Meet a Marketer: John Zinn, Marketing Consultant - Steppenwolf

This interview originally appeared in the new BroadwayWorld Monthly Marketing Update, a monthly email designed for theatre marketing professionals. In each update, we'll share data and trends from our audience, wider trends in the marketing industry, helpful tools and resources that you can use to promote your shows and seasons, and, introduce you to some of the best marketers working in the arts today.

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John Zinn is a free-lance arts marketing consultant and producer. He was Director of Marketing and Communications at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago for 7 years and has worked with the company in some capacity for a total of 15 years.  Besides being the marketing department head, his other positions have included Co-founder and Producer of the LookOut performance series, and Creator/ Producer of the Explore immersive event series. He led the department through two major Wallace Grant initiatives and the opening of the 1700 Theater and Steppenwolf’s Front Bar.

What is your biggest challenge marketing productions at the moment? How are you facing it?

A great challenge is figuring out patrons’ post pandemic attendance patterns, including frequency. One of the main parts of this arc, the rapidly increasing move from a traditional subscription model to flex tickets and single tickets was already in motion pre-pandemic, and I would say it is absolutely the future. The opportunities we have seen at Steppenwolf in flex memberships, mission-inspired special events and programming towards entertaining stories, new audiences and embracing a number of world views seem like great opportunities to speak to this.  I don’t believe that there must be any sort of disconnect between artistic vision and audience enjoyment in these programming discussions.   We can still take them on a journey and make sure that joy and hope is a part of it.  As with our current show POTUS, laughter and joy does NOT mean shallow and simple. 

What advice would you offer to other marketers based on what is working for Steppenwolf at the moment?

I feel like we have had success reaching back out to pre-pandemic community partners and doing the work of discovering new ones that click with our vibe.  It takes some time, but it absolutely pays off long term when you get a great community partner. They can be neighborhood based, faith based, ancestry based, culturally based, social service based or any number of other identities by which communities bond.  That’s where you can find friends and a loyal audience- and in the meantime, each side of the partnership can expand their world view. 

How do you approach designing the various assets for your campaign? Is it driven by the marketing department, the show's creative teams, or a hybrid?

At Steppenwolf, Marketing has always had a great relationship with the Artistic Department, from the tenure of the great Martha Lavey through Anna D. Shapiro to our current artistic directors Glenn Davis and Audrey Francis.  Steppenwolf is the kind of place that takes a great idea from any corner of the company.  We begin a show campaign by talking with a central artist, usually the playwright or director, hearing the history and inspiration for the piece, and then take those thoughts back to our team, to discuss targeting, messaging, mood, outreach and placement.  Our design team, in the meantime, has been working with the artists to come up with visuals, and when we merge that with our plans, the campaign energy comes through.  It’s so important to start by being inspired by the art. For us, every show is different. We don’t repeat shows, so there is NEVER a set plan. 

Why do you utilize BroadwayWorld as part of your marketing mix?

It is such a delight to be part of BroadwayWorld—they truly take a 360-degree view of the art form and the industry- their sophisticated targeting of Chicago audience members is so helpful, but it also really positions us as a part of American theatre, from New York to Cincinnati to Portland. And our rep Alex Freeman is ALWAYS coming up with new thoughts—so helpful when our staff is working on so many shows. 

What has been your favorite show that you’ve had the pleasure of putting together a campaign for?

 Okay, do I get more than 1? I’ll be brief. 

1. All three plays in The Brother/Sister Plays by Tarell Alvin McCraney, who went to DePaul when I was there. 
2. A show Frank Galati directed called after the quake by Haruki Murakami, which had an 18-week run, allowing us two major campaign pivots in response to audience response. Such great learning. 
3. Also, humble brag, among the world premieres I worked on were The Producers and August: Osage County. Amazing. I mean…c’mon!

In addition to John’s work with Steppenwolf, he has been Director of Marketing and Sales for the Oregon Symphony, Director of Marketing and Communications for Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theater, and Marketing Manager at Broadway In Chicago.  He has implemented marketing campaigns for hundreds of shows, including the world premieres of August: Osage County, Superior Donuts, Linda Vista, Airline Highway, East of Eden, Pass Over, The Producers and Movin’ Out.  His free-lance projects have included a partnership with Metropolitan Events and work for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Portland Opera, Collaboraction, Rivendell, and the beloved Uma Productions.  He has acted in TV, film and onstage and he is proud to be back on the Steppenwolf team with the fabulous STC team, including PennyMaria Jackson, Allan Waite, Joel Moorman and David Rosenberg in Marketing and Brooke Flanagan, Audrey Francis and Glenn Davis in leadership

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