I got an email blast for a Broadway show the other day that made me wonder whether or not we’re putting too much emphasis on the “like” or the “follow” call to action that is appearing on every piece of marketing material known to man these days.

The fries are good, and the burgers are better. But the real reason I love In-N-Out is the secret sauce. And I’m not talking about the stuff they put on their meat.

The marketing gold star of the week goes to Theaterworks in Hartford, CT for reminding us that one way to get attention for your show is to look at what else your audience is paying attention to.

I got in a great convo with a theater lover/great business guy the other day about the pros and cons of taping theatrical performances.

I’ve worked on some stinkers of shows. And you know what? No matter how short the run, we’ve always sold some t-shirts.

We’re lucky. We know there’s a market for what we do. We know there are thousands upon thousands of people that want to see the theater every single day.

Since Broadway and Off-Broadway shows can’t afford to have marketing laboratories trying every idea we come up with, I often look to other industries to see what they’re doing, in the hopes of being inspired to try something in ours. Here are three simple ideas that I got from the NBA, the NFL and MLB.

To paraphrase Falsettos, something good is happening.

We all know the internet brings like-minded people together. That’s the theory behind newsgroups, chat rooms, forums and niche social networks like my own BroadwaySpace.com.

I got an unsolicited mass email last week from a company that provides a ’service’ to the Broadway community. I was a little bugged by the impersonal feel of the salesy-email so I banged back a quick reply: “Why yes, I am interested in your service, although I do have a current provider. Since you asked me about my interest in your product, might I ask you if you have ever considered investing in a Broadway show?”

Have you ever wondered where it all began? What started the discounting phenomenon? And more importantly . . . who started it? Was it The Geislers, the geniuses behind BroadwayBox.com? Was it TDF, the org. behind the TKTS booth?