Marketing the competition

First full week of being open for applications and it's going well.  I will be honest with you, my blog friends, that secretly (well not sooo secretly...I told Jamibeth and Andy) I wanted to have 100 applications by this point.  In one week.  :)  Aim high.  I also wanted to be able to market this all with just social media to prove a point.   

BUT we are new and pretty much only you guys, and our quickly growing facebook page (which is also awesomely on our website home page...and it updates in real time! www.nptheatre.org) know about us.  So I had to do some traditional stuff. 

Nick Mitchell (our American Idol star cohost) and I will be on ABC tv next week as well as FOX tv.  I am being interviewed by the CT Post (Joe Meyers, love him!) tomorrow and on the Milford Radio show tomorrow night.  On Weds I am being interviewed by an NPR reporter.  The New Haven Register's editor called me and I sent a press release..more like a press story...to him.  CBS is also trying to get us in there.
I tied in the Broadway Babes cabaret for the United Way that is Jan 21st as a bit of a two-fer as well.  I am having that show come under the auspices of The New Paradigm Theatre now too.  Shows our "helping other non profits raise money" portion of our mission statement too.

I contacted some other local newspapers as well as got us on Actorslife.com http://wp.me/p13w9t-fL
and have us on Stamfordplus.com.  Also contacted bizzbuzztv. 

I sent emails with an invite to 20 different high schools here in CT. Their vocal and theatre departments. Have already gotten some responses back that are good.  Offered to do a free master class for their students so that I can chat with them about a career in theatre and invite them to participate or be an audience member for the competition. We are also providing a "talk back" session with the judges before the show on Sunday, at 2pm.  All in the name of the educational portion of our mission statement.

I won't lie. This part takes work and I am happy that my colleges are not back in session yet. But I will not stop once we hit the audience and participants number we need. The trick is in the "marketing event to event". Market-forward...if you will. So soon I will start working on how to make this group into a "tribe" who will become our best advertising.

My checklist is long so I will call it a night.....   "Post on blog"...check.