AKA Swings Big on Broadway with Data-Fuelled Creativity
New York-based creative agency, AKA, prides itself on fusing the art of design and storytelling with the science of data and technology. This combination has resulted in entertaining and culturally relevant projects for numerous Broadway shows each season, and for clients like Cooper Hewitt, Focus Features, and The Met.
Overseeing these content-forward, data-fuelled efforts is the dream team of CCO, Miky Wolf, and head of business intelligence, Marc Jablonski. The pair met at the agency when Miky joined in 2022, and were “quickly on the same wavelength,” says Marc.
“We had an immediate connection,” adds Miky. “Marc is an artist who also happens to be an incredible analyst. That duality is what makes him unique. Our early conversations about theatre and art were invigorating. We speak the same language and have very similar tastes. He makes the data so easy to grasp, and watching him tell the story of what it all means to the clients is like watching a concert pianist perform. It’s simultaneously effortless and complex.”
Their strong connection is also built on an honest rapport of constructive criticism – something Miky considers an “art form” in itself, and a particularly admirable skill of Marc’s. “Criticism can be painful if it is delivered with a lack of sensitivity,” he says. “It’s a vital part of the process that profoundly affects how the work evolves… Marc offers it in the most effective way possible because he’s an artist himself.”
Above: Marc (L) and Miky (R)
Marc’s approach starts not just with the data, but with the ‘human needs, hopes and struggles’ behind each data point. He visualises the consumer’s purchasing decisions with diagrams and uses audience reaction surveys to test the art, copy, and positioning with real people.
“We’re not just testing for: ‘Is this art better than that one?’ (well, sometimes we can!),” says Marc, “but instead, we’re looking at: ‘Does this art resonate with these audiences for these reasons?’. In this case, it’s not an indictment of quality, it’s an acknowledgment that creative is subjective and requires aeons of context.”
He adds, “Any decisiveness from an audience actually happens more during online, in-market A/B testing, where we don’t have the qualitative nuance as we do in a survey. In this case, we’ll send out a bunch of different ads via Facebook and see which gets the most clicks and purchases.”
This data strategy is especially vital when marketing a theatre show or a museum, when there is a limited time to engage an audience and sell tickets. Impressions must become conversions as quickly as possible. And – as Miky has learned from Marc – there is almost no room for ambiguity. “We don’t have the luxury of assuming audiences will get three or four impressions of a piece of creative,” says Miky. “To minimise that friction, we have to listen to the data.”
“The lovely part of working with Marc and his team is that it’s never a categorical yes or no to a design or a commercial. There is always a ‘why’ behind every insight,” he adds. Conversely, Miky helps remind Marc that the data alone isn’t enough. “It requires creatives and strategists to interpret the data. We could even throw out the data if it doesn’t make logical sense.”
Above: AKA's trailer for the musical 'Hell's Kitchen''
AKA’s Business Intelligence (BI) division uses this quantitative and qualitative data for a manner of tasks across all aspects of the business, and at every stage of a campaign. The team is tool-agnostic and works across multiple verticals; sales analysis, pricing and ticketing, media, primary research, and data science and infrastructure. All this in service of identifying an audience, how they behave, how to reach them, and subsequently, how well AKA’s media is performing to them.
Having access to these in-house data science capabilities allows AKA’s creatives to “take big swings,” says Miky, “because we can trust that our instincts are rooted in the data around what our audiences need to convert. It’s freeing.”
By receiving a constant stream of data for each customer segment, and with less time between idea, execution and delivery, the creatives can create more hyper-targeted ads, save money for clients, and release work faster.
“A great example [of this] is ‘Gypsy’ with Audra McDonald,” shares Marc. “The second we got word of the show, we analysed the sales and audiences of both previous productions of ‘Gypsy’ and shows that starred Audra McDonald to understand immediate size and interest. We also ran numbers on revivals and if the time between revivals on Broadway impacts the average ticket price. We then ran a survey to our Broadway panel about a potential upcoming revival of ‘Gypsy’, which solidified our key positioning points.”
“From this, we not surprisingly found that Audra McDonald is one of the most beloved performers of all time, and also found patterns in who these fans are and how to reach them,” Marc continues. “Pulling from social listening tools and competitive market research tools, we mapped out a few audience buckets, each with their own behaviours and interests. With this intro, Miky’s team ran with potential visuals, messaging, motion, etc.”
Another example is the work AKA did for Sufjan Steven’s Broadway production, ‘Illinoise’ – “an incredibly complex marketing campaign that did constant A/B testing of creative,” says Miky. The campaign targeted older demographics that may have been reluctant to go to a ‘dance musical’ as well as young ‘event seekers’ with more lively ads that hinted at a ‘daring, visceral experience’. “We do a lot of this kind of work,” adds Miky. “Illinoise, however, was a limited run and that coupled with the show's brilliant intensity, made the whole process much more complex and fascinating.”
But why does AKA’s approach align so well with Broadway productions, as well as other entertainment and culture brands? According to Marc and Miky, it’s because they can deliver work that reflects the art, and moves people in the same way.
With Broadway, the tickets often go on sale hundreds of days before the first show, with little idea of what the performance will look like – so AKA’s challenge is to help audiences imagine a story that doesn’t exist with a ‘show before the show’. “It’s really hard to nail,” says Marc. “We’re in the room for workshops and pre-Broadway tryouts, and we speak with directors and producers – but even so, theatre is a living thing and we’ve got to play the game of managing expectations without inaccurately selling elements of the show.”
“Our clients want their audiences and customers to be entertained right from the first impression,” adds Miky. “We make that happen. Often with little to no context for where the actual piece is headed… We often have to rely on good research and strong intuition – both strengths within our company.”
Miky raises that entertainment brands, especially on Broadway, have historically been formulaic – but says that’s rapidly changing. “We are on the frontlines of new ways of marketing cultural institutions. AKA is leading that innovation. We are always challenging ourselves to do things a little differently, to try new approaches. Our Arts Insiders programme is a good example of that. How we approached working with influencers has now changed the industry standard.”
Above: 'A Gift for Melody Anne' video for musical 'Swept Away'
As much as data, research and strategy can help, the “variable and fickle” human behaviour can impact a project’s effectiveness. “What might go viral one day falls flat another,” explains Marc. “This is especially true when we do any analysis on organic social creative. We’ll run the numbers and find that certain types of posts work best, and then fast forward three months and the whole landscape has changed.”
This is why Marc emphasises that data is best used as a starting point, and to set goals, before applying gut feeling and pivoting when necessary. “There have been cases where we’ve run studies on title testing, finding that one title resonates the most with a prospective audience, only to say at the end of the day, that the title probably resonated because it didn’t have the additional context that we know we’ll have. BI really tries to be descriptive rather than prescriptive.”
“I completely agree with Marc here,” adds Miky. “In the ups and downs of a campaign, and often without rhyme or reason, there are times when things aren’t sticking, and we have to pivot and try something that just feels right. It’s very difficult to make bold decisions and recommendations like this under pressure or when things aren’t going well, but that is what our clients need. We provide the data, and the instinct to know when to ignore it.”
