From the academic year of 2017-2018 I held the position of Marketing Officer on the drama society, which ignited a true passion for Marketing. The society has a unique reliance on a strong publicity strategy as it has several events, auditions, workshops and productions to promote in any given week. Thus, we rely on marketing to keep the society going. As President, this year I have the same access to all of our social media accounts as I did the previous year but I am also now in a position to construct our marketing strategy as well as being able to implement it.

Poster for Much Ado About Nothing, which features the pictures of several cast members.

The majority of our promotion is carried out online and through social media as our targeted audience is other students, and those that will come to a play to see a friend, family member or course mate perform. Therefore social media sites such as Facebook are great as they are built upon mutual connections – therefore if a cast member shares promotional material on Facebook, those who know or are acquainted with that cast member are notified of the upcoming event. Additionally, when we create promotional materials which incorporate elements of portraiture, cast members and their friends are more likely to share the image online. I also have a personal interest in photography which allows me to create these materials.

On social media we use popular and localised hashtags to reach out to our target audience- which is people based around Stirling – such as the University and Union’s geotags and hashtags as well as ones focussed on local theatre, student theatre and creative practices in Stirling. If using paid promotion, we tailor our target audience online to those within the local area to make sure that our information is going out to those who are likely able to attend our event as they are in close enough proximity. Facebook also allows us to do basic market research as it notifies us of how many ticket sales there are as a result of people clicking on a link to buy tickets, and what demographics of people are responding to our events.

Another way in which we market is to local community groups, by speaking to local businesses and getting them to keep a number of our flyers as well as putting up our posters in their store fronts. We also reach out to other groups such as schools or nursing homes to advertise our matinee performances as they are less attended by students.

An example of the targeted hashtags we use to promote.

For our evening performances we reach out to other clubs and societies that we are affiliated with, or that may have an interest in the subject matter of our play and ask them to share the event on their social media pages, which generates interest. For example, for our production of Medea (October 2018) we reached out to the Greek society, the literature society and the history society to share our promotional materials.

A series of of photographs I planned and executed to promote a short film.

I have also begun a new initiative where other clubs and societies can obtain an individualised discount code by ordering as a group of five or more. We are also in the planning stages of setting up some student workshops with the Head of Marketing at the MacRobert Arts Centre, to train the leaders of the arts societies in marketing what they sell.

Last year, as Marketing Officer (alongside our Publicity Officer) I won the Clubs and Societies award for Best Publicity for the Drama Society, out of more than 80 active societies at the University. This was as a result of our poster campaign for the production of Macbeth, which was recognised all over campus and in the centre of Stirling.

Winning the Clubs and Societies Best Publicity Award