The Marlowe Theatre is a 993 seat venue in East Kent which plays host to a wide variety of shows ranging from Sunset Boulevard and Grease to Rolf Harris and Evelyn Glennie. It also presents the biggest panto in Kent which runs for seven weeks every year. Why then have we only just managed to build a good groups database, asks Karen Adams.
When I first came to The Marlowe four years ago the groups bookers list was non-existent. We had a few names on a computer that had not been checked for a few years and had limited contact with them, certainly not on a regular basis.
Up until 1993 there had been a coach park within a one minute walk of the theatre and the groups trade had flourished. A decision was then made to close the park and move the coaches to the edge of the city. Suddenly the trade dropped off and there seemed little point in continuing to advertise in the coach trade magazines. In an attempt to woo the groups back more generous discounts were introduced and the existing free coach scheme was extended. As part of this scheme groups from Kent who booked top price tickets for selected shows were able to get a free coach, the theatre taking all responsibility for its booking. We developed a list of coach firms and organized all the timings, bookings and free coach parking passes, thus taking much of the difficulty and expense away from the groups themselves. This scheme still exists and a measure of its success is that the budget allocated to it is regularly overspent.
A deal was also struck with the Council whereby coaches could use one of the local car parks - the theatre issues drivers with passes and they display them in the window of the coach. It works well for The Marlowe as the car park is only five minutes away.
All this helped us attract our groups market, but we were still not actively pursuing groups so last year we employed The Phone Room to help us with our panto group bookings. It was a successful campaign, but it was hampered by poor information from us. We were still not keeping a clean groups list and all we could supply was groups of 10 or more, and schools. Even this data was extremely raw, so the following August we employed a Group Sales Co-ordinator to look after the list and develop more group sales.
We now have a free groups list with 1,000 names on it as well as a paid list that offers a range of benefits:
? Priority booking
? Free postage and free programme
? Free tours and talks
? Group organiser ticket for £5 (when 15 or more seats are booked)
? Meet the cast opportunities
? Newsletter
When we undertook a second campaign for our panto group bookers, the results were phenomenal. We had 151 groups bookings which generated £103,302 in revenues - the most successful campaign that has ever been undertaken and mainly due to the internal development of our group bookers list.
We have learnt that the groups audience is something that has to be worked at and that it needs its own specific offers, incentives and marketing schemes. We are still learning about how to market to groups and what they need from us but it is much easier with a dedicated booker who has the time to develop a relationship and listen to their requests ? the work continues.
Karen Adams is Head of Marketing and Development at the Marlowe Theatre
e: karen.adams@canterbury.gov.uk