Sex Signals Marketing and Promotional Ideas

 

Thank you for your interest in bringing the sexual assault awareness program, Sex Signals, to your campus.  In order to maximize the effectiveness in drawing audiences, we offer a few suggestions that have served other schools well in the past.  You may already be implementing many of these ideas, but we hope you still find this useful.

 

  1. Use the enclosed posters as a way of promoting the event. They’re big, they’re fun, the word “sex” is all over them—they’re designed to get attention and provoke conversation.  Feel free to duplicate any of the large posters or call for more.

 

  1. Bill the program to the general student body as an interactive show about dating and relationships.  We’ve found that marketing the program as a sexual assault awareness program discourages potential audience members from attending—most people don’t flock to that kind of thing unless they’re already “converted.”  By marketing it as a dating show, you’ll probably get more interest and excitement.  Also, the play is structured to engage students by first using humor to explore sex role stereotypes and the awkward nature of interpersonal communication before entering a candid conversation about the realities of sexual assault.  We’ve found that even when the issue of acquaintance rape comes as a surprise to some audience members, they are more open to the discussion since the program’s structure makes the topic much less threatening and uncomfortable than they might expect. 

 

  1. Feel free to use some of the quotes from our one-sheet, but we advise to not duplicate our one-sheets and use for direct marketing (as too much of the show is described losing the element of surprise).  If you need catchphrases beyond those found on the poster, the play has also been described as “An interactive show that explores the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of the college dating scene.”

 

  1. Inform faculty, coaches, staff members, and student leaders of the benefits of the program and invite them to make the event mandatory or as an extra credit assignment for their own students or those they represent.  Feel free to describe the purpose of the show to those responsible for the educational benefits of certain student groups and organizations.  Such areas of interest in this type of program might be those in sociology, psychology, women or gender studies, American culture, education, communications, nursing, and many others.  Making the event mandatory to other student groups such as RA’s, peer educators, freshmen, etc., will also maximize attendance.

 

  1. Encourage the Greek system to participate.  Offer this program as an ideal opportunity for members of some fraternities and sororities to fulfill some self-enforced educational requirements or outreach projects.

 

  1. Contact local organizations or institutions that might share in the interest, such as womens’ shelters, rape crisis centers, law enforcement, even high schools. (Note:  Although the material certainly relates to many teenagers, it may be too candid for the comfort of some high school officials.)

 

  1. Schedule it in conjunction with other events on campus. The show can work around any sex or relationships theme, from Sexual Assault Awareness Month to Valentine’s Day.

 

  1. Offer prizes at the event as an alternative incentive to draw audiences.  Contests, giveaways or raffles held at the event always are a pretty good bribe.

 

  1. Feel free to contact us at Catharsis Productions anytime (O. 312.294.8905 or C. 312.933.8703) for any sort of pre-show press information or interviews to help market the show in a local or school newspaper or periodical.  We just love talking so setting up an interview is encouraged.

 

The show has proven to be a hit with educators and students alike, many being surprised at how entertaining and thought provoking such a show can be.  The biggest complaint we’ve heard thus far from many student activity boards is how much they wished they could have gotten more students to see the show.  We will happy to perform in front of 5 or 500, but the larger the crowd (ideally 100 to 250 people), the more fun and interactive this show becomes.  As you’ve probably already experienced, none of the above ideas guarantee “filling the house,” but they may give you other avenues of marketing when attendance is a concern.

 

Good luck, thanks again for inviting us, and we really look forward to laughing and learning with you soon.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Christian Murphy

Gail Stern

Catharsis Productions