Comments on: Great Marketing Ideas http://www.heartlandcostumes.com Beauty and the Beast and Little Mermaid Costumes Thu, 11 Apr 2013 21:06:46 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.5.1 By: Tim Bixler http://www.heartlandcostumes.com/?page_id=195#comment-48 Thu, 11 Apr 2013 21:06:46 +0000 http://www.heartlandcostumes.com/?page_id=195#comment-48 The day after the costumes arrived, we staged an event called “Breakfast with Belle and the Beast” aimed at familys with small children. We began promoting this only a week prior to the event, and sold out (200 @ $20 a head) in three days with one newspaper feature (free as a news item) and a quick and free e-mail blast to our list of subscribers and patrons. The event included a “free” light up rose, simple buffet style breakfast (total cost of about $350) and a “free” 4×6 photograph of each reservation party with Belle or Beast or Both on the stage framed by Belle’s house. Our photographer exchanged an SD card with another operator of a color ink Jet printer every 5 shots or so, and everyone left the building with their rose and a glossy color photo. Total expense was under $600, and both a HUGE revenue raiser and an even bigger publicity event. Of course the newspaper covered the event with several color pix after the fact…all at the exact moment we needed ticket selling buzz. Our “Silly Girls” and several other of the more spectacularly costumed “Be Our Guest” cast members circulated as servers and hosts. While eating, they were entertained with 3 songs from the show. What created more buzz than anything else was patrons getting to see the costumes close-up. The quality of these outfits was a big piece of the action.

]]> By: Deidre Hook http://www.heartlandcostumes.com/?page_id=195#comment-44 Mon, 08 Apr 2013 17:18:03 +0000 http://www.heartlandcostumes.com/?page_id=195#comment-44 We sold Single Red Roses with Fern and Baby’s Breath, cost was $2.25 per rose and we charged $5.00 per rose. We also sold a “birthday party”, complete with pizza, cake, reserved seating, goody bags, meet the cast, onstage prior to show…tour or costume room, etc. Charged $300.00 for party of 8.

Maurice’s contraption, as we called it….was a complete show stopper. Our Belle’s characters real dad made the invention…..out of a small engine on four wheels, that was loud and obnoxious and hysterical. He also made it able to chop a piece of wood in the front..it was motorized….painted green, yellow, blue, white, red and black…..very, very funny!

The transformation was amazing. We had only rehearsed it a few times prior to opening night. We had this enormous large turret (West Wing) with the Beast in it, it was spun around and our Stage Manager and Asst. Stage Manager were ready in the wings with baby wipes and clothing for the change….took less than one minute…our Beast and Prince were the same actor.

We did not include the light up roses in the actual event. We did sell them as fundraiser for $3.00 each.

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