Is the Theatre Brochure Dead?

I've been wondering for a while now how much longer the traditional theatre brochure has.

Like many, I have fond memories of waiting with anticipation for the delivery of box loads of glossy, smelly printed brochures and flicking through excitedly hoping they looked as good in the flesh as I'd imagined.

But, realistically, I've begun to realise that the days are probably numbered for traditional brochures. Sometimes beautiful works of art in their own right, is it possible that the printed brochure will survive the increasing digitisation of our world?

Personally, I love to be able to flick through a brochure for a festival – because I don't necessarily know what I want to see. However, when it comes to traditional theatre seasons, I'm pretty happy to browse a website (probably because there is generally a lot less to wade through!).

Lyn Gardner from the Guardian has similar views in her article about theatre brochures, saying that because you have to actively click through a website you're more likely to stick to what you know, rather than discover something new.

Recently, when I was preparing the marketing brief for a large project, we agreed with the marketing team that we didn't want a traditional brochure. There were a number of reasons for this, but primarily we were concerned about the long lead times required for traditional print, and the lack of flexibility we would have to promote extra performances or activities.

There is no doubt that the brochure is still a useful branding tool, especially when it's well designed and gorgeous to look at, but I think it's days are numbered as primarily a sales tool. Chad M. Bauman in his Arts Marketing blog argues that a theatre season brochure tries to speak to too many different audience segments in the same way, and that more success can be had by tailoring the message to different audiences. That's a concept that certainly resonates with arts organisations who are increasingly using CRM as part of their marketing framework.

Arts organisations are getting much better at embracing the digital sphere for marketing activities, but Michael Van Baker from Seattle’s The SunBreak website takes this further, arguing that arts organisations should primarily focus their marketing strategy online, and then build everything else around that (including printed collateral). This could represent a fundamental shift for anyone who has been working in arts marketing for a long time, but if there was ever a good time it's probably now.

What do you think about the future of theatre brochures? I'd love to hear your thoughts.