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Marketing Symposium

Sports Fans To Be Targeted In Coming Month By "Hamilton" Execs

Despite becoming a historic, runaway success, Broadway play “Hamilton” will be using sports in the coming months to attract new theater goers, particularly males, said show CMO Laura Matalon at the Octagon Sports Marketing Symposium. The show remains sold out amid five separate current productions, having attracted 7.5 million people to more than 3,500 total performances thus far. However, the white-hot ticket frenzy surrounding the show three years ago has slowed somewhat, lessening the advance time in which fans need to plan to attend. As a result, Matalon said sports will be a key part of her marketing plan this fall and winter, particularly to drive holiday gift purchasing. One specific planned activation will be an ad in the Chicago Tribune sports section and on local TV ahead of Packers-Bears on Dec. 16 at Soldier Field. “We very much look to sports as a place to find an audience for our shows,” Matalon said. “While we are still selling out, it’s not as far in advance as it was.” The title for Matalon’s interview was “What Sports Marketers Can Learn From Hamilton?,” but she acknowledged Broadway is behind the sports industry in several key respects, including dynamic ticket pricing, technology and harnessing and using customer data. “We probably have a lot more to learn from you guys than you do from us,” she said. “We tend to be an industry of sheep. We are followers.”

QUICK HITS:
* On the eternal popularity of “Hamilton,” particularly compared to other Broadway hits Matalon has been involved with such as the “Book of Mormon,” Wicked,” and “Rent”: “It doesn’t compare to anything I’ve seen before. It’s like the ‘Book of Mormon’ times 10.”

* On “Hamilton” standing as a political flashpoint, particularly after a high-profile visit to the show by VP Mike Pence last year. “We never thought we’d be getting into a Twitter fight with the President. And honestly, a couple of years later, it still comes back. We still hear about it as we travel the country, people in certain places telling us we disrespected the President and Vice President and that they have no interest in seeing the show. We don’t respond to any of that. ... We want to respect everybody, and if you’re not comfortable coming to the show, please don’t come.”

* On how long “Hamilton” can run: “‘Hamilton’ will be around for a very, very, very, very long time.”

* On the importance of the “Hamilton” mobile app, which to date has more than 2.1 million downloads, 100,000 daily active users and serves as the source for the show’s ticket lotteries: “We work very hard to keep people engaged with the app. Not only do we deliver news there first before we go to the mainstream media, every quarter we’re rolling out some new initiative on the app, whether it’s a karaoke portion of the app, [digital] stickers, Instagram and Snapchat filters, all those types of things to keep people engaged.”

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