Last modified: 28 January 1996
There are many frequently asked questions about promoting yourself through the world wide web, from Why? and What is the WWW/Internet/Superhighway anyway?, through How? and Who with? to When?.
Ok, the hard questions first. Well, despite the recent hype the Internet has actually been around nearly 30 years providing a collaboration, communication and information service for universities, research organisations and individuals worldwide.
There have also been independent commercial services such as Compuserve, these are all now moving into the Internet domain so that there users have direct access to the web and all its wonders.
What other advertising media is available to readers all around the world 24 hours a day and capable of being updated at any time? What other advertising media can carry text, pictures, sound bites and movie clips plus links to other information sources, libraries and cross-references? Come to think of it, what other media is currently growing at the rate of the Internet, or getting so much general exposure (hype?!) in everything from the tabloids to the Labour Party Conference?
There are many people that would love a hard answer to this question! Fortunately some studies have been done, these indicate that the majority of readers tend still to be middle-aged, middle income, professional males. The UK Theatre Web pilot launch also showed that at present the readership is about 50% North American (contact with readers indicates that many are planning trips to the UK), 10% Japanese and 17% British.
Demographics for readers are likely to change substantially over the coming months and years. This year's political rallies have seen all the major parties competing to be seen as the "high tech party" that will wire the UK to the Information Superhighway soonest. Most plans include free access for all UK libraries and schools as well as ready availability to most UK residential areas.
This growth come at a time when the price war to supply users with access to the Information Superhighway has heated up and each month seems to see price cuts in the subscription or joining fees. UK Online, Compuserve, Demon, Pipex and other Internet suppliers are competing not only with each other but with the services built into Windows 95 by Microsoft which give all new PC users the ability to access the Internet from day one (should they so choose, and buy a modem!). Internet cafes are springing up all over the UK and only one has gone broke so far, the others seem to be going from strength to strength giving access to the Internet plus homemade carrot cake to anyone who steps off the street. The first Internet cafe with a drinks licence has also opened - will we see drunken hoards surfing the net from Internet Pubs? I think not, but it shows how much a part of our culture this is likely to become.
Well, there is a trade off to be made. The flashier a page is the more it is remembered and the more it stands out. However, it is important to remember that the reader is usually paying for the time it takes to download the information to their screen for them to read. Littering a page with images may give visual impact but is likely to annoy the reader by wasting time that they are paying for. This is particularly true for foreign readers who suffer the restricted bandwidth of international links to the information.
Another problem with being flashy is that many of the more advanced feature used on the web can only be viewed with the Netscape viewer software. While this is a very popular system its extensions do not obey the agreed international standards for HTML (the web language) and hence use of these clever extensions may well make the information unreadable by people with Mosaic and other standard viewers.
A lot of users around the world use 14,400 bps modems to access the Internet. For these people downloading a 500 word WWW page takes at least 5 seconds, a small logo takes 3 seconds and a small (1" by 1") colour image takes 5 to 6 seconds. So a page with several images can take over 30 seconds to load onto their machine - often much longer if they are using transatlantic links. This is too slow for many people, remember, they pay the (local call) phone bill and they often want quick answers.
The UK Theatre Web takes a pragmatic, compromise approach to these problems and seeks to make pages interesting while at the same time easy and fast (economical) to download and read. All pages are checked with both Netscape and Mosaic and excessive use of extensions is avoided. Remember, putting lipstick on a bulldog does not make it attractive ..., readers approach web sites for information, not for wallpaper designs!
Well, to advertise UK-based performing arts we suggest the UK Theatre Web but we would say that wouldn't we! However, there are good reasons for this too.
The UK Theatre Web is the only professional performing arts web service in the UK and is an independent organisation. Although some theatres also get onto the web via local volunteers this is generally an ad hoc venture with little guarantee of future continuity or chance for carrying commercials.
The Internet may seem new, but it isn't. Advertising on the Internet, particularly via the web, is however a fairly new concept and in some ways has yet to be proven. Advertising and promotion in some industrial sectors, particularly those associated with computing directly, is now fairly mature and these indicate that the promotional benefits of using the web are substantial, leading to increased services and plans for growth in capabilities.
At present advertising on the web can also bring secondary promotional opportunities as developing a web presence is still a newsworthy item in its own right.
Many organisations are already advertising on the web including: The Guardian and the Telegraph, Guinness, Barclaycard, Woolworths, Body Shop, banks, insurance companies, small businesses, recruitment agencies, etc. Look out for web addresses (http://etc.etc.etc) at the end of TV adverts and in magazine adverts, these are increasing in frequency.
Establishing an early presence on the web will be an advantage as the number of web advertisers grows and the effort to track new launches becomes too great for many users.
There are several levels at which the UK Theatre Web can help to promote you.
The UK Theatre Web is free to readers and is supported by advertising and sponsorship income. In this way it behaves much like a free printed What's On guide except that it covers the whole UK and can be read from anywhere in the world.
Not being a printed publication the UK Theatre Web has no printing or direct distribution costs. Costs are related to the maintenance of computing equipment and internet access (via the Aladdin service) plus the general costs of a small business. At present this is a part-time activity by the business partners so there are no salary overheads to be covered.
For more general information on the UK Theatre Web see here.
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