Marketing inspire! Marketing the arts experience

June 05, 2018

5:30 PM - Cardiff

'I sometimes wish I were selling a Mars bar'

When Stephan Stockton started a career in arts marketing 30 years ago, he was called a Publicist. The Publicist distributed posters and talked to the press. That was it!

Theatres now look at marketing an experience, and the experience starts long before you might think it does. Unlike a Mars Bar, most theatres have no control over the quality of the production, and have probably booked it into the theatre and started selling it long before it even goes into rehearsal.  

This session looks at how theatres market their productions, how they develop real loyalty and relationships with their audiences, how they deal with expectation and when they have to sell a challenge.

Following Stephan’s engaging talk, he will conduct a tour of the stage and backstage areas of the New Theatre.

About our speaker:
Stephan Stockton MBE, FRSA

Stephan has worked in the arts, cultural and voluntary sector for 30 years with a wide range of organisations, from West End theatres to the Royal Opera House & Scottish Ballet; community arts projects to touring productions and receiving venues of all scales.

Apart from working as a General Manager and Producer, he is at heart a marketer and is proud to have won a CANMOL (CIM Wales Marketing Award) for one of his campaigns in the arts. He also works as a university lecturer at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, the University of South Wales and Bath Spa University, lecturing on management, marketing and behavioural psychology to both Masters and Under-graduate students.  

He was appointed an MBE in 2011, and invited to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2016. Previously he has been Chair of the Cardiff Council Standards & Ethics Committee, a panel member for Children in Need in Wales, and a Wales Board member of CIM.

He is currently a board member of a producing theatre company, and Chair & Trustee of 3Rings, an international charity providing marketing and management support to the voluntary sector. Stephan is currently working as Marketing Campaigns Manager at the New Theatre Cardiff and recently produced a Welsh tour of a new Ibsen production.

CPD category: Customer experience
Duration: 1.5 hours

Registration and networking is from 17:30, the session starts at 18:00 and finishes at 19:30. If you are non-EU resident please call the Network Support team to make your booking.