We're gonna need a bigger library!
Branding library, that is.
My friends at The Footlight Club were putting together their production of the Broadway smash (and successful movie) The Prom.
To help market the show and build a flexible system, we built a library of branded portraits of the actors, to be used across a wide variety of media, including social and print.
The Branding Photo Shoot
The Prom is a musical comedy with big songs, big feelings and, of course, a big heart.
Naturally, The Footlight Club, America’s oldest community theater, wanted to make a big splash with its marketing of the show and get people to sit up and notice.
Working with producer Jim Ansart and director Jill Tokac, we decided to put together a high energy, Broadway style banner to capture the feel and energy of the musical.
We started with a library of individual photographs of the leads and dancers in various poses, including some dancing in the air, to give us the flexibility to move people around compositionally and easily fit the wide variety of the different marketing formats.
And, the photos of jumping dancers would also help us underline the energy levels of the show.
The Character Portraits
Jim Ansart also built a campaign that tied the show in with several local shops and services.
He started early in the process, sharing his concepts for the photo shoot with me and negotiated space in the windows on street level in Jamaica Plain.
We scheduled a separate photo shoot to photograph 5 different scenarios. Each featured the individual characters using the shops’ products or services.
Final assembly of those posters was handled by Christopher Stern.
This use of street level marketing had a huge impact on ticket sales.
The Results
The results of our branding photo shoot was a near sell out before opening night, with the potential of a sold out run!
As always, collaborating with the incredibly hard working teams of cast and creative at The Footlight Club was a blast. A huge shout out to Kathleen Carroll for her costumes and the wrangling talents of stage manager Emma Neary. And, to choreographer Chad Flahive for helping our fliers get airborne!
Supporting Live Theater!
At last count, I have created over 70 posters over the years, for a wide variety of productions.
Like any client, theaters have their own unique challenges and rewards.
The biggest reward, for me, is helping to support live theater, especially at this level.
Go out and support your local community theater, whether it is buying a ticket and going to a show or getting involved as an usher, actor, producer or photographer.
You will have so much fun!
- Tags: character portrait, Footlight Club, poster
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