Earlier today I wrote about the invitation I received to see Edward Scissorhands at the Hummingbird Centre. I wondered aloud how many other Toronto bloggers got the same offer. I figured there was no better person to ask than Julie Giles from AWA Touring Services in New York City as she's the woman who sent me the invitation in the first place.
I hit up Julie for a few answers to the questions I couldn't shake from my mind. As you'll read, she was very accommodating.
How many Toronto bloggers are getting this invitation?
About 20 but that number is divided over several communities. For example, we've invited several "cultural trendsetters", several "mommy" bloggers, bloggers from the Goth community, and so on...
How did you determine which Toronto bloggers would get an invite?
We look for bloggers who have interests that dovetail with the subject matter. A sports blogger, for example, would not be interested in this show but a photoblogger might be -- based on the fact the show is highly visual and features very dramatic sets and costumes. I guess you could say we look for a good "fit".
Have you tried this form of web 2.0 marketing in the past and was it successful?
We've been doing Web 2.0 marketing for this particular tour since November. It has been very successful in urban markets like San Francisco and Toronto where there is typically a large number of bloggers writing on a variety of topics. That being said, we've also had successes in smaller markets such as Charlotte, NC, and St. Louis, MI. In these markets, we took a slightly different approach and worked with people and their networks in MySpace and Facebook. It's been a very interesting experience.
