Dark Poole
Arts University Bournemouth
Poole, Dorset isn't particularly renowned for its opera, so when the Arts University Bournemouth put on a production of The Threepenny Opera, some unconventional marketing had to be employed to make the locals take note.
The word 'opera' presented a barrier to the audience who made an assumption that the production wasn't for them. So, rather than promote the name 'Threepenny Opera', the name 'Dark Poole' was used to introduce the edgy themes of the story such as organised crime, corruption and prostitution and to give the impression that these activities were actually rife locally.
Low budget guerrilla stunts such as 'lost' and 'wanted' posters, plectrums in bars and pressure washed stencilled messages on the streets led the audience to a scrolling microsite http://darkpoole.co.uk. Here, the viewer entered a stylised and dark underworld, met the key characters and got a taste of the story.
There were 3 performances over 2 days. Similar shows from previous years had attracted disappointing audiences of around 55% of capacity, the Dark Poole campaign for the Threepenny opera raised the audience to a near sell out 92% capacity across the 3 performances.
