If you’re familiar with today’s marketing landscape, you’re likely no stranger to seeing video content used to stop new customers in their tracks. These days, even products like deodorantthe most banal products have their own movie trailer because everything needs its own movie trailerone to keep up with the competition. But how do you docreate the same thing for something completely intangible like a Broadway show that is still in rehearsal? They don’t yet have anything captured on camera, but they need compelling video content well before their show opens.
So, how do you sell something completely intangible — something that you can’t even see? This was the question Cinevative founder and CEO Mark Ciglar asked himself over twenty years ago when he started the company, which focuses on creating promos for the performing arts, live theatre and Broadway shows. How do you sell the feeling of watching a live performance when you have nothing to show?
Los Angeles based production company Cinevative was founded in 2001, when Ciglar realized that theatre productions needed video content and promos to promote their performances before their shows opened. One of Tthe biggest problemchallenges of theatre productionstheatrical marketing was to promotepromoting their performances and sell tickets with no available video or existing assets and sometimes without even a cast in place, months ahead of opening night. Ciglar’s sought out to solve this very problem by providing the audiences with a glimpse through promo videos of what they would be purchasing when it comes to live theatre and Broadway performances. His creative solution to this problem would not only solve the issue for many theatres and arts organizations across the U.S, but would also become a thriving business.
Almost nothing in the promo videos Cinevative produces will be seen in the actual performance. The production company produces videos by using visual effects technology, bold graphics, and animation to create the same feeling an individual would experience watching the show. Rather than using actual imagery from a yet-to-happen production or rehearsal, Ciglar and his design team commission work with storyboard artists, hire actors and crew, create sets and costumes, and manage the production from filming to editing, creating a live-theatre trailer for the performance.
Cinevative’s innovative approach to these promotional videos havehas helped many arts organizations in increasingincrease their ticket sales. Their videos have been used by performing arts organizations, producers, and presenters from clients like Disney Theatricals, Center Theatre Group, Goodspeed Musicals, Pittsburgh CLO, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and more — all in an effort to promote their works before they even hit the stage.
This past fall, Cinevative was hired to produce a spot for The Denver Center for the Performing Arts, The Color Purple, which opens in Spring of 2023. Ciglar’s team hired actors and dancers who recreated some of the show’s most pivotal scenes, complete with a custom-made set and costumes.
They also partnered with Theatre Under the Stars, a popular regional theatre based in Houston, for the premiere of a brand-new stage production of The Secret of My Success, a musical based on the Universal Pictures film starring Michael J. Fox. Ciglar’s team hired dancers who adorned suits and office wear while walking backwards across a green screen treadmill and later were comped into 3D office buildings to accomplish the look and feel of the show.
Michael Gepner, the Director of Marketing and Communications for Theatre Under the Stars, has worked with Cinevative over his career at his past four organizations. He says, “Video is the language of engagement these days and having video promos in advance makes it possible for us to engage audiences through digital communications with a much longer runway, rather than waiting until you have production video.” He adds, “our ability to introduce video content early on in the sales process always helps to get the ball rolling at a faster pace.”
Cinevative has created similar promos for shows like Disney’s Newsies, Mamma Mia, Jersey Boys and many more. This type of promo has also allowed Ciglar to create a library called Video Marketing Essentials, available to smaller theatres that may not be able to afford a custom trailer. Video Marketing Essentials” is a library of popular stock video promos that smaller theaters and organizations can license by paying a small fee in order to add their particular venue name and ticketing information.
Other clients and organizations may need customized promos that are very specific to a show that only their theatre is presenting or producing. For example, Center Theatre Group, a leading non-profit theatre organization also native to Los Angeles, needed a commercial for a play coming directly from the London West End: 2:22 A Ghost Story for a 5-week run at their Ahmanson Theatre. With a brand-new cast, the production was without any video assets, and instead provided photos of the star-studded cast. Ciglar ran with the photos and along with his team, created a spooky TV spot that matched the tone of the show and helped Center Theatre Group sell tickets in advance of the show’s opening.
Alongside their work creating promos, Cinevative also offers their video expertise in other ways to help promote Broadway shows. The company also specializes in full show capture of performances on stage, and has shot b-roll for many Broadway and touring productions, including Disney’s Frozen (National Tour), Hadestown (National Tour), Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man and the Pool (pre-Broadway) and many more. In 2021, the company produced the promo and the full-length performance capture of Simone Biles’ gymnastics tour across the U.S., the “Gold Over America Tour.”
Prior to the pandemic, Cinevative had also expanded its product offering with on-stage projections for concert and live performance clients like Royal Caribbean Cruises and Beachbody. They also co-produced the short film How to Catch a Ghost which was directed and written by Christopher Scott, which featured Cinevative’s award-winning visual FX work.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Cinevative expanded yet again to help bring live performances to streaming platforms when theatres across the country were forced to close. The company partnered with the newly launched streaming platform Broadway on Demand to produce multiple new programs that offered virtual and digital approaches to experiencing the performing arts. Cinevative also worked to produce streaming performances with Pasadena Playhouse for their exclusive platform Playhouse Live,” which featured a 90-minute cinematic tribute to Jerry Herman titled, You I Like: A Musical Celebration of Jerry Herman.
What’s next for Ciglar and Cinevative? The team is hard at work expanding their offerings yet again into social media content including branded Instagram filters, TikTok videos and more. Part of this expansion includes covering special events and opening nights for local presenters like the Pantages Theatre, Cirque Du Soleil and Center Theatre Group’s Ahmanson Theatre. Cinevative covers opening night events with their film crews to help create awareness across digital and social media platforms, adding more content to compliment the TV promos that started it all.
Ciglar believes these new offerings will have a strong impact on ticket sales across the country and wants to partner with performing arts organizations in new and exciting ways that will help them inspire their audiences like never before.