2021 Brand Experience & Activation

THEATER TO GO

TitleTHEATER TO GO
BrandJURANYI THEATER
Product/ServiceJURANYI THEATER
Category A03. Travel, Leisure, Retail, Restaurants & Fast Food Chains
Entrant DDB Budapest, HUNGARY
Idea Creation DDB Budapest, HUNGARY
Production DDB Budapest, HUNGARY
Post Production DDB Budapest, HUNGARY
Credits
Name Company Position
Bálint Kovács DDB Budapest Art Director
Boglárka Csikó DDB Budapest Senior Copywriter
Karolina Galácz DDB Budapest Creative Director
Zsófia Maul DDB Budapest Digital Producer
Alexandra Kemenyiczki DDB Budapest Agency Producer
Zsuzsanna Varga DDB Budapest Associate Producer

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

Theater to Go invents a new kind of theater experience, one that merges the physical world and digital. In order to move out of the closed space of the theater (for both Covid reasons and both to be able to sell more tickets than the fixed number of seats), the audience here have to physically go to a certain location in the city and listen to the drama in digital audio. This is a way to reinvent and to future proof the theater experience. Because people had to physically go to a location after buying a ticket, it also activates.

Background

2020 rattled theaters. People never fully returned to the theater in pre-Covid numbers. This new normal forces theaters to adapt. Jurányi, the country’s most progressive and internationally acclaimed theater found that simply adapting to online streaming does not make up for lost revenue. They were facing the possibility to go bankrupt, unless they found a new solution to sell more tickets.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

Theater to Go is a new form of theater where the city becomes the stage. Instead of trying to fill the fixed number of seats in the theater, and instead of streaming traditional drama online, this is a new genre of theater experience. After buying a ticket, people receive it with instructions as to where in the city they have to physically go and where to stand, so that they face a precise occurrence that happens naturally in the city - such as, the regular installation of the flag in front of the Parliament, or the metro coming and going at a certain stop, or the statues at the statue park, etc. With the help of headphones, people stream the drama in audio. The audio was written, directed and performed by Jurányi's famous drama writers and actors. 20 dramas were created for 20 locations in the city, each 15 min.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

To sell more tickets, Jurányi wanted to 1) Covid proof its operation, 2) become relevant to more people than before. The idea also activated people who had not visited a brick-and-mortar theater regularly before, because these dramas are a more flexible and much shorter theater experience. Instead of trying to fill the fixed number of seats in the theater, and instead of streaming traditional drama online, this is a new genre of theater experience with unlimited ticket sales potential. The strategy was to become completely independent of brick-and-mortar. In this digital experience, the city becomes the stage and the play unfolds in audio.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

After buying a ticket, people receive it with instructions as to where in the city they have to physically go and where to stand, so that they face a precise occurrence that happens naturally in the city - such as, the regular installation of the flag in front of the Parliament, or the metro coming and going at a certain stop, or the statues at the statue park, etc. With the help of headphones, people stream the drama in audio. The audio was written, directed and performed by Jurányi's famous drama writers and actors. 20 dramas were created for 20 locations in the city, each max 15 min. The idea was launched by a launch film and a social media campaign on Jurányi's owned YT, FB and Instagram channels. Then, the Hungarian media picked it up from Forbes to TimeOut to the evening news.

List the results (30% of vote)

Revenue from ticket sales up +18% Website traffic up by +530% Reach: 4 million people The City of Budapest selected the performances into the official Fall Art Festival Programme in 2021. Theater to Go became a permanent genre for Jurányi, with one new stageless play created every two months.