Should a venue market itself all year, or only for its shows?

Big time. Northcote Theatre is an easy stripped-down version of it, because it’s a venue for hire, so it’s only open when there are shows on, but people still think of Northcote Theatre and where it is on High Street, so I had a huge focus on growing Northcote Theatre as a brand, showing that we sell out every single time.

It’s very similar to how I think about artists, who should always be growing their brand outside of an album or a specific campaign. It’s keeping the data of the brand as its own machine, because a venue can change owners, and you’re growing an asset.

Put paid behind it when there’s paid coming back to you on the other side, like a campaign for Christmas party bookings, because you know that’s a big amount of booking, or around a new menu.

Then it’s who are we talking to and why. Asking your audience questions when they sign up, like how many times have you been, helps get an idea of who your audience is, in a nice way where we’re not sending surveys around.

A lot of venues can’t afford to have someone like me all the time, so I’ve set up ad accounts and systems and left them with the venue to use ongoing.