Redbud Theatre for Young Audiences
Inaugural Season Launch Campaign
The Challenge:
Redbud Theatre for Young Audiences set out to become Tulsa’s first professional theatre company built for children ages 2 to 6. Its debut production, The Biggest Little House in the Forest, had confirmed performances at Tulsa City-County Library. But the brand itself was brand new. There was no email list, a small social following and no media history.
The founder needed more than event promotion. The goal was to introduce a new organization to Tulsa families, fill the free library performances and build an audience that would come back for future seasons. All of it had to happen in about eight weeks, without paid advertising.
My Approach
I built a full launch strategy around one idea: every family who came to this show would be a founding audience member of something new in Tulsa.
Strategic Foundation: I defined the core audience as parents and caregivers of toddlers and preschoolers in the Tulsa metro, many of them first-time theatregoers. I developed three messaging pillars that ran through every caption, email and pitch: made for young kids, free at the library and the beginning of Tulsa’s children’s theatre story.
Goal Framework: I set measurable targets for the campaign:
Full audiences at the free library performances
A defined website traffic goal for the show page
Email open rates above the 18 to 22% nonprofit benchmark
1 to 2 media placements and 2 to 3 influencer mentions
Integrated Channel Plan: I wrote and coordinated every channel:
An 8-week content calendar with all social captions
A four-email welcome and nurture sequence
Press release, media kit and media pitching
Tulsa influencer outreach
Founder thought leadership for LinkedIn
Website SEO, email capture and QR code strategy
Partnership coordination with Tulsa City-County Library
I collaborated with Fugue Media on creative. They produced the show graphics, flyers and rehearsal reels that brought the copy to life.
The Results:
Both opening day performances at Hardesty Library reached full attendance. Compared with the period before launch, Facebook views grew more than 4,300% and Instagram views grew more than 3,600%. Facebook page visits rose 784% and Instagram profile visits rose 550%. All of it was 100% organic, with no paid ads. Video carried the campaign, with reels earning 3.4 times the views of static posts.
Website traffic grew 185% month over month and beat the campaign goal by 17%. KOTV News On 6 featured Redbud as Tulsa’s first professional theatre for young audiences. Local creators Molly Buchanan and May West shared the show with their followers. The first email went to a list built from zero and earned a 62% open rate, nearly three times the industry benchmark, with zero unsubscribes.
Strategic impact: Redbud launched with a real audience, an email list it owns and a proven content playbook for season two. Every target in the plan was met or exceeded.
Launching something new?