It’s official. Broadway is back. And if you’re a musical theatre buff like me, I’m sure you’ve already been prepping to take pictures underneath the marquee, watch the curtain go up again for the first time, and all that jazz. 🙂

But believe it or not, not everyone has been so keen to return to the theatre. The health and safety threats of the COVID-19 pandemic are still keeping theatergoers at bay, especially older adults and individuals with preexisting health conditions. The boom in streaming services has also made it difficult for the live industry to compete and make a comeback. With comfort levels low, The Broadway League (the theatre industry’s national trade association) has been forced to innovate to get fans back to NYC’s Great White Way.

*Cue the “This is Broadway” campaign*

A $1.5 million industry-wide initiative, “This is Broadway” has been hyping up the return to live theatre in an unprecedented way. The campaign has spanned all types of media, from a short film honoring the Broadway community to a comprehensive website to a free in-person festival. But has the time, the effort, and the spending truly been worth it for an industry that already finds itself frequently having to cut costs?

Read on to find out as I break down the three main strategies behind the “This is Broadway” campaign and evaluate its success.

Strategy #1: Focus on Broadway’s Core Audience

In an interview with the New York Times, Andrew Lazzaro, a marketing consultant for the Broadway League, said that their campaign strategy has been to target reliable theatergoers on the east coast. Through careful research, they have found that many of these Broadway regulars still need a boost of encouragement to resume their pre-pandemic habits.

The state of New York has focused recent marketing efforts on the larger goal of boosting tourism among travelers across the U.S. However, Lazzaro knows that getting the local, core Broadway audience to come back to shows needs to be made a priority before expanding advertising geographically.

This is likely why the “This is Broadway” campaign has included a number of local initiatives and events to ramp up excitement surrounding the return of live theatre. The Broadway League has sponsored multiple events around NYC in conjunction with the campaign, like a special lighting of the Empire State Building with members of the cast of Chicago and a free three-day theatre festival in Times Square called Curtain Up!. In addition, a giveaway sweepstakes will provide one lucky winner with four tickets to every Broadway show reopening over the next few months, driving awareness among east coast-based fans who have easy access to the city.

The campaign website also caters to theatergoers that can easily make it out to NYC for a day trip. The site functions as a “one-stop-shop” for all of Broadway, featuring real-time updates about returning shows, health and safety protocols, ticket information, and more. It even includes a show recommendation search engine, where interested theatergoers can choose a show or genre and get similar suggestions based on the industry’s past five years of audience data and ticket sales.

Strategy #2: Emphasize Community

The consistent emphasis on unity across all “This is Broadway” campaign materials has been impressive. In fact, the initiative is unique in Broadway history because individual shows normally handle their own marketing. However, it truly has taken the cooperation of everyone to bring Broadway back: actors and actresses, directors, crew members, agents, donors, audiences, and more. The League has been smart to honor this in their campaign messaging.

The “This is Broadway” short film brought the theatre industry together in an especially unprecedented way. According to a representative from the Broadway League, it marks the very first time that “archival [Broadway] footage was made available to the industry, an accomplishment made possible through an agreement between producers and key labor unions” (Evans, 2021, para. 3). Collaboration on the film even extended beyond the immediate theatre world, with celebrity talk show host Oprah Winfrey signing on as narrator.

Watch the official “This is Broadway” video below.

The timing of Broadway’s return, which conveniently coincided with the annual Tony Awards on Sunday, September 19, also reinforced the unity of the theatre community. The Tonys are all about supporting one another in the theatre world and celebrating the year’s achievements. This year, the awards show also highlighted the resilience shown throughout the 18-month-long shutdown and recognized all the workers in the industry that are regaining their livelihoods with the reopening of Broadway.

This community-focused rhetoric expanded onto the “This is Broadway” website, social media copy, and display advertisements for the campaign in places like taxis, subway stations, and Times Square digital billboards. For example, The Broadway League’s Instagram post promoting the official video uses first person, community-oriented language, stating simply, “This is Broadway. We can’t wait to welcome you home!”

What’s more, everyone seems to be in on the excitement of Broadway’s big return, from major celebrities to media companies to government officials. News outlets like CNN, The New York Times, and NBC have prominently featured the campaign in their shows and articles. According to NYT reporter Michael Paulson, some media outlets have even offered The Broadway League discounted rates on campaign advertising placements. Major celebrities like Lin Manuel-Miranda and Idina Menzel have also taken to social media to promote Broadway’s return.

Strategy #3: Draw on Emotion Without Eliminating Health & Safety Rhetoric

“This is what we’ve all been missing. This is the romance and the rhythm, the triumphs and tradition. This is Broadway.”

The Broadway League

The quote above from the home page of the “This is Broadway” website is an excellent example of this third strategy in action. While health and safety rhetoric is still a part of the language used on the site and in campaign promotional copy, it’s not front and center like in many other current arts, culture, and tourism campaigns.

Instead, focus is placed on the emotional aspects of live theatre: the joy the show experience brings and the triumph of what the industry has overcome over the past 18 months. Broadway is like a home away from home for so many, not just cast and crew members but theatergoers that crave the escape from reality that a live show provides. The League knows that in the end, missing that feeling is what is going to entice Broadway fans to return to live performances, even if they are hesitant to do so because of the ongoing world health crisis.

Emotional decision-making among potential Broadway audiences is further encouraged by social proof on the campaign website and social media, in the form of both testimonials and celebrity partnerships. Stories, memories, and inspirational quotes from both Broadway performers and beloved non-Broadway actors are featured in a scrolling visualizer on the site homepage, including Chita Rivera, Scarlett Johansson, and Hugh Jackman. Each individual show page also includes accolades and reviews from theatergoers and critics. This provides prospective buyers with complete information and entices them to get tickets.

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My verdict on the “This is Broadway” campaign? A definite success.

Broadway’s ticket sales are climbing again and the campaign has garnered great engagement, both in the digital space and offline. Part of its success in enticing regular theatergoers to come back to Broadway has come from the careful attention paid to this target audience’s interests, needs, and wants. “This is Broadway” has also been successful because of the industry’s willingness to innovate and collaborate as a whole unit. Third, the Broadway League has used emotional rather than rational messaging to attract potential buyers. Emotional storytelling is at the core of what Broadway offers already, and it always wins over minds and hearts.

With Broadway only a few weeks into its reopening, it will be fascinating to see where the “This is Broadway” campaign takes New York’s live theatre scene in the coming months!

What do you think about The Broadway League’s big campaign? Would you have approached the return to live theatre with a different strategy? Be sure to let me know in the comments!