The below correspondence is posted here by kind permission from the Society of London Theatre
The Society of London Theatre (SOLT) is an organisation that works with and on behalf of their Members to champion theatre and the performing arts.
May Marketing & Communications Round-up
Please download our PDF showing how we supported your shows last month.
Kids Week
Tickets for Kids Week 2022 go on sale on Tuesday 14 June. This Tuesday (7 June) we announced the participating shows and saw a 383% increase in daily sessions on OfficialLondonTheatre.com (comparable to our Q2 average to date), so we are preparing for a big first day of sales. We are also planning activity throughout June, July and August to maximise sales. If you have any questions regarding Kids Week, please email Richard.
Sing it from the Rooftops
This week was the finale of our ‘sing it from the rooftops’ campaign in the lead up to West End LIVE, with the cast of Dear Evan Hansen performing on top of Canada House, and Six performing on the National Gallery.
If you missed it, you can catch-up on the performance from Six on our YouTube channel (which now has 190,000 subscribers!).
Advertising on West End LIVE Stories
Throughout the West End LIVE weekend we see an immense increase of traffic on our social channels. This year we’re offering you the chance to advertise your show on our social media stories – last year our stories reached 18.5k viewers. This is great for shows who are performing and would like an easy call to action for ticket sales but also for shows that aren’t performing. Each story costs £200 (plus VAT) and you’ll need to be selling with us. If you’d like to take part, please upload your story post here.
Advertising on West End LIVE screens
If you would like to book a slot on the screens at West End LIVE to play a trailer for your show, please complete our form and submit your video. The cost is £500+VAT and your trailer will be played a minimum of three times per day. Here is the spec:
All screens – approx 7m (w) x 4m (h):
- Video – ProRes proxy, max. 30 seconds
- Resolution – 1920 x 1080px (landscape) 50i
- Aspect ratio – 16:9
New speakers announced for Theatre & Touring Symposium
Rail Strikes
Rail strikes have currently been announced for 21 June, 23 June and 25 June.
The 21 June is a combined rail strike and tube strike which would be horrendous and would make it impossible for many theatres to safely open. We would hope with a limited rail service and the tube network up and running, the 23 and 25 June will have a lesser impact.
We hope that negotiations will continue but we would appreciate members sharing their contingency plans with us and ticket exchange policies if shows decide to cancel.
We will be sharing any updates from the Department for Transport as soon as we have them, so that your shows have all the latest information in order to plan.
Working with UK Hospitality, Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, LIVE, Night Time Industries Association we have issued the following joint statement on behalf of our sectors:‘The proposed rail strikes will have a devastating impact on the theatre, live music and hospitality industries still re-building from the fall out of the pandemic. Our night time economy relies heavily on the rail network to bring our audiences and staff safely to and from our venues, with 81% of London theatregoers using public transport and a similar proportion of hospitality customers.We need to work together to get passengers back on the railways and back in our towns and cities enjoying everything they have to offer. This strike will be hugely damaging for our sectors and feels counter intuitive when we are facing so many other challenges. We urge all stakeholders to come together to support a recovery that we can all benefit from.’