At the request of the Advertising Committee, I have placed an order for 1000 free tickets to be distributed to bar tenders, concierges, and perhaps even handed out at First Thursdays.
All for the low low price of $60.00.
The tickets look like this
and on the back
1000 Free tickets! you gasp? Yes. There are 30-40 empty seats in most Friday shows that we should be happy to fill with free tickets. All we have to do then is make sure the shows are so good that they have to come back and tell friends.
Viva!
Last edited by acrouch on April 20th, 2006, 1:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
The tickets take a week to ship, so we should have them for next First Thursday. Imagine dozens of us wandering up and down Congress with flyers for our next show and a free ticket in hand.
I would say, though, only give them out after establishing some brief conversation and getting a verbal, if joking promise, that they will use it. These shouldn't be used as a flyer, but as a reward for true curiosity about improv. Otherwise, they will just end up in the trash or on the ground. I know we have 1000, but that can go quick with little return if we just hand them out too willy-nilly.
We should still focus on getting these into the hands of social nexus-type people. The original intent of these was to give them to bartenders, concierges, waiters, press people, donate to contests and give-aways, maybe give a few to each troupe, etc. People who could talk us up, as it were. I'd hate to see too many get handed out to other people who don't use them just because 'we have a lot.' These were created to fill a specific need/idea and we could easily give out all 1000 to that idea.
I'm not against giving them out on First Thursday, but I'd hate to turn around in 6 weeks and say "Hey, a new bar is opening. We should give them some tickets," only to find out we're out.
On the other hand, I guess we could recycle the ones that don't get beat up too bad (but we can't recover those thrown in the street or trash cans).
"I do."
--Christina de Roos . . . Bain . . . Christina Bain
I gave 3 pairs of tickets to my company to give out (they always have tickets to the ballet and all). They sent out an e-mail a little while ago to 500+ people announcing the tickets for give away (first come, first serve) and then another less than 2 minutes later announcing they were gone.
While it was only 3 pairs, I've never seen the ballet go in under 2 minutes.
I also gave 5 tickets to the bartender/owner of Langbranch Inn last night and 2 to a stand-up comic (Kelvin Girdy), who was M.C.'ing some women's poetry, music, and art event there and told him how we're looking to reach out to other artists, especially comedians, for some show formats. I've also given some to the White Ghost Shivers for helping out with the Out of Bounds auction, and will give some the to Texas Rollergirls for the same reason.
This is a great initiative.
"I do."
--Christina de Roos . . . Bain . . . Christina Bain
We should add "free ticket" & "where you got it" to the box office forms. Can John Hunt post that working document somewhere? If he emails it to me, I'll host it on my site. That way people can download it, update it, and use it on the nights that they are hosting.
Also, Dav mentioned something at the AIC meeting about wanting to track the numbers of people coming to our shows this month when I start to hand out free beer to audiences so we can see if it improves our attendance numbers. Seems like he would want to use John's form, or make sure there is a stash in the box office so the volunteer in the box office can use it.
We should get all of these forms on a central improv server so that they aren't spread out on people's personal machines and websites. That way, if someone leaves, as Jon is, the files will still be easily accessible by AIC members without having to shuffle them around to a new machine or server.
Not just the box office forms, but all of it. Flyer templates, schedules, playbill templates, etc.
"I do."
--Christina de Roos . . . Bain . . . Christina Bain
Twenty tickets are going to be dropped off at KVRX this afternoon. Five pairs are for on-air giveaways and 10 are for the DJs (hopefully they'll talk it up on air after seeing us). I'd have alotted them more, but the school year is almost over. We should set aside a lot (from this or the next batch) for the beginning of next semester.
Anyway, if you listen to KVRX and hear about us, please post and let us know when and what they said!
"I do."
--Christina de Roos . . . Bain . . . Christina Bain
I suggest that the next back of tickets actually HAVE A SPACE on the back where the improviser can write WHO he/she gave the ticket too. If we give ticket to KVRX, write KVRX on the back of all of them, that way, we don't even need to ask where the ticket can from. We'll see the name and know the identity of the middle-man without having to ask an audience member and make the box-office transactions that much longer.
ONE IMPORTANT QUESTION: Are these tickets ONLY for AIC (Friday/Thursday) shows??? Or will they work for the Saturday Showcase/Maestro???
phlounderphil wrote:ONE IMPORTANT QUESTION: Are these tickets ONLY for AIC (Friday/Thursday) shows??? Or will they work for the Saturday Showcase/Maestro???
And Whirled News?
The free ticket doesn't say... it may disappoint folks to be turned away...
It currently lists the website as austinimprov.com to get show times and that site does not mention Whirled News I don't think. So hopefully, most people won't even think to try.
But, if they do, we'll just tell people that WNT is produced by a separate production company and not part of the promotion (unless they want to be). Then, hand them a flyer with the 7 applicable showtimes.
I believe that it was discussed and decided that this was for all 7 regular show times, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Maestro included.
"I do."
--Christina de Roos . . . Bain . . . Christina Bain
