{"id":8618,"date":"2020-02-07T08:45:20","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T07:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mathis-nitschke.com\/?p=8618"},"modified":"2023-11-16T08:10:58","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T07:10:58","slug":"how-maya-became-an-economic-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mathis-nitschke.com\/en\/how-maya-became-an-economic-success\/","title":{"rendered":"How MAYA became also an economic success"},"content":{"rendered":"

How I managed to get an audience for an independent experimental music-theatre piece and enjoyed applying creative entrepreneurial strategies to a publicly funded art project.
\nI hope this report to be inspiring and motivating to fellow theatre makers.
\nI<\/em>nfo about \u201cMAYA\u201d: <\/em>\u00a0https:\/\/mathis-nitschke.com\/en\/maya\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m a music composer and theatre director, working freelance for more than 20 years. I\u2019m used to not leave my success to random effect. For example, I learned the hard way that it doesn\u2019t help hoping for the work of a PR agent. It\u2019s much more effective to offer content<\/strong> which journalists will want to write about by themselves.<\/p>\n

Some years ago I started combining my interest in music theatre and opera with my love and curiosity for new technologies. After successfully experimenting with GPS-sensitive smartphone apps to replay and adapt music depending on the user\u2019s location (“Vergehen”<\/a>), I dived into the world of Virtual and Augmented Reality.<\/p>\n

\"Ruin<\/a>
Former heating plant Aubing. Foto: Mathis Nitschke<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The appearance of the ruin of the former heating plant in Munich-Aubing into my life led to what is today known as the world\u2019s first Mixed-Reality opera \u201cMAYA\u201d<\/a> (2017), an endeavor \u2013 despite its public funding \u2013 I had to produce in an entrepreneurial fashion<\/strong>. Why? Because the production turned out to be much more costly than the under normal circumstances very prosperous money I had acquired through public arts funding (ca. 119.000 EUR, funders below). Quite soon I had to realize that some 24.000 EUR were missing. This missing budget had to be funded through ticket sales and was entirely on my own personal risk.<\/p>\n

Usually these kind of independent theatre projects are not really counting on ticket sales, having an audience of 50-100 people per show. In my situation I suddenly had to sell a minimum of 1.200 tickets over 5 shows to just break even. No one believed that this would be even remotely possible, especially as the location is way off the city center.<\/p>\n

To acquire 1.200 people for an independent experimental music-theatre project you have to go way beyond the known audience. You have to reach a new audience. I loved that aspect.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To acquire 1.200 people for an independent experimental music-theatre project you have to go way beyond the known audience. You have to reach a new audience. I loved that aspect.<\/p>\n

First measure I took was to found the liability limited Sofilab UG<\/a> to minimize private risk<\/strong>. It seemed totally feasible that I might need to cancel shows for unexpected security reasons. This would have led to the unfortunate situation that I not only wouldn\u2019t have received income from ticket sales but would have been obliged to pay back the funding money which would have been already spent by then.<\/p>\n

Sofilab UG functioned as the producer of \u201cMAYA\u201d, hiring me as the composer, director, project leader and managing director. I also took over the positions of the PR agent and bookkeeper. I led a team<\/strong> of 14 artists and 15 technicians and coordinated several service and business partners.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Rehearsal with TrioCoriolis sitting on top of the ovens. Foto: Mathis Nitschke<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the most important decisions was the product design itself:<\/strong> we knew that the actual feature of interest would not be my music or the fantastic singer Martina Koppelstetter or whatever usually put on top but the promise to experience something very unusual and unique in a highly special location: the last industrial ruin of Munich. Its existence is super-unexpected in this gentrified city. So both in the piece itself as well as in the communication material (designed by Anja Gerscher) the ruin became the main actor. Instead of mere information and advertising, we used the flyer to draw people into the storyworld right away (see pdf: MAYA_Flyer_PRINT<\/a>). On the poster (pdf: MAYA_Plakat_PRINT<\/a>) we combined a photo of the location with the title \u201cMAYA\u201d and the hint \u201cMixed-Reality-Techno-Opera\u201d. That\u2019s it, no names, not mine nor any.<\/p>\n

Sure, it was not only the location. We combined the rotten location with super-geeky Augmented Reality technology on the audience smartphones, mixed classical opera with electronic music and framed all that by a dystopian science-fiction story. In a way we behaved like teens bringing together all their favorite toys and gadgets. An anarchic quality which was important to the energy of the whole artistic development, a positive energy which could also be felt from outside.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
S\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung from 17th Oct 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This unique combination of features was the reason why the newspapers were keen writing about it<\/strong>, without me needing to call or beg them. The project received whole-page articles with multiple pictures already long before the premiere, generating further interest from even more media writing more about it. The last article by S\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung<\/a> on the day before the premiere even made it onto the news screens in the subway trains and stations, reaching tens of thousands of people.<\/p>\n

On social media I drove a long-term strategy.<\/strong> Already months before the shows I started paying for sponsored posts, continuously but on a low level. Over time, I experimented with targeting so I reached a wide variety of people. The post didn\u2019t feel like heavy advertising and showed a video teaser (by Felix Hentschel) which made people curious. It was liked, commented and shared. On my artist pages I shared insights into the process of the development, wrote blog articles and sent editorial content through my newsletter. All in all I spent only a few hundred Euros on social media advertising but acquired a major part of the audience through it.<\/p>\n