When the Belgian government reduced its culture budget, ‘Theatre at the Stream’ (TAS), a popular theatre company in Belgium, lost a third of their government grants, together with a host of other theatre companies.
Depending for a very large part on these grants, the TAS had to find a new way to
- generate extra income to be able to continue its work, as not finding any funds would mean the end of the TAS.
- get this government grants issue back on the political agenda
As theatre is all about being creative, we wanted to use a creative approach.
We decided to break new grounds, and introduced a commercial break in one of their theatre pieces, where actors from the TAS acted out live theatre versions of well-known Belgian TV-commercials on stage.
Via an online film campaign, we reached out to Belgian’s advertisers.
On March 6th, during one of their performances, the actors from the TAS played their TV commercials for a live audience, all paid by the advertisers.
With this one commercial break, Theater at the Stream won 25% of their lost funds back.
The campaign created massive PR, with a total of over € 1.500.000 of earned media. (Quite a lot for a country with 10 million inhabitants.)
And most importantly: the government re-examined their culture budget, and gave the TAS their grants and their future back.
The Brief
Make sure the TAS could get extra funds, so they could continue as a theatre company.
Get the issue of subsidization back on the political agenda, to try and get a structural solution that could guarantee the future of the TAS, and other theatre companies.
Results
With one commercial break, Theater at the Stream won 25% of their lost funds back.
Not only advertisers got an unexpected medium to get their story told, also Theater at the Stream itself got a chance to get their story told, resulting in more than 1,5 million in earned media. (quite a lot for a country with 10 million inhabitants.)
As a result, the discussion about public funding was reopened, both on social media ànd by politicians.
And most importantly: thanks to our campaign the government re-examined their culture budget, and gave the TAS their grants and their future back.
Or how a well thought-off campaign can save a theatre company from bankruptcy.
Execution
With an online film, we reached out to Belgian advertisers and presented them with the idea to act out a live theatre version of one of their TV-commercials, and in doing so reaching an audience in a completely new way.
Lots of Belgium’s biggest advertisers were interested, and we selected 7 of them, including 4 clients from other agencies:
A bank. A public transport company. An energy provider. A tour operator. A water brand. A cookie brand. And a car brand.
On March 6th, during one of their performances, the actors from the TAS played their TV commercials for a live audience, all paid by the advertisers.
The Situation
When the Belgian government reduced its culture budget, ‘Theatre at the Stream’ (TAS), a popular theatre company in Belgium, lost a third of their government grants, together with a host of other theatre companies.
Depending for a very large part on these grants, the TAS had to find a new way to
- generate extra income to be able to continue its work, as not finding any funds would mean the end of the TAS.
- get this government grants issue back on the political agenda.
The Strategy
As theatre is all about being creative with little means, we wanted to use a creative approach.
We decided to break new grounds, and introduced a commercial break in one of their theatre pieces.
Not just any old commercial break: we had actors from the TAS act out live theatre versions of well-known Belgian TV-commercials on stage.
Advertisers involved could reach an audience in a completely new way, and became part of a positive PR-story.