John Olchak – Arts Marketer and Publicist

Most recently at presenting house Poway OnStage I increased earned revenue by 14% and audience capacity to 81% over two seasons. I promoted the highest grossing show in the history of the venue and achieved 109% of goal for 2017-2018. I exceeded goal for our gala, Taste of Our Towne, both seasons. I added digital display advertising and paid social ads to the previous media mix for the first time while maintaining necessary print, social, postering and outdoor advertising. The theatrical publicity skills I learned at Davidson & Choy also helped me increase earned media by revamping PR and publicity plans to maximize awareness and press coverage.

At Davidson & Choy I publicized national & Southern California events including performing arts, theatre, dance, concerts, arena tours, book signings, and movies for Cirque du Soleil, Disney, DreamWorks, CAMI, Westbeth, LA Philharmonic, Hollywood Bowl and Reel Talk. I pitched and placed stories in internet, social, print, and broadcast media. I wrote press releases, pitches, biographies and show descriptions for our clients. I worked opening nights, escorted talent to interviews and was an on-camera spokesperson for our clients when appropriate.

The San Diego Repertory Theatre mission is producing “intimate, exotic, provocative theatre.” As Head of Marketing with the help of a diverse, inter-generational team we created campaigns built on segmenting the data in Tessitura, a robust content strategy and finding the best channels, (digital, radio and television, and increased paid attendance 3% from 2012-2013 and earned revenue 1% 2013-2014 season. We were able to increase revenue and yield with the application of JCA’s dynamic pricing module.

As Marketing Campaign Manager at La Jolla Playhouse I was responsible for engaging, and reporting on all marketing campaign activities. I used Tessitura, Google Analytics and JCA’s dynamic pricing module to gauge the results our iterative marketing efforts.  As part of outreach to diverse communities I supervised fulfillment of the David C. Copley Foundation military audiences grant. Working directly with Managing Director Michael Rosenberg we created a experiential marketing plan for the season and Without Walls (WoW) festival. I also got to work on marketing Broadway-bound musical “Come from Away.”