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Big Daddy Cool Inner circle 1604 Posts |
I'm new to this particular forum, but I thought I'd post these thoughts here, since they will probably resonate most clearly with the contributors of this forum.
The story begins long before the show, long befor the curtain opens, and sometimes months before the performer even appears. I am of course talking about media and marketing. For most magicians marketing is just "look what I can do, see what these people said." But for the theatrical performer a marketing and media campaign can begin or introduce the story to a potential audience. For example: During the first season of Music City Magic, our resident storytelling mentalist wanted to do a grand stunt to draw people in. We created a backstory for his character, that he had been part of a special government op to develop time travel through the powers of the mind. We created the premise that the organization, NISA wanted to expand their research. While controlled lab experiments had been fruitful they wished to do a test with willing, yet unconditioned and untrained participants. The best solution was a public demonstration. We "created" sensitive, yet de-classified documents from NISA detailing past experiments with various known psychics, and the details of the upcoming experiement and began leaking them to the press along side new releases. We went so far as to get a physical mail address in DC, and registered a DC phone number that was forwarded to our offices and answered by our own NISA secretary. The Nashville media bought it. Hook, line & sinker. We got a 2 page story in the Tennessean, Art Bell & George Nory picked it up nationally, and we got several TV news spots. By the time the audience arrived, they knew the story so far and were anxious to see the final chapter. They knew what to expect and were eager for it. I share all of this with you to get you thinking along those same lines. How can you use media and marketing campaigns to tell the story before the story actually begins? I'd love to hear your stories... By the way, I am writing a book about theatrical magic and paln to include several other case studies, and will be printing all of the NISA documents. Just in case anyone is interested... |
shomemagic Inner circle Missouri 2232 Posts |
BDC I would be interstead in your book...add me to your mailing list
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