CELEBRATING A BANNER YEAR FOR EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING: 2023 YEAR IN REVIEW

Happy New Year! 2023 has officially come to a close, and what a banner year it was!

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As we reflect on the past year, we can’t help but become overwhelmed with gratitude for all of the incredible opportunities 2023 brought to thetareMAMA. Back in March, we published a blog post titled, “If Sundance and SXSW are any Indication, 2023 is the Year of Experiential Marketing,” — we are over the moon that our prediction came true!

theatreMAMA’S Year in Review: 2023

Chicago Dance Mob
The Chicago Dance Mob had an epic year! The iconic Street Team was featured on “The Broadway Show,” attended the Curtain Up Broadway Festival, brought the “All the Jazz'“ flash mob back to Times Square, helped patrons save on tickets to Chicago and celebrated the musical’s 27th Anniversary on Broadway.

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Sling TV + The Bachelor Activation
We created a brand new living media campaign for Sling TV! To promote ABC being available on Sling TV in New York markets, seven models clad in dapper tuxedos evoked ABC’s The Bachelor by passing out 500 long-stemmed red roses with Sling TV discount cards elegantly tied around them to the public. Additionally, ten MAMA Brand Ambassadors flooded the streets with cheer and enthusiasm while handing out discount offers and 900 Sling TV swag bags.

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Cirque du Soleil + Disney ‘Drawn to Life’
We launched a new living media campaign for ‘Drawn To Life’ by Cirque du Soleil & Disney at Disney Springs in Orlando, FL. ‘Drawn to Life’ marked our 15th experiential marketing partnership with Cirque du Soleil! The immersive Street Team operates daily out of the residential show’s big top and box office. MAMA’s ‘Drawn to Life’ team was also invited to attend exciting off site events like the WDWPA Charity Golf Tournament and Orlando Pride.

theatreMAMA Turned 18!
April 9, 2023 marked MAMA's 18th birthday and 18 years of joyful, creative, innovative, connecting Experiential Marketing campaigns!

Blue Man Group
Our Blue Man Group Brand Ambassadors had a blast promoting the long-running Off-Broadway show at various locations across New York City and at events like Intrepid Kids Week, NYC Pride and NYU’s Welcome Week.

Waitress
We brought back our Waitress team to celebrate the Tribeca Film Festival screening of Waitress — Live on Broadway! The event marked the first-ever Tribeca Film Festival screening in Times Square. theatreMAMA’s Experiential Brand Ambassadors were at the event to ensure a sweet-as-pie experience for all attendees.

Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground & The Democracy Project
Over the summer, MAMA’s Brand Ambassadors got a bit Presidential promoting the limited runs of Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground Off-Broadway and The Democracy Project at Federal Hall.

Madison Square Garden Street Teams
We were thrilled to promote multiple events at Madison Square Garden in 2023! Events included various boxing matches, Cirque du Soleil’s ‘Twas the Night Before … and audience ingress services at the Mariah Carey and Travis Scott concerts.

The Metropolitan Opera Season Opener
To open the Met Opera’s new season with as much drama as, well, an opera, our Brand Ambassadors activated all day throughout Manhattan. The day culminated with our Met Opera Street Team assisting guests as they arrived to watch a free live transmission (in partnership with the Times Square Alliance) of Jake Heggie’s Opera, Dead Man Walking, on multiple screens in Times Square.

Goosebumps + Sony Pictures
Just in time for Halloween, theatreMAMA got to bring Slappy, the legendary Goosebumps dummy, to life to promote the new series by Sony Pictures and Disney +. The Slappy Brand Ambassadors activated outside the Javits Center to offer limited edition Goosebumps tote bags to New York Comic Con attendees. Fans swarmed the Slappy team to snap pictures and chat about their love of the franchise.

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X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X at the Metropolitan Opera
MAMA's ambassadors celebrated X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X premier Met Opera performance with a special activation in both Brooklyn and Harlem. The Met team passed out limited-edition zines that featured quotes from the opera's libretto, by playwright, poet, and journalist Thulani Davis, superimposed on images of Black life in Harlem by the photographer Jamel Shabazz. The X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X team continued to activate in Harlem and Brooklyn throughout the show’s limited run.

Candy Cane Greeters
Our Candy Cane Greeter program returned to Radio City for its fourth year! MAMA’s Candy Cane Greeters took the ordinary to extraordinary for guests waiting in line to see the Christmas Spectacular Starring The Radio City Rockettes! Looking for a little North Pole magic? The Candy Cane Greeters create an immersive experience while assisting guests entering and exiting Radio City Music Hall.

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Official Brand Ambassadors for the Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes
Our Official Brand Ambassadors for the Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes returned for their ninth year promoting NYC’s most iconic holiday show! Patrons were delighted to engage with our joyful holiday Street Team, and equally as thrilled for the opportunity to purchase discount tickets with theatreMAMA’s sales team discount code.

Rockefeller Center Elves
Our Rockefeller Center Elf Street Team returned this year to spread a whole lot of holly-jolly while assisting guests visiting the area! The Elf team handed out informative holiday maps, led guests to the Rock Center Santa Experience, helped guests navigate Rockefeller Center attractions, shops and restaurants and brought holiday magic to NYC!

Cirque du Soleil x Art Basel
We were given the incredible opportunity to create the Cirque du Soleil Icon program! Cirque invited MAMA Brand Ambassadors, Derrick and Ali, to experience Art Basel, Miami while interacting with the art and artists as the Cirque Icons. Celebrating 40 years of productions that offer emotional, compelling entertainment, the Cirque Icons were thrilled to shine their light on the incredible artists that were showcased at Art Basel. Our team even partnered with local influencers to further amplify Art Basel and Cirque du Soleil. What an exciting collaboration!

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Thank you to all of our wonderful clients, fabulous Brand Ambassadors and stellar staff for making 2023 an epic year! We look forward to working together again in 2024 and can’t wait to see what this new year brings!

Sugar, Butter, Farewell! As Waitress Takes Its Final Bow on Broadway, theatreMAMA Closes Up Shop On This Promotion

Combine equal parts theatreMAMA and Waitress the Musical, add one brilliant soundtrack(by the incredibly talented Sara Bareilles), sprinkle with sweet-as-pie Ambassadors, top it all off with an EPIC pie hat...and you’ve got a recipe that’s baked to perfection! Waitress is near and dear to our hearts, especially since we’ve been in partnership with the musical since the very beginning! We started this promotion at the Brooks Atkinson box office over three years ago when Waitress opened on Broadway and have enjoyed every sugar-filled second of promoting this wonderful show!

Waitress the Musical has taught us that “Everything Changes,” so even though we’ll be hanging up our aprons and putting away our pie hats, marketing this special show will remain in our hearts forever. theatreMAMA is grateful for every second we spent working with Waitress and what better way to show how much this musical matters to us than in the form of a love letter?

Dear Waitress,

Thank you for all the beautiful, magical, pie-filled memories! From launching our Waitress street team in Times Square on Day 1,

To handing out delicious Pies-In-A-Jar at the Box Office when you opened,

To catching the attention of patrons in Times Square with our FABULOUS pie hats and custom designed costumes,

To pushing day of sales by interacting with Broadway-lovers waiting in line at TKTS,

To surprising those same TKTS patrons with a free Pie,

To the millions of people who couldn’t help but sing the soundtrack along with us (Did you know over 330,000 people come through Times Square every day?! That’s 50 million visitors annually, who all got a chance to see our amazing team!),

To the seeing-impaired 12 year-old Waitress super-fan who cried tears of joy when she got to feel one of our Ambassador’s pie hats before heading to the matinee, (there’s no picture of this unforgettable memory, but it will live in our hearts forever!)

To all the lives changed, made better, and made sweeter because of this incredible show!

We love you, Waitress!! This has been one extraordinary (and delicious!) journey that will remain baked in our hearts forever!

Love,

MAMA

 Related Links:

Waitress the Musical on Broadway Street Team with theatreMAMA

theatreMAMA's Candy Cane Greeters at Radio City

Radio City Christmas Spectacular Street Team Brand Ambassadors

theatreMAMA’s Year In Review 2019

theatreMAMA Takes A Walk Down Memory Lane Through 2019!

The start of a new year means saying goodbye and saying hello! It’s the lyrics to a Beatles song and also the perfect time to reflect on all the wonderful memories that have formed the beautifully intricate mosaic of this past year. theatreMAMA has had an exciting, adventure-filled year full of wonderful experiences and so much joy! So, on the final day of 2019, we are saying goodbye, hello, and THANK YOU! Our hearts are overflowing with gratitude for every amazing opportunity we’ve encountered during this epic year!

Throughout 2019, theatreMAMA was lucky enough to be BUSY! And I’m not just talking everyday, “hustle and bustle” kind of busy, I’m talking events in 10 different states and all across Canada kind of busy! During this year, we reached thousands of patrons through our creative, experiential marketing campaigns, handed out over a million pieces of various promotional collateral , staged numerous activations, launched multiple new promotions, and used our theatrical marketing skills to bring the incredible shows, brands, and companies we’ve partnered with to LIFE!! 

So what exactly did we do in 2019? Presenting (Insert celebratory drum roll here!!!)

A Year In The Life Of theatreMAMA: 2019 Edition

This year we…

 Brought our Killer Fosse moves to Times Square promoting Chicago the Musical

Looked sweet as pie serving up discounts for Waitress the Musical!

Felt ALL THAT JAZZ and more when we did a  special NYC activation for the premiere of the Emmy Award-Winning show Fosse/Verdon on FX!

Explored NYC as Pip’s Island Adventurers! We were delighted to tap into our playful side when we started promoting Pip’s Island this year!  Pip’s Island is a live experiential theatre show for kids-what better way to promote experiential theatre than with experiential marketing?

Brought a little Havana to Times Square when we promoted the delicious restaurant Havana Central!

Got in touch with our sporty side and cheered on the NY KNICKS by shooting patrons great discounts for the games!

Traveled on down to Ranger town, rockin’ those rad Rangers threads and giving patrons 20% off discounts to see their favorite hockey team!

Then, spring arrived and we decided to get out of Times Square and run away to the Circus...Cirque du Soleil that is! While our fabulous NYC teams were killing it in TSQ, we provided special activations for many of Cirque du Soleil’s shows all across North America!

theatreMAMA created a team of Fish Dancers and Fiesta Ambassadors for Cirque du Soleil LUZIA ! We began this year’s LUZIA adventures in Orlando, FL and eventually made our way up the coast to NYC! The NY LUZIA events took place all over the NY Metro Area and our Fiesta Fishies even got to play house at an IKEA in Brooklyn! After that, our LUZIA team swam over to Connecticut to promote the show during its run there!

Then, our Fishie Dancers swam across the continent for events in Canada! We started at the Calgary Stampede and then made our way over to Vancouver where we got to take part in Pride Week-one of the biggest LGBTQ+ events worldwide!

But our circus fun didn’t stop with LUZIA...we produced special activations for Cirque du Soleil VOLTA in Washington D.C., for OVO in Fort Worth, TX and for Amaluna in Los Angeles and Costa Mesa, California.

theatreMAMA has been honored to partner with Cirque du Soleil for many years now! We have so much fun bringing the essence of each unique show to life and this year, we took that one step further! We brought the VIP Experiences to life! Ever wonder what the human embodiment of the smooth, elegant cognac that is Hennessy Black looks like? Well look no further! theatreMAMA created the Hennessy Black Ravens! The Ravens were a part of the Hennessy Black VIP experience tent for many Cirque du Soleil shows throughout 2019, with campaigns in NYC, Washington D.C., Atlanta, GA, Chicago,  and Miami, FL. Our Hennessy Black Ravens elevated the VIP experience at Cirque du Soleil through offering a one-of-a-kind sampling program of craft cocktails while educating guests about the cognac.

But why stop at cognac? Cirque du Soleil’s other corporate sponsors include Villa Maria Winery and Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte. How do you bring New Zealand Wine and French bubbly to life? We figured that one out too!

We’ve had the best time working with all three of these enticing beverage companies in partnership with Cirque du Soleil and can’t wait to create more intriguing ways to combine the enchantment of Cirque with the elegance of these libations.

While  all of these campaigns were happening simultaneously with our regular NYC Street Teams, we also got the opportunity to put on one-day only events! We were thrilled to promote the glorious opening day of the Metropolitan Opera House 2019-2020 season and had a blast introducing Cleo, a widely popular (and sassy) financial app in the UK, to NYC with a scavenger hunt!

You’d think everything we’ve talked about so far would be plenty to fill a year, but not at theatreMAMA! As fall brought crisp air and pumpkin spice lattes  to NYC, we got ready to spread holiday cheer! We brought our SPECTACULAR Toy Soldier Street Team (back for its fifth year!) to promote the Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes AND partnered with Radio City to launch a brand new initiative-the Candy Cane Greeters!  The Candy Cane Greeters look like they’ve just stepped off the Polar Express and were a source of information( and holiday magic!) for guests attending the Christmas Spectacular!

And since our Cirque fun is never done, we created a festive new  gift wrapping activation in San Francisco to promote Cirque du Soleil Amaluna! What happens when Santa’s elves run away to join the circus? This awesome activation!!

It wouldn’t be theatreMAMA if we didn’t end the year with a bang! We are producing four New Year’s Eve events in three different states! In partnership with Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte, we will be ringing in the New Year with this fabulous bubbly, Champagne dresses, contortionists, and jugglers galore! What a way to ring in the New Year!

We’ve enjoyed every second of this wonderful, busy, creative, AWESOME year! Cheers to a new decade, new adventures, and to 2020! We are truly grateful for every person we’ve worked with, every experience we’ve had, and all the memories we’ve made! So now all that’s left to say is-THANK YOU!!!

Related Links:

Chicago The Musical Dance Mob NYC Best Street Team

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