Manhattan Theatre Club and Forward News

Objective:
To create outreach efforts to the New York Jewish Community through The Forward, a weekly Jewish Newspaper with a subscription base of 30,000+.  We created an essay contest entitled  “What it’s like growing up Jewish in New York” following the themes that are present in Brooklyn Boy.  This was designed to give a constant community print presence over a 4 to 6 week time frame.

Elements:
MTC’s production of Brooklyn Boy received an estimated $50,000 worth of exposure that included a contest that ran for four weeks starting January 4, 2005.  It targeted age groups 10-14, 15-18, 19-30 and 31 and up who were asked to submit and essay of 800 words or less.  Winners were chosen by MTC with the winning essays published by The Forward in the March 4th issue.

All advertising supporting the contest was through ¼ page ads that reflected the look of the production. This content was also posted on both The Forward and MTC web sites. The publicity office sent out a Webman Press Release announcing the partnership and contest, which was picked up in various media outlets giving the contest an added exposure. The contest received additional exposure and was used as an example of “out-of-box ways to attract an audience”.

Pulitzer Prize winning author of Brooklyn Boy Donald Margulies chose one winner in each category.  They were awarded tickets to see the production on Broadway where they met with Donald who gave them a signed copy of the play.  The event and pictures were posted on the MTC website.

On March 4th The Forward devoted a full page to this contest where they published each essay along with some additional information on Donald.  The show received three times the exposure in the paper than originally expected due to the overwhelming support of the community, the creative team of Brooklyn Boy and The Forward.

Overview of Results:
250+ essays were received from the various age groups, all who were excited about telling their stories and having the chance to be a part of this Broadway show that represented their community.  This partnership gave Brooklyn Boy an opportunity to reach this demographic that they would not have reached as directly through traditional advertising.  This effort brought a new audience to MTC and gave them an opportunity to have a personal experience.  Through the word of mouth efforts of the winners and contestants, Brooklyn Boy expanded it’s reach far beyond just the advertising and the contest.