Broadway taps into Black Audiences

Interesting article appeared Monday in the Times looking at how the producers of the musical "Memphis", "Fela" and other shows are trying to engage African-American audiences.

Producers of these shows believe the black audience hasn't been “tapped out” and are using more research and targeted marketing techniques to capture it. The efforts have become more important with general show attendance down. Producers hope they can offset those trends by diversifying the audience mix. African-Americans normally make up around 25-30 percent of Broadway show audiences, but for the shows that are reaching out to minority audiences the attendance increase is noticeable.

Check out the full article here.

Social Marketing

Social media outlets are certainly hot topics for marketers these days.  Just at our agency we're creating social networks ranging from a Facebook page for a South Carolina hospital to a Ning community for truck drivers sponsored by Volvo Trucks. 

As a marketing tool we're all learning what seems to be right for our particular market as we go.

I found the Christmas day New York Times piece  on how Broadway is using social marketing very interesting.  Even bigger shows like Shrek are moving slowly as they figure out how they want to use web 2.0.  Check out the article here.