#YourWorldOnStage

Campaign

Victory Gardens Theater Social Media Strategy

By Kellie Buffington
Strategy Overview
Background

● Victory Gardens Theater is dedicated to developing and producing new plays and nurturing an
inclusive theater community. According to the theater’s website, “Under the leadership of
Artistic Director Chay Yew, Victory Gardens is dedicated to artistic excellence while creating a
vital, contemporary American Theater that is accessible and relevant to all people through
quality productions of challenging new plays and musicals.”

○ The theater began in 1974 with $1,000 from seven Chicago artists and has since
grown into a prominent cultural institution in the city.

○ In 1996, Victory Gardens created its Playwright Ensemble to continue its work
developing new plays, which was virtually unheard of for a resident theater of its kind.

○ Victory Gardens received the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre in 2001.
The Problem
There isn’t much activity happening on Victory
Gardens’ social media accounts. While the
theater has an average number of followers for
a theater of its size, these followers aren’t
engaging with the content being produced. The
interactions that do happen are positive, but
there aren’t many of them, and that is the issue.
This is because Victory Gardens’ main audience
is older adults who don’t generally use social
media. The theater needs to attract a younger
audience with a greater social media presence
in order to protect the longevity of the theater;
its audience is aging and we want to ensure that
the theater continues to have patrons and
donors for years to come. This is also a strategic
market to gain access to because young people
tend to be very vocal about the things they
enjoy, especially theater fans, and they are
willing to do lots of word-of-mouth promotion.
Strategy Statement

In order to attract a younger audience to increase ticket sales and protect the longevity of the
theater, VG will be implementing an energizing strategy. They will first monitor social media
and listen to what people are saying about the theater, and then look at the social media of
other theaters in Chicago to see how successful they are at attracting a young audience. They
will then use talking strategies to engage with young theater lovers on social media in order
to market Victory Gardens so that the theater can increase ticket sales from this
demographic. Then finally, VG will implement the #YourWorldOnStage campaign to energize
their audience and encourage them to share information about the theater.
Creative Concept Campaign

● #YourWorldOnStage
○ “Your World On Stage” is Victory Gardens’ slogan, which reflects the theater’s
commitment to diversity and inclusion, and its tendency to produce plays that
feature everyday people.
○ The premise of the campaign is to use this slogan as a hashtag, and encourage
VG’s followers to share photos of themselves in school plays and community
theater with the hashtag, therefore sharing a piece of “their world” online.
○ Victory Gardens could also target local, or even national, theater actors to
participate and spread the message.
○ This campaign would increase awareness of Victory Gardens and its
programming by publicizing the theater’s slogan; our followers would be
sharing the hashtag with their own followers, who might then participate, etc.
Target Audience

Aja Wiltshire (local actor)
Matthew Yee (local actor)
Young Theater Lovers Local Theater Actors
● The biggest target audience for this ● The next target audience is local theater
campaign will be young theater lovers who actors. These actors may have a following in
live in the Chicago area. the Chicago area and could have some
● The ideal audience will be 18-30 years old, influence in the community.
ethnically diverse, middle class, very ● Victory Gardens could reach out to these
interested in theater, and very present on actors to create their own
social media. #YourWorldOnStage post, thereby
● This is the audience that should be targeted extending the reach of the campaign and
because they already have a passion for exposing the theater to a wider audience.
theater so they will likely take an interest in
Victory Gardens’ programming, and young
people tend to be more expressive about
the things they enjoy. This will also help
protect the longevity of the theater so it can
continue having patrons and donors for
years to come.
 Call To Action
The call to action for this social media strategy is for the
audience to post photos of themselves in school plays or
community theater and use the hashtag
#YourWorldOnStage. This would ultimately result in
awareness of Victory Gardens and its programming.
Executing the Strategy
Phase One: Listening

● Tools: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Yelp

● During this phase, Victory Gardens will monitor its social media activity and Yelp
reviews to see what people have to say about the theater. This will let the marketing
team know how VG is being perceived by the public and can inform future marketing
campaigns, especially if this image needs to change.
● Additionally, VG will need to follow other local theaters on all social platforms and
create lists on Twitter in order to monitor their posts and engagement. Particularly
successful posts should be examined to see the age range of the audience it has
attracted; posts and accounts that have attracted young people should be used as
guides for future VG posts.
● How To Measure Success
○ The number of new accounts followed, both businesses and individuals
○ The number of lists and number of accounts on each list
 Phase Two: Talking
● Tools: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
● During the second phase, VG will begin creating posts that their target audience wants to see, but also
posts that will expand the theater’s audience in general. This can include:
○ Promoting shows and successes at other theaters
○ Tying current events into posts with hashtags
○ Emphasizing the social justice aspects of the theater’s shows
Behind the scenes photo ○ Using jokes and memes to make their feed more entertaining
○ Posting more behind the scenes photos on Instagram and Twitter to provide insight into the
theater-making process
● VG will need to post more frequently in order to stay at the front of people’s minds, but no more than:
one Facebook post, one Instagram post, and three tweets per day, unless another amount proves more
successful
● Instagram stories should be used for special occasions.
● How To Measure Success:
○ Number of new followers
○ Increase or decrease in engagement
○ Quality of comments and conversations
○ Increase or decrease in ticket sales
Current event (National Pet Week)
Phase Three: Energizing
● Tools: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook
● Phase Three will utilize the #YourWorldOnStage campaign as an energizing strategy. Once VG is
satisfied with its social media engagement from Phase Two, this campaign can be implemented.
● VG will encourage its followers on Twitter and Instagram to post photos of themselves in school plays
and community theater using the hashtag #YourWorldOnStage. This can also be done on Facebook
with the same hashtag and by tagging the VG Facebook page. These posts will be seen by the poster’s
followers, encouraging them to participate as well.
● Local theater actors will be contacted to participate and will tag Victory Gardens in their posts along
with using the hashtag.
● Victory Gardens would then retweet, share, and repost (with credit) the photos that appear on the
hashtag, thereby driving more traffic to VG’s accounts.
● How To Measure Success:
○ Number of posts created with #YourWorldOnStage
○ Number of new followers
○ Increase or decrease in engagement
○ Quality of comments and conversations involving Victory Gardens
○ Increase or decrease in ticket sales and donations
Closing Summary
Conclusion
Victory Gardens needs to attract a younger audience of theater lovers who are
present on social media, not only to increase ticket sales, but to protect the
longevity of the theater. VG’s current audience consists of older adults, and the
theater wants to be sure it will have patrons and donors well into the future. In
order to accomplish this, VG should implement a new social media strategy to
attract the right audience. This will begin with Listening in order to gauge the
theater’s public perception and to examine what is successful for other
theaters. Then, VG can use the things they’ve learned to tailor posts to their
target audience while also interacting with other theaters to cross-promote
shows and successes. Finally, the #YourWorldOnStage campaign can be
launched to energize their new audience and grow it even further. All of this will
be implemented with the goal of increasing engagement, awareness, ticket
sales, and donations.