A Second Wind for Second City?
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“We’re pushing our product harder,” says Kelly Leonard, Second City’s director of sales (and son of WGN radio and television critic Roy Leonard). Like many other institutions, Second City is finding it must aggressively sell itself to young adult audiences faced with a multitude of entertainment options–including plenty of other improv shows–and clarify its somewhat blurred image. One example of how Second City is changing is the full-page ad touting Winner Takes Oil that ran in the Tribune’s June 7 Friday section. According to Leonard this was the first time in Second City’s history that it sought to market a particular show title in a full-page newspaper ad. Leonard hopes the ad will help the public better understand what Second City is all about. “A lot of people don’t associate us with shows that have titles,” he says. “They think we’re another standup comedy club.”
Despite its “theatrical” approach to comedy, Second City competes more actively with the movies than with theater companies, perhaps in part because its price scale ($10-$12) remains below that of many theater companies. Leonard and other Second City executives are watching to see whether the recent opening of four Loews movie theaters next door in Pipers Alley will significantly affect their box office. The club is also strengthening its relationships with hotel concierges, who often suggest entertainment options to out-of-towners. Second City has doubled the manning of its reservation lines, added a new call-sequencing device, and begun developing a mailing list from phone reservations. It’s also running ads for the first time on some of the city’s hipper young-adult-oriented radio stations such as WXRT, WLUP, and WCKG and on outlets for older listeners, such as WGN and WFMT.
