Performing arts organizations have been selling ads in their printed show programs for 40+ years. When considering a transition to digital playbills, the fear of losing critical sponsorship revenue is a real threat to progress.
In this article I hope to provide some practical context around creating ads for your show's digital program that will aid your fundraising efforts.
Think of it as a set of guidelines to improve your sales pitch when engaging potential sponsors. After all, a digital playbill offers many advantages over a printed program in the realm of advertising, so there is great value to offer prospective business owners.
I will try to limit the amount of general marketing advice, since that is a deep rabbit hole and outside the scope of this article, but knowing some baseline marketing principles can go a long way in your conversations with prospective sponsors.
You can find Cast98's playbill creator in your show's Director Tools under Playbill & Beyond > Playbill Creator.
Without further ado... let's pull back the curtain on tips to maximize your fundraising efforts!
Sponsors want to know...
Where Will Ads Be Displayed?
Ads appear in a predictable pattern on your show's digital playbill. To summarize that pattern:
Ads appear in the order you define within your show's playbill creator
One ad appears between each section of program content
If you have more ads than sections, any surplus ads will stack at the bottom of the playbill, just above the studio calendar
You can view a playbill full of ads on the demo portal to get an idea of where ads can be inserted. I recommend you look at this sample from Avengers The Musical on your phone, since that's how your patrons will see your show's digital playbill.
Sponsors want to know...
What Can I Put In An Ad?
A sales pitch to sponsors is no good if you don't have simple instructions for creating the ad, and an effective sales pitch will define clear parameters to follow when submitting ad content. Luckily, there are only a few inputs provided by the playbill creator to give you a head start on taming the beast of ad design.
To create a playbill ad on Cast98, you only need the following bits of info for each sponsor:
Name
Website
Button Text (the "call to action")
Graphic
Sponsor Name
The name of your sponsor or their company. Ask your sponsor to provide their name exactly how they want it to appear in the playbill. Then you can copy and paste it to avoid any awkwardness of a typo being your fault. 🤐
General marketing advice/rant - Don't assume you know the name of the company and neglect to ask them. Why? Because if I am a business owner and my shop is called "Ride-N-Shine Bicycle Repair" but your ad calls it Ride And Shine Bicycles I'm going to be frustrated. You don't want to refund a sponsor for dishonoring their brand.
Website URL
Because this is a digital playbill, your sponsors get the benefit of their ad being interactive which is to say that a patron scrolling past their ad can actually touch it and visit their website immediately. This a HUGE advantage for sponsors over traditional, printed programs where they rely on patrons remembering an advertisement after they return home, go to bed, and wake up the next day. It is very difficult to convert ads with all that time between exposure and conversion.
On your show's digital playbill, there will be a button to compel an immediate conversion, and the ad graphic itself will be clickable/hyperlinked as well. Ask your sponsor to provide the exact web address/URL for their button. Copy and paste it to avoid any typos.
General marketing advice/rant - Don't assume the sponsor wants to link to the front page of their website. Why? Because if I'm a restaurant owner and my call to action is "Browse Our Menu" - it is more important to me that the button goes directly to the menu, not my website homepage where the patron will have to find and touch another View Our Menu button to see it.
Button Text
A good button has a short, clear call-to-action ("CTA"). The text of the button should start with a verb and convey an action that is relevant and meaningful for the business goal. Ask your sponsor to provide the exact text they want on their button. Then copy and paste it to avoid typos. (noticing a trend yet?)
General marketing advice/rant - A recommendation to increase your sponsor's ROI (that's "return on investment" for any non-marketeers reading this) is to ensure the button text matches the content of the destination when a patron clicks/touches it. Why? Because if I am a baker and my button says "View this recipe", it should take patrons directly to the recipe and not to my website's homepage where there is no recipe.
General marketing advice/rant (bonus) - A generic button that reads "Learn more" or "Visit our website" is not as good as something more specific like "Make an appointment" or "Get a free estimate". Why? The clearer the intent of the button and the closer it gets your patrons to the point of purchase/contact for your sponsor, the more likely they will convert and make your sponsor very happy.
General marketing advice/rant (double bonus!) - The ad graphic, button text, and website URL should all work in tandem to deliver a consistent and simple call-to-action. Why? A great, highly effective ad has a clear message that's easy to understand within 2 seconds of reading.
Ad Graphic
See below.
What Will An Ad Look Like?
As far as how the ad graphic will look, it's up to you! The playbill creator on Cast98 expects you to upload an image for each ad and so you are in full control of the design.
You sponsor may want to design their own ad, and if so, you need to set clear and simple parameters for them to follow. Specifically, you need to make sure the ad size is correct. Since your patrons will be on small mobile devices (maybe a couple folks bring an iPad but I haven't really seen this in an audience lately), ads should be designed for a small screen with a width of at least 800 pixels.
Fun ideas for leveling up your playbill's aesthetic:
Design ads to all match the theme of your show
Wrap each ad with a self-branded "thank you" border
Sponsors want to know...
What Will An Ad Cost?
To fine-tune your sales pitch, I would suggest differentiating ad tiers in one of two ways (or both): premium placement and ad size.
Premium Placement
Generally speaking, ads that are first/higher up in your playbill will be seen by more patrons. So you might assign higher dollar values to the first few placements.
Alternatively, you can sell each slot individually since a single ad predictably appears between every section. After one or two iterations giving first choice to the early bird sponsors, you may see a pattern emerge as to which slots are the most popular and begin charging a premium for those.
Eventually: I hope to provide actual analytics around which playbill sections/ad placements garner the most impressions, pauses, and clicks. However, playbill ads are still quite new and so I do not yet have sufficient data to draw any conclusions.
Ad Sizes
Since each ad is image-based and the width is known (800 pixels max), you can easily differentiate pricing tiers based on the size ratio/dimensions of the image. The taller the image, the harder it will be to scroll past, which increases the chances your patrons will stop/read/touch it.
For example, you might offer four tiers called Budget, Standard, Enlarged, and Premium. The budget tier might be a rather short 4:3 ratio, the standard tier might be a square 4:4 ratio, enlarged might be a 4:6 ratio, and premium might be a quite tall 4:8 ratio. Refer to this article's banner image (at the top) for what these dimensions would look like on an iPhone 14 Pro Max.
One More Bit Of Free Marketing Advice
Start promoting your playbill on social media as soon as you have it finalized. Link to it throughout your production run and in every post about "great opening night" or "the cast is tired after a double show day" or "only a few tickets are left". Not only is it a fun and interesting resource for your followers, but more eyeballs on your program - even from non-attendees - means more eyes on your playbill ads, and a better chance of making your sponsors very happy.
You can even promote the playbill one last time after the show closes, inviting your followers to specifically support the businesses that support you. Spotlight your sponsors and your organization will benefit indirectly over time!
In Conclusion
If you can help your sponsors sell their product to your patrons, they will be eager to sponsor future productions. Approach playbill ad sales in this way instead of just a fundraiser for your organization and you will find sponsors are eager to support your future productions.
You can find Cast98's playbill creator in your show's Director Tools under Playbill & Beyond > Playbill Creator.