THE Mercury Theatre might be the first regional theatre to advertise on popular music streaming service Spotify.

The Colchester venue has launched 15 and 30-second adverts on Spotify, taking advantage of its new service which launched to UK advertisers last month.

Music lovers will already be able to see the adverts which promote the new LGBT musical Pieces of String by Gus Gowland.

Robin Cantrill-Fenwick, the theatre’s deputy executive director, said: “With over nine million active users in the UK, Spotify is bigger than Radio 1 and we believe we’re the first regional theatre to advertise on this platform.

“The ability to promote Pieces of String specifically to listeners of musical theatre in a tightly-defined geographic area is delivering great results.

“We’re seeing click-through rates far above the norm. This is potentially a powerful platform for promoting new musical theatre to hard-to-reach audiences.”

Spotify Ad Studio launched in mid-March, and allows organisations of all sizes to run targeted adverts.

Pieces of String was developed by Perfect Pitch and is co-produced by the Mercury Theatre and TBO productions.

Designed by Linbury Prize winner Fin Redshaw, it is set simultaneously in the 1940s and in the present day.

It The show tells how Jane’s father Edward came back from the Second World War with a secret love that would change his life forever – a secret he would carry until the day he died.

It opens on April 20.

Visit mercurytheatre.co.uk or call 01206 573948 for more information.

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