Marketing campaign planning guide
“The process of campaign
planning helps you organise your
thoughts, identify appropriate
target markets and craft eective
messages to reach them.”
Published 2017
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 UK:
England & Wales Licence
Campaign planning
your promotional masterplan
Campaign plans sit within your overall marketing
strategy to promote speciic products,
performances, exhibitions or services.
The process of campaign planning helps you
organise your thoughts, identify appropriate target
markets and craft eective messages to reach
them.
In short, campaign plans keep you on track and
help ward o panic when a show isn’t selling.
They provide a clear set of actions and targets to
monitor progress against.
They’re also a useful way of coordinating strategies
between artists/touring companies and presenting
venues/galleries.
The campaign
what does it include?
Campaign plans provide a simple summary of product information, targets and
communications strategies. They also include a detailed action plan, giving dates
and costs for activities
Product/Show title:
Income target:
Attendance target:
Ticket prices: Discounts:
Target audience:
Key message:
Dates:
About the product/show (including age guidance or other restrictions):
Action Plan:
Case Study
Northern Ballet’s Cleopatra
Northern Ballet’s Cleopatra campaign aimed to sell £832,000 of tickets
(gross) to traditional ballet audiences and Arts Audiences Insights ‘Fun,
Fashion and Friends’ and ‘Dinner and a Show’ segments.
They approached Cleopatra as a comprehensive integrated
communications campaign featuring online, print and press advertising,
outdoor advertising and media and PR. As well as traditional promotional
activity, they focused on partnerships.
The campaign included a London launch, a Cleopatra themed event
in partnership with Harvey Nichols and a dinner and a show package
in partnership with Gaucho Restaurants. It generated national press
coverage in newspapers and women’s glossy magazines, as well as radio
and TV coverage.
By investing in photography and ilm, partnering with big brands and
constantly monitoring and evaluating the campaign, Northern Ballet
smashed its ticket target and sold £867,000 of tickets.
Image courtesy of Northern Ballet
Honing your message
matching audiences and benefits
The most successful campaigns tailor their message to their speciic target
audience. Use the matrix below to match audiences with beneits to help you craft
a compelling message.
Target audience
Benefits
Group
bookers
English
literature
students
Group
discounts
X
Brings
curriculum
text to life
X
Audience insight
what families really want to know
As well as communicating beneits, think about the information your
target audience might need to know. Talk to your audiences and make
use of existing insight. The Family Arts Campaign Content Guidance
Communication for Family Arts Events guide provides some great insight for
communicating with families.
− Families are looking for reassurance that family events are suitable for their
family. They are suspicious of shows targeted at “all ages” and “for the
whole family”.
− Families do look for age guidance but that’s because they’re looking for
clues about references to conlict, religion or other sensitive topics. They
want to make sure there is nothing that will oend, trigger nightmares, or
be diicult to explain.
− Professionals responsible for children and young people also want to make
sure there isn’t any content that they might get into trouble for showing
children.
− Families want to know what to expect in advance. A hint of a plot,
character and a narrative, which is suggestive of the tone of the event,
helps families decide if they want to commit to attending.
− Families like to see behind the scenes and hold props and artefacts
associated with the event.
Identifying channels
matching audiences and channels
Once you’ve got your message right, you need to make sure it reaches the right
people in the right way. Use the matrix below to match your channels with the
appropriate target audience.
Target audience
Channels
Primary
school-
aged
children
Regular
attenders
School
book bags
X
Direct
mail/e-mail
X
The action plan
your timeline and budget breakdown
Your action plan is the nitty gritty of what you’re actually going to do, when you’re
going to do it and what it’s going to cost. If your campaign plan has to be signed
o by your line manager or someone else, this is the vital information they will want
to check.
Date Action Target audience Delivered by Cost
Week commencing
1/1/18
Direct mail Previous bookers £1,200
Campaign sharing
working in partnership
If you market touring shows at a venue make sure
you share your campaign plan with the company
and vice versa.
Touring companies will have a lot of insight about
what has worked elsewhere on their tour. If the
show is aimed at a very speciic audience, they
may also have done extensive research into that
audience.
Similarly, venues will have local insight about what
works for their audiences.
Sharing campaigns between touring company
and venue and giving each other the opportunity
to contribute ideas gives your campaign the best
chance of success.
Case Study
Frozen Light’s The Forest
Frozen Light worked with venues on its tour to reach people with
Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities (PMLD).
The Artistic Directors met and talked to marketing and box oice teams
at every venue. They shared insight into the show, the company and the
target audience. They wanted venues to feel conident talking about The
Forest and to people with PMLD.
By learning about their target audience and sharing that knowledge with
venues, Frozen Light achieved full capacity for PMLD audiences at 86%
of all performances.
Image by JMA Photography, courtesy of Frozen Light
culturehive.co.uk
learn from your peers online
