“Theatre records 20% increase in Christmas ticket sales thanks to successful direct mail campaign”.  That was last year’s story from the Theatre Royal in Brighton . Whilst it is last year’s news and it may seem a little early to be talking about promotional direct marketing products for Christmas, this message applies year-round. The message is simple – plan well in advance of your event and think carefully about the effect that you are trying to achieve.

Head of sales and marketing at the Theatre Royal is Tracey Shaw and she explained the thought process behind the choice of last year’s product. “I knew that we needed to increase ticket sales for the 2007/8 season’s pantomime production and I felt it to be important that we should pick a marketing tool that was in keeping with the show and after a long search we settled on the Jumpinjax from Whitney Woods.”

She continued, “It is important to plan well in advance as finding the right product can take time. Then there are meetings over copy, meetings regarding graphics, mailing lists to buy and, of course, the date of the actual event can change owing to a variety of circumstances taking place.”

“The choice of promotional product was crucial to the success of our production of Cinderella but we were absolutely delighted with customer reaction to the Jumpinjax which proved to be an excellent marketing tool. The product provides an attention grabbing and fun way of sending out a very clear sales message that certainly will not go straight into the bin,” explained Shaw. “We also felt confident that the Jumpijax would be shown by the recipient to other family members or colleagues at work which would immediately increase the numbers reading about the show.”

The success of the mailing was reflected in ticket sales, as Shaw concludes, “The box office went crazy after the mailing and ticket sales were up 20% on the previous year thanks to the thought and effort we put into the pre-show publicity mailing.”

This one simple example is a perfect illustration of the benefits of planning and doing the leg work that is necessary to find the right product – though we believe that you could cut down on the leg work if you start your search at Whitney Woods! We publish several products which we consider to be suitable for invitations to Christmas events and they are featured on our Christmas Marketing website.