From New York homes into Broadway theaters.

This next campaign story that I also found in DMNews (1/2/03) is an excellent example of how certain large entities can leverage local or regional in-house e-mail lists to accomplish swift and profitable results and rejuvenate the local economy.

About 150,000 people in the New York metropolitan area were targeted for an e-mail campaign marketing for "Movin' Out," a Broadway show based on the songs of Billy Joel.

The e-mail was sent Dec. 5 with the offer good through Dec. 7. Ticket prices were not lowered for the Internet exclusive. The seats that were made available were sold to the public after Dec. 7.

The e-mail list was built to include those who bought tickets to concerts and classic rock acts, since the show was positioned for a rock 'n roll audience. About 125,000 of the names came from a Ticketmaster list. New York radio station WPLJ-FM sent the e-mail to everyone on its e-mail blast list and a few were sent by Sony to its Billy Joel fan club.

"Movin' Out" tickets are priced at $100, $70 and $40. The campaign which cost about $5,000 to do, brought in $125,00 to $150,000 in ticket sales.

Executives quoted in the story claimed that Broadway usually has done little marketing with local ads and postcards. Now they are finding the return on investment for e-mail marketing is huge.

What's most interesting about this campaign is that it opened up more seats to the local market. Traditionally tourists buy about 60 percent of the tickets to Broadway shows. This was definitely a brilliant and cost effective way to market Broadway to native New Yorkers. More Broadway shows may follow suit.