Why I Joined "The People of Godspell"

In his new book, "Micromarketing", author Greg Verdino presents a case for the death of mass marketing. According to Verdino, it's more important to matter a lot to a select few than to matter just a little to everyone. His book lays out social media marketing's biggest hits, and demonstrates that "the next big thing" is actually a series of small things.

A couple of examples:

-Paramount Pictures opted against traditional advertising when releasing the film Paranormal Activity. Instead, they made it easy for moviegoers to sell the experience to one another, enabling moviegoers to become active partners and willing participants in the movie's success. Million of raving fans became credible micromessage bearers.

-The Ford corporation garnered more than 10 million impressions for the soon to be relaunched Ford Fiesta, without spending a single dollar of advertising. Instead, they loaned 100 vehicles to people they identified as the 100 most powerful young bloggers in America. They gave those bloggers a list of assignments (including video and photo content) to complete in exchange for a free car. As a result, the Fiesta got 6 million YouTube impressions, more than 3.7 million twitter impressions, and 740,000 Flickr photo views. The 6 month campaign resulted in 60 percent brand awareness for their product before the 2011 vehicles even hit the lots, the equivalent of 2-3 years of far more expensive TV spots.

The lesson here is that people want to be part of something bigger than themselves.

Ken Davenport may understand that concept better than anyone on Broadway.

By now, you are aware that his revival of Godspell is being billed as the first ever "community funded Broadway show". Davenport is opening up the investment gates to everyday people. While the minimum investment level for the South Park inspired Book of Mormon is reportedly 1 million dollars, Godspell investors can get in for as little as $1000. In return, they will get their name on the marquee. Ok, not exactly the marquee. The name will appear (in presumably very tiny print) on a large poster that will live outside the yet to be determined theater. They will also get their photo and social networking links on peopleofgodspell.com. Most importantly for those who choose to join this endeavor, they are buying into the dream that Greg Verdino talks about. A chance, in the smallest of ways, to become part of the larger Broadway community.

I've been thinking about becoming a Broadway investor for some time. I always told myself that I would never put my money into a musical revival. Typically, they are too tough of a putt to recoup. I've always maintained that there are only two reasons to mount a revival in New York.

1) You are able to reinvent the material to make it relevant to the current times (Diane Paulus' all too relevant version of Hair)

2) You are casting a major star (Catherine Zeta Jones and Angela Landsbury in A Little Night Music)

My guess is that Godspell will fit neither of these criteria. The show is so dated, that I can't imagine how anyone will make it fresh, and a 5 millon dollar budget doesn't leave room for an A-list celebrity.

All that being said, I still jumped in and invested $2000 of my money anyways. Why? Because I've spent most of this year writing about how Broadway needs to evolve and do business differently. While I don't necessarily believe in the Godspell franchise, I believe in what Davenport is doing. It's a bold move and I wanted to be part of it.

I'm curious to see what the next move with this show is. As an official owner of 20 units of the production, I feel entitled to share a few ideas (yes, that was said with sarcasm)

Hopefully, they don't try to shoot the moon and play too big of a space. I'm not convinced that the audience will be there to sell a 1200 seat theater 8 shows a week. If A Little Night Music closes at the end of the year, the Walter Kerr would be an ideal house. I wouldn't even mind seeing them go smaller and do a space like American Airlines Theater.

Secondly, I wonder if it makes sense to target the marketing plan to Christian America? . Is there a contemporary christian recording artist who would make sense to book? I'll be honest, I don't know a thing about that world of music, other than the fact Steven Curtis Chapman and Michael W Smith are too old for the show. Then again, perhaps those christian artists don't want to share a stage with a bunch of godless, liberal, homosexuals (again, said with more than a little sarcasm).

Davenport has achieved the first hurdle, there will be huge awareness for this show. The community of investors will do much of the marketing work for him, social networking the crap out of it. However, now the production needs to stand on it's own.

I'm cheering for it. Because I own a piece of it.

As always, I'd love to hear your feedback. Leave a comment.