Milking the laughs : finding ways to alter theatrical elements to garner better word of mouth recommendations and social media proliferation

Abstract

The primary goal of this study is to analyze the motivations of attendees of live comedy, to consider the motivations of the subset of those patrons who choose to share with others about their comedy entertainment experiences (either online or otherwise), and to identify any correlation between the two sets of motivations. The resulting findings may offer comedy producers valuable insight which they can use when making decisions to focus effort, energy and resources toward activating both sets of motivations, thereby encouraging potential patrons to attend their events, and simultaneously leveraging the valuable WOM (word-of-mouth) advertising potential of those patrons to further broaden their marketing outreach.