Fernando Gambaroni - San Francisco shows

Marketing a show in SF

Marketing a show in San Francisco
What follows is a general outline of what I have learned to be the ideal process for promoting a show in an arts non-profit. Of course, because of tight dealines and budget constrains, the reality of producing doesn't always leave room for all the steps outlined here.

The Calendar
First I start bymeeting with everyone in the production to look at the dates of the show and work backwards to outline a marketing plan. Opening night and the day tickets go on sale are the pivotal dates. We must also decide how to promote the show before it opens, and while the show is running (e.g.: before the show, we usually rely on designs, but once the show opens, we have production photos that will help us keep promoting going).

Once I speak with the director, I determine if we will need a photoshoot or not, what the process of design will be (depending on the time), and I figure out when the core design and the identity of the overall show must be ready. I always remind people that the amount of effort we put into rehearsing a show must be reflected in the quality of our graphics, because while design tends to be one of the last steps in a production, it is the very first point of contact that audiences have with it.

The Audience
Once we define the target audience, we develop the creative for it, we decide whether print materials are necessary, postcard and poster distribution, what the social media calendar will be, and what the tone of the marketing copy should be. If there's a budget for it: we also determine which paid advertising we will invest in depending which one we believe will offer us the best return.

Social Media Platforms
It's useful to consider which audiences tend to use which social media network. E.g. at Circus Center: Facebook speaks mostly to our former community of circus performers, whereas Instagram engages our current adult student body (most of them working in tech), and Tiktok allows us to be seen by those who don't follow us. It's more of an unpredictable (yet useful) wildcard at times.

There are a variety of options when it comes to posting about a show. Because I have worked in non-profits, where the is a community of folks who know each other, I value featuring each performer and everyone else in the production. What matters to me is that our audiences see how we all come together to put a show, which is a big draw in San Francisco, where audiences are incredibly supportive, and where you feel you are experiencing the show with everyone around you. It's a unique phenomenon in this town.

The Algorythm vs. Ticket Sales
These days there's a very strong focus on keeping with the algorithm. Following social media trends is important. But the alrgorithm doesn't necessarily sell tickets. In my experience: knowing our audiences and keeping them informed in a timely fashion does. Chasing the ever-changing equation set by the social medias gods is undoubtedly helpful, particularly when it comes to expanding our followers or our visibility. But when something goes viral, it doesn't usually translate into ticket sales, because while it's seen by a lot of folks, most of them are not our local, ticket-buying audiences.

I have found that the way to engage audiences when promoting a show is to talk about how the production is a reflection of what matters to us as an non-profit arts organization. My theory is: substance sells. So talking about the themes of the show, its story, and its particular connection with an audience is what keeps the conversation going. We have to aim for a conversation: the average ticket buyer sees an ad about 9 times before making a purchase.

The Data
I am constantly looking at email opening rates and clicks, social media reach, how ads are performing, Google Analytics numbers for our webpage, and the like.

However, the metric I have learned the most from is tracking audience behavior: figuring out the best time-frames to announce something; the way the pandemic shifted the way people plan; the difference between the way a family plans an outing and a young person does; being aware of when most people get paid; how the type of show determines when people will buy the ticket.

This information also helps determine future ticketing: whether there will be an early bird discount, reserved seating, one single ticket price for all or several pricing tiers.

Print
I am in favor of being extremely careful about when and how to print. The cost of printing is not that high, but the cost of distributing posters and postcards is. And I have yet to meet any reliable folks that do this well in San Francisco.

Discount Codes
I add discount codes to most advertising that is on print or part of a marketing collaboration with another organization to test its efficacy.

People's Circus Theatre

The Nightingale

In 2023 Felicity Hesed started her own circus theater company: People's Circus Theatre. This is our second production. Based on Hans Christian Andersen’s novel, this staging was written and directed by Felicity herself.

The idea was to have to different approaches: a more direct one (on the left) and a more cryptic one (on the right). The design on the bottom is one of the drafts that didn't make it, but that I am proud of because of the collage of elements I used to put it together, and the time it took me to make it look cohesive.

Reindeer Games

Their first big show was a co-production with The Children's Creativity Museum for the 2023 Holiday season.

For 'Reindeer Games,' the design needed to clearly say: family-friendly, holiday circus theater show. With that in mind, I kept the focus on simplicity. I decided on a red background, not only because of the obvious holiday connotation, but also because on the street, the poster would have to compete for attention with so many other other shows, that it needed to stand out.

This was an extensive campaign, including a double sided poster (seen below), a social media campaign with artist highlights, a digital ad campaign, postcards, street signage and emails.

PHOTO CREDIT: FERNANDO GAMBARONI

The photo of the reindeer jumping through the hoop is real, the hoop wasn't photoshopped after the fact. Just saying. We had a kick-ass photoshoot for this show.

New Conservatory Theatre Center

NCTC is one of the leading LGBTQ theaters in the Bay Area. I worked on many of their projects from late 2021 to early 2022, and then again in 2025. Their current identity is actually based on the design I made for their Strategic Plan booklet.

It felt good to go back to theater design. Their campaigns are comprehensive, both online and on print, so they required a wide variety of assets for every single project; therefore, that was a major consideration every time I started drafting anything: it needed to work on wide variety of ratios.

2025 – 26 Season

I was hired to design their 25-26 season. These are what I consider to be the best drafts for each show. Of the more than 30 drafts, only one of them survived intact (the black and white design for ‘Gods & Monsters’). Everything else was either rejected or substantially altered.

While I do like many of these designs, the one that stands out to me is the 'Hedwig' one, because I did a bit of illustration for it, which is pretty unusual for me. It also happens to be one of the most iconographic designs I have ever created.

PHOTO CREDIT: CYNTHIA SMALLEY

2022 – 23 Season

A Picture of Two Boys

My favorite poster of the shows I designed for them.

All the main elements of the show are there. The characters used to know each other, but struggle to find a way to reconnect; they have shared pasts, but they are unaware of how they intersect.

The show takes place in a pier, the one they used to go to in their youth. And while they go back to it in order to retrace their steps, hoping to move forward, they are unable to do so. The lake is always covered by the light fog in their lives.

The style of the design also speaks to this theater's target audience, which is mostly composed of folks 65+ years old. This is true of most theaters in the US and one of the biggest issues when it comes to theater, but that's for a different Ted Talk.

2022 – 23 Season Brochure

Strategic Plan

To see the whole plan, click here.

Atomic Clown

A show by Sara Toby Moore about a clown going through a lot: a death in the family, a breakup, and cancer. During the photoshoot, Toby wanted to bring a bit of Springsteen to it (the fact that they are from Jersey helped). The design points at the waves coming out of our atomic clown, or maybe they are the reverberations of the sound waves emanating from their make-do guitar, turning pain into music.

The idea was to convey that rockstar vibe, so I kept it black and white, and only added a touch of in-your-face yellow to it. I tried to recreate the vibe of the posters I used to see around the East Village promoting shows at CBGB's.

PHOTO CREDIT: FERNANDO GAMBARONI

Social media campaign

Cara Vita

A clown show written and performed by Felicity Hesed that investigates the complexities of being an artist, a mother, and a partner. Picking the strongest contender from the drafts was not easy, but we went with the one featured at the top. It struck the right tone of the show and it stressed the circus aspect of the staging.

After the show premiered in San Francisco, Felicity took it to the Asheville Fringe Festival in North Carolina, and then to London for the Vault Festival.

PHOTO CREDIT: FERNANDO GAMBARONI

Just Don't Touch Me, Amigo

This is a solo show with a weird name that I wrote, produced and performed back in my New York City days. I have staged this show many times over the years, but in 2023 the time had come to bid it farewell. The caption for the play was: 'a show about a guy who doesn't get why his loneliness is such a turn-off.'

PHOTO CREDIT: PATRICIA ORTIZ

Baloney

San Francisco's Gay All-Male Review

The Baloney Calendar

Rory Davis and Michael Phillis (the co-creators of Baloney) hired me to create a calendar that would serve as a promotional tool for the show.

As a performer in it myself, I may not have the most objective point of view, but Baloney has undeniably been a staple of the San Francisco scene for the last 10 years.

One of the standout elements of Baloney is how much of it is rooted in the theatrical experience of being present. There are many components to the show: theater, burlesque, sketch-comedy, dance-show, strip-show; and yet the best way to truly understand how it all comes together is by seeing - or rather, experiencing it (the audience is a huge part of it). It's a show that validates its own medium.

So my goal with the calendar was to try to convey the right feel for it: its sexiness, its San Francisco-ness, its queerness, its comedy, its joy.

PHOTO CREDITS: NICOLE FRASER-HERRON, PATRICK FAGAN, ZACH FRANZEN, MICHAEL PHILLIS, RORY DAVIS.

Baloney Instagram Stories

PHOTO CREDIT FOR MOST PHOTOS: NICOLE FRASER-HERRON

NiCole Fraser-Herron

Nicole Fraser-Herron

Reflection

I ended up working on Toni Cannon's solo sort of by chance, because he was showcasing it at Circus Center, and on occasion I would work on a design as a courtesy for our artists in residence, or folks who were part of the Circus Center community.

Toni liked the original design and he asked me to do it again for his upcoming staging at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival.

PHOTO CREDIT: ALEXA TREVINO