an idea, the notion that ‘Movin’ Out’ is moving out,” Mr. Smith says, “so we wanted to show the dancers and show a moving truck taking the show on the road, in a literal way,” leavened with what he calls “the Visa tradition of using wit to sell.”

The result is a humorous commercial that moves out front and center from the pack of traditional show-selling spots. As two workers in a moving truck are listening to the song “Movin’ Out,” one gripes that the music is too loud. The other worker opens the door to the back of the truck to reveal more than a half-dozen cast members, in costume, performing the number live.

“Sometimes, being literal works,” Mr. Smith says.

Visa makes a perfect sponsor partner for “Movin’ Out,” says Tom Callahan, associate creative director at Serino Coyne, because “Billy’s music represents the everyman and Visa represents the everyman card.”

“We went after Visa for that reason,” he adds, “and Visa came on board almost immediately.”

The TV and radio commercials for the local markets created by Serino Coyne, based on the spots the agency produced for the show’s Broadway run, use Mr. Joel’s songs like “Movin’ Out,” “Uptown Girl” and “River of Dreams” and also mention the Visa connection.

In one commercial, the announcer proclaims that the show offers “Broadway’s coolest music” and “Broadway’s hottest dancing.” In another, the announcer declares “Movin’ Out” is “the show that turns the songs you’ll always remember into the Broadway musical you’ll never forget.”

The television commercial is filled with dance scenes, Mr. Callahan says, because “Twyla’s choreography is dancing you have to see.” “It’s a very tough show to describe because there’s no classic book,” Mr. Callahan says, referring to the musical’s lack of dialog and story-telling through the music and dance numbers. “We had to educate the audience a little bit.”

“We tried to do it in print, in paragraphs of copy, but the music and visuals do the job,” he adds. “A free sample really works for this show.”

For BBDO New York, the “Movin’ Out” Visa spot is the second recent agency creation featuring trucks and music, coming after a commercial showing a truck carrying Pepsi Vanilla using a rap tune to outduel a truck carrying Vanilla Coke that plays a song from the 70’s.

Hmmmmmmm. Perhaps BBDO New York can create a commercial for a show saluting the music of the Grateful Dead, to be titled – you guessed it – “Truckin’.”

Publication: New York Times

By Scott Vogel

It’s 8:35 on the morning of May 8, and an announcement from the Web site is imminent. At the click of a mouse, an audio player pops onto the screen and with it the sound of crackling microphones, as adjustments to a podium are made.

“Good morning, I’m the audiovisual director and also Jed Bernstein,” says the president of the League of American Theaters and Producers, his digitized voice careering through cyberspace to welcome a worldwide audience to the Tony Awards nominations ceremony at Sardi’s.

Despite the occasional glitch, his words come in loud and clear at the start of the annual press conference to announce the nominees. Now that the Tonys have finally staked their claim to a piece of the virtual frontier, members of the public can attend this yearly ritual, at least via the Internet.

Built and sponsored by I.B.M., the Web site, at www. tonys.org has been up and running for more than two weeks now, and though still in its infancy, the address has the potential to become a second home for theater addicts, heavily stocked as it is with the kinds of obscure facts once confined to the dustier tomes in the theater section of the local library.

As a result, Tonys.org is somewhat intimidating at first; it’s a bit like the theater experience of sitting next to one of those know-it alls who saw the Josie Hogans of Colleen, Kate and Cherry, and has no doubt as to who was the most misbegotten. (“Oh, you don’t know who beat Tallulah Bankhead for best actress in 1961?”) But the site also contains audio coverage of the annual nominees’ luncheon, an interview with the Tony Awards host this year, Rosie O’Donnell, biographies of some nominees and ballots, similar to those used by Tony voters, that can be downloaded.

While historical materials and high-resolution archival photographs, dating back to the start of the Tony ceremonies in 1947, are the stars of the show, Web surfers needn’t be content with learning that Tony-winning actors once received a scroll and a cigarette lighter. (The familiar medallion wasn’t designed until 1949.) They can also participate in live chats with some of this year’s nominees, download excerpts from the scripts of current Broadway plays and take part in various online polls.

“My feeling is that for theater fans it’s the one chance to get a glimpse of the theater world separate from what you see in a Broadway theater,” said Jennifer Tattenbaum, the Internet manager for Tonys.org. “With television and movies, all you have to do is turn on the news to get a sense of what’s behind the scenes. That’s not the case in theater.”

Call it “Entertainment Tonight” meets the Great White Way.

Another of the site’s features, “Throwing a Tony Party?,” allows theater buffs to register their own parties online and describe in detail the festivities that will be taking place. In this way, potential partygoers can learn of soirees both large (an Atlanta party will be held at the city’s Fabulous Fox Theater) and small, and perhaps make plans to attend. Displaced Broadway babies in, say, Dubuque will never again wonder where to huddle together to watch the ceremonies.

As for the June 4 telecast itself, which begins at 8 p.m. on PBS and continues at 9 p.m. on CBS, viewers may well find themselves shuttling back and forth from computer to television screen. Cameras (“Tonycams”) at Radio City Music Hall, where the awards take place, will broadcast onto the Internet (and perhaps unwittingly provide a window into the organized chaos of live television). And should the musical interruption of acceptance speeches become necessary, all winners will have the opportunity to place the full text of their thank-you’s online.

While the May 5 debut of Tonys.org involved some fanfare, what will induce users to log on once the awards excitement has subsided.

“Certainly the archive is always going to be accessible,” said Edgar Dobie, the manager aging producer of the Tony Awards. But beyond that, the site’s future is still evolving. Then again, the Web site’s launch came just 24 hours after another important date on the theatrical calendar.

“May 4 was officially the start of the next Tony season,” Mr. Dobie said. “So the cycle starts over again.”

Publication: New York Times

By Jane L. Levere

Although the current Broadway season formally ends with the Tony Award on Sunday evening, the theater industry’s efforts to market itself will actually be stepped up immediately afterward, with the debut next week of a “Live Broadway” platinum Visa credit card.

The promotion is the latest installment of an effort by the League of American Theaters and Producers to stimulate demand nationwide for live theater and, essentially, establish “Broadway” as a highly visible brand. The card will be offered jointly by the league, which is the trade group for Broadway productions in New York and throughout North America, and First USA Bank, a subsidiary of the Banc One Corporation.

Last year Continental Airlines signed up as the league’s first national corporate sponsor, paying a reported $750,000 annually in cash and services over five years.

In April, Schweppes became the league’s second corporate sponsor. Gerald Johnson, Director of promotions for Dr. Pepper/Seven Up Inc., which is a division of Cadbury Schweppes P.L.C., said that the company had struck a one-year deal for an unspecified sum, with the possibility of an extension, to make Schweppes “the exclusive tonic and mixer of Live Broadway.” Live Broadway is the league’s official logo, developed by Landor Associates, the corporate identity firm, and introduced last year to heighten public awareness of the Broadway stage.

Schweppes will run a supermarket sweepstakes this summer featuring a prize trip to New York that includes Broadway tickets. It will also put the Live Broadway logo on its packaging.

The goal of all these initiatives, said Jed Bernstein, the league’s executive director, “is to return Broadway to its place on the mainstream entertainment menu.”

“Broadway is one of the greatest untouched marketing platforms for corporate America,” he said. “If a sponsor tries to get involved in sport now, the price of entry is very high because it’s a crowded stage. But Broadway has done little in this area, and we’re creating a very efficient way for corporations to take advantage of that.”

Meg Meurer, the league’s director of marketing and new business development said Broadway productions – performed either on the New York Stage or in theaters around the country that are league members – faced stiff competition from all forms of entertainment, including sports events, concerts video games and even the Internet. The league’s goal, she said is to make Broadway theater “the most upscale form of mass entertainment.”

According to a recent survey by Research International, a division of WPP Group P.L.C., the average Broadway theatergoer in New York is 41 years old, well educated and affluent, with an annual household income of $91,000. Slightly more than half of these theatergoers live in the New York area, while the rest are tourists.

First USA finds the league’s audience attractive, said Stu Upson, senior vice president for sports and entertainment marketing, because “it’s loyal and the demographics are good.”

According to Ms. Meurer and Mr. Bernstein, the league is seeking additional sponsors in three categories – automotive, financial services and telecommunications. Mr. Bernstein said it had already raised some $10 million in cash, merchandise and media donated by sponsors and promotional partners, which also support its toll-free information line.

Theater industry executives and observers generally applauded these initiatives. George Wachtel, a New York based arts consultant who previously was the league’s director of research, deemed the sponsorships “helpful in a business where Broadway shows can’t afford to sell theatergoing as a lifestyle.”

“Sound of Music,” “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” and “Forever Tango,” and a member of the league’s executive committee, said he believd the league was successfully addressing the problem of “promoting Broadway as an idea when each of us has a vastly different product.”

Jim Erlick, a consultant in New York who advised the league on its First USA project, suggested that the theater industry “traditionally has been fractionalized, with independent, competitive producers doing their own branding.”

“The league’s programs create a hook for it to break through the clutter more convincingly than individual producers can on their own,” he said. “It gives them greater marquee value, more of a pedigree.”

To Build a Buzz, Magazines Are Becoming Glitzy Marketers
Becoming A Brand

As magazines seek new ways to go beyond their pages and to bring readers and advertisers together, they are conducting award ceremonies and surveys, holding luncheons and parties and sponsoring charity events and concert tours. Some examples of magazine awards.

Conde Nast

Produced “Ladies of Note,” a five-city tour featuring Judy Collins and Roberta Flack, sponsored by Buick Riviera; included a special ad section that ran in four Conde Nast magazines featuring the singers with the 1997 Riviera. Readers were urged to visit their local Buick showroom to test-drive the Riviera and receive a Ladies of Note CD: a percentage of the proceeds from concert ticket sales were donated to breast cancer research.

Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber, who has taken the Broadway musical to new heights of popularity, is breaking ground in the advertising business as well.

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