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See the North Devon premiere of Mack and Mabel at the Landmark Theatre, Ilfracombe

October 05, 2010 By: Robert Zarywacz Category: promotions

Studio Theatre and Small Pond Productions present the North Devon premiere of Mack and Mabel at the Landmark Theatre, Ilfracombe, North Devon from 14 to 16 October 2010.

Mack Sennett and Mabel Norman: Mack and Mabel

See more cast photos of Mack and Mabel.

Telling the heart-wrenching love story of Mack Sennett, who founded the studios responsible for filming the Keystone Cops and other silent movies, and Mabel Normand, a silver screen star with whom he had a tempestuous relationship, Mack and Mabel combines comedy from the golden age of Hollywood with behind-the-scenes drama.

Well-known songs, with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, include I Won’t Send Roses, Time Heals Everything, Movies Were Movies and Tap Your Troubles Away.
Mack and Mabel follows in the footsteps of Me and My Girl, the previous musical staged by the two groups. Independently, Small Pond has since staged The Vicar of Dibley and Studio Theatre a number of productions including Lullaby of Broadway and Travels With My Aunt.

Directed by Lee Baxendale with choreography by Pemela Beecham, the company comprises performers from across North Devon. Neil Rudd plays Mack with Joanie Slater as Mabel, supported by principals, an ensemble of more than 20 singers and dancers and a 13-piece orchestra toensure this production with its professional stage makes a big impression on North Devon audiences.

The cast from Mack and Mabel

The cast from Mack and Mabel

From the writer of Hello, Dolly! and Le Cage Aux Folles – music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. Book by Michael Stewart. Originally directed by Gower Champion.

Performances

Performances will take place at the Landmark Theatre, Ilfracombe, North Devon on:

Call the Landmark box office on 01271 324242 or book online.

For more details see studiotheatreonline.org.uk.

Is it too late to attract visitors to my event?

September 17, 2010 By: Robert Zarywacz Category: z2ztip

If you’ve ever organised a business or community event, you’ll how much time and effort it can take.

So it’s very disappointing, after a venue has been set, activities finalised, speakers or performers booked and behind-scenes helpers arranged, to realise that nobody knows about your event.

That’s what happened recently when we were called in to help publicise a big community event just weeks before it started. Running over several days and with the potential to attract people from across the country, we realised that publicity should have been started months before to pull in the largest number of visitors.

Thanks to social media tools, including twitter and facebook, and some quick public relations, we were able to secure coverage in the regional press, a local radio interview and a regional TV mention on the day, but we could have achieved so much more if we’d been brought in earlier.

With planning and preparation in good time, there’s a lot you can do to publicise an event and attract lots of people to it. Here’s a brief guide to what you can do.

What do you need?

Plan, prepare and publicise events well in advance

Work backwards to determine deadlines and create an activity schedule

Deciding how far in advance you need to publicise an event is one of the first tasks.

Depending on the type of event you’re organising, deadlines for each promotional activity will differ. For example, if you’re organising an international event aimed at visitors from other countries, you’ll need to take into account the time people need to make their travel arrangements and book accommodation. They probably won’t be able to jump on a plane and fly over at a moment’s notice, but will need to be targeted many months in advance. On the other hand, a small local event could require several weeks’ notice.

Publications all have deadlines and you need to send information to them in time for them to include it before printing and distribution. Some monthly magazines need information several months in advance, while newspapers and online media often work to shorter deadlines. Use these deadlines to create an activity schedule so that you know when each task needs to be completed.

Who do you want to attract?

If you’re staging a performance, the target audience is likely to be those people who like live entertainment. You can break this down further, depending on whether it’s music, theatre, comedy or another type of act. You can do the same for other activities, such as sports or hobbies.

With business events, your event could appeal to small or large businesses, those in a specific sector, people with similar job types, eg marketing or human resources, or other group.

Identifying the target market you want to attract is essential if you are to reach them through your publicity and advertising.

How much promotion do you need?

A one-off seminar with 10 places will probably need less publicity than a seven-day run of theatrical performances with an audience capacity of 3,500. Each event will have different requirements and so it’s best to determine the amount of promotion required. What budget do you need to reach this number of people? How many posters, flyers or other material will you need to print? How long will it take you to prepare and distribute material?

Your answers will help you to fine tune your activity schedule.

How do you reach your audience?

Find out what publications and media serve your target group. Anglers will read fishing magazines or visit specialist web sites, while lawyers will read the legal press and monitor web sites for legal professionals.

Advertising, press releases, events listings, newsletters and social media campaigns can all be used to promote your event. Advertise community events with posters in shop windows and banners in the street, and approach local television and radio stations. Promote business events through printed and email newsletters, and press releases sent to general or specialist business press. There are many media channels available.

Social media tools are ideal for promoting events and you can use these to talk about an event, where it is, what it’s about and what people will get out of it. You can also take advantage of viral opportunities for people to pass on details to all their family, friends or contacts. As well as press releases and written material, use videos of previous or similar events to show people exactly what they can expect.

How do you persuade people to book?

It’s easiest when you have a dedicated box office which people can phone to book tickets or an online booking service where they can reserve and pay for tickets at any time.

Make ticket booking phone numbers and web addresses prominent on all adverts and posters and in all press material. Make it as easy as possible for people to make a booking.

All forms of online promotion can link directly to the booking page. You can also post the event on twitter, facebook and online entertainment or event sites. There are services such as schmap.it which help you promote events on twitter, while you can create events listings in Facebook.

Of course, the description of your event has to be appealing and photographs and images always help to attract interest.

Is that everything?

There’s no end to what you can do to promote an event and the main limitations will be time and budget. It’s worth deciding how much time and money you want to spend promoting your event before you start organising it. If you’re looking to generate a profit, you don’t want to spend more advertising it than it will generate in ticket and other sales.

What is most important is that, whatever event you organise, you publicise it as widely as required in good time so that people who are interested do not miss it.

z2ztip3 – look out for further z2ztips at z2z.biz

What value is a professional proofreader to you?

July 13, 2010 By: Robert Zarywacz Category: promotions

When you spend hundreds or thousands of pounds on creating and printing brochures, magazines or web sites, it makes sense to invest in proofreading them to make sure that everything is correct.

Amazingly, high quality graphics, stunning photos and compelling headlines can all be pushed into the background by a single spelling mistake. It’s often the first thing a reader will notice.

What can a proofreader check?
Using a proofreader to check your publication or web site protects your marketing investment and ensures that readers do notice your graphics, your photos, your headlines.

A proofreader can not only check
> spelling
> grammar
> punctuation

but also
> page headers and footers
> page numbers
> headings

Other elements that can be proofread for consistency include
> use of capital letters
> names, titles and brands
> colours, positioning and size of graphics
> clickable web links

Don’t lose sales because of errors
It’s not only minor spelling mistakes that make people stop reading or put them off buying. If readers don’t understand text or find it confusing, they often give up and look elsewhere. If the purpose of your text is to sell, confusion could lose you sales. A proofreader can make sure that your text does make sense and can highlight any passages that are unclear or confusing.

People can also be stopped from buying if prices and other facts are incorrect or an advertised event day or date is wrong. If required, a proofreader can check that the day matches the date.

Depending on the brief, a proofreader can check
> facts, figures and prices
> postal and web addresses
> telephone numbers
> times, days and dates

Prevent problems before your deadline
Involving a proofreader early on can ensure you iron out any problems long before you get to the production stage. You’ll have less to worry about when pressure starts to build as your deadline approaches.

It’s better to flag and correct problems before you print your brochure or magazine rather than discover them when you’re looking at the printed version with 500, 1,000, 10,000 copies or more sitting in boxes, all with the same mistakes.

What does proofreading cost?
Proofreading will add a small amount to your overall production costs, but can increase the return on investment from your marketing by making it more effective.

Rather than quote you hourly rates, which mean nothing on their own, we can give you a final price so that you know the cost for each project before we start work on it.

Discuss your brief with a proofreader now
Whether you want to ensure that apostrophes are in the right places or need a catalogue checked for accurate prices, a proofreader can pick up errors and inconsistencies of every size, eliminating potential problems that you would have to deal with after publication.

To discuss how we can proofread your material,
please call Robert or Simon Zarywacz
0845 200 7830
or visit
proofreadingresources.co.uk



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