“With Monday.com, we know a few months out who is responsible for what, when deadlines are approaching, and when to expect deliverables. It’s much easier to keep track of so we can see the bigger picture, including what is missing, if we’re ahead of schedule, and spot opportunities to add to our current show promotions.
Without our structure in Monday.com, there’s no way we could have done as much with the ‘Meet the Cast Cabaret’ for Initiative. We’ve also been able to maximize our team’s capacity, and in some cases, do more with fewer people.”
Tony Sandrew, Director of Marketing at Aurora Theatre
Establishing a replicable workflow for Aurora Theatre’s marketing team created space to brainstorm new ideas and pave the way for Initiative to become one of the most successful new productions in the theatre’s history.
Historically, the Aurora Theatre’s new productions didn’t sell out. The behind-the-scenes work of marketing upcoming shows felt more like a scramble. With each show, there were many ideas of what their team wanted to do, but a lack of structure for managing actionable tasks and assigning ownership meant many great ideas fell through the cracks. Other times, new ideas were implemented by throwing different things at the wall and seeing what stuck.
As the theatre approached its 30th season, which included a world premiere play, they wanted this production to be more successful than past new plays and needed a balance of structure and new ideas to get them to that goal.
After experiencing Monday.com, our project management software, as a client, we realized Aurora Theatre would benefit from using it internally to streamline processes and help their team build a replicable process for each production, with clear assignments and deliverables so everyone knows what to do and when to act.
We worked with the Aurora team to audit their current processes and then set up their Monday.com workspace with templates to maintain a consistent workflow for each production. This structure has not only enabled them to work more efficiently but also fostered greater collaboration in our weekly meetings with their team by giving us space to brainstorm new marketing initiatives, partnerships with local businesses, and community engagement events to help enhance their shows and expand the theatre’s reach into new audiences. It also created better collaboration between the Aurora’s marketing team and other departments, moving the entire process forward faster than with previous shows and seasons.
With the right processes in place, we were able to help Aurora’s team find the structure it needed to give them space to think and explore ways to improve their productions moving forward. In the case of Initiative, the world premiere play of season 30, we were able to use our weekly meetings to talk through the ideas and help make connections, which led the theatre to find a new partner who created a custom game table for a giveaway. In addition, the theatre added a play with the cast event, which allowed for a deeper level of engagement with the community.
With a solid process in place and the space to explore and implement new ideas, the Aurora was $50,000 over its expected goal for Initiative and the previous season’s new play before opening night.
“There’s something to be said about creative people talking to creative people. Our team brainstorms ideas, and then we bring them to our weekly meetings with Rock Paper Scissors. We trust them because they know our brand and understand our line of work, so we know we’ll get good feedback.”
