A show in Châtel-Saint-Denis: the timeline for filling the room
Comedy, theatre, a concert: when to start promoting, in what order to release the poster, the social posts and the ads, and why tickets sell at the very end.
To fill a room in Châtel-Saint-Denis, start communicating eight weeks before the date, and keep your biggest effort for the last ten days: that is when most tickets for a local show are bought. The poster announces, the social posts keep the date alive, and paid ads close the sale. In that order, not all at once.
This works for a stand-up night, a village theatre play, a concert or a gala. What changes is the size of the room, not the method.
Who actually comes to a show in Châtel?
Fewer people from Châtel itself than you would think. The town sits at the junction of three audiences: the Veveyse, the Gruyère around Bulle, and the Riviera, a quarter of an hour away by motorway. For many people in Vevey or Montreux, Châtel is closer than Lausanne and parking is easier.
That changes everything about where you communicate. A poster in the town centre reaches the locals. A post shared in Bulle and an ad running in Vevey reach the other two thirds of your room.
When should you start?
Eight weeks before the date for a room of 150 people and more. Five weeks for a small room or an evening in a bar. Earlier than that, people like the idea and forget it. Later, their Friday nights are already taken.
| When | What to release | Why |
|---|---|---|
| D-8 weeks | Ticketing open, poster ready, event page | Nothing sells without a link to buy |
| D-6 weeks | Poster up in shops, first post | People need to see the date several times |
| D-4 weeks | A video clip of the artist | It is the clip that makes people want to come |
| D-3 weeks | Paid ads start | The algorithm needs a few days to learn |
| D-10 days | Double the ad budget, stories every day | This is when most tickets sell |
| D-2 days | ”Last seats”, practical info | The undecided make up their minds now |
| Day after | Photos, thank-you, the next date | The next show starts selling tonight |
What should the poster say?
Four things, readable from two metres away: what it is, who, when, where. The artist’s name or the title of the show, the date with the day of the week, the venue, and the price or a QR code to the ticketing page. Everything else is decoration.
The most common mistake is a poster designed for Instagram and printed as is. A square visual loses its text once it becomes an A3 in a baker’s window. We cover the formats in detail in how to design a poster and ads for a show.
Which social networks, and what to post?
Instagram and Facebook, both. Instagram for the under-forties and the Riviera, Facebook for the event page, the local groups and an audience that still goes out a lot. TikTok only makes sense if the artist already has an audience there.
Post things that show the evening rather than announcing it: a rehearsal, the room being set up, a joke, the artist saying “see you in Châtel”. A repeated poster is not content. And if you only have time for one thing, make it the video clip.
Is paid advertising worth it for a local show?
Yes, and it is probably the best money you will spend. A few hundred francs, targeted at the right radius, reach thousands of people who would never have walked past your poster. The trick is to start early enough and to keep most of the budget for the end.
Our Meta advertising service handles this for event organisers, from targeting to reporting.
What about offline relays?
They still count, especially in the Veveyse. Shops that accept a poster, the regional weekly paper, the commune’s events calendar, associations that share with their members. None of it is enough on its own, but together they are what makes people say “I have seen that somewhere”.
If you would rather hand over the whole thing, the poster, the posts and the ads, that is exactly what our social media service in Châtel-Saint-Denis does.