Title	PAY PER LAUGH
Brand	TEATRENEU
Product/Service	PAY PER LAUGH
Category	C02. INSTALLATION AND ENVIROMENT BRAND EXPERIENCE
Entrant Company	THE CYRANOS McCANN Barcelona, SPAIN
Advertising Agency	THE CYRANOS McCANN Barcelona, SPAIN
Production Company	CANADA Barcelona, SPAIN

Name	Company	Position
Leandro Raposo	The Cyranos Mccann	Creative President
Pablo Colonnese	The Cyranos Mccann	Executive Creative Director
David Fernández/Joaquín Espagnol	The Cyranos Mccann	Creative Director
Eduard Cubel/Oscar Amodia/Alejandro García	The Cyranos Mccann	Art Directors
Jaume Rufach/Marc Sánchez/Nil Murtra	The Cyranos Mccann	Copywriters
Oriol Bombí	The Cyranos Mccann	Head Of Strategic Planning
Marta Grasa	The Cyranos Mccann	Account Director
Alba Riart	The Cyranos Mccann	Production Manager
Jesús Vergés	The Cyranos Mccann	Account Executive
	Glassworks	Post Production Company
Marc Oller	Canadá	Director
Oscar Romagosa	Canadá	Executive Producer
Alba Berneda/Laura Serra	Canadá	Producers

Brief Explanation

The aim was to break down consumers’ reluctance to choose a form of leisure like the theatre and so build up audience numbers and at the same time increase average ticket prices.

The Brief

Teatreneu is an independent theatre company which has seen an alarming decline in its audiences due to the economic situation and the increase in taxes on arts performances. This is why Pay Per Laugh was born: the first comedy theatre where you only pay for the laughs you get. To do this we installed facial recognition software in each seat to detect every smile and count them. Instead of paying in advance for comedy with no guarantee of it being minimally funny, we thought of paying at the end and only for the laughs you got, at 0,30 euros per laugh.

How the final design was conceived

To free people from a complicated decision and get them filling theatre seats again, we designed a ground-breaking, attractive and “fair” system of payment whereby they would only pay at the end and according to the laughs generated by the show. We fitted every theatre seat with a facial recognition system to detect smiles and count them, and offered audiences the following deal: “Entrance is completely free. If the show doesn’t make you laugh, you don’t pay anything. But if you laugh, you’ll have to pay for every smile.” Every laugh raised is worth 30 euro cents, which is a pretty reasonable price.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

The average ticket price was up by 6 euros on traditional performances. The system was covered in the leading national media. This generated more publicity and, as a result, 35% more audience. Each Pay Per Laugh performance took 7,200 euros, compared to the 4,400 euros they had been making before. The Pay Per Laugh system is currently being replicated in other comedy theatres around Spain. A mobile app was created to use as a payment system in other independent venues. And the first payment by the number of laughs and not performances was successfully launched.