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Cirque du Soleil is known for its shows featuring acrobats, athletes and clowns – all doing spectacular feats. Now the company is attempting to execute an even more complex maneuver.
After expanding what it offers on stages around the world, Cirque is widening the ways in which people can access the entertainment it offers. The entertainment company still wants people to travel to places like Las Vegas and Berlin to see its extravaganzas, but it’s also working to ensure Cirque spectacles are available at the touch of a button, for those who might desire it.
People have long thought of a Cirque show as “a two-hour product,” says Anne Belliveau, chief revenue and customer officer at Cirque Du Solieil, during a recent interview. “But the truth is, in today’s world, that’s not enough.”
The company expects to debut a new pay per view format that can be watched on a TV or mobile device, she says, and fans will even be able to choose the angle they view, or even peek backstage. Cirque has already launched free ad-supported channels disturbed via such outlets as Amazon Fire and Pluto, she says. And it is focused more on merchandise and other methods of connecting with fans.
“The beauty of all of this is that the journey doesn’t stop at the show. You can bring Cirque home through music, collaborations and collections and it becomes part of your everyday life,” Belliveau says. “We have basically shifted from being a performance brand to becoming an experience platform.”
To get the word out, Cirque has hired ad giant Dentsu as its lead creative agency to devise a broader “umbrella campaign” that makes the overall company the star. Most of Cirque’s marketing in recent years has focused on elements of its shows. Now, “it’s a first for us to really experiment from a master brand perspective,” says Belliveau. The company intends to focus its campaign in Las Vegas, where it has five continuous shows; Spain, where it operates multiple events; and in Canada, where it also puts on spectacles.
“In a world where unity and human connection matter more than ever, Cirque du Soleil plays an outsized role in inspiring audiences” said Stephen Kiely, CEO dentsu Canada and CEO Tag North America. “Cirque du Soleil is more than entertainment — it’s a movement of inspiration, and we’re honored to help amplify this vision globally through creativity, and storytelling.”
Cirque represents a brand “that really can express itself more fluidly across shows, across experiences, content, products, and, you know, ultimately, that drives for us deeper and deeper fan engagement and also diversifies our revenue,” says the executive.
Cirque has ten to twelve different shows operating at any given time but discovered during the coronavirus pandemic that it needed to diversify its revenue base. “It was a huge model shift for us, a company that sells tickets, to one that becomes a platform to inspire and engage,” says Belliveau.
And while live events still have some currency in the modern media sector because they attract broad audiences watching simultaneously, Cirque’s efforts show that they can’t be an entertainment company’s only product. Indeed, Netflix has in recent years made new forays into consumer products and gaming. Many other media companies are working on ways to extend their popular products into everyday resources, as Versant’s CNBC has done with subscription products focused on investing and stock-market strategy.
To survive, says Belliveau, Cirque needs to be accessible to fans at any time they might choose. “I’m fighting against everybody” for attention, she says. “ I’m fighting against Netflix, against every entertainment offering these days, either on screen or online. And that’s why Cirque could not stay with just that two-hour product We really had to expand ourselves and really reach the fan.”
English (US) ·