Theater Resources Unlimited Announces The May Panel Attracting Wanted Attention: Helping Your Audience Find You

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) facilitates a crucial conversation about marketing for theater on Thursday, May 22, 2018: Attracting Wanted Attention: Helping Your Audience Find You at 7:30pm (doors open for networking at 7pm) at The Playroom Theatre, 151 W. 46th Street, 8th fl., NYC. For more details, visit https://truonline.org/events/attracting-wanted-attention/. Free for TRU members; $12.50 for non-members in advance ($15 at door), free for TRU. Please use the bright red reservation box at https://truonline.org/events/attracting-wanted-attention/, or call at least a day in advance (or much sooner) for reservations: 212-714-7628; or e-mailTRUStaff1@gmail.com.

Panelists to include Pippa Bexon, director of client services at Situation Interactive, a digital-first marketing agency; Themis Gomes CEO, Cennarium America, Inc.; Monica Hammond, director of marketing for Davenport Theatricals; Emily McGill of DKC Public Relations.

The business has evolved, as has the world, and tried-and-true marketing efforts may not always be enough to break through in a crowded market dominated by mega-hits. In this panel, we will direct attention to and emphasize specialized marketing strategies and some of the specific ways each panelist approaches the task of putting butts in seats. One size does not fit all, and we'll discuss how to customize your strategy to your product. We'll touch upon basic marketing principals: advertising, public relations/publicity, special promotions, social media and how (and when) to integrate them; and explore basic branding for your show or your company, and how to build and/or expand that brand. New questions arise today. Are different methods needed to reach out to younger audiences as opposed to the usual theatergoer? How has the social media landscape changed in the last 5 years in terms of the entertainment industry, and how do you translate media presence into ticket sales? Are there methods used outside the theater industry that we might learn from and use ourselves?

PIPPA BEXON is an advertising and marketing professional with 11 years of experience working across the advertising landscape in the both New York and London. Pippa graduated from Durham University in the UK, with a bachelor of sciences in Psychology, and minor in English Literature. Beginning her career in London at AKA, Pippa has overseen over 30 advertising campaigns for theater productions both in the West End and on Broadway. After three years in London, Pippa moved to NYC and joined the AKA NY team, specializing in account management, media and strategy. Following AKA NY, Pippa spent time at Sony Music working with their in-house branding agency on a variety of music projects and consumer products. Since 2015 Pippa has been at Situation Interactive, a digital first marketing agency which specializes in Entertainment. As Director of Client Services, Pippa leads digital strategy for many Broadway shows as well as working on arts and culture, TV and not for profit clients. Past and present clients include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Wicked, Mean Girls, Spiderman Turn off The Dark, The Color Purple, On Your Feet, The National Theater London and RSC.

Themis Gomes is CEO of Cennarium, a producer, licensor and online platform for theatrical content, offering subscribers a wide selection of performances from around the world in high-definition encompassing a variety of genres including drama, dance, comedy, music and opera. Since establishing a U.S. presence for the Brazil-based company in 2016, Gomes has been responsible for all day-to-day operations, including licensing, marketing, distribution, business development, finance and revenue generation. Before joining Cennarium, Gomes was involved in the launch of several digital businesses in Latin America, including Chile, Argentina, Peru, Colombia and Brazil. Gomes founded Zuga.cl, a successful online diaper subscription service, after which she was a consultant for companies including L'Orèal, OLX and Verisure. Before founding Zuga, Gomes was CFO of Happyshop, a Chilean mobile startup with a shopping app focused on the omni-channel consumer and whose main customers were Santander, Cencosud and Falabella.

MONICA HAMMOND is the Director of Marketing for Davenport Theatrical Enterprises. Broadway: Once On This Island (Circle in the Square) and Gettin' The Band Back Together (Belasco Theatre, 2018), Spring Awakening (Brooks Atkinson Theatre). Off-Broadway: Daddy Long Legs, Shear Madness, That Bachelorette Show, as well as the North American Tour of A Night With Janis Joplin. Monica also manages Ken Davenport's members-only community for theatre professionals, TheProducersPerspectivePRO

EMILY MCGILL is a publicist with nearly ten years of experience working in entertainment in New York City. She has represented the Tony Award-winning productions of A Raisin in the Sun starring Denzel Washington, Memphis, and Billy Elliot, Andrew Lloyd Webber's School of Rock and CATS, George Takei's Allegiance, This Is Our Youth, Rock of Ages, Ghost, Elf, and First Date. Since that start, she's expanded out to other forms of entertainment, including music, film and television, and worked with companies large and small (from Disney, HBO, Amazon Studios, Fathom Events, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and Westfield Corporation to boutique talent agencies, internet startups, non-profits and string quartets. Plus male strippers. Yes, male strippers). Emily has successfully navigated relationships with the press on behalf of clients resulting in coverage from The New York Times, CBS SundayMorning, the Associated Press, the Today Show, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, USA Today, and Entertainment Weekly to name a few. Career highlights include the Obamas attending A Raisin in the Sun and having a literal 'stop the presses' moment with People Magazine for the exclusive photo, throwing an afternoon tea for Tony nominee LaTanya Richardson Jackson that was hosted by Julianne Moore (and included the reading of a congratulatory letter from First Lady Michelle Obama), producing a concert at the State Department for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton starring cast members of Memphis and the show's composer David Bryan (of Bon Jovi), and producing a benefit concert of Operation Smile to celebrate the cast album of First Date.

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is the leading network for developing theater professionals, a twenty-five year old 501c3 nonprofit organization created to help producers produce, emerging theater companies to emerge healthily and all theater professionals to understand and navigate the business of the arts. Membership includes self-Producing Artists as well as career producers and theater companies.

TRU publishes an email community newsletter of services, goods and productions; presents the TRU VOICES Annual New Play Reading Series and Annual New Musicals Reading Series, two new works series in which TRU underwrites developmental readings to nurture new shows as well as new producers for theater; offers a Producer Development & Mentorship Program whose mentors are among the most prominent producers and general managers in New York Theater, and also presents Producer Boot Camp workshops to help aspirants develop the business skills they need. TRU serves writers through a Writer-Producer Speed Date, a Practical Playwriting Workshop, How to Write a Musical That Works and a Director-Writer Communications Lab; programs for actors include the Annual Combined Audition, Resource Nights and "Speed Dating" as well as actor workshops.

Programs of Theater Resources Unlimited are supported in part by public funds awarded through the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature the Montage Foundation.

For more information about TRU membership and programs, visit www.truonline.org or call 212-714-7628.