Recommendation to invest in marketing items to increase audience member attendance for The Plastic Shatners

Prepared forNatalie Wilson, Director of the Plastic Shatners

Prepared ByAlex Heckman, Team member and performer

April 28, 2015

Recommendation to invest in marketing items to increase audience member attendance at for The Plastic Shatners

Introduction-The Plastic Shatners have been providing the students of Bowling Green State University with free improv comedy for the past 15 years. The Shatners are BGSU’s premier short-form improv team on campus, playing a variety of improvised games based on one-word suggestions given by the audience. Those suggestions are then turned into scenes, songs, or characters based on the nature of the particular game being performed. This past year’s team consisted of 12 members, all BGSU students, and performed a total of 16 shows. Practices are held twice a week in Olscamp Hall for the entire semester. Every show has been performed at 6:00 P.M. on Friday; we have performed in both the Bowen-Thompson Student Union, and room115 in the Education building, which has become the preferred weekly performance space, as seen in Figure 1 (“Classroom Maps”). Our primary methods of attracting students to shows are flyers for the week’s show, advertising in campus update, and occasionally writing advertisements on campus sidewalks. The team performed at the Chicago College Improv Tournament, The Tides improv festival at The Ohio State University, and Lake Effect improv festival at Case Western University during the 2014-2015 school year. Every week students come to shows to put away their woes for a little while and laugh for the entire hour-long show. The team’s overall goals are to branch out in the statewide and national improv community as well as become a mainstream weekly event on the BGSU campus. We want to be recognized by the university as a staple campus organization with a long line of history on campus, as well as a group of funny, talented individuals who stand out among the rest of BGSU students for our comedic presence on campus.

Problem-The overwhelming majority of students on the BGSU campus do not know who the Plastic Shatners are or the free service they provide for said students. The team has existed for 15 years and despite its long history, it still does not have much of a presence on campus. The students that do come to our shows consistently have a wonderful experience judging by the amount of laughter and the fact that 82% of our audience comes to shows regularly, as seen in Figure 2 (Heckman). However, our audiences have stagnated in size and our performance space provides more seats than we usually fill, as seen in Figure 3. Week after week the same audience members show up, but there are hardly ever any new faces with fresh suggestions and energy to feed off of when performing. Because of our lack of recognition by the majority of the student body, the student budget committee also does not know about the organization, thus crippling our ability to fund our endeavors with financial backing from the university. They assume our shows are low quality and therefore not worth funding; however, this is not the case, as this past year we have added lighting cues, musical cues, a preshow playlist, projected title cards for each game, recorded and live musical accompaniment, and added just about as much technical ability as our performance space will allow us. As a well-trained group of improvisers performing weekly for our student body, which consistently comes back once they see a show, we are so much more than what we are seen as by the majority of the student body. With an increased budget, we can take more trips, meet more teams, and even bring in professional improvisers for workshops to refine our craft and put on better and better shows. None of this will be a reality without getting new students in seats to fill our unused performance space to spread the word that the Shatners exist and are worth every penny that was never spent on the show.

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Solution- The team needs to invest in marketing items to hand out and sell to the student body at shows and around campus to put the Shatner logo out into the public eye to help increase our overall budget. The products invested in should feature a variety of Shatner insignias, as seen in figure 1 of the addenda, on a large selection of items such as stickers, buttons, wristbands, or really anything within next year’s budget to give away or sell to those students. Ideally they will in turn use, wear, and show off these items to their friends. In addition to whatever budget is awarded by the Student Budget Committee at the beginning of the year, each member should be required to pay dues for the year for the various trips and activities planned. Using a fraction of these dues will ensure that these items can be purchased without making the director pay for them out of pocket, which has happened in the past. Some of these items can be sold at shows to help reduce costs for other items that will be given away freely. There is an online service known as Redbubble where a free e-shop can be created, allowing any willing student to shop for more elaborate products with our submitted Plastic Shatner logo on them without incurring any direct costs to the team. The store sells everything from phone cases to leggings. If an audience member should wish to buy a designed item from Redbubble, the company will produce the item and ship it to them without any cost to the team (“Retail & Base Prices”). By implementing these solutions, there will be both short-term and long-term benefits for the team.

Benefits- First and foremost, investing in these marketing items and selling them enables the team to have a workable budget. This will allow the team to fulfill its goals of travelling, bringing in professional improvisers for workshops and lessons, and pushing our marketing even further. Travel experiences provide excellent opportunities for team bonding and lasting college memories that team members can take with them for the rest of their lives. Performing at more competitions and festivals will be invaluable networking opportunities for the team to meet other teams, share tips and tricks of the trade, and make possible partnerships and friendships with people they would never meet otherwise. The Plastic Shatners will put Bowling Green on the improv comedy map. Bringing in professionals is an invaluable asset because they carry with them knowledge and insight that amateur improvisers simply would not have under any other circumstances. Not only will the team improve and put on better shows, but it could be an excellent opportunity to attract other teams from around the Midwest to the university should the Shatners ever wish to put on their own festival or workshop day. Most importantly though, investing in marketing items at all will make the Plastic Shatners notable among the group of people most important to the team: the students of BGSU. With the students on board with going to shows, the team can become an integral part of every student’s Friday night on campus and even a proud tradition upheld by the university for many years to come. Alumni will come to campus reminiscing of the many laughs they shared at Shatner shows and be glad to see the team going stronger than ever. Instead of the visibly half empty room the team has become accustomed to performing for, the room will be packed with standing room only and laughter erupting loud enough to be heard from outside the Education building.

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Proposed Course of Implementation- Starting at the beginning of the 2015-2016 academic year, the team can begin to put its marketing strategy into action. First, the team’s director must fill out all administrative paperwork to present to the student budget committee to try to receive as much funding as possible. Next, after that year’s team has finished casting all new members, dues should be allocated to the rest of the funding. Required dues of $35 per team member for the whole year on top of whatever funding received by the committee will ensure a financially sound pool of money to allocate to all of our marketing endeavors. Next, the team needs to create a Redbubble e-shop to advertise merchandise for sale during the first few shows. After the setting up our e-shop, select physical items, such as stickers should be ordered to sell at the shows. All other items not provided by Redbubble should be purchased through other online retailers, such as 24hourwristbands.com. Once all marketing items come in, signage can be created for each item. Before every show, two selected team members can set up a table outside the performance space to hand out free items and advertise the new for-sale merchandise both in physical form and on the e-shop. In addition, shows should be advertised in the Bowen Thompson Student Union once per week to hand out free items and information regarding that week’s show. With proper implementation, students will be wearing our merchandise all throughout campus, spreading our name and attracting the attention of new students. Selling items will help cover some costs that will go into purchasing these items, or create revenue that can go directly back into the team’s funds for future use.

Required Materials and Equipment-To maximize our items to give away or sell, and minimize our overall costs, many of these items are small tokens for our audience to remember the show by. Most items can be worn so that our logo can be carried with the student and be visible everywhere they go to other students. The specific items that would be most fit for purchase are as follows:

Buttons- metal pinned buttons measuring 1½ inch in diameter featuring one of the three logos found in figure 4 of the addenda to give out to students so they may wear them around campus (“1 ½ Inch Round Custom Buttons”).

Stickers- waterproof vinyl stickers with dimensions of 75x100mm/ 3”x 4” intended for use on smooth surfaces such as laptops, tablets, or phones.

Rubber Bracelets- ½ inch wide printed rubber wrist bands with “The Plastic Shatners” written on the outside in Bladerubber font and an inside message reading “Short Form Improv Comedy,” as seen in figure 5 of the addenda (“Printed Wristbands”).

Temporary Tattoos- 1.5X1.5 inch customized temporary tattoos made of Eco Ink featuring a Plastic Shatner logo from figure 4 of the addenda with the intention to be worn both during and after the show as audience members go about their Friday night business (“1.5 X 1.5 Custom Tattoos”).

Laptop to be set up at merchandise table to display the Redbubble e-shop Signs to depict what each item is and the price associated Jars/Baskets to hold and display items on the merchandise table

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Cost Analysis-The most important factor to consider with this push in marketing is what overall costs the team will incur. Despite the limited nature of the team’s overall budget, with money coming in from dues in addition to the approved amount from next year’s budget, funds can be allocated as follows:

With required dues of $35 from each member, without even considering a budget approval, and a total of 10 members after graduating members leave and a few members take their place, starting budget would be $350. If every item were sold, total profit to would equal $21, which nearly replaces costs for stickers, or entirely replaces costs of buttons. Total costs for the year in this case would be $128.87. If items were to only breakeven, total costs would equal $154.75. The remaining amount of money can be allocated towards funding trips completed this past year without any budget at all.

Conclusion- Marketing is the answer to the team’s attendance problem. Marketing is the key to reaching out to new potential audience members in an effort to become better known on campus. In turn, greater recognition from the student body will result in greater recognition by the student budget committee, thus solving part of the budget issue as well. Our currently half-empty room will be full of excited students ready to see an amazing improv show and laugh their troubles away. After putting in effort for marketing and performing for more students, the team will become a well-known organization on campus and receive more recognition from the university. This will result in more money to pursue its more grandiose goals of travel and hiring professionals for workshops. With these workshops and travel opportunities and the team will undoubtedly attract the attention of the statewide and national improv community. The Plastic Shatners will be able to host their own improv festival where teams from all over will want to come see the campus of Bowling Green State University, share their love of improv, and together create a lasting tradition for all future Shatners another fifteen years down the line. The act of giving out a few logoed items may seem so simple, but it is a large and much needed step in the right direction to accomplish all of these larger goals set out by the team. The ultimate answer lies in the marketing. We can no longer wait for more students to just wander in to our shows. It is time to take an active role in securing a future for our beloved improv team for many years to come.

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Item Quantity Cost Per Item Total Cost Sold For Breakeven

QuantityButton 50 $0.37 $18.37 Free N/ASticker 25 $1.00 $25 $1.50 17

Temporary Tattoo 600 $0.09 $66 Free N/A

Wristband 50 $0.81 $45.38 $1.00 46

Addenda

Figure 1. Education Building Room 115

Figure 2. Relevant Responses from The Plastic Shatners Survey

How did you hear about today’s show?

Answer Choices– Responses–

Facebook Event Page17.65%

3

Came with Friends23.53%

4

Campus Flyers11.76%

2

Campus Update35.29%

6

Chalking0.00%

0

Previous Show41.18%

7

Word of Mouth/Recommendation35.29%

6

Wandered in by accident11.76%

2

5

Where did you FIRST hear about The Plastic Shatners?

Answer Choices– Responses–

Facebook Event Page0.00%

0

Came to a show with Friends5.88%

1

Campus Flyers0.00%

0

Campus Update17.65%

3

Chalking0.00%

0

Word of mouth/Recommendation64.71%

11

Wandered in by accident11.76%

2

Total 17

Would you consider yourself a “Regular Attender” (every week, two weeks tops)

Answer Choices– Responses–

Yes82.35%

14

No17.65%

3

Total 17

Figure 3.

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Observed Audience Counts for The Plastic ShatnersShow Date # of Audience Members

3/20 643/27 714/4 524/17 724/24 89

Average # of attendees 69.6Capacity of Education 115 225

Figure 4. Insignias for The Plastic Shatners

Figure 5. Wristband Design for The Plastic Shatners

Outside

Inside

Works Cited

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"1 1/2 Inch Round Custom Buttons." 1 1/2 Inch Round Custom Buttons. 24 Hour Wristbands, n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.

"1.5 X 1.5 Custom Tattoos." 1.5 X 1.5 Custom Tattoos. 24 Hour Wristbands, n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.

"Classroom Maps." Bgsu.edu. Bowling Green State University, n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.

Heckman, Alex M. "Plastic Shatners Survey." SurveyMonkey. N.p., 27 Mar. 2015. Web. 23 Apr. 2015.

"Printed Wristbands | Custom Silicone Wristbands - 24HourWristbands.Com." Printed Wristbands | Custom Silicone Wristbands. 24 Hour Wristbands, n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.

"Retail & Base Prices." Redbubble. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2015.

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