Interesting Look at How Broadway Uses Email Marketing (and search)

The Times breaks down email marketing usage for broadway play promotional efforts
Producers Use the Web to Romance Audience and Bring Them Back


Some interesting comments from this article...(note it was in the Arts section, not Business, so we can forgive the author a bit for using calling these tactics "email blasts" and "search engine pop ups")

"IF you were one of the 2,500 people who saw the Off Broadway musical "Altar Boyz" last week, its producer, Ken Davenport, probably has your number. Or at least, if you were among the 40 percent who bought your tickets online, he has your e-mail address. So don't be surprised when a thank-you message ("on behalf of Matthew, Mark, Luke, Juan and Abraham") shows up in your electronic mailbox Monday morning, including a discount offer for a return visit or to send to friends, "so that they too can fall in love with The Boyz, just like you have."

Is this acceptable to email these people? Stay tuned for my next iMediaConnection.com article where I evaluate how permission is really used in email marketing. Is permission granted by you to receive emails just by seeing a play?

"The open rates on that e-mail are off the charts," Mr. Davenport said: more than 70 percent, in an industry where 30 percent is high.
That is a very enviable open rate, no doubt. As is this ROI "A single blast to 20,000 e-mail addresses netted $40,000 in sales and cost almost nothing."

A major campaign aimed at the show's youngish demographic not only through more or less traditional ads on theater, newspaper and wedding Web sites but also through "viral" marketing.
See my last post on the mainstream impact viral marketing is having on the advertising medium.

"A four-month Google ad campaign he ran for "Doubt" (a title that would otherwise be hopeless on a search engine) cost about $15,000 and sold more than $400,000 worth of full-price tickets, not including sales that were initiated on the Internet but completed by phone. "With direct mail," Mr. Bazadona said, "you consider it a success if you double your cost, or just break even."
Clearly, these broadway promoters know what they are doing.

"For a few thousand dollars, a show can buy a 100,000-name list of theatergoers from Telecharge and blast each name an e-mail advertisement."
I would call this into question and debate whether this is an acceptable best practice...i dont know if permission was granted to receive 3rd party offers but if not, they better be careful.

Let me know your thoughts.