Outreach — Production Ops, Previews, Sponsorship

Outreach

Three services for reaching the individuals and organisations whose attention determines whether an independent theatre production succeeds.

The Press Target List identifies the named critics and outlets a production should be pursuing. The Preview Operations Brief runs the operational side of inviting audience and critics to previews. The Sponsor Outreach Brief maps and approaches potential sponsors, in-kind partners, and grant opportunities.

All three deal with named individuals rather than broadcast audiences. The work is targeted, written, and chased.

Press Target List — $80

A working list of every critic, outlet, and journalist the production should be inviting and chasing.

Intake

• Production city
• Genre and form (verbatim, devised, classical, new writing, etc.)
• Themes and subject matter
• Performance dates

Process

Delivered within 5 working days of intake.

The list is curated, not scraped. We exclude critics on indefinite hiatus, outlets that have closed their indie theatre coverage, and contacts whose listed email no longer works.

Deliverables

A spreadsheet of 10–25 named contacts per production, schema per row:

• name
• outlet — publication, podcast, blog, broadcast
• beat — what kind of work the critic typically covers
• email
• social-handles (optional) — for warm follow-ups
• notes — recent pieces relevant to this production; previous coverage of similar work; preferred pitch format
• confidence — high / medium / low confidence that the contact information is current

Out of scope

• Sending the pitches — that's the Preview Operations Brief, or the production handles it directly
• Writing the pitch emails — that's in the Production Writing Dossier
• Guaranteed coverage — a contact's email being current does not guarantee a response, an attendance, or a published piece

Preview Operations Brief — $175

The operational side of previews — invitations, mailing list, audience feedback.

Intake

• Preview dates locked
• Ticketing live
• Existing Positioning Memo
• Press Target List (separately purchased or supplied by the production)

Process

Delivered 3–4 weeks before first preview. Active invitation outreach runs through preview week.

Deliverables

• preview-invitation-list — named individuals across the audience map
• critic-invitation-list — drawn from the Press Target List
• industry-invitation-list (optional) — other indie practitioners, artistic directors, festival programmers
• mailing-list-setup — Mailchimp or equivalent, double opt-in, basic segmentation
• welcome-eblast
• invitation-emails-sent — personalised invitations sent on the production's behalf, with follow-up after 5 days
• audience-response-form — three open questions, three rated; mobile-friendly
• post-preview-pivot-memo — what changes in the marketing language after first audience contact
• social-content-from-feedback (optional) — with audience permission
• critic-follow-up-emails (optional) — chasing critics who responded but haven't yet attended

Sponsor Outreach Brief — $200 mapping + $32 per partner contacted

Sponsor and in-kind partner mapping, plus optional active outreach.

Intake

• Final script with all branded references and prop needs visible
• Production's existing connections to potential partners (if any)

Process

Mapping document delivered within 2 weeks of intake.

Active outreach is optional and priced per partner contacted. We send the email and chase for response. The production handles the partnership conversation itself once a partner responds.

Deliverables

Mapping ($200):

• script-reference-audit — every brand, place, object, beverage, food item, and named location in the script
• prop-and-in-kind-need-list — what the production needs vs. what could be sourced from partners
• local-business-shortlist — per city, tied to the show's context (e.g. for a play set in a wine bar, every wine bar and wine distributor in the venue's neighbourhood)
• partnership-pitch-email — personalised template, one per shortlisted partner
• one-page-pitch-deck (optional) — show overview and ask
• sponsorship-tiers-document (optional) — for productions that want tiered pricing
• grant-opportunity-list (optional) — per city
• support-letter-drafts (optional) — for the production's referees to sign and submit
• reusable-grant-language (optional) — modular language for grant applications

Active outreach ($32 per partner):

• Personalised email sent on the production's behalf
• One follow-up after 7 days if no response
• Notification to the production when a partner responds
• All correspondence forwarded to the production

Out of scope

• Grant applications — we draft support letters and reusable language; we do not submit applications on the production's behalf
• Press placement — we cannot guarantee a contact on the Press Target List will attend or publish
• Box office or sales operations — we send invitations; ticketing and front-of-house are the production's responsibility

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