To help Broadway bounce back following a tumultuous first two years of the pandemic, Emodo crafted a holiday-themed augmented reality (AR) experience geared toward engaging more spontaneous Broadway show attendees during times when they were already primed to purchase.
Objective:
On March 13, 2020, all 41 Broadway theaters in New York City closed and would remain shuttered for 18 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 90,000 people were out of work and the city's economy lost nearly $15 billion in related revenue. To jump start the industry, The Broadway League embarked on a first-of-its-kind industry wide campaign to excite, encourage, and welcome audiences back to theaters in September 2021.
"This is Broadway" was designed to focus on upper funnel awareness and remind audiences about their love for Broadway's live theater. All 38 independent productions operating at the point of closure, the five theater owners, and 13 unions came together for the first time to provide unfettered access to their data, intellectual property, and all rights for the campaign.
Unfortunately, three weeks into the campaign's launch in September 2021, the Delta variant began to sweep across the nation and productions, audiences, and the industry at large struggled. To keep shows above water, the Broadway League needed to quickly find an audience that was open and willing to purchase tickets for shows today rather than months out in the future.
As theaters reopened, attendees were younger, more social, and technologically ahead of pre-pandemic audiences. To take advantage of this insight, The Broadway League and Omnicom's Resolution Media partnered with Emodo to create a mobile-first, AR experience leveraging the "This is Broadway" advertising campaign and the industry's biggest stars and shows. Emodo developed the "Broadway Show Globe" to drive sales during December's peak season among this new consumer audience.
Target Audience:
The Broadway League identified a unique audience that was familiar with Broadway, but new to playing the role of economic buyer. They loved live theater, but someone else always bought the ticket. These theatergoers were younger, within 100 miles of New York City, fluent in their usage of mobile technology, but unfamiliar with how to learn about and choose a show to attend. They were also the key population leading the recovery of New York City in fall 2021. The Broadway League saw a big opportunity to capture their attention during the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Hanukkah holiday season.
Creative Strategy:
Emodo Creative Labs developed the "Holiday Show Globe" to take advantage of the "This is Broadway'' campaign platform. Using a blend of animation and AR, the experience transported users to a snowy 360-degree Times Square on mobile screens and let them hear holiday greetings from Broadway's biggest stars, including Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Aaron Tveit. Users could share that content across all major social media platforms, click to the campaign site, and go directly to ticketing sites, delivering a full-funnel experience.
Emodo used The Broadway League's rich purchase history data, alongside its custom audience segments and predictive-targeting capabilities, to develop a media strategy focused on audiences within the vicinity of Times Square. Channel choices were optimized over the three-week flight to reach consumers who were exhibiting real-time ticket buying behaviors (in theaters, restaurants, gyms, offices, and on public transportation).
Context:
This was the first year The Broadway League had ever initiated and executed a consumer-facing campaign.
Overall Campaign Execution:
Emodo Audiences was used to surgically target specific users users exhibiting a set of 23 demographic, psychographic, and behavioral traits identified across three high-potential audience segments. Due to privacy concerns, no first-party identifiers were provided and Emodo relied upon its own analytics to programmatically serve the ad units and optimize performance.
Approximately 10 percent or $100,000 of the total "This is Broadway'' media budget was directed toward Emodo's Show Globe pure play mobile experience. This decision was made based on an early campaign insight that nearly 80 percent of audience engagement was happening through mobile devices.
Mobile Execution:
Consumers exhibiting "ticket buying behaviors" were no longer at home and were the first to socially engage in public dining, transportation, and retail experiences in New York City. Mobile devices were the only way to reach and engage them while in transit, waiting for friends, and, most importantly, before a show began. Audiences in a Broadway theater waiting for a show to begin were identified as the most likely and willing to consider purchasing tickets to additional shows. The ability to precisely target and reach audiences between 7:00 and 8:00 pm in the theater district was invaluable.
To stand out, the AR experience took advantage of new processing power within devices and 5G connectivity in and around the city. This work could not be executed or delivered via a traditional desktop computer or connected TV experience. The mobile channel also reduced friction for single-click connectivity to social platforms and official ticketing sites accelerating the purchasing process. The immersive nature of the AR execution successfully engaged the younger, more technology fluent target audience.
Performance of the "Broadway Show Globe" campaign exceeded expectations. Emodo's ability to work with existing assets, engineer a compelling experience, and flawlessly execute in under a month delivered show-stopping results, which included:
In addition:
The Broadway Show Globe had a disproportionate impact on the overall campaign. But more importantly, it served as a proof point and road map for the industry to reach an emerging buyer. The activation had a higher share rate than most original content published by some of the biggest productions. This speaks to both the desirability and viability of AR experiences as a powerful tool to break through clutter and resonate with younger audiences.
