Is Newspaper Advertising Worth The Paper It's Printed On?

The question in today’s digital world is, how much do you need print?

Is advertising in newspapers anything more than an expensive habit? With readerships are dropping faster than Russell Brand's trousers, the return on investment is increasingly poor. Concentrate instead on competitions, giveaways and PR, which are low cost and have more impact.

Then there are fliers and season brochures. No doubt some customers pick one up and buy a ticket but many are consigned unread to the recycling bin. The one kind of print worth sticking with is the targeted postal mailing. Research suggests that a brochure or letter in people’s hands at home stimulates both phone and online sales.

Print also means posters. These are another questionable use of a limited budget because only a handful of theatre posters obey the two golden rules for this form of advertising- use emotive visuals accompanied by seven words or less. The exception that proves the rule is the current campaign for David Pugh’s production of Calendar Girls- a row of apparently naked women with their naughty bits covered and the tag line ‘All will be revealed on…’

Sex Sells Theatre Tickets

An article in the Daily Telegraph explains in fascinating detail how David Pugh and his partner Daffyd Rogers financed Equus and their many other theatrical successes and occasional failures. However it says little about the part David’s marketing skill has played in his achievements. I have met no other producer who combines theatrical knowledge with marketing flair in quite the way David does.


David’s decision to change the cast of Art every twelve weeks was a clever way of keeping the show in the news, as was the special celebrity guest each night in The Play What I Wrote. When he brought Rebecca starring Nigel Havers to my then theatre, he marketed it with a brilliant black and white photo (by Lord Lichfield) of Havers looking wistful on a beach. David gave me a framed version of the poster when we broke the British box office record for a play. It’s the only theatre poster I have in my office.



The image used for Equus was just as striking, featuring a bare chested Daniel Radcliffe whose lower body morphed into a horse’s head. The announcement of the West End run was accompanied by studio photos of a nearly naked Daniel. They were entirely in keeping with the sexual themes in the play but the image of a sexy Harry Potter gained coverage in virtually every national paper.