(Clearwisdom.net) A summer tour of Shen Yun has begun on the West Coast. The main difference from past tours is that now in major cities, the cost of the ticket has doubled. For the practitioners in these areas, it is a new target audience. The salespeople must conduct themselves like professionals and their actions must be reflective of a high quality show. There has been a lot of discussion and sharing among practitioners regarding how to handle this new direction well, so that more sentient beings can be saved.
Here, I would like to share my own experiences over the last few years about how to promote Shen Yun and how to sell tickets.
There are many ways to promote Shen Yun. Positive outcomes are possible when one puts one's mind to it. In our area, our advertising has allowed many people to know about the show dates, but it has not seemed to have helped with selling tickets. A few years back I sent emails to friends and relatives informing them about the show, but there was no response. At the time, I thought it was due to something lacking in my cultivation. Then, after studying Teachers' lecture, I understood that there was another important point:
"Of course, when you have leftover tickets, there is another reason involved as well; it's not just because of poor cooperation on the part of Dafa disciples. Namely, in many places people don't know Shen Yun. However well Shen Yun might perform, the several hundred thousand who see the performance amount to just a tiny figure when there are over 7 billion people on this earth. Also, in Western society the performances and ballet companies have histories that go back a century, and parents take their kids to see them starting right from their youth. They watch the same performance over and over again right into old age. People thus know even the details of a ballet company, such as what caliber it is, who is performing in a production, how a given artist is doing, and so on. So, when that ballet company comes to town, all an advertisement has to do is tell which company it is and what dates it's performing on, and that's it. They can keep it simple and things work out, people come. But in our case, no matter how well we do our ads, you still think it's not good enough, and you even think that it will work only if you pack everything about the show into the ad. Yet that's not possible. And besides, even if the ad is done supremely well, it doesn't necessarily mean people will come. The year before last, in the New York metro area more than 10 million people--just about every person--had seen the ads for Shen Yun five times. So it was done to that extent, yet those people still didn't come. And why was that? What people were thinking was, 'I know you're in town, but I don't know whether I would like what you perform and I don't know how the quality is.' Their not being sure suggests that we still lack the level of brand recognition that's needed. Thus, it's not a question of our ads, and it's not simply that we haven't put in enough effort. Rather, there is an element of people not knowing [Shen Yun]." ("Fa Teaching at the 2009 Greater New York International Fa Conference")
During sharing with practitioners from different districts and when reading media reports, I recognized the importance of feedback from the audience. This is especially true with the video and audio channels, where the expressions are particularly powerful and have the capacity to resonate with many people.
Last May while Shen Yun was touring in North America, I emailed an eighteen-minute video about the show, made by NTDTV, to friends and colleagues. To my surprise, many of them expressed interest and went to see the show. Furthermore, they all liked the show and a colleague of mine wanted to purchase a ticket for his mother because Shen Yun was going to the city where she lived.
I downloaded a DVD from Minghui entitled, "Shen Yun to North America"(1), along with its cover (see reference at the end of this article). It is an introduction to Shen Yun. Recognizing people with predestined relationships, I gave them this DVD plus flyers about the show. The response was excellent. They were happy to receive the DVD, because with just a flyer they still have questions about the quality of the show. While it is true that they can find out more about the show from the Internet, it requires putting in extra effort. So how do you change them from having no interest to wanting to purchase a ticket? In practice, I have found that more people are interested in having a DVD. Once I asked a lady to whom I gave flyers, "What do you like about the show?" She told me that she did not have the time to read about the show. When I gave her a DVD, she was very happy to take it. These days many people think of watching a DVD as entertainment, but not as much for reading.
Last year I met a man at the supermarket. He was not interested when I talked about the show the first time. Last week I saw him again and gave him a flyer and a DVD. A few days later I saw him again. He came over to say hello and I asked him what he thought about the show. He said, "I watched the DVD. It's good and I am planning to buy a ticket." When I asked another person to whom I also handed a DVD, he said that his wife had watched the video and wanted to purchase tickets. A fellow practitioner's daughter gave her school teacher a DVD and the teacher purchased four tickets.
The advantage of the DVD is that the whole family can watch it and can pass it on to friends and relatives. Its effect is much more powerful than articles in words or pictures. Although presently many people know about Shen Yun, it is still only a small percentage of the population. Before Shen Yun becomes truly well known, comments from the audience are very important. For example, a new product from a known brand is much easier for the consumer to accept than products from an unknown brand. Usually, they would want to see reviews and comments about the product first. Hence, it is important for us to provide these people with positive comments from well-known experts in show business.
"Shen Yun to North America" has very good and complete coverage of the show. This short video provides a comprehensive review and has moving scenes. Many practitioners told me that they were moved to tears watching this video and I feel the same way. Through past experimentation I think the best way to promote the show at this time is to include a DVD along with other standard materials.
This is my personal understanding. Please point out anything that is improper.
(1) "Shen Yun to North America" - Promotional video for Shen Yun in Chinese
Video link (Chinese): http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2009/7/6/204072p.html
CD cover link (Chinese): http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2009/7/6/204076p.html
