Stewart McCure

Writer, performer, management consultant

England

An Australian living in London.  A self-employed training consultant to the global health care industry.  A producer, director and performer of improv comedy.  A trustee of an adult education charity in West London.  A writer and occaisional blogger

 

 

Brand building

April 02, 2009  /  Stewart McCure

Tonight is Press Night, a necessary part of the long and arduous task of building a brand for a show in the crowded London market.

One of the main reasons why I opted for a straight three-week run was to differentiate Scenes from Communal Living from the seemingly interchangeable weekly, fortnightly and entirely ad hoc comedy nights on offer around London. It's nigh-on impossible to build a presence when you're only in a venue occasionally. Brand building is also the reason why I engaged a theatrical PR company. We've already had three mentions in the free press and we're one of this week's 'Critic's Pick's' in Time Out.

Whilst it would be nice if this investment translated into immediate sales I'm not counting on it. The value is really no more quantifiable than the posters and fliers or the (paid-for) Facebook ad campaign. Some would say that I'm dodging the genuinely hard question of value-for-money in advertising / PR spend to which I'll revert to William Lever (who founded the company that later became Unilever, my first employer): -

I know half my advertising is wasted. I just don't know which half

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tags / Be Your Own Brand, Beginnings, Comedy, Marketing, Scenes from Communal Living, Suppliers