Questions and/or Statements

Absolutely First and foremost I market for myself. Let’s just get that out of the way first. I market for myself with the intent of it being beneficial to the company I work with. My marketing plan consists of creating a professional looking vinyl mini billboard (not unlike something you may see in a storefront) and printed up by professional sign makers. My first 3 campaigns consisted of a sign that measured 19” wide and 47” long.

I try and create a catchy, sometimes provocative slogan designed to get people’s attention. I also create a website dedicated to the promotion of our show. I purchase the domain name as well as the hosting. I dedicate many hours to the creation and execution of my marketing plan.

Once the sign is made and the website is up and running, I go out into your community with my human billboard drumming up interest, buzz and sales.

Of course. They have actually been outlined here: Marketing Success Stories

Audacity works, and although his motto is audacious, it has a sound plan behind it. His money back guarantee is something he offers to potential audience members to get them to come to productions. Now as scary as that may sound to you, Michael, again, with his entrepreneurial hat on, wanted to solve the problem of low theatre attendance.

What Michael realized was that every theatre he has worked for has given tickets away to actors. This is because, as you know, it is tremendously difficult to sell shows. So theatres like to give tickets to actors in hopes that they will give the tickets away to people who will come see the show.

Ultimately, these tickets end up in the hands of family members and close friends of the actor(s). So if you have hired an actor more than once, it is highly likely that the actor has invited the same people to each production. It becomes very INCESTUOUS.

This is an important distinction for 2 reasons:

Now some of you will say, “well that is okay, because even though they got free tickets, we hope they will tell their friends and family to come to our shows”.

And that may very well happen, BUT here is the flaw in that thinking (which, by the way, Michael has solved). When a patron (who received the free ticket) goes and spread the words to his friends about your wonderful production, the friends will probably ask how much the tickets cost. The reply will be “I got mine for free”. When that reply travels into the ear of the enquirer, automatically that person will think “If I got free tickets I would go too”. And this is dangerous because now your theatre is associated with “free theatre”.

The next time someone tells you about a wonderful event or production they went to and they recommend you see, while at the same time they tell you they got the tickets for free, notice the internal reaction you have.

If you are honest with yourself, surely you will find that despite the buildup of excitement this person created for you, you will be much less inclined to want to go now that you have to pay and your friend did not.

The solution?

Instead, give those tickets to Michael Wayne Rice. You won’t be losing any more money than you already are, BUT, BUT, and BUT, you will be gaining access to non-insular audience members. Michael purposely markets/promotes outside of the traditional theatre community breaking free of the “incestuous marketing / promotional” vehicle that PLAGUES the community. Michael directly offers his customers a money back guarantee, thus relieving you of any responsibility. Michael also has another unique feature to his money back guarantee that will help theatres breath easy about his policy. When you hire him, it will help you breath easy

This is a very passionate statement that more than a couple of people have stated. And on the surface it would seem that this question / statement would be the “be all end all” of what Michael is setting out to achieve. So lets just be very frank, if we may.

#1 You are right.

Michael will be using his website ( www.MichaelWayneRice.com ) to help market and promote the show. But that is a good thing, right? We are in a new marketing / promotion paradigm as many of you are becoming familiar with. The mindset of “Our organization has built a website, so the audience will come”, is of an old mindset.

To be successful and viral today, websites must depend on websites, must depend on websites. Your website must have tentacles reaching out to other websites that help extend your reach as a brand. This is ESPECIALLY true for theatre companies, because believe it or not, the majority of websites that theatres run and maintain ARE not the type of website that people frequent, that people come back to again and again. No need to be upset about that.

That is just the nature of the game. I know most theatres like to think that people will frequent their site, but theatre sites offer nothing more than information about a show. And that info doesn’t change. Thus people don’t frequent theatre sites.

So what Michael is doing is giving companies an opportunity to have one of their tentacles reach out. What Michael is doing is giving companies an opportunity to tap into another resource. What Michael is doing is giving theatre companies an opportunity to do online / virtual networking so that the word of their work goes beyond the walls of their company website. There is not much reason for people to visit a theatres websites except to get information about a show. Unfortunately for you, that can happen in 1 visit.

Sure some companies run a blog, but if that blog is not connected / linked to other websites / blogs in the blogosphere, then it’s virtually a guarantee that it (the blog) is not being frequented.

Let it also be stated, as stated before, that when Michael performs for your company, he creates and maintains a website specifically for the production he is hired in. This is a totally separate website from his www.MichaelWayneRice.com website. This additional website that he creates is solely for the marketing and promotion of the show he is in. The website that he creates for your production is displayed on the billboard he uses for his community campaigns. So in fact, most of the credit is going to you, the theatre company, but via a “third party website”, so to speak.

#2 Will audiences be attracted to the name “Michael Wayne Rice”, as opposed to the theatre?

There is no doubt that people will be following Michael Wayne Rice and not “the theatre”. He will not try to hide behind that. His money back guarantee is based on the idea that theatres have a hard time selling out shows. When they don’t sell out, one of the things they do is give tickets to actors who in turn give them away. He is simply giving theatres an opportunity to give those tickets to an actor who is going to do something VERY constructive with them. And in return, is going to help theatres capture the attention and information of the new patrons that come into their theatres.

Now let’s look at something interesting.

When theatres give tickets away to actors, no one is saying “well the audience is only coming to see THAT actor”. But the fact of the matter is, the person who received the ticket from an actor is coming to see THAT actor. Now what does that actor, who gave away that ticket, bring to the table that would turn the customer into someone who would come back to your theatre?

Quite honestly, very little to nothing.

Michael on the other hand helps brand your company as a company doing great work. He helps to bring in audience members outside of the traditional theatre going audience. Michael helps generate excitement about your theatre. Michael helps customers have a great first time experience, and an opportunity to do it risk free. Thus when people come to see the show we make together, they are much more likely to have a very positive experience in the theatre, and not walk away thinking “theatre is corny” (which, by the way, is why a lot of people DO not go to see live theatre, esp the younger generation).

Let’s look at it another way. You are a struggling theatre company who has recently been given the opportunity to hire one of the most well respected and well known actors in your community. You have never had this opportunity before, but you are suddenly able to afford to hire such a person.

You hire her because you know that she has a following of fans who will come see her perform. And that is just it.

They are coming to see THAT actor. They are not coming to your theatre because they know about your theatre. They are coming to see an actor that they know and trust. So ultimately you hired her because you knew it would help get the word out about your theatre, and hey, maybe a few of them will sign up on your email list. But ultimately the loyalty of the actor’s fan is with the actor. And yet you hired him.

Theatres do this all the time when they hire a “celebrity” actor. Are the people going to the theatre because of the theatre itself or because they follow the actor and the work he does?

What Michael is doing is creating a systematic way to bring new people into your theatre and help you convert them the returning customers. He is not an actor who walks in, creates a character and walks away. He is an actor who walks in, creates characters, helps market and promote the show in your community, creates online material to help spread the word, makes it comfortable for people to come see the expensive work that theatres produce, and gives them a positive experience that will not leave a bad taste in their mouth. Because once people see bad theatre, they DO not want to come back.

And ohh yeah. Michael also helps you make money by generating interest of local businesses and getting them to donate / pay for program ad space.

So while a lot of what Michael does is about helping Michael further his career, he is a rare bred of artist out there with a comprehensive plan to help theatres grow financially (both in audience numbers and monetary contributions).

So the choice is yours

Continue to work with actors who do very little to increase your bottom line, AND continue to give tickets away to actors who will do nothing but give them away to the same family and friends who have already seen a show at your theatre and will only go when they get “free” tickets.

Or

Work with an actor who wants to make his living on stage and knows that the best way to guarantee his continued working in the field means helping companies build great reputations for presenting great work, and also being an “employee” who wants to help the company make money.

Michael is sure you will make a wise decision 

First of all I create, sculpt and deliver signature character pieces for the stage that are entertaining bold and believable. That is on the acting side. On the marketing side companies benefit by gaining increased visibility in their neighborhood and possibly beyond (if an agreement marketing outside of their community is agreed upon). They gain access to new customers and their data so that they may market to them for subsequent shows. Plus some other benefits, but I cannot reveal those here. But I can reveal them after we work together for the first time.

Sure have! Back in 2005 I created the Cool As Hell Theatre Podcast. This was a podcast dedicated to the marketing and promotion of theatre in the SF Bay Area. It was nominated for numerous awards. It was the first of its kind. It was also the first independently produced podcast to be picked up by KQED (sister station for NPR). I conducted over 187 interviews between 2005-2008. Many companies still use the podcast interviews for the promotion of their companies. Even though the site has been defunct for a few years, I keep it up and running so that the community may still benefit from it. If you want to check it out go to CoolAsHellTheatre.com

Every theatre company markets themselves and their shows directly to their constituents and their community. It is their responsibility as a business to market and promote themselves in order for their business to thrive.

Michael Wayne Rice, like a theatre company, must first and foremost market and promote himself in order for his business to thrive. With that understanding, Michael does not directly market any theatre show. His goal is to create a persona, create a “brand” that will attract people to the theatres/shows he works in.

Therefore he tends to put together campaigns that are entertaining, eye catching, and attention grabbing, but they WILL not directly market the show. For example, you will not see Michael on the streets with a sign that says “Come see us in Romeo and Juliet at Safe Haven theatre”. Why? That’s what the theatres do.

But what Michael does do is make sure he positively promotes any theatre he is associated with.

He’s an actor who has studied entrepreneurial material with such fervor, his creative marketing skills along with his extensive stage training make him a force to reckon with. Michael has a couple of USP’s (Unique Selling Propositions) as an artist. One of them is: “I create, sculpt and deliver entertaining, bold and believable characters for the stage”.

He means that literally. He has a passion for creating signature character pieces for each company he works for. He works from a solid foundation, attained in his M.F.A. program, which allows him to work from a place where “process” is invisible. From there he builds very specific character actions and traits. He knows that “type casting” is rampant in the industry, but many have found out that by type casting him, they were pleasantly surprised by the dynamic characters they didn’t think he was capable of.

When he is out on the streets, campaigning for the success of the show, if he is not telling people that he is “the only actor in the nation to offer a money back guarantee for his performances on stage”, his other USP is “I create characters for the stage that are as good as or better than anything you may see on TV or film”.

Michael Wayne Rice is out to create change in the industry.

I can understand how you might feel that way. And actually a few people not familiar with me or my work have called me such things. And I guess I would consider myself crazy or delusional IF my marketing campaigns hadn’t worked already.

I guess I would consider myself crazy or delusional IF some of my staunch supporters were imaginary. I guess I would consider myself crazy or delusional IF I didn’t work my butt off to make my dreams come true. But thank you for your candor

Ask the average American if they have seen any theatre. What do you think the answer would be? Take a census on the streets and find out what people feel about theatre. Will it skew towards positive or negative? For those who have seen at least one theatre show, what percentage of them will return to see another? (hint: in a national study “4 out of 5 first time attendees, indeed first-time attendees of all art forms, never return” as reported by Theatre Bay Area) When is the last time any study has indicated a steady rise in attendanship to theatre? When was the last time theatre companies did not worry about getting butts in the seats, paying their bills, engaging with the community.

Let’s just address the data that suggests, points to, illuminates that theatre is a dying art form. NOTHING in recent years has worked to stop the downward trend of death that our community is facing. We keep trying to rehash things we have used in the past. We continue to rely on postcard marketing. We continue to use poster marketing. We continue to give away free tickets to our events. We continue to spout that we are a special place where people can congregate together, debate together and have a “wonderful” all around experience together, even though nobody (except the older generation) is buying into that type of marketing.

DRASTIC change needs to happen because doing the same thing and expecting different results IS insanity. And mostly this change will offend the intellectuals of our art form, those who believe that they offer something more valuable than the general population deserves.

Degradation is not my intent. Illumination, expansion, inclusion, and growth are my intents.

With Delight