Pillsbury United Communities/Pillsbury House Theatre
About
Pillsbury House Theatre’s mission is to create challenging theatre to inspire choice, change and connection. Through the mainstage season and community engagement programs, Pillsbury House Theatre (PHT) illuminates the differences that make each person unique and the similarities that bring people together, all within an artistically engaging context that promotes understanding and leads to positive action.
Marketing Initiative
Pillsbury House Theatre envisions a new kind of arts professional organization and community that is known for artistic excellence and broad accessibility and that engages a diverse constituency benefiting individually and collectively from participation. Pillsbury House Theatre is positioning itself to fully integrate into the Pillsbury United Communities, a human service agency and to be a unique cultural hub and top performing arts center in South Minneapolis. PHT’s marketing plan focuses on nurturing its current base while expanding to reach audiences in the neighborhood surrounding Pillsbury House through community organizing and other approaches. The plan also set a goal to increase depth and breadth in community partnerships and collaborations.
Highlights, 2010-11
The theatre took advantage of an unanticipated opportunity to present a show at Guthrie Theater’s Dowling Studio, gaining critical and audience acclaim. This experience, linked with thoughtful cultural partnerships and personalized invitations to “make a date” with the theatre at its home base were among the strategies that increased PHT’s overall audience in 2010-11 by 48% over 2009-10, including a wide variety of new audience members. The theatre made progress in its intended outcomes by retaining a loyal audience. More than 80% of people who previously purchased tickets purchased again during the 2010-2011 season. Attendance from the surrounding neighborhoods, especially two zip code regions, increased substantially, with a 225% hike in attendance from this segment. The organization also improved its quantitative and qualitative measuring skills related to audience engagement and satisfaction.
Marketing Activities, Year Two
- Continue to increase the local neighborhood audience through purchasing advertisement on the community radio station, pricing tickets to be exceptionally affordable, offering a Pay-What-You-Can show, sending direct mail to all households in surrounding zip codes, and forming partnerships with other South Minneapolis arts and business organizations.
- Grow the advanced season ticket buyers program.
- Cultivate new audiences from the Guthrie Theater venue to attend the Pillsbury neighborhood location.
