Andrew Girvan

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Twespians Fringe: Theatre PR – Pushing it to its limits

By: agirvan
24-11-2011
Arts Marketing, Digital Theatre, Facebook, London Theatre, Marketing, New Media, Personal Marketing, Social Media, Twitter

Luke Murphy Welcomes Everyone to Twespians

After their first crack at the digital theatre PR whip, ‘Are we doing all we can?’, theatre/twitter meet-up Twespians rounded up another panel to tackle ‘Pushing it to its limits’, supported again by the lovely folks at Mobius.

With the digital world being so important, do we need to rethink the tried and tested methods that so many still rely on today? Can we learn from what people are doing in other disciplines? Is a fundamental shift required in how we perceive audience, community and promotion?

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Twespians Fringe: Theatre PR – Are We Doing All We Can?

By: agirvan
20-09-2011
Arts Marketing, London Theatre, Marketing, New Media, News, Social Media, Twitter, Whatsonstage

Twespians Event

Hosted by Whatsonstage.com deputy editor Andrew Girvan, the latest Twespians Fringe event brings PRs and journalists together with a panel discussion on ‘Theatre PR: Are we doing all we can?’

PR has been changing as an industry at the same rate that Twitter changes trending topics recently. Is theatre PR keeping up with the moving industry? We discus the good side and bad side of current theatre PR, where we can move forward and where we need to trim the fat in an industry that Lyn Gardner refers to as ‘criminally undervalued’.

The event combined a combination of questions from Andrew, the live audience and Twitter.

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Musical Marketing Coup: Rocky Horror Glee Show

By: agirvan
14-11-2010
Actors, American Theatre, Broadway, Marketing, Musical Theatre, New Media, Old Media, Social Media, Television

Glee Rocky Horror Show

I have used my blog to write about Glee before. Seeing the buzz the show was generating in the States I have to say I was intrigued as to whether the show would hit the mark on this side of the pond. At this point there is really no question about it, Glee is huge business. The show has rewritten music marketing and I personally believe is one of the best promotional tools musical theatre has going for it at the moment. So imagine my surprise when I heard the show would be dedicating its Halloween episode to Richard O’Brien’s 1975 cult classic, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Musical marketing genius. Here’s why:

I would almost go so far as to argue that Glee has rewritten the rule of music publishing. “The Glee Effect” has led to weeks when 25 songs on the Billboard Top 100 Charts have been songs from the show. Not only do recordings of numbers sung by the cast, released straight after that week’s broadcast for sale on iTunes, but original recordings of the songs the show has covered see huge sales.

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Regularly Writing, Just Not On My Blog

By: agirvan
16-08-2010
London Theatre, New Media, Social Media, Whatsonstage

You might wonder why it’s all quiet on the Western Front. By Western Front I mean my blog. On 19 July 2010 I took up the job of Acting Deputy Editor at Whatsonstage.com, the UK’s biggest theatre website. I can say without doubt that the reason I got the job was because of this blog, but I admit that should not be a reason for not giving it enough attention now.

The real reason that I haven’t been updating my blog as frequently as I would like is because I am spending all day blogging at the moment, writing news stories, reviews, gossip pieces, interviews, introductions for photo galleries and video stories. On top of that I am also editing and uploading reviews, features and interviews.

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My Mobile Social Media Creation Adventure

By: agirvan
27-07-2010
Marketing, New Media, Social Media, Travel

You can read my five-part blog about visiting Amsterdam, created entirely using my iPhone 3 at girvgoesdutch.tumblr.com

It’s been far too long since I’ve managed to get a post up on here. The main reason for that is that I’ve recently started working for Whatsonstage.com as their Acting Deputy Editor. Its a fantastic job, and one that I would not have been able to get without the experiences that posting on this blog and interacting with all of you have brought me.

The purpose of the five blog posts which proceed this one, which you might have noticed were quite a different style of post to my normal ramblings about the state of theatre and social media, were actually part of a bigger experiment to see if I could create content on the go at the same level of quality as I can when sitting at my Macbook. All of the Amsterdam posts which I uploaded before this one were created entirely on my iPhone.

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Is Your Social Media Strategy Just Digital Flyering?

By: agirvan
04-05-2010
Edinburgh Fringe, Marketing, New Media, Social Media, Twitter

A number of weeks ago, before a major piece of uni work was originally due and the bereavement which postponed it, I was sent an email asking an interesting but pretty simple question: is it possible to generate theatre ticket sales from Twitter?

Having got the email, I set about straight away and tried to craft a succinct answer. I’m pretty pleased to say that the words I managed to get down into my iPhone at the time still form the basis of this post, but it was the decision to turn my answer into a blog post and do a bit more research, fleshing out my quick response, which has really delayed my answer to a seemingly simple question. So here we go… I think the number of commercial theatre productions and building based companies at least paying lip service to social media proves that as part of your marketing mix, social media should help you shift some tickets. But can a social media campaign alone help you fill your auditorium? Can you actually generate ticket sales through Twitter?

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EdFringe Discount Registration Deadline Looms Large… or Does It?

By: agirvan
10-03-2010
Edinburgh Fringe, Fringe, Marketing, New Media, Social Media

Edinburgh from Carlton Hill

As March settles in, making no signs of forgetting February’s weather, it seems crazy to think that it might be almost time to embark on another year of Edinburgh Fringe adventure. The next couple of weeks will prove busy ones in the offices of Fringe venues and producers across the UK and around the world as the reduced price Fringe registration deadline rolls around on Friday 19 March.

If you are bringing a show to the Fringe this year and don’t have all of your ducks in a row just yet don’t worry too much, Fringe registration only opened on 1 March and the final deadline for inclusion in the Fringe programme isn’t until 21 April 2010. So what is the cost of missing the early deadline a week on Friday?

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Does Arts Marketing on Facebook Lack Innovation?

By: agirvan
19-12-2009
Arts Marketing, Facebook, New Media, Social Media, Twitter

Does Arts Marketing on Facebook Lack InnovationFacebook is the world’s most popular social network. In spite of the media’s current fixation with Twitter this study from the beginning of the year shows just how powerful Facebook’s numbers are: 350 million users is not to be sniffed at and something that Twitter, with a predicted user base of around 18 million, has quite a long way to match.

I personally would consider myself somewhat addicted to Facebook. Whenever I open a new browser window I find myself drawn to click the bookmark link that sits on my quick bookmarks bar. When I don’t open it straight away I have a copy of my news feed automatically show up on my iGoogle homepage and when I’m waiting for the bus its inevitably the Facebook and Twitter apps that I check whilst waiting for my lift into town.

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Follow me on Twitter

  • @alexjohnston89 Really nice space. Wanted a nose at the big space but we were in the 90 seater. It was nice, well used for Yellow Face. 1 day ago

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