Combining Education and Social Marketing

MINNEAPOLIS, March 31 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Theatre for Children (NTC), based in Minneapolis, is using its unique style of multi-platform communication as an effective social marketing tool to positively impact student and family behavior in the areas of safety, water conservation and financial literacy. Working on behalf of sponsors like American Electric Power, the New England Water Week Association and the Iowa Insurance Division (a department of the State of Iowa), ten NTC acting troupes will travel the country from Southern California to New England in April and May performing live, interactive theatrical presentations at 308 schools and reaching more than 112,000 students and their families.

American Electric Power has sponsored NTC programs for schools in its service territory for more than 15 years. "The live theatre part of the program is great!" says Graham Dodson, Director, Corporate Communications & Community Affairs, AEP Texas. "The actors are very funny and engaging – for both the students and the teachers. But the show stays focused on helping kids understand how to use electricity safely. That's AEP's message." NTC reinforces the key educational points with additional print and web curriculum. Two weeks prior to the performance, AEP-branded student workbooks and teacher guides are delivered to each school in the tour. While watching the show, the students are actively engaged for 30 minutes in AEP's message of electrical safety. Independent research shows they spend an additional four to six weeks completing the take-home workbook and web curriculum activities exploring the safety message in different cross curricular subject areas. Says Dodson, "It's a great concept – delivering educational concepts that are important to kids and families while getting across a message that's important to our company."  

A social marketing message that's important to the New England Water Week Association centers on improving water conservation throughout their service territory. They've hired NTC to bring The Water Pirates of Neverland into local schools to help students learn more about the ways they can personally, even as kids, impact water usage in their homes and eventually throughout their community. "That's a real key to all of our programs," says Jon Mikkelsen, Artistic Director at NTC. "We give kids a way to personally get involved in the sponsor's message. That could be something as simple as taking shorter showers or reminding their parents that they shouldn't run the dishwasher until it's full. We've learned that students can 'pester' their parents in positive ways that have a real, lasting impact."

Using this same approach, NTC is taking its Mad About Money live tour to nearly 6,000 middle school students on behalf of the Iowa Insurance Division. The State of Iowa wants to help student audiences learn more about money – personal finance, saving and investing – giving kids the basic tools they need to save and plan for a financially secure future. Not surprisingly, schools have thrown their doors open to this program and other NTC programs with important social marketing messages. "The key is the sponsor message," says NTC founder and President, Ward Eames. "We work hard to create sound educational programs and then match them up with sponsors who have a need to reach a mass audience of students and families. Sponsors get their message out and schools get a totally educational program. Everybody wins."  

About The National Theatre for Children (NTC)

Founded in 1978, NTC is the largest in-school touring company in the world. They are dedicated to educating young people on important and timely curricular subjects by offering professional live theatre to our nation's schools. Based in Minneapolis, NTC has developed the art of teaching through a combination of live theatre, television, print and Web learning into an evidence-based science of its own. NTC has pioneered dozens of extremely successful programs in health, science, social studies, and financial literacy. Each year, dozens of troupes perform live educational theatre programs in front of millions of students, in thousands of schools, nationwide. For more information, visit the NTC Web site at www.nationaltheatre.com or call 1-800-858-3999.

For more information: Katie Griep, Director of Sales and Marketing, [email protected] or 612-341-0882 x202

SOURCE The National Theatre for Children