The Fly Honeys
Year
2022, 2023
Client
The Fly Honeys
I joined up with The Fly Honeys in 2022 to produce the marketing campaign that would relaunch their long-established presence in the DIY performance scene with their first live show since 2019. Thousands of new audience members and Fly Honey fans packed the house for three nights at Thalia Hall during the culmination of Pride Month and set the company on course for new ventures in 2023.
Since that first campaign together, the Fly Honey team brought me back in 2023 to support the company’s performances, publicity, and branding. Dig into our collaboration below.
Jump to…
The Fly Honeys were founded in Chicago in 2010 by Erin Kilmurray. The live production has been produced year after year by a team of dedicated artists, dancers, designers, musicians, and producers. The Fly Honey Show is consistently voted one of the best dance productions in the city.
The Fly Honeys @ Thalia Hall
2022
Art direction + design by Jen Dorman.
For their long-awaited return to the stage on June 23-25, 2022, The Fly Honeys set their sights on high sales and audience growth. The realities of live theater sales had changed since 2019, and the company was used to a different flow, having for years run a recurring multi-week residency at smaller venues. With limited resources to fuel a paid campaign, we leaned into their hungry social media audience, local press, and significant reputation to fill Thalia Hall for three nights during one of the most competitive weekends of the summer: Pride weekend.
My role
Strategy and production of a multichannel marketing campaign; management of additional contractors, i.e., design, videography; advertising; audience services and communications; social media and web content production; copywriting; email marketing; social media management.
The outcome
One-night sell-out; 85% sold for two nights.
Organic and paid social media campaign reached more than 103,000 users.
Press
Chicago Reader – “Huge, very loud, and with a lot of glitter” (Irene Hsiao, June 2022)
City Cast Chicago – “The Fly Honeys Are Back to Celebrate All Bodies” (June 2022)
Newcity – “Joy bomb gone nuclear: The Fly Honeys take over Thalia Hall” (Sharon Hoyer, June 2022)
SPRUNG @ Sleeping Village
2023
Art direction + design by Jen Dorman.
I rejoined The Fly Honeys in 2023 to promote their new season and support long-term branding and development projects. The 2023 season began with a one-night-only party at Sleeping Village titled SPRUNG. The campaign had a particularly short 4-week timeline, but made a big impact with rapid sales.
My role
Strategy and production of a multichannel marketing campaign; audience services and communications; social media content production; copywriting; email marketing; social media management; videography.
The outcome
Tickets sold out in less than 24 hours
Organic social media campaign reached 63,000 users
Press
Newcity – “By Way of Party: A Preview of SPRUNG at Sleeping Village” (Sharon Hoyer, March 2023)
The Fly Honeys @ Thalia Hall
2023
Art direction + design by Jen Dorman.
The Fly Honeys returned for a bigger, badder run at Thalia Hall during Labor Day weekend, August 31 through September 3 2023. Stay tuned for more about the campaign and how it all shook down! Spoiler: it was hot.