YOUNG PEOPLE’S THEATRE – NOW CALLED THE LORRAINE
KIMSA THEATRE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

ASSIGNMENT

To find a naming partner for the theatre for a 10 year term.

CHALLENGE

Young People’s Theatre had a great reputation in the community and had successfully built a niche market in Ontario for delivering quality theatre to children and youth. What it didn’t have was a significant annual marketing budget, any statistical information on the demographics of their audience base and no current sponsors that were likely to take the lead naming position at the theatre. In addition, there was the question of how
to successfully sell the naming rights of the theatre to a corporation, while being sensitive to the “commercialization” of an institution targeting kids.

SOLUTION

Recognizing the challenges above, A&C focused its efforts on finding a naming partner which was not as interested in media value and direct marketing, but instead on
preserving one of Toronto’s most respected and well loved theatres. We approached corporations which had shown an interest in children and the arts, as well as companies
that were as deeply rooted in the community as the YPT brand. It was through our individual prospecting, however, that proved most successful. We identified Kevin Kimsa, who had founded Solect Technologies and had made a great deal of money when he sold the company to Amdocs. He was a father of two; and his mother, Lorraine Kimsa, was deeply involved in theatre at a grassroots level. The naming was positioned as a gift to his mother for all she had done for community theatre in Toronto. $1.5 million was secured for the Naming and an additional $200,000 was raised for lower level opportunities.