Leveraging the Venue
in Your Marketing
The Scattering at Cork Midsummer Festival 2025
As part of Cork Midsummer Festival 2025, ‘The Scattering’ by Alchemy Arts was set to run for six shows. The Scattering is an immersive theatre and circus show that also doubles as an installation with visuals and a soundscape outside the show.
Photo credits:
of The Scattering Set
Photographer: Marketing Meg
Marketing the Circus & Theatre Show
I was brought on board to manage the marketing of this show, identifying potential audiences and promotional opportunities. For the show, I put together a package that included content creation on-site at rehearsals, social media management, press releases, venue liaising for social media plugs, and vox pops.
Following the event, I provided a post-event marketing pack with vox pop video clean up, including editing, audio fixing, and subtitles, PDFS and links to press releases, content from rehearsals, and social media stats.
Photo credits:
Artist: Eddie Kay (seated left), Will Flanagan / Alchemy Arts (standing), Arran McGabhann (seated right)
Photographer: Marketing Meg
Leveraging Your Venue’s Social Media
The Scattering was set to take place in a typically unusual venue, which was the Marina Market. The Marina Market is a large food hall on the outskirts of Cork City, and there are also three large event spaces; The Scattering was in one of them.
The Marina Market has a large and active following on social media so I approached them for an online collaboration. I emailed and invited a member of their marketing team to the rehearsals to see how the space has been transformed, but more importantly, to see what was possible.
They recorded a short video, and I sent a follow-up email with a brief containing all the show details for their marketing, and asked for Alchemy Arts to be a collaborator on Instagram.
Platforming Accessible Marketing
Some of the scheduled shows of the six shows included an Irish Sign Language Interpreter (ISL). I may Ray, the Interpreter, at a set walk-through and asked if she would be up for making a video using sign language to reach this audience. I also asked to provide a voice-over. I wrote a script for Ray to work with, but I understand there are nuances and not everything can be directly translated, so I suggested to Ray to do what works, and I will add subtitles based on her voice-over.
Using ISL, a voice-over, and subtitles makes this piece of online content even more accessible. I am and have always been a strong advocate of adding subtitles when there is audio with important information, no excuses. Yes, it can be time-consuming, tedious, and inconvenient, but do you know what’s more inconvenient? Not being able to access information!
And when I learned we could also promote the show using ISL on social media, I was so excited!
This video was pivotal in reaching an audience who regularly uses the space, is familiar with it and the location, but also a different demographic that Cork Midsummer Festival and Alchemy Arts might reach. This video, coming from the venue itself, combined with the other marketing and PR efforts, resulted in these six shows being sold out!
Photo credits:
L-R John Hurley, Maurice Supple, Eddie Kay, Will Flanagan, Arran McGabhann, Daithi Neavyn, Megan Cronin
Full crew:
Writer & Performer: Will Flanagan
Director: Eddie Kay
Sound Designer: Arran McGabhann
Lighting Designer: John Hurley
Cinematographer: Maurice Supple
Installation & Set Design: Will Flanagan & Richard Coghlan
Photographer: Marcin Lewandowski
Marketing: Megan Cronin
Stage Manager: Daithi Neavyn
Music: Hugh Rodgers
Photographer: N/A
The Results
