Belvoir St Theatre
Photo Credit: Damon Amb
The Client
Belvoir St Theatre is one of Australia’s most celebrated and beloved theatre companies, based in Surry Hills, Sydney. Since 1984, when a group of 600 theatre-lovers came together to buy the building and save it from becoming an apartment block, Belvoir has been at the forefront of Australian storytelling for the stage. Each year the company presents an annual season of shows for its now-iconic corner stage in Surry Hills, Sydney. New work and new stories sit at the center of Belvoir’s programming, alongside reinvented classics and international writing, and a foundational commitment to Indigenous stories.
The Need
The leadership team at Belvoir St Theatre approached TOCG’s Senior Vice President, Rani Haywood, to conduct an assessment of its marketing strategies and structure in late 2022. Like other theatre companies in Australia, Belvoir had seen a dip in its subscription numbers following pandemic shutdowns and understood that it needed to redefine its audiences and remodel its marketing strategies to reach new and more diverse audiences.
The Process
As part of her assessment, Rani took a deep dive into customer and sales data, held interviews with the internal team and vendors, and reviewed marketing materials and channels. Rani had previously served as Marketing Manager at Belvoir St Theatre almost 20 years earlier which also added a deep understanding of the company’s core principles. The Assessment yielded a high-level report of observations and recommendations for the internal team to adopt in 2023.
The Outcome
One of the key outcomes of the Assessment was the establishment of an Audiences Working Group comprised of members of the marketing, artistic and programming, development, education, and customer service teams. The Working Group met with Rani quarterly throughout 2023, and developed an agreed audience segmentation, a shared categorization of productions, and mapped out marketing and communications strategies by segment.
In addition to the establishment and facilitation of the Audiences Working Group, Rani assisted the internal team with the development of refreshed brand guidelines and the delivery of the 2024 season campaign, bringing the learnings from the initial Marketing Assessment to all of her work with Belvoir.
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