Gallery Theater Public Relations Campaign

Emily Eisert

March 23, 2017

MSCM 370: PR Writing

 Mission and Goals

The Gallery Theater is located in McMinnville, Oregon. The Gallery Theater has been

putting on theater performances for 49 years and will celebrate its 50-year anniversary next year.

The mission of the theater is to entertain, inform, and educate through the performing arts

thereby enriching the cultural life of those who live, work and play in Yamhill County. The

main goal of this organization is to bring the arts to Yamhill County for community members to

enjoy. The Gallery Theater is able to do this by putting on about six shows a year as well as

camps for children. The theater also puts on fundraising events in order to continue operations

because it is a nonprofit organization.

External Environment

The Gallery Theater is in the heart of downtown McMinnville. It is right off Third Street,

which is full of great restaurants and winery tasting rooms. A large number of people visit

McMinnville because of the wine industry, and they often stop by Third Street on their visit.

These visitors present an opportunity for the theater, as they may be induced to attend a show if

they are staying for the weekend. While they may not be the main target audience, they definitely

present an opportunity for more people to become aware of the theater. The culture within

McMinnville is mixed. With the college nearby, athletics is highly valued. This can make it

difficult for the arts to thrive, particularly when football is in season. This may make it difficult

to get college students to support the Gallery Theater. The other culture within McMinnville is

the more upscale dining and wineries. This is the crowed that is more likely to enjoy going to a

performance.
 Economically, McMinnville has a mix of mostly middle-class and low-income

households. This can cause a challenge for a theater because people may not be willing to spend

money on non-necessities such as a theater performance. There are also a lot of students who do

not have much disposable income. Another external factor affecting the Gallery Theater is that it

serves as one of the only live theaters in town other than Linfield College and McMinnville High

School. This means that there is little competition for the theater within the community. Being

one of the only theaters in town is an opportunity for it to be at the forefront of peoples minds for

entertainment. It also has a long standing in the community 50 years as noted earlier.

A threat to the Gallery Theater is that there are other entertainment options available to

people within Yamhill County. They have the option to go to movie theaters in McMinnville and

Newberg. Movie theater prices are cheaper than ticket prices to the Gallery Theater. People will

need to be persuaded to go to see live theater rather than a movie. A ticket to the movie theater

is around $10 and a ticket to a Gallery Theater show is $18 for adults.

Business Analysis

The Gallery Theater is in the business of putting on theater productions for the

community. This season will have six shows and typically there are between six and seven shows

a year. The Gallery Theater needs a PR campaign because it needs an increase in awareness so

people will know about the theater and attend shows. For the PR campaign, a possible threat is

the lack of media within McMinnville. It is difficult to promote something that is based in

Yamhill County because there are only two radio stations and one newspaper centered in

McMinnville and one weekly newspaper located in Newberg. This can make it difficult to raise

awareness for the theater with the target audience. Another challenge for the theater is that it is
mostly run by volunteers. Not having many people employed by the theater may make it difficult

to have support in executing the PR campaign. Resources that can be used for the PR campaign

include the theaters board of directors, as they have all the information on the theater as well as

pictures and other promotional images that can be utilized for the campaign.

Target Audience

The target audience for this campaign is people between the ages of 30 and 75 who live

in Yamhill County. These people are supporters of the arts and have attended a theater

performance at some point. They are also middle-class and have the means to spend money on

entertainment. Since there are few options for theater performances in McMinnville, anyone who

values the arts might be persuaded to support the Gallery Theater.

PR Campaign Plan

Goal

The goal of this PR campaign is to place the Gallery Theater into entertainment choice

sets for adults in Yamhill County. This means to make people aware that the Gallery Theater

exists and to make it one of the top choices for people when they are making a decision on what

they will do for entertainment. There are several options within McMinnville for entertainment

including going to the movie theater or going out to dinner. If people are really interested in the

theater, they may go to Portland to see a live show because a company in the city may have more

of a perceived prestige attached to it. By highlighting the 50 year anniversary of the Gallery

Theater, this plan will be able to reach people who are interested in the performing arts who are

not aware of the Gallery Theater or do not think of the theater as one of the first places for them

to see a live performance. Putting the Gallery Theater into an entertainment choice set for adults
in Yamhill County means that when people are considering what to do for entertainment, they

think of the Gallery Theater.

This plan is based on the diffusion of innovation theory. The theory explains the decision

making process for an individual from awareness to adoption. The process begins with

awareness and then goes to interest, trial, evaluation, and adoption. This plan is designed to focus

on each part of the decision making process.

This campaign will begin in November of 2017 and run through the 2018 season. There

will be an evaluation of the success of the first part of the campaign after the 50th Anniversary

Celebration. The rest of the campaign will be evaluated after the conclusion of the 2018 season

to determine if there was an increase in attendance at the Gallery Theater shows for the season.

Objective

The objective for this campaign is to increase regular attendance at Gallery Theater

shows by 10 percent over the 2018 season. In order to increase attendance at Gallery Theater

shows, the person first needs to become aware of the Gallery Theater. This means that more

people will be aware of the theater than actually attend the shows. Then people need to be

interested in the shows before they eventually purchase a ticket. Right now, the Gallery Theater

has decent attendance, but by increasing the number that attend by 10 percent, there will be an

increase in The Gallery Theater has flexpasses for people to purchase six tickets for any shows.

By increasing the purchases of these tickets, they will get more regular people to come to the

shows.

1st Strategy
 The first strategy for this campaign is to host a 50th Anniversary Celebration for the

Gallery Theater. This strategy will help to raise awareness of the theater. By promoting the 50th

year celebration, we will also be able to bring awareness to the shows that are happening during

the 50th Anniversary season and encourage people to purchase season passes. This event will

likely reach people who are interested in the arts, but may not think of the Gallery Theater or

may not know how long it has been a part of the community. The 50th Anniversary Celebration

will help people think of the Gallery Theater as a more prestigious place for entertainment.

1st Tactic

The first tactic for the creating awareness for the Gallery Theater 50th Anniversary

Celebration is with a PSA. The first objective of the PSA is to inform people that it is the 50th

anniversary of the Gallery Theater. People might not be aware that it has been such an integral

part of the community for as long as it has. The second objective is to inform people of the 50th

Anniversary Gala, a way for them to help support the theater for another 50 years. The central

message of this PSA is for people to attend the Gallery Theater 50-Year Anniversary Gala.

The target audience of this PSA is McMinnville community members that listen to the

local radio stations. The main target audience are men and women who are older, between 30

and 75 because they already support the theater and may be more interested in celebrating the

anniversary. This audience already has an interest in the arts and attends arts related events. The

action the audience should take is to attend the 50th Anniversary Gala. The type of radio station

that would play this PSA is a local McMinnville station. KSLC is a contemporary radio station

that caters to college students and members of Yamhill County. KYLC plays oldies and is
focused on Yamhill County happenings. The target audience resides in Yamhill County and

would listen to the local station.

This tactic will be evaluated based on how many times the PSA airs on the radio. The

more times it airs, the more successful it will have been because there was more of an

opportunity for people to hear it and become aware of the Gallery Theater.

2nd Tactic

The second way to bring awareness to the 50th Anniversary Celebration is to send out a

press release. The objective for the press release is to inform people of the 50th Anniversary

Celebration. It will provide all of the necessary information for them to become interested in the

event, which will lead to them attending the celebration. The press release will also mention the

2018 season because this event will be right before the first show of the season. This will be

another way to bring awareness of the 2018 season and to start building peoples interest in

attending shows before they attend the event where they can purchase them.

The audience for the press release is people in Yamhill County who are interested in

supporting the performing arts. Similar to the PSA, the age range will be between 30 and 60.

This is because they have more money to spend as well as are more likely to get the local

newspaper. This press release will be submitted to the News-Register in McMinnville and the

Newberg Graphic in Newberg. These are the two newspapers in the area and are likely to publish

an article about an event in the area. This event is newsworthy because it is unique. There is only

one year the Gallery Theater can celebrate its 50th Anniversary and it is a large milestone. There

is also timeliness as the event will be happening not long after the press release is sent out and
proximity because the event is happening within Yamhill County and both of these newspapers

audiences are Yamhill County residents.

This tactic will be evaluated by how many stories are written based on the press release.

If the two targeted news outlets run the story then the tactic will be considered a success because

more people will become aware of the Gallery Theater and the 50h Anniversary Celebration.

3rd Tactic

The purpose of this pitch letter will be to continue to have coverage of the 50th

Anniversary as well as the 2018 season after the 50th Anniversary Celebration. This will bring

awareness to 50th Anniversary as well as increase awareness of the Gallery Theater in general.

The pitch letter will be sent to the News-Register because it is the closest news outlet to the

location of the Gallery Theater and reaches residents in Yamhill County, the target audience for

this campaign.

The pitch letter will invite the writer to the 50th Anniversary Celebration to do a

post-event feature. We will also provide the writer with information about the history of the

Gallery Theater and the impact of the Gallery Theater in the 50-years it has been in

McMinnville. There are several news values that make this feature newsworthy to the writer. The

first is timeliness. This article will be about an event that is taking place right before the article is

written and also includes information about the upcoming season, which will be starting shortly

after the article is published. The next news value is proximity because this article will be written

for the News-Register, which has an audience of Yamhill County residents. The event takes

place in Yamhill County and it is the location of the Gallery Theater.

 The success of this pitch letter will be successful if the reporter writes a story based on

the pitch letter. It will also be measured based on if the reporter comes to the 50th Anniversary

Celebration.

4th Tactic

The third tactic for this strategy is to have a booklet that has all of the plays for the season

with more detail. This is more informative to create awareness and interest in the shows. These

will be available during the celebration so people get an idea of the shows for the season. Once

they are aware and interested in the shows, they will then move on to the next stage, which is

evaluating whether they want to spend the money and time to see the shows. The target audience

for this booklet is anyone who is attending the 50th Anniversary Celebration.

The success of this tactic will be evaluated based on how many take the booklet. This

will show how many people were interested in the shows for the season.

2nd Strategy

The second strategy for this campaign is to use controlled media. Controlled media is

media that the organization has complete control over. For this campaign, that will be a brochure

and a newsletter. These tactics will push people from the awareness and interest stage of the

diffusion of innovation theory to the evaluation and adoption portion because we will be

providing them with an opportunity to purchase tickets. This will give people the opportunity to

adopt the action by being directly given material in order to sign up for the flexpass. The

brochures will be given out before and during the season. The newsletter will go out for the final

show of the 2017 season so people are aware of the 50th Anniversary and get a chance to

purchase their flexpass for the next year.

1st Tactic
 The first tactic for this strategy is to develop a brochure. The purpose of this brochure is

to promote the 50th Anniversary of the Gallery Theater, which will take people through the

process of becoming aware and interested in the Gallery Theater to adoption by purchasing

tickets from the form on the brochure. The target audience is people between the ages of 30 and

75. This includes people who already attend shows and support the theater or people who could

potentially purchase tickets to shows. The action the audience is to take after reading the

brochure is to attend Gallery Theater shows. By doing this, they will be supporting the Gallery

Theaters 50th year. The brochure will be distributed at the theater as well as at the McMinnville

Chamber of Commerce and the Chehalem Valley Chamber of Commerce. It will also be given to

Golden Valley Brewery and the Evergreen Museums because they have places for brochures.

Golden Valley will be able to reach local people who are eating dinner at the restaurant and the

brochures at Evergreen will reach local people who are bringing their guests to the museum since

the target audience is people who live in Yamhill County.

The brochure will support the organization's goals by showcasing the different shows

happening during the anniversary season as well as some of the history of the theater.

Showcasing how long the theater has been a part of the community will support the goal of

informing and educating people about the performing arts.

The central message of this brochure is to continue to support the arts in Yamhill

County by attending shows at the Gallery Theater. Each section will represent the mission of

entertaining, informing and educating the community about the performing arts. The brochure

will include some of the history of the theater, the impact the theater has made on the community

and information about the upcoming shows. It will also have a panel that has a perforated edge
and can be torn off so people are able to purchase flexpass tickets and still have information

about the theater and the shows. This tactic directly relates to the adoption part of the diffusion of

innovation theory. This gives people the opportunity to actually purchase the tickets and once

they attend the shows, they will have adopted the action.

We will be able to evaluate this tactic by counting how many flexpass forms from the

brochure are turned in. We will also be able to evaluate how many people became interested in

the theater based on how many brochures are taken at each location. The success of the brochure

at each location will be evaluated by how quickly they need to be refilled. This all will be

tracked and monitored throughout the 2018 season.

2nd Tactic

The newsletter will go out to people who already support the theater in order to maintain

the support they already have. This particular newsletter will discuss the upcoming 50th

Anniversary and highlight the last show of the 2017 season. By having this newsletter go out

before the last show of the season, people will become aware of the milestone 50th year as well

as the celebration and a reminder to get tickets for the next season. The people who already

receive the newsletter likely already attend shows at the theater, but they may not all be season

ticket holders. This newsletter will tell them how to purchase tickets and encourage people to

buy flexpasses so they are purchasing tickets for the whole season.

We will be able to evaluate the success of this campaign by tracking how many people

from the mailing list purchased Gallery Theater tickets. We will also be able to see how many

people renewed their flexpasses. This will indicate how many returning ticket holders there are

and how many new ones there are.

 Conclusion

The overall success of this campaign will be based on how much of an increase of

attendance there was during the 2018 season. By following the diffusion of innovation theory,

people will have become aware and interested in the theater based on the PSA and press release.

They will have the opportunity to for a trial with the sneak peek of a show at the event and then

can evaluate whether they would like to invest in a flexpass. They will then have the opportunity

to adopt by purchasing a flexpass through the brochure or newsletter and they will then attend

the event. We will know if this plan was successful if we meet the objective of increasing regular

attendance at shows by 10 percent.

 References

About Gallery Theater. (2017). Gallery Theater. Retrieved from

http://www.gallerytheater.org/2008/about2008.htm

Weidman, L. (2017). Diffusion of Innovation Theory. Retrieved from lecture notes.