BoxOffice® Pro - December 2010

FRONT LINE AWARD
NETWORK
AFFILIATE
Spinning social networking
into box office gold
by Cole Hornaday
It’s a common complaint: these kids today
are too dialed in to their iPhones and video
game apps. And those social networking
sites like Facebook and Twitter? They’re
great to track what the neighbor boy had for
breakfast, but do little to improve our lives.
Complainants, meet Alycia Yerves.
In 2005, Yerves was a part-time box office
representative at Red Bank, New Jersey’s
Count Basie Theatre. She loved the 1,200-seat
performance space and, though occasionally
distracted by her coworkers chattering about
their obsession with some website called
MySpace, she focused on how to increase traffic
through the Count Basie auditorium.
“Apparently, I was the last person to
know about this MySpace thing,” recalls
Alycia Yerves Multimedia Manager
Count Basie Theatre / Red Bank, NJ
Nominated By Diana St. John, Marketing Director
Yerves. “I signed up,
and in a week I was
addicted.” Before long,
Yerves noticed that
many local businesses
with websites were
reaping the benefits of
a second digital presence
on MySpace. “I
thought it would create
a cool factor for us to
have a MySpace page,
so I just made one and
started updating the
calendar. We started
getting lots of fans
from the area and I immediately
learned the
customer experience
had become more interactive
in terms of them
preferring to contact us
through a site, rather
than calling us.”
“The MySpace page was something
Alycia took upon herself to do in order to
educate people that this isn’t something to
replace our original website—this is a way
to enhance it,” says Count Basie Marketing
Director Diana St. John. “This was the very
beginning when people were just getting accustomed
to what social network sites were
all about, and it just evolved from there.”
It wasn’t long before the people upstairs
from the Count Basie box office took notice.
Says Yerves, “Diana called me one day and
said, ‘I think it’s really cool you took the
initiative to do this and I wanted to let you
know that we’re going to start having a
marketing assistant on staff to do this.” And
naturally, that job was offered to her.
“Alycia’s job basically was to do everything
that I couldn’t finish—or to read my
mind,” laughs St. John, “mainly to be support
for me with the advertising. But things
really shifted after she built our Facebook
profile.” On Facebook, Count Basie fans
sprang from the woodwork and multiplied
exponentially.
“I remember us looking at each other
one day and saying, ‘You know it would be
really super-cool if we had a Multimedia
Department,’” recalls Yerves. St. John ran the
idea past Count Basie Theatre CEO Numa
Saisselin, and a year later the Basie had
launched its own Multimedia Department
with Yerves at the helm.
“With technology changing and people
focusing less on going to our website and
more on the social media sites, we needed to
change with it,” says St. John. “Every theater
will experience an audience that ages out
of its system, but how do you then service
people who are younger and younger? You
can do it through your programming, but if
you’re not reaching them to let them know
what’s happening in your theater, then they
won’t come.”
Yerves’ approach to marketing is
brilliantly outside the box—like the day
she turned a pile of ‘40s era candy boxes
and Coke bottles unearthed during a
renovation into an online archeological
exhibit.
“I uploaded them to Facebook and called
it something like ‘Basie Artifacts,’ and
people could not get enough,” says Yerves.
“They got a kick out of the old, disgusting
candy flavors from back in the day. I’m
constantly searching for worthy tidbits
to share—people really love the idea that
they’re seeing something exclusive from
behind the scenes.”
Initially a self-taught media mogul,
Yerves has been given the Basie’s support
to expand her toolbox. They’ve covered the
costs of making her a one-woman production
company, whether she’s designing web
graphics or shooting video. Yerves admits
her job seldom stops at the end of the day—
she’s constantly brainstorming methods to
keep the buzz going. “On the weekends, I
still check into our Facebook page and update
it, or I’m using my BlackBerry to send
a reminder to myself of something I need
to do on Monday. Even when I’m out and
about with friends, I’m still marketing for
the theater.”
BOXOFFICE is looking for winners—theater employees you consider to be genuine role models making a significant, positive impact on your theater operations. Monthly winners of the
BOXOFFICE Front Line Award receive a $50 Gap Gift Card! To nominate a theater employee send a brief 100- to 200-word nominating essay to cole@boxoffice.com. Be sure to put ‘Front
Line Nomination’ in the subject line.
30 BOXOFFICE DECEMBER 2010