Rerunaround

Tuesday's edition of the League of Chicago Theatres email newsletter, Chicagoplays EXTRA, announced a smart promotion for the erstwhile "sweeps month" of February: "No More Reruns."

Tired of watching all those reruns on TV? Turn off the tube, brave the winter weather, and experience live theatre instead – it's new every night !

During the month of February, League of Chicago Theatres' members will offer patrons special ticket promotions as part of the "No More Reruns" campaign. Check for weekly offers from various theatres every Tuesday in Chicagoplays EXTRA .

And it went on to list ticket discount promos from several theaters. Clever, right? Though the fact that it took this long to capitalize on the WGA strike, just as it appears to be ending, takes a bit of wind out of the sails. (Of course a promotion like this would have been a harder sell in, say, December, when there's nothing playing but Christmas shows.)

But even if the strike is ending, it's going to take time for scripted shows to get back into production, and many will choose not to come back with new episodes until next season. We're stuck with reruns (and craptastic reality shows and game shows) for quite a while longer. The more important point is, if the only people seeing the League's promotion are those who already are signed up for its newsletter or visiting its website, the campaign's effectiveness is practically nil. Here's where those bus shelter ads the League used to run could really be put to good use.

Comments

[Nick Keenan]

A-men. The league needs to find a way to stop marketing itself to itself. In many ways, it's the only organization in a position to market chicago theater on the scale required to actually draw attention to the scene. Every dollar that goes to marketing theater to people already seeing tons of theater (aka people who use the League website to find shows to see) is a dollar not being used to generate new traffic.