The League of Chicago Theatres and its member theater companiestook to the street corners of North Michigan Avenue on Monday tolaunch the trade association's most ambitious guerrilla marketingcampaign ever, dubbed "From the Streets to the Seats."
Developed around the tagline "Explore Our 200 Stages of Life,"(200 refers to the number of local theaters), the league's multi-faceted marketing campaign is intended to help build theaterattendance during one of the slowest seasons of the year--the bleakmonths of January and February.
The winter of 2002 promises to be even more difficult than usualbecause of the recession and the country's changed mood in the wakeof Sept. 11.
On Monday, to whet the public's appetite for theater, actors from20 theater companies performed on 26 street corners and handed outmore than 10,000 brochures with two-for-one discount coupons to localtheaters. Mayor Daley and high-profile Chicago actors Joan Cusack andDavid Schwimmer attended a press conference to tout live theater.
The League also taped many of Monday's events to create a videonews release that will be distributed to 1,000 TV newsroomsthroughout the Midwest. A testimonial from Chicago actor Joe Mantegnawill be incorporated into the video release.
Local newspapers and Stagebill have agreed to donate space throughthe winter and spring for a series of institutional print ads toboost awareness and encourage attendance at local theaters. Radiopublic service announcements also will run. The league is introducinga grass-roots postcard campaign, providing postage-paid cards intheater lobbies for patrons to send to friends recommending theirfavorite shows.
E-mail: llazare@suntimes.com
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