The “difference between bad reviews and great reviews over the course of a season is around $50,000 in revenue for Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company,” Woolly Mammoth marketing manager Steven Dawson writes.
One Washington Post critic, Peter Marks, has an outsized impact on ticket sales, Dawson writes: A mediocre Marks review will bring in 2 percent of the total revenue of a show, he found, while a rave will bring in 6 percent of total revenue.
Marks panned one show, “The Totalitarians,” which brought in 0 percent of revenue — 12 tickets, Dawson writes. But a Marks pan of another production, “Stupid Fucking Bird,” was offset by a theater-appropriate deus ex machina:
Charles Isherwood decided to come from the New York Times and review the play, which had already won multiple awards and had created quite the buzz. His review of Stupid F##king Bird was glowing, and the resulting rush of patrons from it actually negated Peter Marks’ panning. (we came in at 4% of total revenue)
Dawson notes the power of the press hasn’t convinced him to advertise more with the Post:
My advertising budget has shifted from about 60/40 toward print ad to almost 75/25 toward digital ads. And my results couldn’t be better. My ROI is up astronomically, and I will (probably) never go back.
Comments