THE CHALLENGE
Annually, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet Professional Division School scouts travel to 16 cities internationally holding auditions for aspiring professional dancers. A spot at the RWB School Professional Division puts these emerging dancers on track to world class artistic development. Jane’s mandate for this campaign was to increase attendance at auditions in the 16 US and Canadian cities. Prior to her campaign, the attendance records had seen a steady 5% decrease in attendance year-over-year over the previous six year period.
THE SOLUTION
Jane researched dancer city of origin of all 100 Professional Division students, 26 RWB company dancers and numerous active RWB alumni. She then researched significant connections and strong story angles while exploring dancers’ success stories in their hometowns. Jane wrote press releases for this campaign annually, weighed in on graphic design visioning and pitched stories to tour stop cities in Canada and the US. She uncovered story angles connecting these successful young dancers to their cities, creating advance press in 80% of the desired regions.
THE IMPACT
Attendance increased with the highest turnout the RWB School had seen in a decade. The eight-month campaign resulted in more than 40 media hits across Canada, the US mainstream media and international dance media with front page coverage in two key regions.
See a front page story from this campaign here.
