How we sell seats for a show most of the UK has not met yet. We introduce it, we make people curious, and we turn that into tickets. In plain terms, with the reasons behind each call.
The most important thing to get right is what kind of job this is. People did not weigh up the show and say no. They simply have not met it yet. That one fact decides where every pound goes.
Very few people look up a live Metropolis, or silent-film concerts at all, in the tour cities. That is not a warning sign. You cannot search for a night out you do not know exists yet. (Exact city-by-city numbers sit behind paid tools, so we are reading the direction here, not precise counts. The ad account can pull exact figures if we want them.)
The trap would be planning as if that demand were already there. Anything that waits to be found, like search ads or passive listings, will quietly underdeliver for us.
Live-scored silent films have a proven, repeat-buying following in the UK. This exact kind of show sells out in the right rooms. Those audiences did not arrive by Googling "Metropolis." They were reached, made curious, and sold.
So our job is not to invent appetite from nothing. It is to put an unmissable version of this in front of the people already wired to love it.
Launching an unknown show is usually a grind. This one starts with two real advantages, and the plan is built to use both.
You do not need to know the 1927 film to recognise its images. The gold robot is the direct ancestor of C-3PO, and the towering Art Deco city became the blueprint for Blade Runner and Brazil. Decades of films, music videos and fashion have borrowed the look, and the film sits on the BFI and Sight & Sound all-time lists.
So we never have to sell "a German silent film." We show the image, recognition does the first half of the work, and curiosity does the rest.
Secret Cinema grew from a 400-person first night into a sell-out machine without ever explaining the film. They sold curiosity: a "tell no one" air of mystery, every message written in the voice of the film's world, teaser clues dripped out over weeks, and a costume or dress code that made the audience part of the show and gave them something to post.
We already have the voice (our evil-robot tone). We add the rest: tease the robot reveal as a mystery, speak every post and email as a transmission from the machine-city, and invite people to dress for the world. Proven method, our spectacle.
The first two moves happen in the same place, short video, which is what lets a small budget go far.
Short videos of the spectacle, led on TikTok and Instagram. They put the show in front of exactly the right strangers, for free.
Put ad money behind the videos that work, and tell the ad systems to chase ticket sales, not just clicks.
Once thousands have watched and visited, show ads again to those interested people and find more like our buyers. This kicks in a few weeks in, once there are enough of them.
Keep the lead-gen ads that are already working, your own email, and the venues' own marketing. Useful and low-cost, but not the engine.
TikTok and Instagram show videos to people based on what they like, not who follows us. So a brand-new account reaches the right strangers from day one. We aim at passions, sci-fi and film and music, not at an age group.
1. The robot reveal. A three-second jaw-drop on the Maria transformation, our voice on screen.
2. "What is this?" The live band playing as the 1927 film runs, so people get the idea instantly.
3. Rehearsal and soundcheck. Raw, real, behind the scenes.
4. The lineage. "Every sci-fi you love started here."
Sci-fi is our strongest angle, since this film invented the genre, so it leads. Grab attention in the first three seconds. Keep it raw, not polished, because real footage outsells slick ads here. Post often, then put ad money only behind the ones people already love.
It is the one tool that creates demand from nothing and is free to run. The winners double as our ads, so testing costs us nothing.
No general Google ads, because there is no demand there to catch yet. The real second channel is TikTok, not audio.
Each venue can promote the show to its own audience. We make the most of that, in the right order, without overspending on it.
Every venue includes the show in its what's-on email, website and socials as part of the booking. We give them ready-made posts and images so it is easy to say yes.
If a venue's free promotion clearly moves tickets, we test a small paid placement there. If it does nothing, we do not throw money at it.
Research is clear that paid venue marketing is weak for a show like this, because a venue's regular crowd is not always a fit. So it stays a small helper, never the main spend.
Free venue promotion first and always. Paid venue placements only where the free version has already proven it sells. The engine stays on short video.
One simple rule: spend a little early to build the audience, then spend the most right before each city's show. We hold money back to rescue the slow sellers.
Across 20 dates there are roughly 10,000 seats to fill (300 to 600 a night, one room up to 1,300). Here is what each budget realistically does. More money buys more tickets, close to in step.
Not upfront. After the first 3 to 4 weeks we will know our true cost per ticket. If the ads are selling seats at a price that works, we add budget then, to do more of what is working and reach the harder rooms. Earn the bigger number with real results, do not gamble it.
If you remember three things from this deck, these are them. Below, what is solid and what is a smart bet.
No one is searching for this, so we make people curious with short video, instead of waiting to be found.
TikTok and Instagram do the heavy lifting. We skip the channels that do not fit a show like this.
Most money goes right before each show. Start at £20k, grow to £40k once the numbers earn it.