Learn Three Marketing Strategies of Modern Circuses

There’s a whole new breed of circuses in the land these days, and in not a single one is anybody sticking his head in a lion’s mouth.

It’s an extremely healthy sub-genre that is strong and growing.  Obviously, the leader of the pack is Cirque Du Soleil, but they’re no longer alone.  There’s also: SpiegelWorld, Teatro Zinzanni, Lucha Va Voom, Cirque Berzerk, and Cirque Shanghai, among others.

In short, if you’re in the live entertainment business (and perhaps especially the concert business), you’d better be paying attention to this because it’s telling us a lot about today’s event goers.

In fact, I’m going to share with you now (after several years of working with these kinds of shows at Goldstar and seeing exactly how people react to them) what I believe are three strategies that any live entertainment producer can use based on the success of modern circuses.

1.  Think Visual. The most salient feature of a circus is that it is designed to be looked at.  It doesn’t have to be garish or overly loud (although it’s often both, and on the other hand, circuses can be quite tasteful and beautiful).  But the visual should be part of your thought process in designing and developing the show.

And just because you’ve created a set doesn’t mean your thinking about the visual part of the show.  Most of the time, theatres put some thought into the set, but what they’re really thinking is how they can create a set that allows them to deliver the words and action.  That’s not what I’m talking about.  I’m talking about designing a visual user experience.

Even concerts should be doing this.  Bob Lefsetz would probably hate the idea, but every concert should have a visual component because most people aren’t audiophiles and simply can’t (or don’t) appreciate the improvement that live sound has over recording.  And I’m not talking about pointless spectacle.  Again, I’m talking about thinking of the audience and how their experience would be enhanced by switching on another of their five senses.

2.  Create unpredictability. The circuses are good at creating a feeling that just about anything could happen while you’re watching.  There’s fire, there’s falling from great heights, there are dangerous objects being thrown.

It creates a lot of audience intrigue to believe that’s there’s just the right element of chance and mayhem in a show, and that as an audience member, you might be in for some surprises during the show.

Have you ever been at a music concert when halfway through the show, an unexpected musical celebrity guest walks out from behind the stage?  The effect is electric, and a big part of it is the surprise.

Audiences want the right mix of predictable and novel.  Most venues err on the side of predictable.  Not circuses.

3.  Give the audience permission to be a little naughty. You’ll notice a common thread among all the circuses out there, even Cirque Du Soleil, in that they all have a mischievous spirit that borders on the naughty. (In fact, shows like Cirque Berzerk or Lucha Va Voom go right over that border, but not so far as to be gross about it.)

Again, this is a question of “just enough.” Everybody likes to feel like they’re bending the normal rules, but only a little.  It’s like Halloween or Mardi Gras in that people like disappearing into a different persona sometimes, and if your show allows them to feel like they’re doing that, they’ll appreciate it.

But if you go to far, they’re not going to feel safe about their experience.  Lucha Va Voom is less naughty than they’d have you believe because the truth is that the crowd doesn’t want a hardcore nude show.  They want to be at a show that’s genuinely entertaining but also just outrageous enough to make the experience special.

Rock and Roll concerts used to have that power.  I was just a little kid when he died, but supposedly Jim Morrison was a one-man circus and people went to see the Doors not just because they loved the music but to see what Morrison might do on stage.

A couple years ago, the LA Opera did a production of a Wagner opera called Tannhauser, about a poet in lovwith the goddess Venus.  Here’s the event art they created for the show:

It was attention-getting, and the production of the show followed through on the slightly naughty promise the poster made.

Mind you, you’re still at a world-class opera house listening to Wagner.  It’s a combination that had a lot of appeal, but it wasn’t about nudity on stage.  It was about giving the audience permission to bend the normal rules of their lives just a bit while still enjoying a great night of entertainment.

I’ve been so interested in this that I have submitted a panel proposal to South by Southwest for next year on the topic.  I think it’s important and useful to others in our industry to learn from what they’re doing.

(By the way, I’m not really talking about traditional circuses like Ringling Bros.  Those circuses, while still popular, are in a long-term decline because, in my view, they’ve essentially failed to stay close to consumers’ core wants and beliefs.)

Anyway, if you think this sounds interesting, by all means, vote for my panel! It only takes a minute, and it seems appropriate that a circus like SXSW should include a discussion of circuses!