Truth in Advertising: The Emotional Promise | Drew Hodges | TEDxBroadway

When it comes to marketing a product, or in Drew Hodges’ case, a Broadway show, there are many different approaches you could take. But one way that’s worked for shows like “Hamilton,“ “Rent“ and “Chicago“ is to capture the emotional angle: how it feels to see the show. Hodges explains that if you can make a promise with your advertising that is the same promise the show delivers on night after night, word of mouth soars. Hodges shares how to find that perfect promise for anything you’re advertising, and how to avoid the dreaded “non-event” advertising that kills word of mouth. Drew Hodges is founder of Spot Design (1987), SpotCo (1997) and most recently DrewDesignCo (2016). Along with a team of 228 collaborators over the last 20 years, Hodges has helped sell over 30 million tickets to live entertainment, and created the branding and advertising campaigns for three decades of theatrical shows and art institutions including nine Pulitzer Prize winners. He is proud to have helped launch many culturally iconic titles, including Rent, Chicago, Doubt, The Color Purple, Avenue Q, Kinky Boots and Hamilton, among others. DrewDesignCo is Hodges’s new firm, devoted to branding and design for entertainment and culture. Recent theatrical collaborations include Sweeney Todd, Sweat (winner of the 2017 Pulitzer prize), Mean Girls, Moulin Rouge, Fiddler on the Roof (Yiddish), The Perelman Performing Arts Center at The World Trade Center and Tootsie, where he is making his debut as a Producer. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at