Odense Teater

Background: One of Denmark’s oldest theatres, facing modern marketing challenges

Odense Teater is a storied institution. Founded in 1796, it is Denmark’s second-oldest theatre and the regional stage for Southern Denmark. Located on Jernbanegade in central Odense, it offers a diverse repertoire – from family and youth productions to classical and contemporary Danish and international theatre.

– We produce around 12 in-house productions and present 22 guest performances each year, with close to 400 showings in total. Last season we welcomed about 100,000 guests, says Morten Skov, Head of Communications and Marketing at Odense Teater.

Morten and Michael Juul Hagerup, Customer Service and Audience Development Manager, explain that theatre marketing comes with its own set of challenges. Selling a ticket to a theatre production is very different from selling, say, a pair of shoes. You’re selling an experience, an expectation, a promise. Productions can also change significantly during the development phase. Sometimes style or concept shifts entirely after tickets have already been sold – meaning audience expectations need to shift too.

– The real marketing material often becomes available only weeks before the premiere, and we typically have just 5–6 weeks to sell tickets before moving on to the next production, Michael notes.

With challenges like these, the audience needs to feel confident in Odense Teater as an institution and brand. At the same time, Odense Teater needs to understand its guests – who they are marketing different productions to, and how to provide relevant communication.

The challenge: The data was there – but not the tools

Previously, Odense Teater used a more generic solution for its communication and marketing. They could send emails and create some basic segments through separate lists, but much of the work required manual handling. It was time-consuming and more complicated than necessary. And they couldn’t fully tap into their customer data.

– The main reason we started looking into MarketHype was that we wanted a more integrated solution. We had a lot of customer data, and MarketHype could help us use it much more effectively, says Morten.

Activities they wanted to improve included offering better service to audiences, sending exclusive offers to star customers, and scaling up targeted communication – for example to high-spending guests or young theatre-goers.

In 2023, Odense Teater and MarketHype began working together. For about a month, they ran the old system in parallel with MarketHype to migrate contacts and email templates.

– The onboarding process was smooth, without any technical issues. The transition from our previous tool to MarketHype was easy, Morten explains.

Onboarding also included personal guidance in the platform. Workshops on customer data, segmentation and marketing were held – all to ensure an easy start.

The solution: An intuitive platform tailored for the theatre industry

A cornerstone of MarketHype’s solution – the Audience Development Platform tailored for theatres – is its integration with ticketing systems. Odense Teater uses Tixly. So what happens when ticket and customer data connect with MarketHype?

– With MarketHype we get so much more out of our data. It becomes accessible, clear, and genuinely usable, especially when we’re targeting specific audience groups, says Morten.

As a theatre, Odense Teater gets particular value from features like “Productions”. Morten explains:

– The production overview is extremely useful. We use it for budgeting, checking average ticket price, and getting a quick snapshot of each performance. It has become an important part of our workflow.

Other favorites include the segmentation tool, audience targeting in the email editor, and automations. With segmentation, Odense Teater can easily build dynamic segments based on attributes like ticket type, loyal guests, genre interests, and specific purchase behaviors. “Display filter” allows them to show dynamic, personalized content within individual email sends. And automations handle messaging around performances: pre-event information, last-minute ticket reminders, and follow-ups afterwards.

– MarketHype is very intuitive. It’s aesthetically pleasing, easy to work in, and everything is drag-and-drop. You rarely need support – but when you do, the response is incredibly fast, says Michael.